Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Question: Are Indiana Jones and his father immortal at the end of the movie or does the grail's power become null and void when it crosses the seal? The knight said something like "The grail cannot cross the seal, that is the price of immortality." That makes it sound like they are not immortal at the end but I still want to check.

Blibbetyblip

Chosen answer: They're not, no. An individual doesn't become immortal after one drink - it requires them to drink regularly in order to remain alive. So neither Jones has been rendered immortal, merely healed of any wounds that they might have. But your surmise is basically correct - as the Grail cannot leave the shrine, any individual wishing to use it to prolong their life must stay there if they wish to enjoy its effects.

Tailkinker

Also, in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, Henry Jones, Sr has passed away before the start of the story and therefore was not immortal.

raywest

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: 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.

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.

raywest

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

Question: When Indy gets to where the Grail is and meets the Knight, the Knight says that he is one of many brothers chosen to protect the grail, but if being in that cave with the Grail grants him immortality, what happened to his previous brothers?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: The other two brothers are the ones who left the tomb and traveled back to Europe. One of them is the knight Indy and Elsa find in the catacombs under Venice with the shield that has the second marker. The one left behind is the one the brothers determined to be the most worthy to guard the Grail.

Guy

Question: When Indy's father is shown in flashbacks at the beginning of the film, why is his face never shown?

Answer: Most likely because they wanted his voice but not a different actor. So he is supposed to look younger and back in those days making an actor look younger was harder, cruder and more expensive.

lionhead

Question: When the Joneses crash land the plane they stole from the zeppelin and steal that guy's car, where are they? Turkey? Hatay?

Brian Katcher

Answer: It's never stated, but they must be somewhere close to, or in, Hatay, since in the next scene they are with Sallah and are going after the Nazis, who are already en route to the Holy Grail. Pretty lucky, considering Indy just booked them on "the first available flight out of Germany."

Question: Just curious, but how does Indy's dad know what the trials to get to the Grail are if he's never done it and anyone who has hasn't survived past the first task?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: He states quite specifically in the movie that he found the details of the trials in the Chronicles of St Anselm. How the details got in there is anybody's guess - given what's seen to occur in the movies, divine inspiration is an entirely reasonable explanation.

Tailkinker

Of course, that begs the question... If the grail was not meant to be discovered, then why inspire Henry with the clues to get to it?

The Grail is meant to be discovered, but only by those who are worthy of locating it. In a Grail Quest, the hero has to overcome various challenges and seek out clues to be considered worthy of finding and wielding the Grail. You can't get the Grail if you're unworthy. The 3 Challenges in the temple specifically require traits like faith, wisdom, and bravery to pass. Only someone who understands what the Grail represents would be able to succeed. When divine inspiration is used in storytelling, the goal is to spur people on to want to make themselves better, or to fix something. There may be some divine inspiration that gave Henry the nudge to want to find the Grail, but he still has to put in the work and make himself worthy of it.

Answer: He means she only saw it as a valuable archeological object to be found and exploited. She did not truly understand its religious significance and magical power.

raywest

Specifically, he meant that Elsa considered the Grail a prize for The Fatherland (the German Third Reich), just as the Nazis considered the Ark of the Covenant a "prize" in the first movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Not quite. Elsa wasn't in it for the Nazis...it was made clear at several points that she didn't believe in Hitler's cause, but she was complicit. The first explanation is more accurate.

Question: In the last shot of the knight waving goodbye to the Joneses, is it just me or has the actor been swapped out with a dummy?

Phaneron

Answer: It is the real actor and not a robotic dummy. He moves a bit slowly and deliberately, apparently for effect, but it's a real person.

raywest

Just to be clear, I'm not referring to when we see the knight raise his hand to wave goodbye to them, but rather right after Indy says "Please Dad," and he and Henry begin to flee the collapsing temple, you can see the knight in the background with his arm raised and he looks rather stiff. You can see it at around 2:22 of this clip: https://youtu.be/PAfZ7V2VyD8.

Phaneron

I took a closer look. There is the shot where the knight raises his hand and you can see him moving. It then cuts to Indy and Henry, then a cut back to the knight where it briefly looks like it could be a mannequin, then there is another cut and back to the knight again and this time it's definitely the live actor. So yes, for that brief long shot, I think it could be a dummy. This may have been for the purpose of efficiency in the filming, it being easier to use a stationary prop for doing multiple takes, rather than the live actor just standing there. Sometimes they do what is called "pick up" shots, where, post-production, a part of a scene or close-ups are re-shot or added weeks or months later, and it would just be easier to use mannequin rather than recall the actor.

raywest

But he does move, so most likely a real person.

lionhead

Question: Is the Canyon of the Crescent Moon a real place, or was the shot of the canyon as seen from Donovan's binoculars just a place created for the film?

Phaneron

Chosen answer: The Canyon of the Crescent Moon is fictional, but based on the real entrance to the Treasury (Al Khazna). The Bab as-Sīq is the wide valley leading to the Sīq, the narrow gorge entry.

Bishop73

Question: During the Nazi rally books are being burned. Why and what kind are they?

Rob245

Answer: This is from Wikipedia on what type of books Nazis wanted burned: The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, religious, and sexologist authors among others.

raywest

Answer: In a way. During the dinner party, when Donovan comes into talk to Indy the band is playing a soft version of the Imperial March theme. You can probably hear it best when Donovan's wife walks in.

Bishop73

Question: In the desert the tank first shot towards the Joneses. Then one of the bad guys implied that they hit their vehicle, by saying they couldn't get out of the desert on foot. How did they know? The vehicle wasn't visible from their location.

Answer: He didn't know. He was just making an assumption and probably boasting, assuming that he had not missed the target.

raywest

Question: Why did the zeppelin turn around, and how did the approaching airplane fighters know it was them in the zeppelin's airplane?

Answer: The zeppelin is turning around because Indy sabotaged the radio. They are presumably going back to get it repaired, lest they end up getting into danger on a long journey with no way to reach out for help. The approaching planes likely deduced it was the Joneses absconding with the plane, as it would be unlikely for anyone else to be taking it when the zeppelin was simply returning to its point of origin.

Phaneron

Question: When this film was being released, I read a rumour somewhere that Lucas originally wanted actor John Houseman to play Indy's father. Given that at the time Houseman was in his mid-80s and in poor health (He passed away when the film was in production), was there any truth to this story?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Not at least according to the "making of" DVD included in the trilogy box set. According to Spielberg, he always wanted to direct a James Bond film. In Spielberg's thinking, a 1930s action hero could only have one father - James Bond, and also according to Spielberg, he thought only of Connery.

Question: When the tank was coming towards the cliff, why didn't Indy simply jump off the tank? If he jumped to the right or left his father and others wouldn't think that he died.

Answer: There's no way to really answer this because this is an intentionally crafted plot, designed to have characters act and react in a specific way. The movie is going for dramatic effect, making it appear the others think Indy is dead. When he reappears safe and sound, his father has an emotional reaction, showing how much he cares for his son.

raywest

Question: What happened to the Grail Knight after the events of the movie? Did he become mortal again (due to not having the grail to drink from) and die or did he manage to retrieve the grail?

Answer: It's not revealed.

Tailkinker

Answer: Since magic caused the earth to open up and swallow the grail, I bet magic returns it to that room with the knight. The knight technically didn't get someone to take his place, so I bet he returns to being its keeper.

Answer: The original Indiana Jones hat was custom-crafted by world-renowned hat maker Herbert Johnson of London, England. It was based on a style of wide-brimmed beaver hat called a "Poet" (this style had already been in production since the 1890s). Using Harrison Ford to model the hat as it was customized, Herbert Johnson deliberately made the crown much taller and more square than a conventional fedora, and they deliberately made the brim an oval shape, narrower on the sides, to accommodate the lighting in profile camera shots. Herbert Johnson made 45 identical customized Poet hats for the original Indiana Jones films, including hats for Harrison Ford's stand-ins and stunt-men. The Jones-style Poet hats became so popular that Swaine Adeney Brigg continues making them to order to this day. Http://www.swaineadeneybrigg.com/store/herbert-johnson/poet-hat/poet-hat.

Tailkinker

Question: In the first half of the movie, the problem that needs to be solved is where the known route starts. Indy finds out when he finds the second, complete shield in Venice and deciphers it later. When exactly do the Nazis find out? He has told Marcus Brody, but not Elsa, because he does not fully trust her. The Nazis find the diary, but not the rubbing. They don't "extract" the information from the Joneses when they are captured in Austria, at which time Indy confidently states that Marcus has a two day head start (unless the Nazis know something that Indy doesn't). But they are already waiting for him in Iskenderun when he arrives. (No indication is ever given that Marcus is being followed in Venice; at any rate, no-one pays much attention to him, because all eyes are on Indy.) When and how do the Nazis discover where to go?

Spiny Norman

Answer: They don't know Alexandretta is the city when they set out to capture Brody; he travels to Iskenderun (modern Alexandretta) himself, and the Nazis capture him there. They probably sent his description, and orders to capture him, to all their agents in Hatay (whose leader is sympathetic); as we see, Brody is very easy to spot, and naïve enough to be captured with relative ease (he also contacts Sallah in advance of going there, leaving a further trail). At that point, it's not difficult for them to deduce that the starting point on the map is the city that Brody has traveled to.

No, I'm sorry, but that second reply makes very little sense. Sure we can speculate that his phone call to Sallah was tapped. But speculation is not good enough. And there's no indication at all that Brody was being followed. In fact he's all but ignored. The idea that at every train station there would be nazi agents waiting is a bit impractical. Hatay is perhaps small enough to do that, but then we're just renaming the problem: how did the nazis know to go there, and not Syria, or Palestine, or Istanbul, or any other place once visited by crusaders? They can't watch out for every scholarly type in every train station in the entire Middle East.

Spiny Norman

Answer: There is one theory to answer my own question. It could be that the room where Jones Sr. Is kept is "wired" (seen and mentioned), and Indy is saying out loud that the mystery city is in fact Alexandretta. Only, he KNOWS that it's wired. So that would be spectacularly stupid after all the safety precautions he took.

Spiny Norman

Answer: There are several possibilities. Indy started trusting Elsa after their escape in Venice when he revealed the grail diary to her. He sent Marcus off to Iskenderun after, while he and Elsa rescued his father in the castle. It's possible Elsa asked him before they left Venice or on the way to the castle where Marcus was going and Indy revealed it. She could have slipped away when they stopped somewhere and called her superiors. The other possibility is Indy or Marcus called Donovan and let him know about their progress. Marcus could have told Donovan where he was headed.

Most of that is conjecture or speculation, though. I simply mean that we don't see or hear that happening. I've thought over my original question, and the only provable point is some extreme stupidity on the part of Indiana Jones himself. If he hadn't mentioned the town while he was in his dad's room (that he KNEW was 'bugged'), they wouldn't have known.

Spiny Norman

Answer: They capture Max Brody with the map shortly after they capture the Jones'. They learned through him.

lionhead

And WHERE do they capture him...? Right. So that's not it.

Spiny Norman

When wandering around Egypt alone with the map, Brody meets up with Sallah who tries to prevent him from being captured. He fails by accidentally leading him into a nazi controlled truck that takes him away and into the hands of Donovan. They have the map then.

lionhead

Brody is not "wondering around Egypt." We explicitly hear Indy instruct Salah and him to meet in Iskenderun before he left for Austria and that is where Brody descends from the train station. Or am I to believe, again, that the nazis have camouflaged truck traps in every town in the entire Middle East, just in case? No, they intercept Brody because they know where he's going to be. (Iskenderun, by the way, is nowhere near Egypt, it's not even on the same continent. I suggest you re-watch the relevant bit of the movie first).

Spiny Norman

Question: When the bell rings for the end of Indy's college class, what exactly is he pointing at?

Answer: He's not pointing at anything. When the bell rings, he makes a hand gesture that I interpret at "wait, class, one more thing before you go" (something I've done myself). From there, he's just moving his hands around as he speaks, which is a common thing for people to do.

Bishop73

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

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Trivia: Hitler was played by the actor Michael Sheard, this was the third time he had played Hitler for film and TV. Ironically, Sheard's wife was half-Jewish.

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