20 Ways the ‘Indiana Jones’ Franchise Has Evolved: Then vs. Now

Even if we had our hearts destroyed by 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Clunky Title, we have to acknowledge that the upcoming fifth film is making us doubt our initial skepticism. James Mangold’s career has had its ups and downs, but 2017’s Logan was a solid and powerful film, so the man might have honed his blockbuster skills enough to deliver a franchise-redeeming movie. Or whatever, anything will do as long as it doesn’t have nuclear-blasted fridges or awful green screens or, even worse, CGI monkeys (by which we mean Shia LaBeouf).

In this Pictofact, then, we begin celebrating the coming return of our favorite questionable academic, whip-aficionado, Nazi-puncher, and bordering-on-creepy womanizer, Indiana Jones. We take a look at the entire franchise, the four existing movies, their creators, and influences, and we even give attention to some extraneous stuff like the TV show. And for even more extraneous stuff like the video games, or even weird fan theories, you know Cracked has you covered. For now, we focus on discussing the franchise then and now, as well as sweet, sweet facts like the character actually having been named after George Lucas’ dog. Yup, that’s not only a joke from The Last Crusade, you know. Enjoy.