Indiana Jones IV and its six possible titles

Slashfilm.com reports that Lucasfilm has filled in the forms at the MPAA and registered six possible titles for Indiana Jones IV:

1. Indiana Jones and the City of Gods
2. Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds
3. Indiana Jones and the Fourth Corner of the Earth
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
5. Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Gold
6. Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Covenant

You have to wonder how many of these titles were included just to tease the fans. There have been rumours about City of Gods and crystal skulls for months now — so either one of those titles is the authentic one, or neither title is authentic but Lucas wants to keep those decoy titles around while he waits to unveil the real title.

And as Cinematical has noted, Lost City of Gold was already used 20 years ago by one of the Allan Quatermain movies starring Richard Chamberlain, which were basically Indiana Jones rip-offs. (Yes, I know the character pre-dates Indiana Jones, but those movies were definitely rip-offs.) So presumably Lucas threw that title in there just to play with us. At least, you’d hope so.

Quest for the Covenant is also interesting, as another rumour has it that Indy will have to rescue the Ark of the Covenant from the Communists in this film — and those rumours may or may not have been bolstered by the image above, which currently sits on the IndianaJones.com home page. The crate kind of brings to mind that giant warehouse that we saw at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), no? And the word “quest” kind of brings to mind the medieval search for the Holy Grail that was the subject of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). So that title kind of combines the sensibilities of the two best Indiana Jones films.

I have no idea what to make of the other two titles, though Fourth Corner of the Earth is a mouthful and rather dull, and for that reason alone I hope they don’t use it. It occurs to me, though, that the expression “four corners of the earth” is biblical in origin (Isaiah 11:12, Revelation 7:1) and eschatological in context, and that would seem to fit the religious orientation of the series.

The title, um, also lends itself to the rumours that this movie may have something to do with extra-terrestrials. So too, alas, does Destroyer of Worlds, for that matter — and if Fourth Corner of the Earth harks back to a couple of the Bible’s more eschatological passages, then Destroyer of Worlds is downright apocalyptic.

This movie takes place in the 1950s, and the world is still here today, so obviously the film won’t be about the Apocalypse. But I would not be surprised if it entailed some sort of “ultimate” revelation that went beyond anything Indy has seen before.