How Indiana Jones Could Have Survived The Nuked Fridge
While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was, for the most part, a phenomenally bad movie, it did include one important and lasting cinematic milestone.
It introduced the phrase “nuke the fridge” into the vernacular. After years of over-usage, the old standby for noting the moment when a show or movie steps over the line into the preposterous – “jumping the shark” – was starting to sound a little creaky. It had earned a much-needed rest, and thankfully “nuking the fridge” stepped in ready, willing, and able.
The phrase refers to the moment in Crystal Skull when Indy takes shelter from an impending nuclear test explosion by hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator stashed inside one of the bomb range’s dummy houses.
The fridge is then blasted through the air to a safe distance, allowing Indy to roll out bruised and battered but otherwise unhurt. While some people – those with even a basic knowledge of physics – might dismiss the fridge scene as in every way ridiculous, George Lucas reassured the press at the time that the scenario was indeed feasible and that Indy would have a “50-50” chance of surviving.
Now, George Lucas’ say-so should be enough to close the book on the subject for most people, but for those skeptical party-poopers who still insist on saying nay, the gentlemen at The Geek Twins put together a handy — and in no way sarcastic — infographic examining the various aspects of Indy’s unlikely nuclear voyage.
Check out how they broke down the scene if it were to take place in the “real world.”
There have been multiple issues cited with Indiana Jones making it through relatively unscathed in this scene.
For starters, there would be the blast wave impact, which he was definitely not clear of, and the fridge would have been thrown a distance well beyond what happened in the movie.
Plus, he would have almost certainly dealt with radiation exposure. And if that wasn’t enough, the thermal pulse from the nuclear detonation would have probably incinerated everything in and around where Indiana Jones was at the time.
But let’s not stop there because the shockwave and debris from the blast would have crushed the fridge or at best just really really screwed it up. And finally, Indiana Jones would probably have run out of oxygen while inside.
Ok, now that we have the nerdy “facts” cleared out of the way, we can explore ways where Indiana Jones actually does emerge from the fridge with just a light layer of dust covering his face and fedora.
For starters, we can assume this refrigerator isn’t just your everyday appliance. It was a government test piece meant to withstand radiation, so let’s say that it was many factors more protective. It was lead-lined, we know, but it could have been made of radiation shield alloys, which would have protected against the initial blast.
Let’s also assume the terrain and distance meant that Indiana Jones could have been shielded just enough from the original blast. Likely? No, but suspending disbelief means we can place him a bit further outside the blast radius.
Then, once that’s dealt with, the trajectory of the fridge meant that it avoided being crushed and demolished after the blast. And with that, let’s just assume that the fridge, because it was a government testing piece, had thermal protection well beyond what we think capable. Heck, the government doesn’t tell us every single thing it makes.
And finally, when it comes to air supply, well, let’s just assume that it was able to hold more than we originally thought and that Indiana Jones had breathable O2 for the duration of the flight.
Look, would it have been quicker just to say, “He would have freaking died”? Maybe, but that wouldn’t be nearly as fun. These are the movies after all, and Indiana Jones survived all manners of ridiculous near-death fiascos.
This dude jumped out of a plane in a rubber inflatable boat, landing on a mountainside. Oh, and he narrowly avoided getting scorched by the Ark of the Covenant (comparable to a nuclear blast).
Ramping things up with nuclear fallout makes things a little more scientifically “problematic,” but it shouldn’t necessarily be any less fun than those other things. Indy fights agents of historical destruction with a whip, for Pete’s sake.
All in all, let’s go with the 1:1,000,000 (or worse) that everything would have gone right for Indiana Jones and the nuking the fridge scene would have been just fine.
