Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres this week, on June 30, marking the fifth and final movie starring Harrison Ford as the iconic titular character. While Star Wars is my first love, like many Star Wars fans I also have a real love for the Indiana Jones franchise. Since there’s no new Star Wars series airing currently, and since Dial of Destiny releases in just a few days, I thought I’d do a brief series about why I love the Indiana Jones movies too. We continue today with The Last Crusade, released in 1989.
I think Raiders of the Lost Ark is rightly considered to be the best of the Indiana Jones franchise, given its brilliance, impact, and legacy. But I also think that The Last Crusade is the most fun movie in the Indiana Jones franchise. It’s my personal favorite.
It’s a movie that has humor, action, adventure, and heart all rolled together in a thrilling ride after a legendary artifact: the holy grail. A lot of that is standard for what we’ve become used to from the first two, but this one is aided by a massive not-so-secret ingredient: Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr., Indy’s father. It was a fitting casting choice, given the fact that Indiana Jones was inspired by James Bond in the first place, so why not cast someone who played Bond?
Even better, though, is the chemistry between Connery and Ford, which takes the movie to another level. Their exchanges are perfect and funny and seem so real, and they’re both driven by ambition. But it turns the normal adventure into a family one, and it’s a chance for father and son to bond together in a way they never did much when Indy was younger. Accompanying them on their journey are two returning cast members from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies). Their allies-turned-enemies are Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) and Walter Donovan (Julian Glover), who are both after the holy grail – but for very different reasons than the Jones duo. The Nazis want it, seeking the cup of life, and we return again to the Nazis as the enemies just like in the first film.
BEST GAG:
Indiana Jones hyping up Marcus Brody as being far away and blending in… only for the camera to cut to him lost in the marketplace. “Water? No thank you, sir, fish make love in it.”
Also: when Henry Jones shoots their own plane, but then tells Indy, “son, I’m sorry… they got us.”
This movie has some of the best jokes of the entire franchise. Spielberg performs some movie magic with his editing choices, especially when Indy is talking up Marcus… only to cut to Marcus incompetently trying to find his way. Or later, in the castle, the gag with the revolving door as the Joneses try to escape is great. So too is the moment where Henry accidentally shoots their own plane and then tells Indy, “son, I’m sorry… they got us.” This is a funny film.
But it’s also got some of the very best action sequences to go right alongside the gags. It has a boat chase, a car chase, and a plane chase, all in the same movie. The scene with the tank rivals the one from Raiders, with Indy going up against a Nazi beast to save his father.
Beneath all of it, though, is a heartwarming tale of father and son, estranged and distant, coming to terms with one another. It’s not heavily stated in the movie, but it seems that Indy’s mother’s death changed things. Henry was consumed with his quest for the grail, and Indy was angry. They haven’t talked much in the last twenty years, but here they are pursuing the macguffin together, a race against time to try and stop the Nazis acquiring an artifact that could be their means to world domination. They’ve both pursued their studies, and it’s led them to very different places, but now at long last their paths converge. And the tender moments they share together, particularly in the movie’s third act, are beautiful.
BEST MOMENT:
Indiana Jones going through the trials of faith to get the grail in order to save his father – only to see his father save him in the end by telling him to let the grail go.
So too is the ending. In typical Indiana Jones fashion, the object he’s been searching for winds up out of his grasp in the end. It’s just out of reach, and the grail lies right beyond Indy’s outstretched arms. Elsa has fallen to her death trying to keep it, and Indy is about to do the same… until his father tells him to let it go. His father, who all his life has been consumed by the quest for the grail to the neglect of his son, now tells his son to let the grail go. Henry wants his son, not the grail. No, they don’t wind up with the holy cup, but they do wind up changed in the process.
And that’s really what this franchise is about. It’s about a fast-paced adventure movie filled with action and laughs, but also at its best filled with heart and growth. In the end, the treasures of life aren’t exactly what we think they are, and a big part of the journey is coming to learn that. Somewhere along the quest, as we seek things that. we think will give us life and make it all worth it, we wind up changed by realizing that we are often oblivious to the greater treasures. Indiana Jones and his father both learn exactly that in The Last Crusade.
BEST QUOTE:
“You call this archaeology?” – Henry Jones, Sr.
Fun Facts: Star Wars connections in The Last Crusade:
- Harrison Ford obviously portrayed not just Indiana Jones in the five movies, but also portrayed Han Solo in five Star Wars films as well.
- Two of the most influential figures behind the entire Star Wars franchise also stand as two of the most influential behind the Indiana Jones franchise: creative and executive George Lucas, and composer John Williams.
- Current Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has worked on every Indiana Jones film; she was an associate producer on The Last Crusade.
- Julian Glover plays Walter Donovan, a respectable businessman who is after the grail… while working with the Nazis. Glover had previously played General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, and just last year he played a small role in the Willow series as an old man named Zeb. In doing so, Glover became the first person (and, to date, the only person) to be officially credited in the three main Lucasfilm properties.
- Ben Burtt, whose legacy on Star Wars with the sound effects and editing is unmatched, was nominated for two Academy Awards for this film with his team, winning the award for Best Sound Editing.
- The Last Crusade is the only Indiana Jones movie not to feature a reference to a Star Wars film – though, depending on who you ask, the barrels aboard the boat early in the film that read “carboneto” could be taken as a nod to carbonite. But it’s unclear where’s that’s intended, unlike the other easter eggs included throughout the franchise.
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