Why does Indiana Jones wear a leather jacket in the dessert?

[MikeKardec]

If the alien ship in the last Indiana Jones film had taken Indy away he might have actually become Han Solo!

 

[MisterCairo]

Heard that Otter.
I'm going to sound like a nut, but I really do my best to not buy a thing from companies that supported the Axis.

Do you support the American space program at all?

 

[scottyrocks]

You have my admiration Sir. I wear my Fedora & Jacket often and agree, while I hear the comments, occasionally some will start loudly humming the theme music, I don't care. Just smile.

I would have put this here if I had hit this thread before the 'How Do Folks React' thread:

Just a few minutes ago, while waiting on line for my dinner, the woman in front of me turns to me and says (all together now), 'You look like Indiana Jones.'

I take a pause and say, very dead-pan, 'I don't know who that is.'

She says, 'You know, Harrison Ford?'

And I just give the slightest shoulder shrug. That was the end of that.

 

[Technonut]

Hmmmm.. I've included Indy-style jackets in my wardrobe for many years now, and the only comment I've had regarding ID'ing them from the movies when worn 'out-n-about', was from my (young at the time) Nephew on one occasion.

Halloween is a different story however, and I do love the comments I have received then. Here's a pic from a few years back:

 

[regius]

His tuxedo was at the dry cleaners?

wash day tomorrow, nothing clean.

 

[Brettafett]

Looking good. Popped in to Wested the other day, didn't see anything I liked though. A-2s were horrible Although the Aliens A-2 looked pretty interesting, but they only have a small size. Cool for a Sci-fi Smuggler Cosplay jacket. Tons of Indys, goat looked the best...

 

[Edward]

I'm hoping to order a Hero Indy once I lose the weight. Also very tempted by the Who/ Das Boot.

 

[rocketeer]

Hmmmm.. I've included Indy-style jackets in my wardrobe for many years now, and the only comment I've had regarding ID'ing them from the movies when worn 'out-n-about', was from my (young at the time) Nephew on one occasion.

Halloween is a different story however, and I do love the comments I have received then. Here's a pic from a few years back: View attachment 51646

During the 80s I could see you almost beaten to death with kids shouting 'Hey! Indy' looking like this. I used my A2 and a trilby to attain the look for a fancy dress party back then. I didn't win a prize though as it was my usual Spruce Goose 'Howard Hughes' look.
Should anyone ever read the sad story and view the pictures of the B24 "Lady Be Good" that crashed in the Libyan desert, the remains of the lost airman, some of which were still wearing their B3 jackets.

 

[MikeKardec]

There's another answer to "why does Indiana Jones wear a leather jacket in the desert?" --

While, the film makers we're 1) trying to create a distinctive look; obviously they succeeded in spades, 2) they also wanted to keep Indy in the same costume as much as possible so that they could use material from one scene in another if they needed to. This happens A LOT more than you'd think and having relatively consistent costuming really helps. It's also common that scenes are eventually cut together is a different order than planned. Consistency in costuming helps there too. Raiders of the Lost Ark was produced in a highly run-and-gun style, with little planning for a so complex a film. It's possible that you may have heard Spielberg discuss the fact that they shot few masters and things of that sort. Plus they were moving from place to place all the time, once they had picked up and gone to a different country picking up a missed or blown shot was very difficult. In such circumstances it's wise to make other aspects as consistent as possible in order to keep some advantage. One film I worked on, we knew we had to get a certain shot that hadn't worked out (in was about 10 seconds long and the editor had given us a call and specified what he needed to replace it) so we carried a fragment of the old set with us for weeks before we got the time to set it up and shoot it. The original shot was at noon on a pier and we did it's replacement at night in the mountains, we just lit it carefully, made it a close up and hung some out of focus garbage in the background to suggest aspects of what had been back there in the wide shot. You'd watch the scene and never see it ... until I pointed it out then you'd never be able to un-see it. In the same film we also used a shot where the hero is not in the right costume for the scene he is in ... again, you never see it, but it would have been better if he'd been wearing the right shirt.

It's always better not to change costumes if you can avoid it and it doesn't damage the look of the film. Francis Coppola used to say that even when the change clothes people often wear very similar looking things, very true and a great justification ... and, in this case, leather is GREAT if you're going to be doing stunt work!

 

[Big J]

You mean the one where real nazis did all the actual rocket science?
I believe that I am supportive to an appropriate degree commensurate to the facts.

 

[BobJ]

Why would Indiana Jones wear a leather jacket in the desert?.... What defines a desert is that they are dry, not necessarily hot. High deserts can be very cold.