New Indiana Jones Movie partly filmed on the Big Island of Hawaii

We recently saw the new Indiana Jones movie--Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was particularly excited to see the new Indiana Jones movie because they filmed on the Big Island last year. See our related posts, Indiana Jones filming a few miles away from our Hawaii home, and Indiana Jones movie begins filming on the Big Island.

Originally the  movie location scouts  were looking for a waterfall and a jungle road that could pass for a South American Peruvian rainforest. The waterfall scene was scratched at the last minute due to the threat of Hurricane Flossie approaching, but the long and exciting jungle road chase scene was shot entirely on the Puna coast (on private property) not far from where we live.

I was thrilled watching the Puna jungle chase scene because I knew the exact location where they had filmed the movie scene! It was near a secret fishing spot that a friend had shared with us and made us promise not to tell anyone. (It was a long hike to get there.) Do not despair though, later in the post I will give you directions to see similar scenery along the gorgeous and rugged Puna coastline--and you can see it all from the comfort of your car.

Another friend told me that they also did the hike to just outside of the privately owned Shipman estate property gate when the Indiana Jones movie had recently finished filming. There was a guard at the gate, and she saw remnants of the filming such as a sign saying, "Filming Crew", movie camera dolly tracks on the ground, a spray painted area on the ground she thinks was for a helicopter landing pad, some newly cleared areas of brush, and boundary marking pins; but no Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, or Karen Allen. Besides not seeing any movie stars, she also did not see any film crew. The place was sadly deserted of people except for the guard.

To view the breathtakingly beautiful rocky coastline of Puna, turn off of the main Highway 11 onto the Keaau-Pahoa Highway 130. Drive all the way down to Kalapana then turn onto Highway 137 which is a beautiful scenic drive up the coast. You will past Kaimu Park, Kahena Beach, MacKenzie State park, Isaac Hale Beach Park, and Ahalanui Country park where you can relax in a natural pool of warm volcanically heated water. The highway turns left onto Highway 132 (Kapoho Road) which leads back to Highway 130 which you started on. You can also drive in the reverse order as it makes a nice loop. Give yourself a few hours to do this drive, as you will probably want to stop and take photographs and maybe have a picnic lunch and swim at Ahalanui park.

Read more details about the new Indiana Jones movie here:

Hawaii's Big Island Stars in New Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Motion Picture and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Wikipedia page. This is the best link for everything and anything to do with this movie.

Comments

[Bobbie]

What a great article! Imagine: Indiana Jones goes to Puna. I love it.

[Evelyn]

Kauai and Hawaii make the most wonderful scenes for anything outdoors! The countrysides are so beautiful there!

[HawaiiVacationGifts]

Bobbie,
Indiana Jones goes to Puna would also have made a great blog post title!
Evelyn,
I agree, I hope we can keep the country as country for a long time.