Indiana Jones and the Great Circle devs say an Indy game ‘could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter,’ so they’re embracing his signature whip,
“Indiana Jones, he’s not a gunslinger, right? He doesn’t go guns blazing into situations,” said Jens Andersson, design director at MachineGames. "So it could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter.
‘Indiana Jones’: Why Harrison Ford Pitched 'Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Famous Gun vs Sword Scene (Flashback)
Speaking to the amount of forethought that proceeded their looming shoot day, Ford noted, “A lot of planning had gone into this fight scene,” adding that they had even rehearsed with “a lot of extras” the night prior.
“At that point, I was quite ill with dysentery. I really wasn’t able to stay away from my trailer for more than the length to shoot a magazine (referring to a movie camera’s film stock that, on average, allowed for 10 minutes worth of filming),” he recalled.
While the Han Solo actor endured his crippling illness, Ford was also concerned the audience might lose sight of Indiana’s objective to rescue Marion if he got pulled into another showdown.
“I thought about it. We had about an hour and a half ride into our location. By the time I got to the location, I was convinced that it was too much,” he remembered. “I went up to Steven as soon as I arrived, and I said, ‘Steven, why don’t we just shoot this sumb***h?’ And Steven said, ‘I was thinking that, too!’”
As for the swordsman actor (Terry Richards) who spent months training for this one scene, Ford admitted he felt “terribly sorry for him” but also believed their improvised alternative “served the film well.”
Going by those numbers, most of Indy’s kills are via other means than shooting them – the only movie in which most were from him shooting people was Raiders of the Lost Ark – but I don’t know if I’d call it “so rare”.
Yeah, the immediate problem with comparing gun to non-gun kills is that anything involving a gun is automatically more likely to result in someone dead. So it doesn’t really give you a picture of how Indy likes to approach problems. And once a gun does become the tool of choice in a scene, the body count is likely to rack up a lot faster. You can show five people getting gunned down much faster than you can show one Nazi getting his head propellered off. Guns tend to be how disposable mooks die, but signature enemies get the more elaborate deaths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKrmDLvijo
https://www.etonline.com/indiana-jones-why-harrison-ford-pitched-raiders-of-the-lost-arks-famous-gun-vs-sword-scene
There’s also the scene in Last Crusade where he machine-guns down a bunch of Nazis.
But, these are exceptions that prove the rule. He so rarely uses guns that it’s novel when it happens.
I was just trying to grab the above because it’s a famous example of Indy not doing that, but aight, let’s put some numbers on it.
This guy looks like he’s gone to the trouble of highlighting Indy’s kills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zphhfHon_I&t=2561s
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Kills via shooting: 5
Kills via other means: 4
Temple of Doom
Kills via shooting: 1
Kills via other means: 20
The Last Crusade
Kills via shooting: 6
Kills via other means: 7
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Kills via shooting: 0
Kills via other means: 1
Going by those numbers, most of Indy’s kills are via other means than shooting them – the only movie in which most were from him shooting people was Raiders of the Lost Ark – but I don’t know if I’d call it “so rare”.
But not every altercation he has ends in the death of someone so i don’t know if deaths is the metric to measure it by
Yeah, the immediate problem with comparing gun to non-gun kills is that anything involving a gun is automatically more likely to result in someone dead. So it doesn’t really give you a picture of how Indy likes to approach problems. And once a gun does become the tool of choice in a scene, the body count is likely to rack up a lot faster. You can show five people getting gunned down much faster than you can show one Nazi getting his head propellered off. Guns tend to be how disposable mooks die, but signature enemies get the more elaborate deaths.