The Strange Connection Between Batman and Indiana Jones

Strange bedfellows

File this blog under random thoughts. This may be my least consequential blog since I started this website over a year ago, but it appears pretty much no one else is talking about this or has noticed this on the Internet, so I figured I might as well grab my digital bugle and speak up before someone steals my thunder. Besides, as I wrote before: “My blog. My rules.”

The summer of 1989 was a remarkable time to be a movie lover. You could go into virtually any theater and see one of the following: Lethal Weapon 2; Ghostbusters II; Star Trek V; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; and, for “Weird Al” super fans like myself, UHF! But, of course, there are two blockbusters I left off this list: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the original Batman. (Sorry/not sorry, but I still think Michael Keaton is the best Batman and Jack Nicholson is the best Joker.) The Last Crusade is, arguably, the last great Indiana Jones movie, and, for my money, the original Batman is still my favorite Batman movie. (Suck it, Nolan-verse!) These were the two biggest movies of my favorite summer of all time. (You might have heard I wrote a book that takes place this year.)

Fast-forward almost 20 years later in 2008, and I was in a theater with my best friend seeing…something. (I can remember tiny minutiae of my elementary school years but can’t tell you what I ate for lunch yesterday.) As we were heading to the snack stand, I passed two posters side-by-side advertising the following upcoming movies: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight, with a picture of Heath Ledger’s Joker prominently displayed. Immediately, my mind flashbacked to that summer in ‘89. “Huh,” I thought, “the last time there was an Indiana Jones movie was also the last time there was a Batman movie with a Joker in it. Weird.”

I didn’t think much of it until last week, a decade and a half later, when I realized that there’s yet another Indiana Jones movie coming out, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and a sorta Batman movie, The Flash, starring Michael Keaton as my favorite Caped Crusader. This is the first time Keaton is playing the iconic hero since 1992’s Batman Returns. “Huh,” I thought, “the first time Keaton played Batman was also the last time there was a good Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade in 1989.”

And we’ve come full circle again. I told you this blog was inconsequential.

Now for the surprise announcement: This Saturday, July 8th, Danger Peak will be free to download on Amazon Kindle. This will be for one day only, and while I know it seems I’ve run this promotion a lot this year (four times), this may be it for the foreseeable future, at least for several months. So grab your free ‘80s ticket to ride one last time. Here is the link to the Amazon Kindle page:

Amazon

Enjoy!

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: A Special Announcement

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble