Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?
From Science to the Supernatural,
The Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones
By Lois H. Gresh, Robert Weinberg
Wiley
Release date: April 21, 2008

As you all know, we’re having Indiana Jones Weeks of Geek here at GoD and to do my part, I was able to get my hands on a little book titled Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?. This book pretty much takes every element of any and everything Indiana Jones related and puts some good ‘ol fashioned real-world fact to them, from fun facts about some little things to full-on, real historical information behind the adventures of our hero and the artifacts he pursued.

Some examples of what you may or may not discover while exploring this book:

Bull whips — Should you lash them out and onto something, allowing you to swing away? I suggest not trying.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (as it’s been retitled for continuity) — We’re all incredibly familiar with that first iconic sequence of events, so how far-fetched was it really? Could there be places, artifacts, traps, and hostile natives like that? You might be surprised to learn about similar places out there; what tribe might have been portrayed, how they protected themselves, and even all about the most deadly of poisonous animals and methods of secreting and harvesting said poison for use on weapons. EVEN the gigantic, perfectly round boulder might not be all that ridiculous.

Also for Raiders, we learn a lot about The Staff of Ra and its possible real-life origins; The Well of Souls and where you can go try and visit, and even details about the Ark of the Covenant like what it’s known for, its religious ties, where it might be now, and if it really could be a way to communicate with God.

Yes, some heavy-duty freakin’ topics here. And that’s just the first movie.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — Some interesting things covered from this movie range from diamonds to cuisine to open heart surgery. The possible connection between the diamond Indy acquires at the beginning of Doom and one of the Young Indiana Jones storylines is explored, as is how close that ultra-questionable dinner menu might be to actual Indian cuisine (no, they don’t actually have eyeball soup, stop asking!).

Probably my favorite coverage of the second movie is of the Thuggees and how they were wiped out long before the time period the movie took place in; how they worshiped the evil Goddess Kali and sacrificed humans to her, and one part that might have been a little different than the movie, which I’ll share, because I enjoyed it that much …

As you recall, they have an evil brew of blood which when consumed, shut people off to reality and make them a slave to Kali. But what the book discovered is that this was most likely inaccurate; legend has it that Kali battled an evil demon named Rukt Bij-dana (sweet name, right? I agree), who would eat people as soon as they were born. The problem was, as soon as Kali spilled a drop of the demon’s blood, it would become another demon and that eventually, there were far too many to fight. After learning this lesson, she rested and brushed sweat off of her which became two men; she gave them scarves and told them to go off and strangle the demons and continue to do so, passing the method on from generation to generation. Because of this, spilling of any blood was strictly prohibited, which would make a lot of the killing that we saw in Temple of Doom exaggerated.

The legend is a little more detailed than that in the book, and there’s a lot more information on the real Thuggees and their traditions, but I really liked that story, so I had to share!

Lastly, they do indeed cover the most memorable scene where a man’s still-beating heart is removed from his body via bare hand and held in front of him as he’s lowered into the flames as a sacrifice to Kali. No, this is not something that could happen, as you might have imagined, but even still, they go into medical details of such a procedure and compare it to transplant surgeries.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — Finally, the last movie in the original trilogy, this section covers everything from the opening sequence with the Cross of Coronado, to the Nazis, and of course, the final three tests leading to The Holy Grail.

To keep this already incredibly long review a little shorter, I’ll just cover the best part of this one: The Holy Grail.

Here, you’ll learn that The Temple of the Crescent Moon is a real place (although located elsewhere), a little bit more behind the three traps Indy has to make his way through, the Knights of the Crusades brothers, and the story behind The Holy Grail.

After the three movies are covered, the book then digs really deep for you die-hard, obsessive fans to cover the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones TV series and all of its elements, tie-ins, and historical accuracies as well!

If you’re a fan of the Indiana Jones saga, you have to check this book out — it adds a whole new level to the stories, it’s ridiculously interesting, and hell, who knows… you may just find yourself going on a little adventure yourself one day.