“The story of Indiana Jones plays out exactly the same if Indiana hadn’t done anything.”

It’s an observation you’ve probably heard by now. It floated around for a while before Big Bang Theory popularized it. Now everyone knows it and repeats it. Here’s my hot take on the idea.

It’s not true.

I have a more subtle take as well:

It doesn’t matter even if it were true.

I’m not trying to redeem Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film doesn’t need redeeming, and who wants to read a X page blog post about a movie most everyone already loves or at least likes?

I think it’s worth addressing though because it gets to the heart of what makes a story really shine. Spoiler Alert: It’s not a hero saving the day, even in adventure stories.

Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way first.… Read the rest “The Strange & Unreliable Alchemy of Indiana Jones”