Revealing mistake: In the catacombs of the library, Indy and Elsa are waist deep in petroleum. Indy has a torch, and if you look carefully, you will see burning pieces of the torch fall and hit the petroleum. Wouldn't this start a fire as Kazim later on sets the cavern alight with a single match? (00:34:05)
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Plot summary
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, River Phoenix, Alison Doody, Julian Glover
In the prologue, young Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) discovers an artifact that "belongs in a museum." It gets stolen, then the adult Indy (Harrison Ford) embarks on a quest to rescue his cantankerous father Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), who is the foremost authority on The Holy Grail. The Nazis are hot on the trail for the Grail, too - so Indy and his father get caught in a race against time to get to the Holy Grail first.
[Henry has activated a secret lever which rotates him and Indiana from a room on fire to a room full of German soldiers.]
Henry Jones: Our situation has not improved.
Trivia: When Indy asks his father how he knew Elsa was a Nazi, Henry replies, "She talks in her sleep." Sean Connery ad-libbed this line. The cast and crew burst out laughing, which resulted in the scene being re-shot. The ad-libbed line remained in the film.
Question: It seems that going after the grail diary in Berlin was just a plot point. Henry obviously knew about the trials in the cave by heart. The search for the holy grail has been a hobby of his for 40 years or so. Am I right?
Answer: Neither Henry or Indiana would want the diary to remain in German hands. The Nazis wanted the Grail to exploit its power. As Elsa was a German scientist, she'd already gleaned enough knowledge from Henry and Indy to utilize the information contained within the diary. The diary also contained considerable data about the Grail and its history that Henry had researched over the years and would not have memorized and wanted to retain. He would also want to pass it on to Indy.
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Answer: Henry says, in response to Indy asking if he remembered the details of the trials: "I wrote them down in my diary so that I wouldn't have to remember." So, obviously he did NOT know them by heart. Also, as the other answer says, they didn't want the diary to either be in the Nazis' possession or be burned.