Indiana Jones 4 Still Has One Of The Franchise’s Greatest Stunts (Despite All The Terrible CGI)

Although Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘s CGI is distracting and has been long-criticized, the movie still features one of the best practical stunts in the entire franchise. Even with VFX experts criticizing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the movie still pays homage to the pre-CGI days of the eponymous protagonist’s adventures as seen in the franchise’s first three installments. While the advancements in CGI have resulted in some phenomenal action scenes throughout the years, it hindered Indy’s fourth outing more than anything else.

Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford has performed many of his own stunts throughout his career, which has resulted in some of his projects, like the Indiana Jones franchise, Bladerunner, and Air Force One delivering some of the greatest action moments committed to film. Despite the reasons for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘s lackluster reception, one pivotal scene from the movie’s earlier moments stands out as not only one of the best stunts in the movie, but in the Indiana Jones franchise as a whole.

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Crystal Skull’s Motorcycle Chase Sequence Is Practical

The stunt is one of the more notable performed in the franchise.

Early in the movie, Indy and Shia LaBeouf’s Mutt Williams are approached by KGB spies masquerading as bar patrons at Marshall College while discussing a letter that Mutt’s mother sent him. Before either one of them has the opportunity to harm Indy or Mutt, the two heroes start a bar fight, which allows them to escape the scene. The two eventually make it to Mutt’s motorcycle, wherein they use it as a means of escaping their would-be captors. Featuring no CGI trickery, the scene is the most impressive in the movie and a standout in the Indiana Jones franchise.

According to behind-the-scenes footage, LaBeouf spent six weeks learning how to handle various motorcycles to handle the weight and torque of the 600-pound Harley-Davidson motorcycle convincingly, and without harming either himself or Ford. While LaBeouf and Ford did an excellent job bringing the demanding scene to life, LaBeouf described it as being “pretty tough,” because in addition to riding the behemoth of a bike, he also had to maintain concentration while Ford was performing his own stunt work right behind him. While the scene was tough, its efforts paid off for the action-adventure movie.

The Motorcycle Stunt Highlights How Bad Crystal Skull Was

The CGI is one of the movie’s worst aspects.

Between the jungle CGI, the quicksand scene, and the divisive Indiana Jones refrigerator scene, the movie is bogged down significantly by the over-reliance on lackluster CGI effects. While the motorcycle chase scene is impressive, the drop in quality as seen with the other CGI-heavy effects throughout the latter parts of the movie is highlighted by the excellence of the motorcycle scene. The scene establishes a more practical approach to its action, and then the rug is pulled from underneath audiences with jarring scenes of CGI. As such, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull remains a low point for the franchise.