The packaging on this blu-ray collection opens like a book and this book tells the tale of Dr. Henry Jones Jr. (played by Harrison Ford), an archaeology professor who is known to most as Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is a mild-mannered professor who moonlights as an adventure seeking treasure hunter. He does not do it for personal fortune, rather he gathers the antique artifacts and turns them over to a museum run by Marcus Brody (played by Denholm Elliott). Wherever around the world he goes Indiana runs into trouble in the form of someone else who wants to get to the treasure before him.
For the first time ever the four films of the Indiana Jones series is being released on blu-ray. The films have been digitally remastered to better picture and sound. The series is the brainchild of Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List) and George Lucas (Star Wars, American Graffiti).
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark:
Indiana Jones is an archaeology professor at a university and in his spare time he hunts for archaeological treasures for the museum. Marcus tells him government men want to see him and they seem to know a lot about him. The men ask him about the location of Professor Ravenwood, the man he studied under at university in Chicago.
The Nazis are digging in the desert outside Cairo. They are looking for the Lost Ark. The Ark that contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments. They are rumoured to be hidden in the Well of the Souls in Tanis. Tanis was covered up by sand and lost.
What the government wants is for Indiana to locate Tanis and the Ark. They want it before Hitler and will pay handsomely.
Indiana travels to Nepal, India. There he locates Marian Ravenwood (played by Karen Allen). They have a history. He needs a piece from her father’s collection. She tells him her father, Abner, is dead. A German man goes into the bar asking for the same piece as Jones did. Indiana rescues her and a shootout/fight ensures. Marian and Indiana get the medallion but her bar burns to the ground. She is angry and insists on becoming Indiana’s partner so she can get her money back.
They are off to Cairo, Egypt to try and get to Tanis and the Ark before the French archaeologist Belloq (played by Paul Freeman), who has been hired by the Nazis to also find the treasure.
Special Features: Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer, Re-Issue Trailer
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:
In 1935 professor of archaeology Indiana Jones is in Shanghai. He gets into a little disagreement with Lao (played by Roy Chiao) and ends up running for his life with the nightclub singer named Wilhelmina “Willie” Scott (played by Kate Capshaw). On the escape plane with Willie and a young Chinese boy named Shorty (played by Jonathan Ke Quan) they run into trouble and crash in India.
The trio end up in a small village. Residents of the village believe that an evil spirit has taken their children due to a precious stone being stolen. They must recover the stone in a booby-trapped temple called the Temple of Doom.
Also wanting the stones they believe that if they can possess all five Sankara stones the power will allow the Thuggee to rule the world.
It is another race to find out who can locate, find, get their hands on and finally keep the final stone.
Special Features: Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
It is 1912 and Indiana Jones (played by River Phoenix) is a teenage riding with his scout troop in the Utah desert. In a cave in the rock Indiana sees some men who have discovered an important artifact. He gets the artifact from them and makes a high speed and daring escape. Only to have the artifact given back to the man after by the sheriff.
As an adult Indiana has once again gone after the same man for the same artifact. This time it’s on the high seas. He just wants the artifact to be in a museum. This time he is successful and turns it over to Marcus.
Back at school Indiana is being watched. He is brought to meet Walter Donovan (played by Julian Glover), a rich man with a passion for antiquities. His men have unearthed a tablet referring to the Holy Grail. The Grail will bring eternal life to whoever drinks from it. Indiana is hesitant to go after what he thinks to just be a story or myth. That is until he goes to his father’s house to find it ransacked and his father (played by Sean Connery) missing.
So it is off to Venice, Italy where they are to meet a Dr. Schneider (played by Alison Doody) who will help them in their search. Dr. Schneider turns out to be a beautiful blonde woman. It starts getting dangerous but Indiana continues looking for his father.
Finally he locates Dr. Henry Jones Sr. in a house and the Nazis are after them. It turns out that Dr. Schneider is working for the Nazis. Donovan is behind it all. After getting away from the Nazis Dr. Jones wants to continue on with the search and that means going to Germany. Indiana reluctantly agrees as the Germans have the map and Marcus.
From there the chase continues into the desert of Hatay. Father and son take on a whole German troop.
Special Features: Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:
Indiana and Mac (played by Ray Winstone) are captured while digging in Mexico. They are taken by the Russians and brought to Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko (played by Cate Blanchett). She wants Indiana’s help to find something. They take them to a military warehouse and let on that they are looking for a box containing mummified remains.
Mac ends up double-crossing Indiana. Indiana finds out that Irina is Stalin’s right hand woman and she is a specialist in psychic possibilities. The FBI goes through Indiana’s office suspecting him of being a communist. He is fired by the university.
A young man named Mutt (played by Shia Lebeouf) tells Indiana that someone was trying to killed Dr. Oxley (played by John Hurt), an archaeologist. It has something to do with an artifact called the Crystal Skull. Someone has kidnapped Oxley and his mother and will kill them unless they come up with the skull.
Indiana deciphers a letter Oxley sent to Mutt and believes the skull is in Peru. Once they get it they are pursued to the Amazon by the Russians. The Russians are interested in weapons of psychic warfare. Irina tells Indiana that Akator was not built by people from this planet. They have Oxley and Mutt’s mother, who turns out to be Marian.
Indiana and Mutt rescue Marian and Oxley. Now it is up to the seemingly crazy Oxley to show them the way to return the Crystal Skull to its original location.
Special Features: Theatrical Trailer 2, Theatrical Trailer 3, Theatrical Trailer 4, On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Making the Films, Behind the Scenes, Credits