Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Continuity mistake: When Indy sees Elsa losing her grip on the tilted earth and then falling on the rising ground during the temple quake sequence towards the end of the film, he lets go of his father, but when the camera changes to behind Elsa in the next shot, Indy is back holding his father again.

Continuity mistake: After young Indy escapes from the lion, when he's on the rooftop of the carriage a bad guy aims a gun at him. A shot later his arm is already lowered.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: On the ship near the beginning, after Indy drops the cross, water comes up and washes it towards the edge of the ship. It goes over a lip on the deck, inches away from falling over the side. However, when Indy goes to grab it, it's not over the lip. It's half on and half off.

Continuity mistake: When Elsa picks up the Holy Grail and tries to remove it from the Temple, Henry places his tie around the collar of his shirt, but in the next shot, he is now holding on the tie and places it around the collar a second time.

Continuity mistake: When Elsa says "How dare you kiss me!" and starts kissing Indy, her hand is under Indy's ear, but when the camera angle changes to behind her in the next shot, her hand is now pressing his ear.

Visible crew/equipment: At the hotel where Indy knocks on Elsa's bathroom door, she opens it and shuts the music off. The camera pulls backward and its shadow is visible on the left side of the door frame. It's fairly large.

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: During the boat chase in Venice, one of the boats blows up. A small piece of it with a motor comes flying out. In the next shot which is a wide shot, that piece of boat is gone.

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: The tank turret is at a completely different angle when it shoots at Jones when riding his horse.

Continuity mistake: Indy brings the carbon copy to Markus who says "The name of the city is Alexandreta", and a close-up shows the paper with no hands on it; a shot later Marcus' hand is on the paper.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The holes produced by the rhino's horn on the roof of the train carriage disappear in the wide shot when young Indy grabs onto the swinging pole.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When young Indy fights a baddie, the rhino sticks his horn through the roof and the baddie is pushed to the right. When the angle changes he is falling on the opposite side.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When young Indy confronts the lion, the way the whip is rolled changes between shots. The second time a small loop appears.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the rhino scene, the roof of the carriage swaps from dark grey to blue before the rhino's horn goes through the roof.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When young Indy falls on the rhino carriage, there's two banners whipping by each of his legs. When the angle changes (to an obvious chroma background) the banner on the right is gone.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When young Indy breaks the lion's carriage ceiling and falls inside, a wooden plank falls on his stomach. When the angle changes the plank is gone.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When the movie beings, the Boy Scouts at the end of the row dismount the horses, then the angle changes and they dismount the horses again.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When Marcus Brody is knocked out in the library, he is dragged away by two of the assailants. You can see the unconscious Brody give his right hand to the assailant.

Continuity mistake: When the brotherhood member aims his gun at Elsa whilst she is driving in the boat, Elsa ducks downwards to avoid the shot, but in the next angle, she is sitting upright.

Casual Person

Other mistake: During the airplane chase Indy is seen firing his revolver at the German planes, after he crash-lands he pulls his revolver and breaks open the action to check if he's got any ammo left. He doesn't, but the issue is that a revolver doesn't eject spent shell casings, and there aren't any empty casings in his revolver, despite him firing his gun earlier and having no chance to empty the casings since.

Other mistake: After getting on aboard the dirigible, Henry is holding a German newspaper when addressing Indy. But he'd have a hard time reading it as it's upside down. Even if he's just trying to hide, holding an upside-down newspaper would draw the attention of suspicious guards.

Movie Nut

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

Suggested correction: Henry Jones Sr. doesn't have his glasses in this scene. He can't really see anything on the newspaper, that's why he is holding it upside down.

Big Game

I'd say that, more than anything, a hasty attempt to blend in would be more likely the culprit. Even without the spectacles, Henry, being the fastidious person he is, would have righted the paper, with or without eyewear.

Movie Nut

But since he couldn't see the letters, how would he have righted the newspaper (or even noticed it was upside down)?

Big Game

Ipon! (Japanese for "point.") I can see your point; however, I would ask that the following be considered: that there is usually more than just letters and words in newsprint. Even if not viewed, pictures are good indicators of the newspaper's orientation.

Movie Nut

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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

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