Doom Town was a fake town built on a nuclear test site by the Soviets disguised as Americans in Nevada.
History
In 1957, Indiana Jones entered the town after escaping Soviet agents at Hangar 51. The town populated by mannequins, used to test the effects of nuclear weapons on people. It was created by the Soviet Nation. The town was destroyed when a nuclear bomb was detonated nearby. Jones barely escaped by hiding in a lead-lined King Cool refrigerator in one of Doom Town's houses. The nuclear explosion destroyed a fleeing car of Soviet Special Forces that didn't get away in time, killing the occupants.
Behind the scenes
The idea of a fake town located at a nuclear test site in Nevada is similar to that of earlier drafts of Robert Zemeckis' film Back to the Future which was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment company. In the film's first draft, the protagonist Marty McFly, was to use a fridge time machine at a Nevada nuclear test site. However, after speaking with Spielberg, Zemeckis was dissuaded from using a fridge as a means of time travel over concerns that it could inspire children to recreate the scene with their home appliances.[1]
For the Doom Town scenes, sets were built near the hangars of Deming Municipal Airport, New Mexico while a large model was also constructed for wide shots at Kerner Optical (formerly a new used by Industrial Light & Magic) in San Rafael, California. The shot of Indy overlooking Doom Town from a cliff was filmed from a high point on Corralitos Road.[2] On the other hand, to create the Doom Town's destruction sequence, a huge miniature set of the town was built and then destroyed, augmented with CGI.[3]
Appearances
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (First appearance)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comic
- LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (Non-canonical appearance)