Mitchell-Hedges Skull
From Indiana Jones Wiki
- "The Crystal Skull is alleged to have many supernatural powers."
- ―Indiana Jones[src]
The Mitchell-Hedges Skull (also known as the Crystal Skull of Lubantuun[1] or the "Skull of Doom") was a crystal skull recovered by Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges. Indiana Jones kept lecture notes on the discovery.
Contents |
[edit] Behind the scenes
The real Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull was found by Anna Mitchell-Hedges. Her father, F. A. Mitchell-Hedges, believed that the crystal skull had something to do with the mythic Atlantis.
An unproduced episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was written for the show's third season that would have featured the Mitchell-Hedges Skull and helped strengthen the ties between the TV series and the movies. In this planned episode, Indy was to have his first encounter with René Belloq while the two were archaeology students in university together, and they would discover a crystal skull while on an archaeological field trip in Central America. In the story, Belloq steals the skull and sells it to Mitchell-Hedges, thus igniting both the legend of the Mitchell-Hedges skull and the years of rivalry between Indy and Belloq. The novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull appears to preclude the possibility of the events of this episode having taken place; during the diner scene in which Indy discusses the skull with Mutt, the narrative specifically describes the skull as having been found by Mitchell-Hedges in 1926, and even notes that Indy "had been trying to get a peek at the skull for years" but had been rebuffed. The actual film, however, is less specific in relating the skull's history, with Indy mentioning simply that he and Harold Oxley had been obsessed with it in college (and later noting that Oxley's carvings of the Crystal Skull of Akator on the walls of his room in the Nazca sanitorium were clearly not of the Mitchell-Hedges skull). This suggests the film continuity (if not the novel) is compatible with that of the unproduced episode, though it doesn't offer any specific support for it.
[edit] Appearances
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
- "Honduras, December 1920" (Cancelled)
- Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx (Mentioned only)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Mentioned only)
[edit] Sources
- Indiana Jones and the Golden Vampires (First mentioned)
[edit] Notes and references
- ↑ The Skull is mentioned by this name in Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx, though "Lubaantun" is the more generally accepted spelling.
