Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

In 1912, Boy Scout Indiana Jones lives with his father Henry Jones Sr. in Moab, Utah. One day, while exploring caves on an excursion with his scout troop, Indy takes a crucifix owned by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado from a group of graverobbers led by a man named Garth, and after a brief chase on horseback and aboard a circus train, Indy flees to his home, where Garth and his men find him and confiscate the crucifix with the help of the local sheriff. Garth, however, admits his respect for the scrappy young man, and gives him his fedora before leaving. In 1938, Indy successfully takes back the crucifix from the employer of the graverobbers off the Portuguese coast. After returning to his university classroom in the United States, Indy learns his father has disappeared while searching for the Holy Grail and his childhood home was ransacked. Walter Donovan, his father's financial backer, tasks Indy with finding both Henry and the Grail. Indy receives a package containing Henry's diary, which includes his research on the Grail, and travels to Venice alongside Marcus Brody to meet Henry's associate Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover a catacomb containing an inscribed shield which reveals that the path to the Grail begins in Alexandretta. The two are subsequently attacked by a mysterious group who reveal themselves to be the secret Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, dedicated to protecting the Grail. After saving the group's leader Kazim, Indy learns that Henry is being held at Brunwald Castle in Austria. Indy entrusts Marcus with a map from the diary detailing a route to the Grail and sends him to Alexandretta to rendezvous with their old friend Sallah. Discovering their rooms have been ransacked, Indy reveals the diary's existence to Elsa before they sleep together. In Austria, Indy and Elsa infiltrate the castle, discovering it to be under Nazi control commanded by Standartenführer Ernst Vogel. Indy finds Henry and tries to escape, but surrenders after Vogel holds Elsa at gunpoint. She reveals herself and Donovan to be Nazi collaborators and takes the diary. After arriving in Alexandretta, Marcus is captured by the Nazis as well. Elsa returns to Germany, while Indy and Henry escape the castle before traveling to Berlin, where Indy retrieves the diary during a book burning rally hosted by Adolf Hitler. After recovering it from Elsa, Indy and Henry flee on a Zeppelin. Soon the zeppelin reroutes back to Germany, forcing Indy and his father to commandeer a spare plane before evading two Luftwaffe planes pursuing them. Once Indy and Henry arrive in Hatay, Sallah informs them that the Nazis have also traveled there using the map. While they are following the trail, the Nazis are ambushed by Kazim and the Brotherhood, but the Nazis manage to kill them all. Henry takes advantage of the distraction to try to rescue Marcus but is captured; Indy attacks the Nazi convoy in response and is eventually able to destroy it with help from Henry and Marcus while sending Vogel and his tank over the cliff. Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah proceed to a temple containing the Grail, where they observe the Nazis attempting to overcome the temple's traps before being captured. Donovan forces Indy to find safe passage for them by mortally wounding Henry; a drink from the Grail can heal him. With the help of the diary, Indy overcomes the traps and finds a room with many cups and an ancient knight, who explains that only one cup is the true Grail. Donovan and Elsa enter the room, and Elsa deliberately gives him the wrong cup, killing Donovan after he drinks from it. Indy identifies the true Grail and saves Henry's life with a warning from the knight that the Grail can never cross the great seal. Elsa ignores the warning, setting off a cataclysm in the temple; she falls to her death trying to take the Grail, and Indy nearly suffers the same fate before Henry convinces him to let it go. The Grail falls into an abyss as Indy and his companions escape and ride off into the sunset. ==Cast==

• Harrison Ford as Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr.: An archaeologist, professor and adventurer who seeks to rescue his father and find the Holy Grail. Ford said he loved the idea of introducing Indiana's father because it allowed him to explore another side to Indiana's personality: "These are men who have never made any accommodation to each other. Indy behaves differently in his father's presence. Who else would dare call Indy 'junior'?" Spielberg had been a fan of Connery's work as James Bond and felt that no one else could perform the role as well. Connery, who had eschewed major franchise films since his work on the James Bond series, as he found those roles dull and wanted to avoid paparazzi attention, initially turned the role down (as he was only twelve years older than Ford) but eventually relented. Connery—a student of history—began to reshape the character, and revisions were made to the script to address his concerns. "I wanted to play Henry Jones as a kind of Richard Francis Burton," Connery commented. "I was bound to have fun with the role of a gruff, Victorian Scottish father." Connery believed Henry should be a match for his son, telling Spielberg that "whatever Indy'd done my character has done and my character has done it better". Connery signed to the film on March 25, 1988. • John Rhys-Davies as Sallah: A friend of Indiana and a professional excavator living in Cairo. Like Elliott's, Rhys-Davies's return was also an attempt to recapture the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Robert Eddison appears as the Grail Knight, the guardian of the Grail who drank from the cup of Christ during the Crusades. Eddison was a stage and television veteran only appearing in a few films since the 1930s. Glover recalled Eddison was excited and nervous for his return to film, often asking if he had performed correctly. but he was too ill and died the same year in which the film was released. Michael Sheard briefly appears as Adolf Hitler, whom Jones encounters at a book-burning rally in Berlin. Although a non-speaking role, Sheard could speak German and had already portrayed Hitler three times during his career. He had also appeared as the U-boat commander Oskar Schomburg in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the same scene, Ronald Lacey, who played SD agent Arnold Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark, cameos as Heinrich Himmler. Alexei Sayle played the fictional sultan of Hatay (the real Hatay State was a republic). Paul Maxwell portrayed "the man with the Panama Hat" who took possession of the Cross of Coronado. Wrestler and stuntman Pat Roach, who played three roles in the previous two films (notably the musclebound German soldier who gets into a fistfight with Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark), made a short cameo as the Nazi who accompanies Vogel to the Zeppelin. Roach was set to film a fight with Ford, but it was cut. In a deleted scene, Roach's agent boards the second biplane on the Zeppelin with a World War I flying ace (played by Frederick Jaeger), only for the pair to fall to their deaths after the flying ace makes an error. Richard Young played Garth, the leader of the tomb robbers who chased young Indiana Jones and then gives him his hat. Eugene Lipinski portrayed the mysterious agent G-Man, while Vernon Dobtcheff appeared as the butler of Castle Brunwald. ==Production==

Development George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had intended to make a trilogy of Indiana Jones films since Lucas had first pitched Raiders of the Lost Ark to Spielberg in 1977, After the mixed critical and public reaction to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg decided to complete the trilogy to fulfill his promise to Lucas, with the intent to imbue the film with the spirit and tone of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Temple of Doom writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz chose not to return due to both having other commitments and feeling satisfied with their work in the second film. Throughout the film's development and pre-production, Spielberg admitted he was "consciously regressing" in making the film. even after Lucas suggested giving it healing powers and the ability to grant immortality (much like the fictional magical power given to the Ark in the first film of the trilogy). In September 1984, Lucas completed an eight-page treatment titled Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, which he soon followed with an 11-page outline. The story saw Indiana battling a ghost in Scotland before finding the Fountain of Youth in Africa. Chris Columbus—who had written the Spielberg-produced Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes—was hired to write the script. His first draft, dated May 3, 1985, changed the main plot device to a Garden of Immortal Peaches. It begins in 1937, with Indiana battling the murderous ghost of Baron Seamus Seagrove III in Scotland. Indiana travels to Mozambique to aid Dr. Clare Clarke (a Katharine Hepburn-type according to Lucas), who has found a 200-year-old pygmy. The pygmy is kidnapped by the Nazis during a boat chase, and Indiana, Clare and Scraggy Brier—an old friend of Indiana—travel up the Zambezi river to rescue him. Indiana is killed in the climactic battle but is resurrected by the Monkey King. Other characters include a cannibalistic African tribe; Nazi Sergeant Gutterbuhg, who has a mechanical arm; Betsy, a stowaway student who is suicidally in love with Indiana; and a pirate leader named Kezure (described as a Toshiro Mifune-type), who dies eating a peach because he is not pure of heart. and because the script was too unrealistic. Dissatisfied, Spielberg suggested introducing Indiana's father, Henry Jones, Sr. Lucas was dubious, believing the Grail should be the story's focus, but Spielberg convinced him that the father–son relationship would serve as a great metaphor in Indiana's search for the artifact. The 1912 prologue as seen in the film refers to events in the lives of Indiana's creators. When Indiana cracks the bullwhip to defend himself against a lion, he accidentally lashes and scars his chin. Ford gained this scar in a car accident as a young man. and production designer Elliott Scott suggested the trick be done in a single, uninterrupted shot. During an undated "Amblin Entertainment" revision and a rewrite by Tom Stoppard (under the pen name Barry Watson) dated May 8, 1988, and created the "Panama Hat" character to link the prologue's segments featuring the young and adult Indianas. The Venetian family is cut. Kemal is renamed Kazim and now wants to protect the grail rather than find it. Chandler is renamed Donovan. The scene of Brody being captured is added. Vogel now dies in the tank, while Donovan shoots Henry and then drinks from the false grail, and Elsa falls into the chasm. The Grail trials are expanded to include the stone-stepping and leap of faith. Filming in Venice, whose exterior served as a library Principal photography began on May 16, 1988, in the Tabernas Desert in Spain's Almería province. Spielberg originally had planned the chase to be a short sequence shot over two days, but he drew up storyboards to make the scene an action-packed centerpiece. The second unit had begun filming two weeks before. Spielberg, Marshall and Kennedy interrupted the shoot to make a plea to the Parliament of the United Kingdom to support the economically "depressed" British studios. July 20–22 was spent filming the temple interiors. The temple set, which took six weeks to build, was supported on of hydraulics and ten gimbals for use during the earthquake scene. Resetting between takes took twenty minutes while the hydraulics were put to their starting positions and the cracks filled with plaster. The shot of the Grail falling to the temple floor—causing the first crack to appear—was attempted on the full-size set, but proved too difficult. Instead, crews built a separate floor section that incorporated a pre-scored crack sealed with plaster. It took several takes to throw the Grail from onto the right part of the crack. The production had intended to film at Mesa Verde National Park, but Native American representatives had religious objections to its use. Filming ended on September 16, 1988, after 123 days of filming. Design Mechanical effects supervisor George Gibbs said the film was the most difficult one of his career. Gibbs built the tank over the framework of a excavator and added tracks that were driven by two automatic hydraulic pumps, each connected to a Range Rover V8 engine. Gibbs built the tank from steel rather than aluminum or fiberglass because it would allow the realistically suspensionless vehicle to endure the rocky surfaces. Unlike its historic counterpart, which had only the two side guns, the tank had a turret gun added as well. It took four months to build and was transported to Almería on a Short Belfast plane and then a low loader truck. A smaller section of the tank's top made from aluminum and which used rubber tracks was used for close-ups. It was built from a searchlight trailer, weighed eight tons, and was towed by a four-wheel drive truck. It had safety nets on each end to prevent injury to those falling off. For the villains' cars, Lantieri selected a 1914 Ford Model T, a 1919 Ford Model T truck and a 1916 Saxon Model 14, fitting each with a Ford Pinto V6 engine. Sacks of dust were hung under the cars to create a dustier environment. . Ford was filmed in front of a bluescreen for the scene, which was completed by a model of the bridge filmed against a matte painting. Spielberg devised the three trials that guard the Grail. and was created over three months by morphing together three puppets of Donovan created by Stephan Dupuis in separate stages of decay, a technique ILM mastered on Willow (1988). The film was released in select theaters in the 70 mm Full-Field Sound format, which allowed sounds to not only move from side to side, but also from the theater's front to its rear. , on Treasure Island, in San Francisco, California, served as the "Berlin Airport". Matte paintings of the Austrian castle and the Berlin airport were based on real buildings; the Austrian castle "Schloss Brunwald" is Bürresheim Castle near Mayen in Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany, that was made to look larger. Rain was created by filming granulated Borax soap against black at high speed. It was only lightly double exposed into the shots so it would not resemble snow. The lightning was animated. The Administration Building at San Francisco's Treasure Island was used as the exterior of Berlin Tempelhof Airport. The structure already had period-appropriate art deco architecture, as it had been constructed in 1938 for planned use as an airport terminal. ILM added a control tower, Nazi banners, vintage automobiles and a sign stating "Berlin Flughafen". The establishing shot of the Hatayan city at dusk was created by filming silhouetted cutouts that were backlit and obscured by smoke. Matte paintings were used for the sky and to give the appearance of fill light in the shadows and rim light on the edges of the buildings. ==Themes==

A son's relationship with his estranged father is a common theme in Spielberg's films, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Hook. ==Soundtrack==

The film's teaser trailer debuted in November 1988 with Scrooged and The Naked Gun. Rob MacGregor wrote the tie-in novelization that was released in June 1989; it sold enough copies to be included on the New York Times Best Seller list. MacGregor went on to write the first six Indiana Jones prequel novels during the 1990s. Following the film's release, Ford donated Indiana's fedora and jacket to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. No toys were made to promote the film, Indiana Jones "never happened on the toy level", said Larry Carlat, senior editor of the journal ''Children's Business. Rather, Lucasfilm promoted Indiana as a lifestyle symbol, selling tie-in fedoras, shirts, jackets and watches. Two video games based on the film were released by LucasArts in 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game. A third game was produced by Taito and released in 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Ryder Windham wrote another novelization, released in April 2008 by Scholastic, to coincide with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hasbro released toys based on The Last Crusade'' in July 2008. Box office The film was released in the United States and Canada on Wednesday, May 24, 1989, in 2,327 theaters, earning a record $37,031,573 over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend. The gross was boosted by high ticket prices in some venues ($7 a ticket). Its 3-day opening weekend figure of $29,355,021 was surpassed later that year by Ghostbusters II and Batman, which grossed more in its opening 3 days than The Last Crusade in 4. Additionally, it had the largest opening weekend for a Harrison Ford film for eight years until Air Force One surpassed it in 1997. Its Saturday gross of $11,181,429 was the first time a film had made over $10 million in one day. It broke the record for the best seven-day performance with a gross of $50.2 million, beating the $45.7 million grossed by Temple of Doom in 1984 on 1,687 screens. In France, the film broke a record by selling a million admissions within two and a half weeks. It spent six weeks at number one in the United Kingdom. The film eventually grossed $197.1 million in the United States and Canada and $277 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $474.2 million. In North America, Batman took top position. Behind Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Raiders, The Last Crusade is the third-highest grossing Indiana Jones film in the United States and Canada, though it is also behind Temple of Doom when adjusting for inflation. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 49 million tickets in North America. The film was re-released in 1992 earning $139,000. ==Home media==

The film was released along with its two predecessors as part of a trilogy DVD box set in 2003. It contained extra materials and a special documentary covering the production of the films. Sales figures for the box set were extremely successful and 600,000 copies were sold in the US on the first day of release. In 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray along with the three other films in the Indiana Jones film series at the time. In 2021, a remastered 4K HDR version of the film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, produced using scans of the original negatives. It was released as part of a box set for the then four films in the Indiana Jones film series. ==Reception==

Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Lighter and more comedic than its predecessor, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade returns the series to the brisk serial adventure of Raiders, while adding a dynamite double act between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery." Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his performance. Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel said that while the film "lacks the novelty of Raiders, and the breathless pacing of Temple of Doom, it was an entertaining capper to the trilogy." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone remarked the film was "the wildest and wittiest Indy of them all". Richard Corliss of Time and David Ansen of Newsweek praised it, as did Vincent Canby of The New York Times. a call echoed by McBride in Variety. Roger Ebert praised the sequence depicting Jones as a Boy Scout with the Cross of Coronado, comparing it to the "style of illustration that appeared in the boys' adventure magazines of the 1940s". He said that Spielberg "must have been paging through his old issues of ''Boys' Life magazine...the feeling that you can stumble over astounding adventures just by going on a hike with your Scout troop. Spielberg lights the scene in the strong, basic colors of old pulp magazines." The Hollywood Reporter felt Connery and Ford deserved Academy Award nominations. The Washington Post'' reviewed the film twice; Hal Hinson's review on the day of the film's release was negative, describing it as "nearly all chases and dull exposition". Although he praised Ford and Connery, he felt the film's exploration of Jones's character took away his mystery and that Spielberg should not have tried to mature his storytelling. Two days later, Desson Thomson published a positive review praising the film's adventure and action, as well as the father–son relationship's thematic depth. In 2025, The Hollywood Reporter listed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as having the best stunts of 1989. ==Accolades==

The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, it also received nominations for Best Original Score and Best Sound (Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy and Tony Dawe). Connery received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Connery and the visual and sound effects teams were also nominated at the 43rd British Academy Film Awards. The film won the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture Drama at the Young Artist Awards. John Williams's score won a Broadcast Music Incorporated Award, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. The prologue depicting Jones in his youth inspired Lucas to create The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series, which featured Sean Patrick Flanery as the young adult Indiana and Corey Carrier as the 8- to 10-year-old Indiana. The 13-year-old incarnation played by Phoenix in the film was the focus of a Young Indiana Jones series of young adult novels that began in 1990; by the ninth novel, the series had become a tie-in to the television show. German author Wolfgang Hohlbein revisited the prologue in one of his novels, in which Jones encounters the lead grave robber—whom Hohlbein christens Jake—in 1943. The film's ending begins the 1995 comic series Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny, which moves forward to depict Jones and his father searching for the Holy Lance in Ireland in 1945. Spielberg intended to have Connery cameo as Henry in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), but Connery turned it down as he had retired. Petra's use for the movie's climactic scenes greatly contributed to its popularity as an international tourist destination. Before the film's release, only a few thousand visitors per year made the trip; since then it has grown to almost a million annually. Shops and hotels near the site play up the connection, and it is mentioned prominently in itineraries of locations used in the film series. Jordan's tourism board mentions the connection on its website. In 2012, the satirical news site The Pan-Arabia Enquirer ran a mock story claiming that the board had officially renamed Petra "That Place from Indiana Jones" to reflect how the world more commonly refers to it. ==See also==