MAGNificET indiana jones

So this Saturday, I went over to Remi’s to do some APUSH studying. But, like all of our “study sessions,” we quickly lost focus and somehow wandered over to the tv. That day we watched some Indiana Jones, Real Housewives of NYC, Hairspray, and did some Richard Simmons—hah! I love the Indiana Jones movies and always got caught up in the action. But this time, while watching the latest: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I had the knowledge of physics with me. So, I knew better when I saw Indy and the Cate Blanchett lady, with her posse, trying to locate the “highly magnetized box.” At this point in the movie, Indy is kidnapped by the Russians and is being forced to find a box in a giant warehouse. The box has alien remains in it and Indy says that it is super magnetic. To locate it he takes some gunpowder out of a hand grenade and tosses it in the air. The "metal" in the gunpowder is then floats across the room to the box. While gunpowder does look a lot like iron filings, it contains no metal and is more like coffee grounds than powder. If you toss it up like Indy does, it would fall straight to the ground. And gunpowder in the presence of a strong magnetic field does NOTHING. As Indy approaches the box, he calls for a shotgun shell. He then breaks it open and pours out the lead buckshot pellets which instantly are attracted to the box and cling to its exterior. But I looked it up and wikipedia says lead is not even magnetic, it’s diamagnetic; which means that it is slightly repelled by magnetic fields. As the box is moved, even the warehouse lights bend toward it. Despite the metal lights are strongly attracted to the box’s contents, the Russians are able to load the box onto a metal truck and easily slide it forward. Later on, the “magnetic” skull attracts gold coins too. But gold is also diamagnetic and Shia even says that gold isn’t magnetic…I still love Indy, even with all of the movie blunders. But at least now I know that if I ever am forced to find a highly magnetic item, gunpowder probably isn’t my best bet.