The Indiana Jones movie franchise is one of the most popular series at the box office. Figures put together by Box Office Mojo reveal that, when adjusted for inflation, the films and their re-releases have made more than $2.1 billion.
While Jones has entertained millions of people, the films aren’t just known for how good they were. The Indiana Jones films have also led to the creation of so many other action heroes as the developers and creators of video games grew up with the movies and drew inspiration from them.
Nathan Drake
In the PlayStation-exclusive game franchise, Uncharted, players take on the role of Nathan Drake, a hero/adventurer who goes looking for hidden treasure and artifacts. He overcomes all kinds of dangers and ambushes enemy forces to save the day and solve a great mystery. Just like Indiana Jones, Drake is also known for his jokes and for the connection between him and his friends.
Naughty Dog, the developer behind the Uncharted series, has called Drake the “anti-Indiana Jones”, but the movie based on the games will likely be much like the Indiana Jones films. Shawn Levy, who was signed on to direct the Uncharted movie, said that the production team is aiming to make a film like the seminal action/adventure series.
Rich Wilde
Another hero who is like Indiana Jones is Rich Wilde, the hero of Lucky Pants Bingo’s Book of Dead slot game. Wilde is a hunky adventurer and the whole slot game is about going to ancient Egypt to find epic treasures. The slot is also decorated with artifacts such as Egyptian gods like Horus and Anubis. Indiana Jones visited Egypt many times in his career, and Book of Dead seems to borrow from that idea.
Rich Wilde is liked for his exploration skills more than his jokes, but both Wilde and Jones have popular franchises to their name. There’s also the Rich Wilde and The Aztec Idols slot game, which sees the adventurer go to another country to discover hidden treasure.
Harrison Jones
Blizzard Entertainment’s MMORPG World of Warcraft is a fantasy game where there are elves, orcs, magic spells and battling kingdom. However, while this game world is full of mystical creatures, Blizzard still found time to sneak in some modern pop culture references.
One of these is the cheekily-named character of Harrison Jones (a cross between Harrison Ford and his Indiana Jones character), who is an NPC that borrows some quotes from the college lecture Jones gives in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The game also features a character named Belloc, who borrows the name from Belloq, Indiana Jones’ rival from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Indiana Jones movie series may have started in the 1980s, but it is still providing ideas and suggestions for game developers today. The series isn’t over yet, with a new Indiana Jones movie set to release in summer 2020. Who knows just what games, movies, and TV shows this new Indiana Jones movie will lead to after release.