The 1995 Super Bowl Halftime Show Went Full Indiana Jones and It Was Completely Bonkers
The mid-1990s gave us some truly strange pop culture moments, but even by that standard, the 1995 Super Bowl halftime show feels like it came from an alternate dimension.
This was the era when the NFL decided the best way to keep viewers glued to the TV was to drop Indiana Jones straight into the middle of football’s biggest night, and they went pure spectacle chaos.
Instead of a simple concert, audiences got a full-blown adventure tied to Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, the Disneyland attraction that was gearing up to open.
The show mashed together pop music, Broadway-scale staging, stunt work, and a storyline that somehow involved the Vince Lombardi Trophy. It sounds fake. It wasn’t.
The musical lineup included R&B icon Patti LaBelle, who appeared dressed like a mystical temple goddess, while jazz legend Tony Bennett showed up in a classic white suit, completely unfazed by the chaos swirling around him. They performed their own songs before closing things out with Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from The Lion King.
Then there was the plot. In roughly eleven minutes, an actor portraying Indy and his longtime partner Marion Ravenwood parachuted into the stadium, brawled with temple guards, dodged fire, and reclaimed the Lombardi Trophy from an ancient ruin.
The stage design pushed things even further. Massive flaming braziers lit the field. A towering temple set dominated the stadium, complete with a gigantic guardian head and two looming cobra statues.
Two very real snakes named Storm and Slither were brought out, draped over handlers’ shoulders as part of the show. Indy might hate snakes, but he wasn’t alone. LaBelle reportedly wanted nothing to do with them and would screech if they slithered too close.
Compared to this, modern halftime shows feel incredibly tame. I mean, we got live reptiles, flaming temples, and a theme park tie-in wrapped in action-movie lore.
A lot of people tune into the Super Bowl just for the commercials, movie trailers, and halftime show, so a little spectacle is expected. The 1995 halftime show delivered that in excess. It was loud, messy, confusing, and completely bonkers, which made it unforgettable.
Maybe not the kind of spectacle anyone would greenlight today, but as a time capsule of ’90s excess, it’s hard not to admire how completely unhinged it was.