The year is 1957. The Indiana Jones 4 movie opens at a secret U.S. military base (Hanger 51) in the South Western portion of the USA. The military of the Soviet Union has captured Indiana Jones and his archaeologist friend named Mac. Soviet troops disguise themselves as American soldiers to infiltrate the United States in order to retrieve something of extraordinary psychic power.

This unknown warehouse is the one the U.S. Government hid the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones and Mac have a spectacular confrontation with Irina Spalko (leader of the clandestine Soviet forces) and the Soviet soldiers under her control. The Ark of the Covenant is seen briefly inside a broken crate. Mac turns out to be working with the Soviets.

Indy Jones utilizes magnetism with gun powder and gun pellets to locate an extraterrestrial skeleton (from the 1947 Roswell UFO crash) inside one of the hidden crates. The Soviets seize the alien corpse, but Indy Jones takes one of the Soviet soldiers hostage, then a massive battle erupts inside the warehouse. Indiana Jones uses his bull whip to move around and eventually ends up on top of the Soviet soldier's jeep.

They end up in a room with a rocket engine on top of a train like machine. The rocket engine ignites and they end up outside in the desert with the Soviet soldier collapsed on Indy's shoulder. Indiana Jones has to avoid being killed in a nuclear weapons test. Indy Jones ends up in Doomtown where the U.S. Military is testing atomic weapons. Indy hides inside a refrigerator to avoid being killed by the nuclear explosion. The refrigerator flies in the air for miles, but Indy survives. The Soviets are searching for a mystical crystal skull, supposedly taken from El Dorado, the hidden city of gold in Peru.

The movie then jumps to the campus of Marshall College. Dean Stanforth, Indy's good friend, explains to Indiana Jones that Indy's recent adventures are the subject of investigation by the U.S. Government. Dean Stanforth tells Indy that the U.S. Government wants the college to relieve Indy Jones of his prestigious professor's position. Indy is suspected of being a Communist. We learn that Indy's father and Marcus Brody are deceased.

While trying to leave the city on a train, Indiana Jones runs into a greaser called Mutt Williams. Mutt tells Indy Jones if Indy will help Mutt with a rescue mission involving Mutt's friend named Professor Oxley and Marion Ravenwood, then Mutt will help Indy find the legendary crystal skull of Akator. Mutt and Indy go to a 1950's style diner eating place. The Soviet villains then proceed to chase Indy Jones and Mutt through the Marshall College campus involving Communist protests, inside classrooms and on the football field and other locations.

Mutt and Indy Jones head for the forbidding jungles of Peru. Where Indy and Mutt have adventures in a cave and find the crystal skull. Irina Spalko, as expected, takes the crystal skull from our heroes. The Soviets believe the crystal skull has powerful psychic powers, which will lead to global domination by the Soviet Union. Indy and Mutt are attacked by villains in skeleton masks, who carry blow tubes to fire darts. In a cemetery, Indy Jones kills one of them by blowing on the reverse end of the tube sending a dart into the bad guy's throat.

A spectacular vehicle chase sequence takes place in the jungles involving Indiana Jones, Mutt and Marion vs. the Soviet military. Mutt and Irina Spalko have a battle with swords. Indiana Jones encounters giant ants. The heroes find themselves trapped in quick sand when Marion reveals that Mutt is Indiana Jones' biological son named Henry. They are attacked by monkeys and fall over three impressive waterfalls.

The Crystal Skull temple is filled with traps the characters have to avoid. Eventually they find a throne room with extraterrestrial dead bodies on the thrones. The crystal skull is placed on one of the alien corpses and a supernatural technological transformation takes place. It opens a temporal gateway to another dimension of reality.

Things are pulled into the gateway and the temple is destroyed during the mayhem. Eventually Irina Spalko is killed by supernatural skeletons after the powers of the crystal skull are released. Mac dies as a result of greed. Indy Jones ends up getting his job back with a promotion. Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood get married at the end of the Indiana Jones 4 film.

Indiana Jones Box Office Speculation: By examining the box-office gross of the prior Indy Jones movies, we can form an idea of how well Indiana Jones 4 and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will perform at cinemas in 2008. When you adjust for inflation in 2008 statistics, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark has a North American box office tally of $ 600 million U.S. dollars. The follow up films in the series didn't achieve such an impressive figure.

In 2008 dollars, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has North American theater earnings of about $ 360 million U.S. dollars. A little bit worse is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with $ 335 million U.S. dollars at the box office. As a result of this data, we can safely assume that Indy Jones 4 is a lock for $ 300 million U.S. dollars in North America.

Indy Jones is one of the most iconic film franchises in history and there is tremendous demand for a new Indy film since Indy 4 will be the first new Indy film since 1989. We can compare this to the anticipation for Star Wars Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. When you adjust for inflation for 2008 figures, The Phantom Menace has a North American box office gross of nearly $ 580 million U.S. dollars. While the Indy Jones film series is nowhere near as popular as the Star Wars saga, this still makes it possible for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to have a box office final amount far in excess of $ 400 million U.S. dollars in North America.

For major blockbuster Hollywood films, each does about two thirds of their box office overseas. Hence, Indy 4 will likely earn over $ 600 million U.S. dollars in foreign territories. The newest Indy film has a realistic chance of breaking the $ 1 billion U.S. dollar mark in worldwide theatrical earnings.