The Indiana Jones Scene Karen Allen Was Upset With And Wanted To Change
One of the most touching moments I've seen in a movie this year arrived at the end of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," when Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood returns to help nurse our badly beat-up hero back into shape. We learn earlier in the movie that the source of their estrangement was the death of their son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who settled a dispute with his headstrong father by enlisting in Vietnam. Indy blamed himself for Mutt's demise and took to the bottle. Unwilling to watch her husband drink himself to death, Marion left.
That the film ends on an upbeat note is hardly a surprise. The Indy films are escapist entertainments meant to send you out of the theater on a high. But a part of me worried that we might get a throwaway off-screen appearance like Holly Gennaro bawling out John McClane over a payphone in "Die Hard with a Vengeance." Fortunately, James Mangold and company had more respect for the love of Indy's life and brought her back for a beautifully staged curtain call.
Is it fan service to revisit the "Where doesn't it hurt scene" on Katanga's ship from "Raiders of the Lost Ark?" Absolutely. But this being Indy's last hurrah, I say crank up John Williams' "Marion's Theme," and bring these two on-again/off-again lovers back together, hopefully for good.
And yet, as much as we adore the original iteration of this scene, Allen had misgivings about it 43 years ago.
Even Indiana Jones has to sleep now and then
In a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Allen revealed her specific qualms with the moment. As she told the magazine:
"Well, I remember being very, very disappointed that in the script, he falls asleep. I was like, 'Really?' [Laughs] 'He's really going to fall asleep here? After all we've been through.' And I think I may have even said, 'Can we change that?'"
In Indy's defense, he's just had the crap kicked out of him — and been shot! — during one of the greatest chase scenes ever filmed. The man just wants to crash for, like, a week. When Marion tries to minister to him, he protests. So she asks him where he doesn't hurt, and gently kisses each spot until he indicates his lips need attention. You expect a love scene to kick in, but, no, he really does conk out.
A tender reunion, and maybe a bit of bouncy-bouncy
When Allen revisited "Raiders of the Lost Ark" prior to shooting "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," she was pleased to see that Spielberg made sure the audience knew he didn't sleep all the way through the night. When she wakes up in the morning, Indy is out of bed and literally cocking his pistol. As she said:
"[I] realized Marion wakes up in the bed by herself [the next morning] and she reaches back and pulls her nightgown off the top of the bed. Which I had completely forgotten about, and I thought, 'Oh, they probably did have their romantic moment.' I had remembered it as being this moment that didn't happen, when in fact it didn't happen on screen. But then Steven had made sure that in that very first beat, we see that I grab my nightgown off of the top of the bed."
How does it work out in "Dial of Destiny?" The final shot is Indy retrieving his hat from a bedside clothesline. He may be 70 years old, but the archaeologist will always be a man of action. Rest easy, Dr. Jones.