'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull': The Untold Story

When Shia LaBeouf got cast in Crystal Skull, he had to check in at Spielberg's office to read the script. He didn't get his own copy until shortly before shooting began. ''That was weird,'' he says. ''I was not prepared for not being able to have a script during prep.'' When he finally got one to keep, every page had been bar-coded and watermarked to discourage easy duplication. He says he was also given a hotline number. If he needed to valet-park his car — and was even thinking of leaving the script in the backseat — all he had to do was dial the hotline and someone would come retrieve it. And what if LaBeouf ever felt the urge to blab about the plot? Best not to think about that. ''The joke I had was that Steven had snipers following me,'' he says, ''and if I ever slipped and gave up any tidbits, that was the end.''

Why the fear factor? Because Spielberg hates audiences knowing any more than he wants them to before opening weekend. As cameras rolled for principal photography from mid-June through mid-October of last year, that made life on the set feel like a witness-protection program at times. When Spielberg shot scenes on location in and around Yale University in Connecticut (standing in for Dr. Jones' Marshall College), onlookers went into a frenzy snapping cell-phone pics and posting videos on YouTube of a motorcycle-chase scene involving LaBeouf and Ford, among other moments. The production had to build nine-foot-high fencing to keep the actors hidden from view as they went to and from sensitive scenes. Says LaBeouf: ''We had to wear robes and hoods like we were in the [Yale secret society] Skull and Bones. And we were never supposed to be grouped or bunched together. We were always supposed to be separated until we came to set.''

When production moved to L.A., the bulk of shooting commenced at five separate studios, since no single facility could accommodate all the sets. That meant an awful lot of entry points for Lucasfilm security folks to lock down. Despite the precautions and confidentiality agreements, two big leaks nearly blew up in fall 2007. An extra who played a Russian soldier blabbed story details to an Oklahoma newspaper; the actor persuaded the paper to take down the article from its website, but not before it circulated to every fan chatroom in the land. And thieves broke into Crystal Skull's production office at Universal last September, stealing a computer along with proof sheets of sensitive photos and a budget breakdown detailing salaries. A law-enforcement sting operation recovered the stolen materials within a week.

Fan websites like Ain't It Cool News and TheRaider.net have bandied about all manner of spoilers in the months since. Lucas says Spielberg was dispirited about how much information is out there, despite their best efforts. Relax, Lucas says. ''They're not coming to see the plot,'' he argues. ''They're coming to see Steve Spielberg interpret a story. You can't get that any other way than by actually seeing the movie.'' He believes it's impossible to truly spoil Crystal Skull. ''I've been trying to get Steven to put the scene where Indiana Jones gets killed into the trailer,'' he deadpans. ''And he just refuses to do it.''

A death scene for Dr. Jones? That would never happen, Harrison Ford assures us. He remembers trying to persuade Lucas to kill off his Han Solo character in the second or third initial Star Wars movie, insisting it'd make for a better story. ''You don't need him,'' says Ford. ''He's got no mama, got no papa — out there all by himself. He's a piece you can move around or get rid of. But I couldn't get George to go along with that. He didn't want to stop making the toys.''

Ford never had the same feelings of disposability about Indy, whom he finds much more interesting than Han Solo — especially since Indy's mortality has always been a key part of his appeal. ''One of the pleasures is that we allow him to get in too deep,'' Ford says. ''He's in over his head and has to pull himself out. A character without fear or with no sense of his own inadequacy would be a pain in the ass to be around.'' Time to embrace our own foolish, feeble humanity again — and Indiana Jones, courtesy of a buff sexagenarian, is here to show us how.

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