Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Plot

In 1912, Boy Scout Indiana Jones lives with his father Henry Jones Sr. in Moab, Utah. One day, while exploring caves on an excursion with his scout troop, Indy takes a crucifix owned by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado from a group of graverobbers led by a man named Garth, and after a brief chase on horseback and aboard a circus train, Indy flees to his home, where Garth and his men find him and confiscate the crucifix with the help of the local sheriff. Garth, however, admits his respect for the scrappy young man, and gives him his fedora before leaving.

In 1938, Indy successfully takes back the crucifix from the employer of the graverobbers off the Portuguese coast. After returning to his university classroom in the United States, Indy learns his father has disappeared while searching for the Holy Grail and Henry's home was ransacked. Walter Donovan, his father's financial backer, tasks Indy with finding both Henry and the Grail. Indy receives a package containing Henry's diary, which includes his research on the Grail, and travels to Venice alongside Marcus Brody to meet Henry's associate Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover a catacomb containing an inscribed shield which reveals that the path to the Grail begins in Alexandretta. The two are subsequently attacked by a mysterious group who reveal themselves to be the secret Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, dedicated to protecting the Grail. After saving the group's leader Kazim, Indy learns that Henry is being held at Brunwald Castle in Austria. Indy entrusts Marcus with a map from the diary detailing a route to the Grail and sends him to Alexandretta to rendezvous with their old friend Sallah. Discovering their rooms have been ransacked, Indy reveals the diary's existence to Elsa before they sleep together.

In Austria, Indy and Elsa infiltrate the castle, discovering it to be under Nazi control commanded by Standartenführer Ernst Vogel. Indy finds Henry and tries to escape, but surrenders after Vogel holds Elsa at gunpoint. She reveals herself and Donovan to be Nazi collaborators and takes the diary. After arriving in Alexandretta, Marcus is captured by the Nazis as well. Elsa returns to Germany, while Indy and Henry escape the castle before traveling to Berlin, where Indy retrieves the diary during a book burning rally hosted by Adolf Hitler. After recovering it from Elsa, Indy and Henry flee on a Zeppelin. Soon the zeppelin reroutes back to Germany, forcing Indy and his father to commandeer a spare plane before evading two Luftwaffe planes pursuing them.

Cast

Harrison Ford as Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr.: An archaeologist, professor and adventurer who seeks to rescue his father and find the Holy Grail. Ford said he loved the idea of introducing Indiana's father because it allowed him to explore another side to Indiana's personality: "These are men who have never made any accommodation to each other. Indy behaves differently in his father's presence. Who else would dare call Indy 'junior'?"

River Phoenix as a younger Indiana Jones. Phoenix had portrayed the son of Ford's character in The Mosquito Coast (1986). Ford recommended Phoenix for the part; he said that of the young actors working at the time, Phoenix looked the most like him when he was around that age.

Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr.: Indiana's father, a professor of medieval literature who cared more about looking for the Grail than raising his son. Spielberg had Connery in mind when he suggested introducing Indiana's father, though he did not tell Lucas at first. Consequently, Lucas wrote the role as "a crazy, eccentric" professor resembling Laurence Olivier, whose relationship with Indiana is "strict schoolmaster and student rather than a father and son". Spielberg had been a fan of Connery's work as James Bond and felt that no one else could perform the role as well. Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride wrote, "Connery was already the father of Indiana Jones since the series had sprung from the desire of Lucas and Spielberg to rival (and outdo) Connery's James Bond films." Connery, who had eschewed major franchise films since his work on the James Bond series, as he found those roles dull and wanted to avoid paparazzi attention, initially turned the role down (as he was only twelve years older than Ford) but eventually relented. Connery—a student of history—began to reshape the character, and revisions were made to the script to address his concerns. "I wanted to play Henry Jones as a kind of Richard Francis Burton," Connery commented. "I was bound to have fun with the role of a gruff, Victorian Scottish father." Connery believed Henry should be a match for his son, telling Spielberg that "whatever Indy'd done my character has done and my character has done it better". Connery signed to the film on March 25, 1988. He improvised the line, "She talks in her sleep", which was left in because it made everyone laugh; in Boam's scripts, Henry telling Indiana that he slept with Elsa occurs later.

Alex Hyde-White plays Henry in the film's prologue, though his face is never shown and his lines were dubbed by Connery.

Production

Development

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had intended to make a trilogy of Indiana Jones films since Lucas had first pitched Raiders of the Lost Ark to Spielberg in 1977, though they signed for five films with Paramount Pictures by 1979. After the mixed critical and public reaction to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg decided to complete the trilogy to fulfill his promise to Lucas, with the intent to imbue the film with the spirit and tone of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Temple of Doom writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz chose not to return due to both having other commitments and feeling satisfied with their work in the second film. Throughout the film's development and pre-production, Spielberg admitted he was "consciously regressing" in making the film. Due to his commitment to the film, the director had to drop out of directing Big and Rain Man.

Lucas initially suggested making the film "a haunted mansion movie", for which Romancing the Stone writer Diane Thomas wrote a script. Spielberg rejected the idea because of the similarity to Poltergeist, which he had co-written and produced. Lucas first introduced the Holy Grail in an idea for the film's prologue, which was to be set in Scotland. He intended the Grail to have a pagan basis, with the rest of the film revolving around a separate Christian artifact in Africa. Spielberg did not care for the Grail idea, which he found too esoteric, even after Lucas suggested giving it healing powers and the ability to grant immortality (much like the fictional magical power given to the Ark in the first film of the trilogy). In September 1984, Lucas completed an eight-page treatment titled Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, which he soon followed with an 11-page outline. The story saw Indiana battling a ghost in Scotland before finding the Fountain of Youth in Africa.

Chris Columbus—who had written the Spielberg-produced Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes—was hired to write the script. His first draft, dated May 3, 1985, changed the main plot device to a Garden of Immortal Peaches. It begins in 1937, with Indiana battling the murderous ghost of Baron Seamus Seagrove III in Scotland. Indiana travels to Mozambique to aid Dr. Clare Clarke (a Katharine Hepburn-type according to Lucas), who has found a 200-year-old pygmy. The pygmy is kidnapped by the Nazis during a boat chase, and Indiana, Clare and Scraggy Brier—an old friend of Indiana—travel up the Zambezi river to rescue him. Indiana is killed in the climactic battle but is resurrected by the Monkey King. Other characters include a cannibalistic African tribe; Nazi Sergeant Gutterbuhg, who has a mechanical arm; Betsy, a stowaway student who is suicidally in love with Indiana; and a pirate leader named Kezure (described as a Toshiro Mifune-type), who dies eating a peach because he is not pure of heart.

Filming

Principal photography began on May 16, 1988, in the Tabernas Desert in Spain's Almería province. Spielberg originally had planned the chase to be a short sequence shot over two days, but he drew up storyboards to make the scene an action-packed centerpiece. Thinking he would not surpass the truck pursuit from Raiders of the Lost Ark (because the truck was much faster than the tank), he felt this sequence should be more story-based and needed to show Indiana and Henry helping each other. He later said he had more fun storyboarding the sequence than filming it. The second unit had begun filming two weeks before. After approximately ten days, the production moved to the Escuela de Arte de Almería, to film the scenes set in the Sultan of Hatay's palace. Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park was used for the road, tunnel and beach sequence (at Playa de Mónsul) in which birds strike the plane. The shoot's Spanish portion wrapped on June 2, 1988, in Guadix, Granada, with filming of Brody's capture at Alexandretta train station. The filmmakers built a mosque near the station for atmosphere, rather than adding it as a visual effect.

The exteriors of "Brunwald Castle" were filmed at Bürresheim Castle in West Germany. In the movie the image of the castle has been flipped and the building was expanded with a Matte painting depicting a copy of the right facade to the left of the main tower. Filming for the castle interiors took place in the United Kingdom from June 5 to 10, 1988, at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England. On June 16, Lawrence Hall, London, was used as the interior of Berlin Tempelhof Airport. Filming returned to Elstree the next day to capture the motorcycle escape, continuing at the studio for interior scenes until July 18. One day was spent at North Weald Airfield on June 29 to film Indiana leaving for Venice. Ford and Connery acted much of the Zeppelin table conversation without trousers on because of the overheated set. Spielberg, Marshall and Kennedy interrupted the shoot to make a plea to the Parliament of the United Kingdom to support the economically "depressed" British studios. July 20–22 was spent filming the temple interiors. The temple set, which took six weeks to build, was supported on 80 feet (24 m) of hydraulics and ten gimbals for use during the earthquake scene. Resetting between takes took twenty minutes while the hydraulics were put to their starting positions and the cracks filled with plaster. The shot of the Grail falling to the temple floor—causing the first crack to appear—was attempted on the full-size set, but proved too difficult. Instead, crews built a separate floor section that incorporated a pre-scored crack sealed with plaster. It took several takes to throw the Grail from 6 feet (1.8 m) onto the right part of the crack. July 25–26 was spent on night shoots at Stowe School, Stowe, Buckinghamshire, for the Nazi rally.

Design

Mechanical effects supervisor George Gibbs said the film was the most difficult one of his career. He visited a museum to negotiate renting a small French World War I tank, but decided he wanted to make one. The tank was based on the Tank Mark VIII, which was 11 metres (36 ft) long and weighed 28 short tons (25 t). However, some liberties were taken with the design. Gibbs built the tank over the framework of a 28-short-ton (25 t) excavator and added 7-short-ton (6.4 t) tracks that were driven by two automatic hydraulic pumps, each connected to a Range Rover V8 engine. Gibbs built the tank from steel rather than aluminum or fiberglass because it would allow the realistically suspensionless vehicle to endure the rocky surfaces. Unlike its historic counterpart, which had only the two side guns, the tank had a turret gun added as well. It took four months to build and was transported to Almería on a Short Belfast plane and then a low loader truck.

The tank broke down twice. The distributor's rotor arm broke and a replacement had to be sourced from Madrid. Then two of the device's valves used to cool the oil exploded, due to solder melting and mixing with the oil. It was very hot in the tank, despite the installation of ten fans, and the lack of suspension meant the driver was unable to stop shaking during filming breaks. The tank only moved at 10 to 12 miles per hour (16 to 19 km/h), which Vic Armstrong said made it difficult to film Indiana riding a horse against the tank while making it appear faster. A smaller section of the tank's top made from aluminum and which used rubber tracks was used for close-ups. It was built from a searchlight trailer, weighed eight tons, and was towed by a four-wheel drive truck. It had safety nets on each end to prevent injury to those falling off. A quarter-scale model by Gibbs was driven over a 15-metre (50 ft) cliff on location; Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) created further shots of the tank's destruction with models and miniatures.

Michael Lantieri, mechanical effects supervisor for the 1912 scenes, noted the difficulty in shooting the train sequence. "You can't just stop a train," he said, "If it misses its mark, it takes blocks and blocks to stop it and back up." Lantieri hid handles for the actors and stuntmen to grab onto when leaping from carriage to carriage. The carriage interiors shot at Universal Studios Hollywood were built on tubes that inflated and deflated to create a rocking motion. For the close-up of the rhinoceros that strikes at (and misses) Indiana, a foam and fiberglass animatronic was made in London. When Spielberg decided he wanted it to move, the prop was sent to John Carl Buechler in Los Angeles, who resculpted it over three days to blink, snarl, snort and wiggle its ears. The giraffes were also created in London. Because steam locomotives are very loud, Lantieri's crew would respond to first assistant director David Tomblin's radioed directions by making the giraffes nod or shake their heads to his questions, which amused the crew. For the villains' cars, Lantieri selected a 1914 Ford Model T, a 1919 Ford Model T truck and a 1916 Saxon Model 14, fitting each with a Ford Pinto V6 engine. Sacks of dust were hung under the cars to create a dustier environment.

Visual effects

Industrial Light & Magic built an 8-foot (2.4 m) foam model of the Zeppelin to complement shots of Ford and Connery climbing into the Gotha Go 145C biplane. A biplane model with a 2-foot (0.61 m) wingspan was used for the shot of the biplane detaching. Stop-motion animation was used for the shot of the German fighter's wings breaking off as it crashes through the tunnel. The tunnel was a 210 feet (64 m) model that occupied 14 of ILM's parking spaces for two months. It was built in eight-foot sections, with hinges allowing each section to be opened to film through. Ford and Connery were filmed against bluescreen; the sequence required their car to have a dirty windscreen, but to make the integration easier this was removed and later composited into the shot. Dust and shadows were animated onto shots of the plane miniature to make it appear as if it disturbed rocks and dirt before it exploded. Several hundred tim-birds were used in the background shots of the seagulls striking the other plane; for the closer shots, ILM dropped feather-coated crosses onto the camera. These only looked convincing because the scene's quick cuts merely required shapes that suggested gulls. ILM's Wes Takahashi supervised the film's visual effects sequences.

Spielberg devised the three trials that guard the Grail. For the first, the blades under which Indiana ducks like a penitent man were a mix of practical and miniature blades created by Gibbs and ILM. For the second trial, in which Indiana spells "Iehova" on stable stepping stones, it was intended to have a tarantula crawl up Indiana after he mistakenly steps on "J". This was filmed and deemed unsatisfactory, so ILM filmed a stuntman hanging through a hole that appears in the floor, 30 feet (9.1 m) above a cavern. As this was dark, it did not matter that the matte painting and models were rushed late in production. The third trial, the leap of faith that Indiana makes over an apparently impassable ravine after discovering a bridge hidden by forced perspective, was created with a model bridge and painted backgrounds. This was cheaper than building a full-size set. A puppet of Ford was used to create a shadow on the 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) by 13-foot-wide (4.0 m) model because Ford had filmed the scene against bluescreen, which did not incorporate the shaft of light from the entrance.

Spielberg wanted Donovan's death shown in one shot, so it would not look like an actor having makeup applied between takes. Inflatable pads were applied to Julian Glover's forehead and cheeks by Nick Dudman that made his eyes seem to recede during the character's initial decomposition, as well as a mechanical wig that grew his hair. The shot of Donovan's death was the first all-digital composite scene in a movie, and was created over three months by morphing together three puppets of Donovan created by Stephan Dupuis in separate stages of decay, a technique ILM mastered on Willow (1988). A fourth puppet was used for the decaying clothes, because the puppet's torso mechanics had been exposed. Complications arose because Alison Doody's double had not been filmed for the scene's latter two elements, so the background and hair from the first shot had to be used throughout, with the other faces mapped over it. Donovan's skeleton was hung on wires like a marionette; it required several takes to film it crashing against the wall because not all the pieces released upon impact.

Themes

A son's relationship with his estranged father is a common theme in Spielberg's films, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Hook.

The film's exploration of fathers and sons coupled with its use of religious imagery is comparable to two other 1989 films, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Field of Dreams. Writing for The New York Times, Caryn James felt the combination in these films reflected New Age concerns, where the worship of God was equated to searching for fathers. James felt that neither Indiana nor his father is preoccupied with finding the Grail or defeating the Nazis, but that, rather, both seek professional respect for one another in their boys' own adventure. James contrasted the temple's biblically epic destruction with the more effective and quiet conversation between the Joneses at the film's end. James noted that Indiana's mother does not appear in the prologue, being portrayed as already having died before the film's events began.

Release

The film's teaser trailer debuted in November 1988 with Scrooged and The Naked Gun. Rob MacGregor wrote the tie-in novelization that was released in June 1989; it sold enough copies to be included on the New York Times Best Seller list. MacGregor went on to write the first six Indiana Jones prequel novels during the 1990s. Following the film's release, Ford donated Indiana's fedora and jacket to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

No toys were made to promote the film, Indiana Jones "never happened on the toy level", said Larry Carlat, senior editor of the journal Children's Business. Rather, Lucasfilm promoted Indiana as a lifestyle symbol, selling tie-in fedoras, shirts, jackets and watches. Two video games based on the film were released by LucasArts in 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game. A third game was produced by Taito and released in 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Ryder Windham wrote another novelization, released in April 2008 by Scholastic, to coincide with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hasbro released toys based on The Last Crusade in July 2008.

Box office

The film was released in the United States and Canada on Wednesday, May 24, 1989, in 2,327 theaters, earning a record $37,031,573 over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend. The gross was boosted by high ticket prices in some venues ($7 a ticket). Its 3-day opening weekend figure of $29,355,021 was surpassed later that year by Ghostbusters II and Batman, which grossed more in its opening 3 days than The Last Crusade in 4. The film would hold the record for having the highest Memorial Day weekend gross until 1994 when The Flintstones took it. Additionally, it had the largest opening weekend for a Harrison Ford film for eight years until Air Force One surpassed it in 1997. Its Saturday gross of $11,181,429 was the first time a film had made over $10 million in one day. It broke the record for the best seven-day performance with a gross of $50.2 million, beating the $45.7 million grossed by Temple of Doom in 1984 on 1,687 screens. It added another record with $77 million after twelve days, and earned $100 million in a record nineteen days. In France, the film broke a record by selling a million admissions within two and a half weeks. In the United Kingdom, it opened in three London theaters before opening two days later on 361 screens nationally, setting an opening weekend record of £1,811,542 ($2,862,200), breaking the one set the year before by Crocodile Dundee II. It spent six weeks at number one in the United Kingdom.

The film eventually grossed $197.1 million in the United States and Canada and $277 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $474.2 million. At the time of its release, the film was the 11th highest-grossing film of all time. Despite competition from Batman, The Last Crusade became the highest-grossing film worldwide in 1989. In North America, Batman took top position. Behind Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Raiders, The Last Crusade is the third-highest grossing Indiana Jones film in the United States and Canada, though it is also behind Temple of Doom when adjusting for inflation. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 49 million tickets in North America. The film was re-released in 1992 earning $139,000.

Home media

The film was first released on VHS on February 1, 1990. In 2003 it was made available along with its two predecessors as part of a trilogy DVD box set. It contained extra materials and a special documentary covering the production of the films. Sales figures for the box set were extremely successful and 600,000 copies were sold in the US on the first day of release. In 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray along with the three other films in the Indiana Jones film series at the time. In 2021, a remastered 4K HDR version of the film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, produced using scans of the original negatives. It was released as part of a box set for the then four films in the Indiana Jones film series.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has an approval rating of 84% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Lighter and more comedic than its predecessor, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade returns the series to the brisk serial adventure of Raiders, while adding a dynamite double act between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery." Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel said that while the film "lacks the novelty of Raiders, and the breathless pacing of Temple of Doom, it was an entertaining capper to the trilogy." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone remarked the film was "the wildest and wittiest Indy of them all". Richard Corliss of Time and David Ansen of Newsweek praised it, as did Vincent Canby of The New York Times. "Though it seems to have the manner of some magically reconstituted B-movie of an earlier era, The Last Crusade is an endearing original," Canby wrote, calling the revelation that Jones had a father who was not proud of him to be a "comic surprise". Canby believed that while the film did not match the previous two in its pacing, it still had "hilariously off-the-wall sequences" such as the circus train chase. He also said that Spielberg was maturing by focusing on the father–son relationship, a call echoed by McBride in Variety. Roger Ebert of The Chicago-Sun Times gave the film a positive review, saying it was familiar if well made. Ebert praised the open sequence depicting Jones as a Boy Scout with the Cross of Coronado as the most original and effective part, comparing it to the "style of illustration that appeared in the boys' adventure magazines of the 1940s". He said that Spielberg "must have been paging through his old issues of Boys' Life magazine...the feeling that you can stumble over astounding adventures just by going on a hike with your Scout troop. Spielberg lights the scene in the strong, basic colors of old pulp magazines." The Hollywood Reporter felt Connery and Ford deserved Academy Award nominations.

It was panned by Andrew Sarris in The New York Observer, David Denby in New York magazine, Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic and Georgia Brown in The Village Voice. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader called the film "soulless". The Washington Post reviewed the film twice; Hal Hinson's review on the day of the film's release was negative, describing it as "nearly all chases and dull exposition". Although he praised Ford and Connery, he felt the film's exploration of Jones's character took away his mystery and that Spielberg should not have tried to mature his storytelling. Two days later, Desson Thomson published a positive review praising the film's adventure and action, as well as the father–son relationship's thematic depth.

Accolades

The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, it also received nominations for Best Original Score and Best Sound (Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy and Tony Dawe). Connery received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Connery and the visual and sound effects teams were also nominated at the 43rd British Academy Film Awards. The film won the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture Drama at the Young Artist Awards. John Williams's score won a Broadcast Music Incorporated Award, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The prologue depicting Jones in his youth inspired Lucas to create The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series, which featured Sean Patrick Flanery as the young adult Indiana and Corey Carrier as the 8- to 10-year-old Indiana. According to Dark Horse Comics author Lee Marrs, Lucasfilm considered for a while to make a continuation to the film series starring Phoenix as a younger Jones, but these plans were dropped after his untimely death. The 13-year-old incarnation played by Phoenix in the film was the focus of a Young Indiana Jones series of young adult novels that began in 1990; by the ninth novel, the series had become a tie-in to the television show. German author Wolfgang Hohlbein revisited the prologue in one of his novels, in which Jones encounters the lead grave robber—whom Hohlbein christens Jake—in 1943. The film's ending begins the 1995 comic series Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny, which moves forward to depict Jones and his father searching for the Holy Lance in Ireland in 1945. Spielberg intended to have Connery cameo as Henry in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), but Connery turned it down as he had retired.

Petra's use for the movie's climactic scenes greatly contributed to its popularity as an international tourist destination. Before the film's release, only a few thousand visitors per year made the trip; since then it has grown to almost a million annually. Shops and hotels near the site play up the connection, and it is mentioned prominently in itineraries of locations used in the film series. Jordan's tourism board mentions the connection on its website. In 2012, the satirical news site The Pan-Arabia Enquirer ran a mock story claiming that the board had officially renamed Petra "That Place from Indiana Jones" to reflect how the world more commonly refers to it.