9 Rejected Ideas That Were Recycled In Other Movies

4. Indy's Nuked Fridge Was Once A Time Machine

Originally In... Back To The Future

Back in the early days of Back To The Future's scripting stage, before the Delorean became the most famous time travel device of all time, the script had Marty McFly sent back in time using a beam powered by plutonium. But because of the nuclear problem in the 50s, the only means for him to return was to harness the power of the last atomic bomb detonation in the US in Atkins, Nevada rather than the lightning strike in the final film.

And because he needed to not be vaporurised by that explosion, the script has Doc Brown build him a lead-lined fridge that protected him as the time travel device was triggered by the bomb. It sounds ridiculous, but it almost happened.

A couple of decades later, the fridge thing clearly hadn't shook itself out of Back To The Future producer Spielberg's mind entirely as it became the means by which Indiana Jones survived a nuclear blast in The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Obviously, there was just something too compelling about fridges survivng explosions that the director really needed to explore.