No, I don’t know something you don’t. This is not the title for the planned fifth instalment of the franchise. However, it could be. Harrison Ford may well be 72 years old when the cameras roll. And he won’t look a day over 40. How is this possible? Surgery or healthy living would be the obvious answer however I propose a more tantalising possibility. The Indiana Jones films tend to be roughly grounded in reality. Well, apart from the fact that if cold hard reality invaded the scripts, Indy would have died 5 minutes into Raiders. i.e. poisoned darts, crumbling ante-chamber, rolling boulder. Leaving that aside, the stories are normally set in their time period and don’t involve ludicrous things like aliens (wait a minute …)
What dropped the ball was a near 900 year-old Knight, who is guarding the grail (the holy grail-you know that one?), being discovered by Indy with a look more like indigestion than HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! Clearly Ford had seen this all before. This is because the cup he drank from (the grail, remember?) was in fact real and Harrison Ford is immortal. After discovering one of the most amazing artefacts in history, it was decided that out of all its possible uses and greater ramifications for human civilisation, the gift of eternal life should be bestowed to a film actor. Fair call. Clearly the producers were thinking ahead. Of course Harrison Ford has openly discussed the possibility of further films. It’s in the contract. A franchise normally dies out from a lack of interest or unavailability of the lead actor (read: dead). Indiana Jones will still be around long after we’re all gone and those aliens who popped up in Crystal Skull, return to fulfil their two picture deal. I don’t fancy being the studio publicist left to explain why a 150 year-old man is running rings around his 20 year-old counterparts but with the imminent enslavement of the human race from SAG union backed extra-terrestrials, I think it will be the least of their problems.
But, you ask. What about Sean Connery? Didn’t he also drink from the cup and he wasn’t in the Crystal Skull? Naturally, Sean Connery is immortal too. However, Connery looks 72 and was forced to retire from public life as not to raise questions. Had the Bond producers found the grail earlier, Sean Connery would still be James Bond. Hopefully without the aliens.
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