Crystal Skull of Akator
The elongated crystal skull of an interdimensional being that must be returned to Akator.
The crystal skull of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is an elongated crystal skull found in the grave of Francisco de Orellana in Peru. It belonged to one of thirteen "interdimensional beings" whom the early Ugha tribes worshipped as deities, and it commands those who touch its mind to return it to the mythical city of Akator.
Quick Facts
- First appearance
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Origin legend
- Akator (Lost City)
- Key seekers
- Indy
- Mutt Williams
- Irina Spalko
- Current status
- Returned to Akator
Lore & Background
Six months before the film, Harold Oxley went insane after discovering the skull, which commanded him to return it to Akator. Jones also has a brief telepathic connection to it. The Soviet agent Irina Spalko, who says the skulls are alien, wants to use them to project Soviet propaganda into the minds of Americans. In Akator she returns the skull to its skeleton, which offers her omniscience; the skeletons combine into a reanimated alien that transfers an overwhelming amount of knowledge into her mind, vaporizing her.
Reader's Guide
Lucas convinced Spielberg to use aliens by describing them not as "extraterrestrials" but as "interdimensional" beings, an idea taken from superstring theory. Stan Winston helped supervise the special effects for the beings. The real crystal skulls the film draws on are quartz carvings claimed to be pre-Columbian; studies concluded they were made in 19th-century Germany, and by the 1970s New Age writers held that there were exactly thirteen of them.
More in Production & Legacy
Elsewhere in Indiana Jones
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