Writing Indiana Jones and the Perilous Art of The Sequel

Work on the long-delayed "Indiana Jones Sequels" video began earlier this year in January. I went into the project with one concrete idea-- the Indiana Jones sequels were some of the only sequels of Steven Spielberg's filmography and therefore worthwhile outliers to explore-- several vague notions about the parallels between Indiana Jones and Spielberg's career or personal life, and a desperate goal to write a better video than the Raiders video from 2020.

The Awesome Power of Raiders of The Lost Ark was a quick and fun tribute to one of my all-time favorite movies, but as I expressed the other day in my commentary for that video, I was pretty dissatisfied with how it turned out at the time I made it. Although I have a high bar for myself, the challenge to try and add something "new" to the conversation about a piece of media has always elevated my writing to heights it couldn't achieve otherwise (even when I don't succeed at adding something new). I felt that I failed to do that with the Raiders video, and was determined to push myself differently with it's follow-up.

Outline

With most of my previous videos, such as Lost in The Last of Us, or A Gunslinger's Odyssey, the content of my discussion is mapped out mostly in outlines or notes of analysis. The more time I spend with a piece of media, the more what I want to say becomes clear. Research then plays a secondary role in supporting the assertions of my overall narrative. But with this video, it was the opposite. Research became the central pillar upon which the entire video was built.

As I learned more about the making of the Indiana Jones films, Spielberg's personal life, and the critical consensus of his films, the narrative of the video took many twists and turns before ultimately resembling what you experienced in the final video. You can glean these twists in the successive shifts in approach through the three-or-so outlines I wrote in the first couple months of 2023.

In the Last Crusade chapter of my first outline, I emphasize how Indy's plight at the end of the movie is an extension of Spielberg's plight against his critics. The foolhardy desperation to prove them wrong is dramatized in the film's iconic tank battle, which ends with Indy nearly plummeting to his death off the side of a cliff.

In the second outline, Spielberg's journey with Crusade is much more about his personal life. His realization that in becoming a workaholic, he became his father is dramatized through the very same climax of the tank battle.

Finally, in draft 3, Spielberg's journey with Crusade became about a bit of both: the disapproving voice of his critics was the disapproving voice of his father in sheep's clothing. The desperation to prove his critics wrong drives him to become a workaholic, ironically turning him into the very man he pushed himself not to become for so long. All questions answered, all bases covered.

At this point, it's very important to say: whenever you're telling a story with heavy research, especially about someone's life, you have, I believe, an obligation to be true to the facts and not "bend them" in service of telling a more poetic story. You can be expressive; you can be dramatic. You can reorganize the telling of events for a more interesting story. You can even interpret or analyze the facts and what lies between them. But it must always be done responsibly. There are many creators out there who've practically built a career off of lying in order to hook their audiences on a narrative that simply isn't true. These creators may not realize it, but this will eventually come back to bite them-- especially if they ever try to join the professional world, where their word just simply won't be taken seriously.

Even if life isn't always as glamorous as our stories, a good writer won't see this as a hindrance. All it means is that you have to work harder to preserve the truth in your narrative, and when necessary, detach your ego from the story you were hoping to tell. 

No matter how bold some of my assertions in the video may come across as, they were all backed by research and testimony, some of which I directly share in interview clips within the video. It greatly helped the video too that Spielberg has been so vocal about his personal life in recent years, between The Fabelmans and Susan Lacy's 2017 documentary Spielberg.

There is, however, several areas of the video where analysis on my behalf is still necessary and substantial to the discussion. By outline #2, I'd read over what I had mapped out from my research and general feelings about what I should discuss, and highlighted areas that needed more from me. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull chapter was probably the biggest part of the video where my voice was still needed, and a lot of the discussion there frankly didn't come together until after I started writing it in the first draft. 

In this scenario, there is one thing I understood about the chapter when I couldn't produce specifics: tone. When you can't come up with exactly what you'll say in the outline, at least come up with the tone. A lot of great creators are also great consumers; they know what makes them laugh, what makes them cry, and what provokes them to think. By getting the tone on the page that produces that intended reaction in you, you can work backwards into the specifics that then achieve that tone, and thus, the emotional reaction you want from viewers. 

First Draft

Impatient to get started on the first draft, I think I started writing before I even finished my final outline. Predictably, that led me to shoot off in a direction that was neither supported by research or a good foundation for the discussion ahead. It was a tangent about sequel culture in Hollywood today.

It was a good setup, but for a different kind of video than the one I was making. Before finishing my research, I supposed I'd be making a video about how the external pressure of Hollywood's sequel obsession pushed Spielberg into the directions he went towards with his Indiana Jones films. As I eventually learned, external pressure did have something to do with it, but of an opposite kind. Besides, the intro felt a little too cynical, and that's just not how we like to start an ArTorr video. 

A few years ago, a professor told me that your best idea is usually your second one, not your first. Not always true (sometimes it's your third... or fourth). But in this instance, my second swing at writing the intro, after finishing the final outline, was much better. 

Kicking off with a montage sequence of various 80s blockbusters, followed by their tumultuous sequels, set to "Anything Goes" as it's heard at the start of Temple of Doom, the video would open in a much more entertaining manner before plunging into all the exposition packed into the first 10 minutes of the video as you see it on YouTube. The script had a slower start than I preferred, but it had all the information and themes, so I left it as is until the second draft.

The Temple of Doom chapter wrote itself for the most part. The ever-important tone I mentioned before was pretty intuitive here, and the research fed really well into it: an optimistic start, a troubling production, the deeply troubling hindrance of Ford's absence, Spielberg's "inferno" (paralleling Indy's encounter with the titular Temple of Doom within the film), and the escape from darkness. The inferno section in particular was very fun to write, as I tried to employ language that evoked the visceral details of scenes from the 2nd act of the movie to build a direct connection between Spielberg's feelings and how those feelings manifested on the screen.

The Last Crusade chapter was a little trickier, as there were a couple very key moments to the whole video in this chapter, and giving them the emphasis they needed required the right amount of build-up in the script and suspense in the script. This is also an instance where being both the writer and editor really benefits you, as I wrote parts of this chapter with the faith that I'd be able to take the baton in the editing bay and achieve the other half of the build-up and suspense there.

Finally, as expected, the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull chapter was a bit dicey. There needed to be a genuine feeling that, 'hey, the movie is turning out great,' before slowly exploring all the problems with the film from a perspective that wasn't bashful or cynical. But after that, the discussion would take a very emotional angle, and ramp up to the conclusion. Though much of the video was outlined, one important aspect of it was not, and it would not dawn on me until right here at the end: the message that all those films, accolades, and audience members won't fulfill you-- only spending time with the people you love will. It's an idea that, again, could very easily come across as cynical; afterall what's the point of following your dreams if they don't fulfill you? So, the realization needed to be genuine, human, and full of some kind of wonder; those dreams may not fulfill you, but they are surely awesome and phenomenal, especially if they bring us closer to those people you care about.

And-- true to the wisdom of Robert McKee, who I wrote about in my previous video on The Last of Us, this is not some phony conclusion I arrived at because it seemed right. I believe in that message. Even as a storyteller who pushes himself to great lengths for more viewers, more videos, and recognition from peers, I firmly believe it'll never quite hold a candle to the memories I've made with my friends. This is a "truth" I believe in, and my conviction in that idea is why the narrative of the video stays consistent from beginning to end. So, be just as true to the facts that shape your narrative as you are to the truth you live your life by.

Second (and Final) Draft

Sometimes, the first draft's a slam-dunk. Other times, it leaves a lot to be desired. Either way, no script doesn't benefit from at least a second draft. I've written a lot already, so I won't go too granular here with what changed between drafts, but I will point out two big changes.

First, the intro! Some of the exposition was all over the place in the first 10 minutes, and I needed to roll it out in a more coherent manner, while maintaining the interesting storytelling of the intro. So, inspired by the sound of One Republic's "I Ain't Worried" from Top Gun: Maverick as I heard it on a store radio at my day job, I devised an entirely new intro sequence for the video that both altered the tone and presentation of information in the first few paragraphs enough to solve what wasn't working about the intro in the first draft, and was, uh, way cooler. Keeping to the era at which Spielberg's career took off, I set it all to Pink Floyd's epic "Time."

And then, pretty much the entirety of the Crystal Skull chapter was overhauled in the second draft. Following from the outline and first draft, this chapter was just the one part of the steak that took the longest to cook. Paragraphs and sentences were rearranged throughout the chapter for a much stronger tone. The flow of the storytelling became a bit more logically-driven. I talk about Mutt a lot sooner than I did previously, the new crew on Crystal Skull is separated from the talent Spielberg's uplifted over his career, and the sentiment that "Spielberg had his family, and Indy had his" concluded the penultimate paragraph of the video. The script was then ready to be recorded.

The very, very last thing I changed in the script came when I was about 80% done in editing. Moving from the Last Crusade chapter to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull chapter, the "passage of time" between the two films was painfully absent in the video. I could space things out, or throw in longer clips, but the writing just wasn't doing enough to slow things down before ramping into Crystal Skull. By no means was this realization any sort of failure on my writing-- in any creative process, you just don't know how something will feel until it comes to life. 

The solution? Write even more about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles! Though I was far more dismissive of the show originally, taking the time to watch it with my close friend and fellow Indiana Jones fan Craig (who got a shoutout in the special thanks) convinced me I was very wrong. It was a fantastic show. In this way, the problem with this interlude produced an opportunity I was happy to jump on. By then elaborating even more on Ford's career and fan questions about Indy 4, the final touch of the script was made and ready to be recorded.

When I finished this video, I knew I was going to make a better video than the Raiders one. On that criteria, I was very satisfied. What I didn't expect was for the video to be embraced and enjoyed to the extent that its been over the last two weeks. As always, I'm extremely blessed to have the audience that I do, and super grateful for your constant support. It always pushes me to go as far as possible with these videos.

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes commentary on Indiana Jones and The Perilous Art of the Sequel on Thursday!