Super Bowl Halftime Show Once Featured Bizarre Indiana Jones Tie-In Performance

There have been some incredibly bizarre Super Bowl halftime shows over the years, but one of the craziest was the 1995 tribute to Indiana Jones.

You might be asking yourself one very important question: WHY?! Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1985, so what was going on in 1995?

Well, it was actually the year Disneyland opened the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction, which remains one of the best rides at theme park (Floridians are still bitter that Disney World doesn’t have one).

According to the video shared by MoedredTV, the halftime show was titled “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye” and “featured actors playing Indiana Jones and his girlfriend Marion Ravenwood who were raiding the Vince Lombardi Trophy from the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.” The show also included Tony Bennett, Patti LaBelle, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, and the Miami Sound Machine.

The show ended with everyone singing “Can You Feel The Love Tonight,” which might seem bizarre when paired with Indiana Jones, but not only is The Lion King hit another Disney staple, it would go on to win Elton John and Tim Rice an Academy Award for Best Song less than two months after the Super Bowl took place.

Earlier today, CBS Sports shared a list of the most bizarre halftime shows and they ranked the Indiana Jones performance at #2, calling it “complete insanity… but also kind of badass” which is absolutely what you want in a live performance! “Five-percent Patti LaBelle, five-percent Tony Bennett, and 90-percent Indiana Jones choreographed fight scenes.” Unsurprisingly, the only performance to outrank it was Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s.

If you watch the video above, you can see that they pulled out all the stops. From lighting a guy on fire to choreographed fight scenes, this show feels like they took parts of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! from Hollywood Studios (formally MGM), added a couple football references, and used Vegas as the style template.

What do you think of this classic Super Bowl halftime show? Tell us in the comments!

This year’s Super Bowl will see the Los Angeles Rams face off with the New England Patriots tonight at 6:30/5:30c. For the full schedule of the day’s events, click here.

Indiana Jones 5 will be hitting theaters on July 9, 2021, so hopefully we’ll be looking at a repeat performance in a few years.