Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Trivia: The four horses used for the final scene where Indy, Henry, Marcus and Sallah ride off into the sunset were loaned by King Hussein of Jordan.

Trivia: The urban legend of Harrison Ford stapling his fedora to his head came about after a documentary crew stopped by the set. While clowning around, Ford was captured on camera holding a staple gun to his head and triggering it, but it was empty.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: Many shots of Connery & Ford are from the waist up, which is probably a good thing, as to cool themselves from the heat while on location in Spain, they shot the scenes wearing no pants.

Trivia: During the motorbike chase Harrison Ford's hair is longer and Sean Connery's beard is fuller. This is because this scene was filmed after principal photography had ended, but Spielberg felt a chase scene was needed to explain their escape from the castle. The shot of Connery against a blue sky when the tank goes over the cliff was also filmed later, which again is why his beard is fuller.

Trivia: John Williams, the composer, used pieces of his score from Star Wars in this film. For example when young Indiana is on the roof of the train, you can hear bits of Star Wars.

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

Suggested correction: Is there an interview of John Williams saying this? Because this sounds like opinion. I personally don't hear it. There is a wonderful behind the scenes documentary on the DVD that goes in depth into the scoring of this movie. Neither John Williams, nor Steven Spielberg, nor George Lucas mention this.

jshy7979

Trivia: During the book burning scene, the Nazi uniforms worn by the extras are real, authentic uniforms. The costume designer, Anthony Powell, located them in Germany and had the extras wear them. (Source: CheatSheet.com).

wizard_of_gore

Trivia: The tank chase sequence took ten days to film.

Trivia: George Lucas originally wanted to set portions of the film in a haunted mansion where Indy would encounter various ghosts and specters, but director Steven Spielberg protested, as he had made "Poltergeist" a few years earlier and didn't want to repeat the same scares and imagery over again in an Indiana Jones film. Other early ideas had Indy searching for the fountain of youth and encountering the Chinese mythological figure the Monkey King.

TedStixon

Trivia: The little girl who approaches Adolf Hitler at the rally is the daughter of stuntman Vic Armstrong and his wife, Wendy Leech.

Trivia: When a Nazi kills a soldier by throwing a grenade at him during the desert scene, a "Wilhelm scream" can be heard.

Trivia: When Walter Donovan shoots Indy's father in the chest, the gun he uses is a Walther PPK, which is the same gun used by Sean Connery in the James Bond films.

Trivia: It's third time lucky for British actor Michael Sheard who pops up as Hitler. He was originally considered for the Gestapo officer Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark but lost to Ronald Lacey. He shot some scenes as the captain of the U-boat which captures the Ark but due to rough seas causing camera stability problems, the shots were never used. He also played Hitler a few years earlier in the Uk sci-fi series The Tomorrow People.

Trivia: There is a reference to George Lucas' THX 1138 in this film - 1138 is in roman numerals MCXXXVIII in Dr. Jones' notebook in the library scene.

Trivia: Having Sean Connery play Indy's father was an inside joke to James Bond being the father of Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg had always wanted to do a James Bond film but preferred to do Indiana Jones as a James Bond-type character.

Video

Continuity mistake: In the library scene Indy discovers the "X" high up on the balcony. The X is green with a grey background. When he breaks the tile to find the tomb the X has become a faint outline on the floor. (00:27:40 - 00:28:45)

Allanmceneaney

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

Suggested correction: You still can see one "leg" of the X on the floor, it's only darker than viewed from above because the camera angle and illumination set used.

I think it is meant to be an optical illusion.

The "X" is first shown as a dark green "X" on a beige background. Next, we are shown the same dark green "X" that is barely visible over a green background. I think we are meant to understand that the beige square tiles were lifted away in a cut scene.

I see no reason why they would replace the floor just for the higher shot, it's the same floor throughout the scene. When they enter it's the same floor we see later as they are going into the hole. It's probably not a real marble floor, so they can use a styrofoam or plywood tile that Harrison can lift, one that matches the surrounding tiles. They don't shine as much as the rest of the floor. In the shot up high there is different lighting, so that could explain it. It just appears to be different. Of course, sudden different light can be seen as a revealing mistake.

lionhead

Suggested correction: Not a mistake, just a different viewing angle.

More mistakes in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

[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

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

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.