Of Indiana Jones and Supernatural

Aug 16, 2006 00:55

Yes, I am crazy, but while watching all three Indiana Jones the other day I started noting some similarities with 'Supernatural'. I'm mainly basing this whole thing on 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' because that's when I started taking notes.


 

Warning: spoilers for season 1 of 'Supernatural', and all three Indiana Jones films.

I'll start off slow with the crazy..

First off, both deal with supernatural occurences, it's not exactly like the items Indiana finds are every day, rull of the mill type stuff.

Dean wears a leather jacket, Indiana wears a leather jacket.


 

Dean is a pretty cocky guy, sure of himself and the same can be said about Indiana.

Girls... yeah, I don't really need to explain this one do I?

In 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' Indiana has a lighter he calls 'his lucky charm'. We all know Dean has a lot of lighters and likes setting things on fire. 

 

It's revealed in 'Hell House' that Dean isn't fond of rats, in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' Indiana has a similar reaction when he sees the rats. Granted it's his father who is afraid of them, but Indiana didn't seem fond of them either.

Elsa in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' is blonde, flirts with both Jones' and ends up screwing them over. Meg is blonde, flirts with Sam, and ends up screwing the Winchester's over. There is a big differance on the evil scale, but you get my drift.

Indiana has friends that help him out and provide him with things he might need, like provisions, information or a place to hide. The same is true of the Winchesters, if they're ever in a bind they have people they can call for help and information.

Indiana has a good relationship with kids, see Short Round in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'. Dean also has a good relationship with kids, Like Lucas in 'Dead in the Water' and MIchael in 'Something Wicked' plus his reaction to all those kids being hurt.

Indiana Jones calls his father 'Sir', and the occational 'dad' when he's yelling for, or at him. Sam and Dean call John 'sir' too, but they also call him 'dad' in pressured situations.

In 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' some guy says that Hitler 'just declared war on the Jones boys'. In 'Salvation' Meg tells John that, by having the gun the Winchester's have declared war on her and her fellow demons. And you can't tell me Nazi's and demons don't have a lot in common.

In 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' Indiana get's his dad's journal in the mail, with the intention that he keep it safe. In the 'Pilot' Dean gets his dad's journal at the police station. I do believe he was meant to keep it safe. Both men end up using the diary to help them with their case(s).

Throughout 'Supernatural' whenever someone calls Sam 'Sammy' he tells then 'Don't call me Sammy'. In 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' Henry keeps calling Indiana 'Junior' to which Indiana replies 'Don't call me Junior'.
Considering Sam is the junior member of the family I found this amusing.


 

Both stories deal with daddy issues. In 'Supernatural' John left to find the demon and fight it off himself, Henry goes off on this quest alone initially and Indiana is only called in after Henry goes missing.
Sam was however the first one that left in the Winchester family, to get independence, and an education, 'a normal life'. Indiana Jones also left home, for freedom and to get away from an obsessive father, so Sam can be compared to the younger Indiana Jones, while Dean could be compared with the older version.

Henry can't give Indiana credit when he does good, when he's achieved something. He has to believe that Indiana's died before he'll show any regret for not talking to his son. The same can be said of John and his relationship to the boys, but from what we've seen so far the man will need another kick in the head to 'wake up'. The whole family seems to have a hard time giving eachother credit if they've done something good, unless it's Dean praising John.

I've touched in on this briefly, but both John and Henry are obsessed with something. With Henry it's the quest for the grail. He'll be doing research while Indiana is trying to convey something important, and indeed focusing more on that than his own son. It is also mentioned that Henry's wife sacrificed herself for his quest, keeping quiet about being sick so he could continue his search
With John it was his wife's death that started the obsession, to get what killed her, but I do believe that both men are fuelled by their wife's death. When Henry's wife died he couldn't give up, now he had to finish it so she hadn't died in vain. Also from most meta's I've read it is believed that Mary was a sacrifice for some ritual involving Sam. So techniqally both mothers death involved sacrifice.

In the end of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' Indiana's father is shot, and Indiana has to tackles some issues with faith to be able to save him. In 'Devil's Trap' Sam shoots John in the leg, but is then left with the choice of killing his father or letting him live. He has to make a choice of what's best for the family. 
Indiana also has a choice to get the grail and risk his life, or save himself at the very end of the film, while dangling over a cliff. Sam has t odecide wether to kill the demon, and as a result kill his own father or let the demon go and keep the family together and a live.


 

And for my final point:
Sean Connery 12 years older than Harrison Ford.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is 12 years older than Jensen Ackles.
If anybody wants to take this idea and run with it please do, just make a referance to this post. The in depth analysis has never really been something I've been good at writing.

jensen ackles, sam winchester, pilot, indiana jones, harrison ford, jeffredy dean morgan, dean winchester, supernatural, john winchester, meg

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