Trivia: In the Mayan temple, Indy comments "I have a bad feeling about this." This line was a running gag in George Lucas' Star Wars saga, and was used by Harrison Ford at least once. (01:46:10)
Trivia: When in the tent and forced to face the Crystal Skull, Indy dismisses the skulls as being from "Saucer Men From Mars". Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars was actually an early title for the film.
Trivia: When Indy and Mutt are riding the motorcycle through the study hall, they almost run over a nerdy, book-carrying student who gives the "Wilhelm scream". This classic scream has been frequently heard in movies for at least the past three decades.
Trivia: In the scene in the chamber with the aliens there are mini R2D2 and C3P0s on the chairs.
Trivia: "Crystal Skull" marks the first time in the Indiana Jones film series that Indy's complete outfit isn't itself an anachronism. As it is the first entry to take place post-World War II, the timeframe is now factually accurate that his satchel (Mark VII gas mask bag) would have existed. As the Mark VII was created for World War II, all 3 previous films make the addition of the satchel a factual error.
Trivia: Among the artifacts that fall out of the crates Spalko and gang push aside in the warehouse scene is Moses's staff. Property master Douglas Harlocker modelled it after the staff wielded by Charlton Heston as Moses in Ten Commandments. Incidentally, the Indiana Jones videogame, 'Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings', is about Indy's quest for Moses's staff.
Trivia: During the car chase scene at the start of the movie, the truck crashes into one of the boxes, ripping the side of the box off and revealing inside it the golden ark which was put in the same storage facility at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Trivia: Before production started and while the movie was still being planned, Harrison Ford was shown the original Indiana Jones costume from the first movie, and he has said he was pleasantly surprised that he could still fit into it perfectly despite being much older, so all doubts he might have had about "fitting into the role" went out the window.
Trivia: The Crystal Skull that everyone carries around and the Crystal Skull that is attached to the head of the Crystal skeleton at the end are actually of different sizes. Director Steven Spielberg said that no one would notice.
Trivia: Harrison Ford was nearly killed on set during the scene where he's driving in the warehouse. One of the explosives didn't go off and was launched into the seat next to Ford by the other explosions. Luckily, it didn't go off and Ford wasn't injured.
Trivia: The girl who punches Mutt during the diner scene is Steven Spielberg's real-life daughter Sasha.
Trivia: This was the first Indiana Jones film without Pat Roach. Roach appeared in the first three films and even played two different characters in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. He died in 2004.
Trivia: In every odd-numbered Indiana Jones movie, Indy is fighting the Nazis. In every even-numbered movie, he's fighting different enemies. (In the second film, "The Temple Of Doom", the enemies are Chinese gangers and an evil Indian cult. In this film the enemies are Soviet soldiers.)
Trivia: In the warehouse, while everyone laughs at Indy after he says that he needs bullets, you can see Andrew Divoff behind him, who had played a Russian previously in another Ford film, Air Force One. He was the one who fought with him in the baggage deck while the phone was on.
Trivia: Despite being third billed to Harrison Ford, Karen Allen does not appear until 64 minutes into the film.
Answer: People felt it was ridiculous and cartoonish, even by Indiana Jones standards. Even if it was possible to survive a nuclear blast via the lead lining of a fridge (it's not), or that the fridge would simply be thrown away rather than be melted/torn apart like everything else in the vicinity (it wouldn't), the impact of being flung what appears to be a mile or so through the air, then violently crashing into and rolling over the ground, would certainly kill anything inside. The controversy arose because usually, in "classic" Indy films, the fantastical elements were exactly that: fantastic, magical, and/or supernatural. This was presented as taking place in our reality, with no "power of God" or magic spells, and for many, that was just too much disbelief to suspend.