Looper Survey: The Absolute Best Indiana Jones Movie According To Fans
With the release of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," fans now have a total of five big-screen adventures of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. (Harrison Ford) to discuss and debate. The film acts as a fond and bittersweet farewell to the world's most danger-prone archeologist, so fans of the character are naturally in a retrospective mood.
This means it's a good time for Looper to take a survey to see which of the five "Indiana Jones" movies is the best. The results of the poll, which has some 36,000 votes as of this writing, aren't exactly surprising, but they do hold interest for anybody curious about the state of the franchise in the wake of the newest installment.
The consensus pick for the best "Indiana Jones" movie is the first and the original entry in the series, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The film introduced the character of Indiana Jones to the world and has served as the template for all future entries in the series going forward. 54% of respondents chose "Raiders" for the top slot, a margin of 26% over the next most popular choice.
Few fans have a favorite outside of the original Indiana Jones trilogy
The second most popular pick in the Looper survey is "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," the film that pairs Indy (Harrison Ford) with his absent-minded father (Sean Connery) for a battle to attain the mystical Holy Grail. The film came in second with 28% of the vote, while the ever-controversial "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" accumulated an appropriately occult 13% of the vote on the question of the best "Indiana Jones" movie.
Some quick figuring shows that a whopping 95% of votes were cast for the movies that make up the original "Indiana Jones" trilogy, with only 3% and 2% of voters selecting "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" as their favorites, respectively. And some commenters on the poll, like @focalized, seem to see the original trilogy almost as one big movie unto itself. "Raiders is iconic. Temple is the most impressively produced. Crusade is the funniest and most heart felt. It's all one story," the user wrote.
If the survey results are any indication, fans do seem to prefer the first entries of this big story to any of its later components.