Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Continuity mistake: During the boat chase, after the one boat blows up, another comes up behind Jones and Elsa. Jones starts turning the boat. In the next shot, the man in the boat behind them is shooting at them. They're not turning, they're going straight.

manthabeat

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Indy and Henry have escaped from Castle Brunwald, Indy jumps into one of the boats, pulls the motor starter cord and jumps back out, then just as he bends over to release the boat from the piling, right between Indy's legs the black covered arm of a hidden crewmember appears from under the tarp taking hold of the throttle, steering the boat away from the pier. (01:02:40)

Super Grover

Factual error: At the end of the classroom scene, Indy gives Marcus the Cross of Coronado. There is a pile of books on Indy's desk that he laters picks up and takes with him. One of the books (with the whitish spine, under the red book) is "Living Egypt", written by Paul Strand and James Aldridge. This book wasn't published until 1969, over 30 years after this movie takes place (1938). (00:15:20)

Factual error: When Indy is being chased by the tank there is a type 82 Kübelwagen - they weren't produced until 1940 and the movie is set in 1938.

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Young Indy is trapped in the train car with the lion, he tosses up the whip to Fedora, and as he's being pulled up in the interior shot, he's wearing a stunt apparatus around his waist above his beaded belt. [The stunt double is also wearing a glove on his right hand holding what looks like skewered meat, to presumably draw the trained lion, but that's a lot harder to see without pausing]. (00:08:35)

Super Grover

Deliberate mistake: While Indy is fighting the tank commander, he looks up to see them heading toward a cliff. After the tank goes over, from the time his companions look over the cliff to the time when they walk away and Indy is sitting on the ground, you can see the wind blowing in their faces. But as Indy starts to get up, the wind blows his hat toward him, which it couldn't do as his hat flew off quite a while before, and the winds would have blown it far from the cliff's edge.

demodon

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy comes face-to-face with Hitler he hands over Henry's diary with its black elastic around the back cover, but in the closeup as the signature is being signed the elastic is around the front cover, then it's around the back cover again when Indy takes the diary back.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Sallah rides up to the tank to rescue Henry we see Indy toss the whip over the side of the tank, but after the tank falls over the cliff, when Indy climbs back up then walks over to stand between Henry and Sallah the whip is coiled and back in its place, hanging from his belt. Even Indy can't do that. (01:36:00 - 01:37:40)

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy and Vogel are fighting atop the tank we see the soles of Vogel's boots and there is a red hexagon dot under each heel, but while Indy is hanging off the tank's side mount gun the soles of Vogel's boots are different.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Other mistake: While Indy and Henry are aboard the zeppelin Indy tosses Vogel out the lounge window, and when Vogel shouts up to the departing airship, in the next exterior shot we see the zeppelin airborne against a scenic view. Later, when Indy realises the zeppelin is turning around it cuts to another exterior shot of the airship, and the scenic view is identical to the earlier shot, only it's been flipped. The images of the zeppelin facing two different directions were composited onto the same scenic background.

Super Grover

Factual error: When Indy and Marcus first arrive in Venice on the boat the dock they alight on to has tactile pavers (for the visually impaired) installed on the platform. These weren't invented until 1965, some 25+ years after the scene takes place.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: One piece of the pier looking different doesn't mean that is meant for blind people, could be just a repair, or decorative, or a coincidence, could be anything.

lionhead

You can see it is a tactile paver as it has the raised spots.

Continuity mistake: When Indy shoots the three soldiers on the tank they fall sideways but not off the tank, a few seconds later all three bodies have disappeared.

Other mistake: Indy has been very careful to hide from everyone that Alexandretta is the city where the trail starts, only to give away all the essential info. He did not tell Elsa. Only Marcus (who has the rubbing of the crucial inscription) and Sallah knew. The only way that the Nazis find out is because he tells his dad, in a room which he KNOWS to be wired, i.e. bugged. (The Nazis also find the diary, but we know that the city isn't in there.) Stupidity doesn't quite cover it.

Spiny Norman

Revealing mistake: When Henry says "Faster, boy, faster!" to Indy when they are driving into the tunnel to escape the flaming aircraft, you can see the track that the flaming aircraft is sliding on.

Revealing mistake: When Indy shoots three Nazi soldiers with a single bullet during the tank chase sequence, you can see the blood packets inside their uniforms.

Audio problem: When Vogel is holding Elsa hostage in the castle, he points his gun at Elsa's neck and says "Enough, she dies." If you look at Indy's shadow on the wall, you can see Indy is mouthing the word "Wait." In the next shot, he is saying the word again, this time with audio intact.

Video

Continuity mistake: When Sallah pulls his rifle and overtakes the Nazis at the Great Seal he is in the forefront with the Nazis in front of him and Indy and his father are behind him. Within the next scene he is now in the background with his rifle resting in his arms.

TD9898

Continuity mistake: When Indy is pouring the water from the Grail onto his father's wound, we see him pour all the water out. When his father takes the Grail, there's now water left inside.

Bishop73

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Automatic refilling seems to be the least of the miracles the Grail has performed.

LorgSkyegon

There was no evidence of this, plus we never see it refill before or after. How would it be empty when they first find it if it miraculously refilled itself? This is a poor correction just to make a correction.

Bishop73

Factual error: The stamps on the mail at Sr. Jones house are Texas Statehood issued in 1945. A bit late for the scene. (00:24:15)

[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.

More quotes from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

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.

More trivia for Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Question: They didn't make it out of the cave with the grail because they dawdled... I wonder, would someone be able to make it out running at a dead sprint once they crossed the seal? And if so, does that mean that they're home free? Or would disaster follow them outside of the cave?

Answer: The implication is that disaster would follow them outside of the cave as well. It wouldn't make much sense if you could simply outrun the disaster.

BaconIsMyBFF

"Followed by disaster" is a kind of curse, a thing not common in Christianity. It doesn't make much sense anyhow. A seal is just a dot - OK, so let's at least grant that the seal represents a circle that the grail has to stay in. Who decided where those borders are? The grail was taken there during the first crusade. That was closer to 1938 than it was to 33 AD. The three knights could move the grail about then. Why not afterwards? The knights could have built the traps. But the borders could only have been set by god, in an unusually late and completely atypical miracle.

Spiny Norman

There are several examples of curses in the Christian Bible: Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at Sodom, the plagues visited upon Egypt, Adam and Eve are cursed for eating fruit from the tree of knowledge, etc. The knights did not move the grail around after finding it, they stayed in the temple for 150 years and then two left leaving the third behind. The great seal and it's restriction was already in place when the knights got there.

BaconIsMyBFF

Where in the movie is that stated? I interpreted the knight's story as them having made that place. Looks like it isn't actually specified. But if God made it, then I submit that he would have used Greek, not Latin, for the stepping stones. (All of those curses are from the old testament. The book where god kills firstborn children as long as they're Egyptian. Grail is by definition new testament where you turn the other cheek. There simply are no curses in the gospel, that's just not how Jesus rolled).

Spiny Norman

The tests were made by the knights, but the seal had God's power in it. Just like the cup.

lionhead

It's still a bit dodgy. What if you take a shovel and dig yourself a back door? Basically this film really excels at stuff that makes no sense but helps the storytelling, or to be precise, creates dramatic effects.

Spiny Norman

Every fictional story is like that in some way. That's why it's called fictional. It's just a story.

lionhead

Not a particularly convincing argument, "stuff happens for no reason all the time", if I may say so. Why is this website even here then? The fact is that some stories are more coherent than others. (♫ "In olden days, a hole in the plot, would seem to matter, quite a lot. Now heaven knows, anything goes..." ♫);).

Spiny Norman

It's the difference in what story they want told. Is it a fairy tale or based on actual events? A huge difference in plausibility between the two. The site is there to look at mistakes, not how believable the story is.

lionhead

It is not set in another universe so plausibility isn't somehow suspended. Maybe take a look at the categories recognised by this website. Plot holes, factual errors, even stupidity. (They? Who are they?).

Spiny Norman

It is set in a fictional universe because it's not a true story. With "they" I mean the writers/director. Mistakes in a plot (plot holes) have nothing to do with how believable the story is. As long as it's plausible, it's not a mistake.

lionhead

Pretty sure it's the same universe, just with some added characters/events. What about the total lack of spaceships or orcs or talking animals for example? The seal business is not a mistake YET, but it's very dodgy because no-one knows how it works or why. Like all Indys "trapped" secret places, it's (among other things) unclear who resets the traps for the next visitor. We can't brush it ALL off as "the hand of god" every time.

Spiny Norman

Huge amounts of stuff in films isn't exhaustively explained. Doesn't mean there isn't an explanation that's perfectly believable. There's zero evidence either way to say how "followed by disaster" would manifest, and just because there's not a thorough explanation doesn't mean that it's "dodgy", and it's not worth bickering about either, because there's no concrete answer either way.

Jon Sandys

OK but I would like to note that not everyone who offers creative explanations has recently seen the movie; some people just invent their own. E.g. "followed by disaster" is not an actual explanation from the movie, it was just one of the suggestions made here and only here. Or the ones on my own question below. All I'm saying is, it's very hard to tell what the "rules" / "logic" of this place are supposed to be, so I understand what the OP was driving at.

Spiny Norman

More questions & answers from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.