Indiana Jones ~ the movies

Raiders of the Lost Ark, also known as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, is a 1981 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise, and pits Indiana Jones (played by Ford) against the Nazis, who search for the Ark of the Covenant, to make their army invincible. Indiana and the Nazis search for a medallion, owned by Indy's old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), which will pinpoint the Well of Souls in Egypt, the Ark's resting place. The film also starred Paul Freeman as Indiana's nemesis, French archaeologist Rene Belloq, John Rhys-Davies as Indiana's sidekick Sallah, and Denholm Elliott as Indiana's colleague, Marcus Brody.

The film's origins came from Lucas' desire to create a modern version of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Spielberg originally suggested casting Ford as Jones, but Lucas objected, stating that he did not want the actor to be constantly associated with his films. Lucas persuaded Spielberg to look for someone else and Tom Selleck was cast in the role, but he was unavailable because of his commitment to the television series Magnum, P.I.. Production was based at Elstree Studios, and filming also took place in La Rochelle, Tunisia, Hawaii and the United States from June to September 1980.

When released on June 12, 1981, the $20 million (USD) film was a huge success, easily the highest grossing film of 1981, earning $384 million worldwide, and, at the time, one of the highest-grossing movies ever made. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1982 and won four (Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration). The film was a hit with audiences and critics alike leading to two more films, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series, and a fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in production for release in 2008.

Plot

In 1936, in the Peruvian jungle, archaeologist/treasure hunter Indiana Jones braves several booby traps to retrieve a golden idol from an ancient temple. After escaping, he finds rival archaeologist Rene Belloq waiting outside with a group of Hovitos, the local natives. Surrounded and outnumbered, Jones is forced to give up the artifact to Belloq. Jones escapes from Belloq and the Hovitos after a jungle pursuit and flying away on a waiting seaplane.

At the American college where he teaches archaeology, Jones meets with two Army intelligence agents. They explain that the Nazis, in their quest to gain occult power, are searching for Abner Ravenwood, Jones’s former mentor. Ravenwood is the foremost expert on the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, which has been rediscovered by the Nazis and is believed to be the location of the Ark of the Covenant, a chest the Israelites built to hold the fragments of the Ten Commandments. Jones surmises that the Nazis seek Ravenwood because he possesses the headpiece to the Staff of Ra, a key artifact essential in pinpointing the Ark’s resting place. His colleague Marcus Brody explains that, according to legend, the power of the Ark can make any army invincible.

Jones flies to Nepal, only to find that Ravenwood has died; his daughter Marion, Jones's embittered former lover, has the headpiece, which she wears as a medallion. A gunfight between Jones and a sadistic Nazi agent named Toht breaks out and Marion's tavern is burned down. Toht's hand is seared with the face of the medallion and Jones ends up in possession of both the headpiece and Marion, who decides to travel with him. The two fly to Cairo and meet up with Sallah, a skilled Egyptian digger, who says that he knows where the Nazis, with the assistance of Belloq – and a replica of the headpiece – are digging for the Ark. In a Cairo bazaar Nazi operatives kidnap Marion and fake her death in front of Jones. That evening, Sallah and Jones decipher the carvings on the headpiece to determine the Staff's length – which are written on both its sides. Belloq made his single-sided replica using Toht's scarred hand. They realize that the Nazi's Staff is too long, causing them to dig in the wrong place.

Infiltrating the dig, Indy sneaks into the map room, which contains a scale model of the city of Tanis. According to legend, the headpiece would reveal the exact location of the Well of Souls, the chamber containing the Ark, by focusing daylight onto the city mock-up at a certain time of day. Although Sallah is nearly exposed and captured in the attempt, Indy successfully acquires the location. He and Sallah gather a small crew and begin to dig at the correct location. After several hours, they break through the roof of the buried Well of Souls. Jones is lowered to the floor of the temple and finds it infested with multitudes of poisonous Egyptian asps, of which he is deathly afraid. After he and Sallah hoist the Ark out of the temple, Belloq and the Nazis appear and take possession of the Ark. Marion is tossed into the Well with Jones, and they are sealed in. The duo manage to escape, emerging aboveground in time to find a Luftwaffe flying wing being prepared to transport the Ark to Berlin. During a brief fight for control of the plane, it is destroyed. The Ark is put on a truck to Cairo, where it will be shipped to Berlin. Stealing a horse, Jones pursues the convoy escorting the truck, seizes control of the vehicle and, after an extended pursuit, escapes with the Ark. That evening, Jones and Marion leave Sallah to escort the Ark to England onboard the tramp steamer Bantu Wind.

The next morning, a Nazi U-boat commanded by Belloq and Nazi officer Dietrich stops the ship. Marion and the Ark are removed, while Jones covertly boards the U-boat. He follows Belloq and the Ark to an isolated island, where they plan to test the power of the Ark before presenting it to the Führer. Threatening to destroy the Ark with a rocket launcher, Jones demands that the Nazis free Marion. Belloq calls his bluff, claiming that Indy, as an archaeologist, wants to see it opened as badly as Belloq; Jones is forced to surrender. Marion and Jones are tied up while Belloq and the Nazis perform a ceremonial opening of the Ark. Spirits emerge from within; Jones, aware of the supernatural danger of looking at the opened Ark, warns Marion to close her eyes. The group of Nazis, who do not look away, are gruesomely killed by the Ark's supernatural powers, and the Ark closes itself once more with a crack of thunder. Back in Washington, D.C., the two Army intelligence men tell a suspicious Jones that "top men" are carefully studying the Ark. In reality, the artifact is sealed in a wooden crate and stored in a giant government warehouse, filled with countless similar crates.

Production

Development

In 1973, George Lucas wrote The Adventures of Indiana Smith. Like Star Wars, it was an opportunity to create a modern version of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Lucas discussed the concept with Philip Kaufman, who worked with him for several weeks and came up with the Ark of the Covenant as the plot device. The project was stalled when Clint Eastwood hired Kaufman to direct The Outlaw Josey Wales. In late May 1977, Lucas was in Maui, trying to escape the enormous success of Star Wars. Friend and colleague Steven Spielberg was also there, holidaying from work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. While building a sand castle at Mauna Kea, Spielberg expressed an interest in directing a James Bond film. Lucas convinced his friend Spielberg that he had conceived a character "better than James Bond" and explained the concept of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg loved it, calling it "a James Bond film without the hardware", although Spielberg told Lucas that the surname Smith wasn't right for the character, Lucas replied "OK. What about Jones?". Indiana was the name of Lucas's dog.

The following year, Lucas focused on developing Raiders and the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, during which Lawrence Kasdan and Frank Marshall joined the project as screenwriter and producer respectively. Between January 23-January 27, 1978 for nine hours a day, Lucas, Kasdan and Spielberg discussed the story and visual ideas. Spielberg came up with Jones being chased by a boulder, and Lucas came up with a submarine, a monkey giving the Nazi salute, and Marion punching Jones in Nepal. Kasdan used a 100 page transcript of their conversations for his first script draft, which he worked on for six months. Ultimately some of their ideas were too grand and had to be cut: a mine chase, an escape in Shanghai using a rolling gong as a shield, and a jump from an airplane in a raft, all of which made it into the sequel.

Spielberg and Lucas disagreed on the character: although Lucas saw him as a Bondian playboy, Kasdan and Spielberg felt the professor and adventurer elements of the character made him complex enough. Spielberg had darker visions of Jones, interpreting him as an alcoholic similar to Humphrey Bogart's character Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This characterization fell away during the later drafts. Spielberg also initially conceived of Toht with a robotic arm, which Lucas rejected as falling into science-fiction. Comic book artist Jim Steranko was also commissioned to produce original illustrations for pre-production, which heavily influenced Spielberg's decisions in both the look of the film and the character of Indiana Jones himself.

As The Empire Strikes Back began post-production in September 1979, Lucas began to find a distribution deal for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Studios were reluctant following Spielberg's flop 1941, unable to believe he could bring the film for $20 million which they would have to pay for. They also balked at simply distributing the film while the filmmakers took a larger share of box office receipts and full ownership of the film. Despite a concern that the first sequence alone would cost $20 million, Paramount Pictures under Michael Eisner accepted on condition of making at least four sequels with Lucasfilm. By April 1980, Kasdan's fifth draft was produced, and production was getting ready to shoot at Elstree Studios, with Lucas trying to keep costs down. With four illustrators, Raiders of the Lost Ark was Spielberg's most storyboarded film of his career to date, further helping the film economically, and he and Lucas agreed on a tight schedule to stylistically follow the "quick and dirty" feel of the Saturday matinée serials. "We didn't do 30 or 40 takes — production; usually only four. It was like silent film — shoot only what you need, no waste," Spielberg said. "Had I had more time and money, it would have turned out a pretentious movie." Lucas also directed some of the second unit.

Filming

Filming began on June 23, 1980 at La Rochelle, France, for scenes involving the Nazi submarine, which was rented from the movie Das Boot. The U-boat pen was a genuine one that had survived from World War II. The crew moved to Elstree Studios for scenes involving the Well of Souls, the interiors of the temple in the opening sequence and Marion Ravenwood's bar. The Well of Souls required 7,000 snakes, though the only poisonous snakes on set were the cobras. However, one crew member was bitten by a python on set. To shoot the scene where Indiana comes face-to-face with the cobra, a glass sheet was put between Ford and the animal, partially visible when the light hits it at a certain angle. Unlike the character he portrayed, Ford does not actually have a fear of snakes; Spielberg was not afraid either, but seeing all the snakes on the set writhing around made him "want to puke". The opening sequence featured live tarantulas: Alfred Molina had to have many put on him, but they did not move until a female was placed there. Molina found the experience creepy. A fibreglass boulder 22 feet in diameter was made for the scene where Indiana escapes the temple; Spielberg was so impressed by production designer John Reynolds' realization of his idea that he told Reynolds to increase the length of the boulder run by 50ft.

All of the scenes set in Egypt and the canyon where Indiana threatens to blow up the Ark were filmed in Tunisia; many of the locations were repeated from Star Wars, since many people in the location crew were the same for both films. Notably, that canyon was the exact same location wherein R2-D2 was attacked by Jawas. Filming there was a harsh experience due to the heat and disease. Several members of the cast & crew fell ill; Rhys-Davies in particular defecated in his costume during one shot. Spielberg was never ill, as he only ate tinned foods from England. Spielberg did not like the area and quickly pushed forward a scheduled six-week shoot to four-and-a-half weeks. Much was improvised there: the scene wherein Marion puts on her dress and attempts to leave Belloq's tent was improvised, as was the entire plane fight. During shooting of that scene, Ford tore his cruciate ligament in his left leg as a wheel went over his knee, but he did not accept medical help and simply put ice over it. The fight scenes in the town were filmed in Kairouan; by then Ford was suffering from dysentery. He had enough, and did not want to shoot a fight scene between Indiana and a swordsman. He said to Spielberg "Why don't we just shoot the sucker?" Spielberg agreed, scrapped the rest of the fight scene, and filmed the gag of Indiana quickly shooting the swordsman. The truck chase was shot entirely by the second-unit who mostly followed Spielberg's storyboards, though they decided to add Indiana being dragged by the truck. Spielberg shot all the close-ups with Ford afterwards.

The interior staircase set in Washington, D.C. was filmed inside of San Francisco's City Hall. The University of the Pacific, located in Stockton, California, stands in for the college where Jones works, and his home exteriors were filmed in the city of San Rafael, California. The opening exteriors were filmed in Kauai, Hawaii, with Spielberg wrapping in September, finishing under schedule in 73 days, in contrast to his previous film, 1941. The Washington, D.C. exterior was not included in early edits and, although it appeared in early drafts of the script, was actually added later when it was realised that there was no resolution to Indy's relationship with Marion. Shots of the Douglas DC-3 Indy flies on to Nepal were taken from Lost Horizon, while a street scene was cut from a shot in The Hindenburg.

Effects

Special effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic. These largely featured in the climactic sequence wherein the Ark of the Covenant was opened and spirits come out to attack the Nazis. The melting of Toht's head was done by exposing a wax model of Ronald Lacey's head to a heat lamp with an under cranked camera, while Dietrich's crushed head was a hollow model from which air was withdrawn. To avoid an R rating, fire was double exposed over Belloq's exploding head. The spirits were shot underwater for a ghostly look.

Ben Burtt was sound effects supervisor, picking a 30-30 Winchester rifle for the sound of Jones' gun; for the various punching noises throughout the film, leather jackets and baseball gloves were whacked by a baseball bat to continue the comic-bookish feel of the film. For the snakes in the Well of Souls sequence, cheese casserole and sponges were used for the slithering, while lifting a toilet tank was used for the sound of opening the Ark. Burtt used a synthesizer for the sounds of the Ark, and mixed dolphins' and sea lions' screams for those of the spirits within.

Cast

• Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones, an adventurous archaeology professor, who often embarks on perilous adventures to obtain rare artifacts. Jones initially claim he has no belief in the supernatural, only to have his skepticism challenged when he discovers the Ark. Spielberg suggested casting Harrison Ford as Jones, but Lucas objected, stating that he did not want Ford to become his "Bobby De Niro" or "that guy I put in all my movies", a reference to Martin Scorsese, who often worked with De Niro. Desiring a lesser known actor, Lucas persuaded Spielberg to help him search for a new talent. Among the actors who auditioned were Tim Matheson, Peter Coyote, John Shea and Tom Selleck. Selleck was originally cast in the role, but he was unavailable for the part because of his commitment to the television series Magnum, P.I. In June 1980, three weeks away from filming, Spielberg persuaded Lucas to cast Ford after producers Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy were impressed by his performance as Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.

• Karen Allen plays Marion Ravenwood, a spirited, tough old flame of Indiana's. She is the daughter of Abner Ravenwood, Indiana Jones' mentor, and owns a bar in Nepal. Allen was cast after auditioning with Matheson and John Shea. Spielberg was interested in her, as he had seen her performance in National Lampoon's Animal House. Sean Young had previously auditioned for the part, while Debra Winger turned it down.

• John Rhys-Davies as Sallah. Sallah is "the best digger in Egypt", and has been hired by the Nazis to help them excavate Tanis. Although he is suspicious of the Ark's power, he is an old friend of Indiana Jones, and agrees to help him obtain the Ark. Initially, Spielberg approached Danny DeVito to play Sallah, but could not play the part due to scheduling conflicts. Spielberg cast Rhys-Davies after seeing his performance in Shogun.

• Denholm Elliott as Marcus Brody. Marcus is a museum curator, and buys whatever artifacts Indiana obtains for display in his museum. The US governmental agents approach him in regards to recovering the Ark, and he sets up a meeting between them and Indiana Jones. Spielberg hired Elliott as he was a big fan of him.
• Paul Freeman as Rene Belloq. Jones' arch nemesis, Belloq is also an archaeologist after the Ark, but he is working for the Nazis. He intends to harness the power of the Ark himself before Hitler could, but he is killed by the supernatural powers of the Ark after opening it when his head explodes.

• Ronald Lacey as Arnold Toht. Toht is an interrogator for the Nazis, who tries to torture Marion Ravenwood for the headpiece of the Staff of Ra. He only manages to obtain one side of it through a burn in his hand. He is killed by the supernatural powers of the Ark when his face melts. Lacey was cast as he reminded Spielberg of Peter Lorre.

• Wolf Kahler as Colonel Dietrich. Dietrich is a ruthless Nazi officer leading the operation to secure the Ark. He is killed by the supernatural powers of the Ark when his head implodes.

• Alfred Molina as Satipo. Satipo is one of Jones's guides through the South American jungle. He betrays Jones and steals the golden idol, but is killed by one of the traps in the temple.

Producer Frank Marshall played a pilot in the airplane fight sequence. The stunt team was ill, so he took the role instead. The result was three days in a cockpit that was over 140 °F (60 °C). Pat Roach plays the large mechanic with whom Jones brawls in this sequence, as well as Toht's henchman in Marion's bar. He had the rare opportunity to be killed twice in one movie. Special-effects supervisor Dennis Muren made a cameo on the plane Indiana Jones takes to Nepal.

Soundtrack

Raiders of the Lost Ark's score is most notable for featuring the rousing and iconic composition "The Raiders March" that came to symbolize Indiana Jones. The tune was composed by John Williams. The score also featured three other prominent themes: the grand yet mysterious "Ark Theme", a theme associated with Marion, and the loud, pompous Nazi March, which harkens back to 1940s film scores. The score had received an Oscar nomination for best original score, but lost to Vangelis's electro-synth based score for Chariots of Fire. John Williams composed the march in the two separate segments. When he played them for Steven Spielberg he told Williams that he liked them both, which led to the combined theme people know today.

Release

Reception

When released on June 12, the $20 million film was a huge success, easily the highest grossing film (earning $384 million worldwide) of 1981, and, at the time, one of the highest-grossing movies ever made. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1982 and won four (Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration). It also won a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing, bringing the total Oscars to five. It won numerous other awards, including seven Saturn Awards.

The film opened to mostly positive reviews from critics. In his review for the New York Times, Vincent Canby praised the film, calling it, "one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American adventure movies ever made." Roger Ebert in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "Two things, however, make Raiders of the Lost Ark more than just a technological triumph: its sense of humor and the droll style of its characters . . . We find ourselves laughing in surprise, in relief, in incredulity at the movie's ability to pile one incident upon another in an inexhaustible series of inventions." He would later add it to his list of "Great Movies". Stephen Klain of "Variety" also praised the film. However, he felt that the film was surprisingly violent and bloody for a PG-rated film. Rolling Stone said the film was "the ultimate Saturday action matinee–a film so funny and exciting it can be enjoyed any day of the week." Bruce Williamson of Playboy claimed: "There's more excitement in the first ten minutes of Raiders than any movie I have seen all year. By the time the explosive misadventures end, any movie-goer worth his salt ought to be exhausted." However, Pauline Kael found the film "impersonal" and the fast pacing was "like being put through a Cuisinart." Today, the film is considered to be a classic of the action and adventure genres by many contemporary critics and carries a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Impact

Following the box office success of Raiders, two more feature films were produced: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a prequel, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Another sequel, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is currently in production. A TV series, entitled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, was also spun off from this film, and details the early years of the character. Numerous other books, comics, and video games have also been produced.

In 1998, the American Film Institute placed the film at number 60 on its top 100 films of the first century of cinema. In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Indiana Jones has become an icon, being listed as Entertainment Weekly's third favorite action hero, while noting "some of the greatest action scenes ever filmed are strung together like pearls" in this film.

An amateur shot-for-shot remake was made by Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb, then children in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It took the boys seven years to finish, from 1982-1989. After production of the film, called Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, wrapped in 1989, it was shelved and forgotten until 2003, where it was discovered by Eli Roth and acclaimed by Spielberg himself^[ who congratulated the boys on their hard work and said he looked forward to seeing their names on the big screen. Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures have purchased the trio's life rights and will be producing a film based on their adventures making their remake.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. Released on May 23, 1984, it is a prequel to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Like Raiders, it starred Harrison Ford as Jones, and was based on an original story by George Lucas. Many members of the original crew returned, including cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, editor Michael Kahn and composer John Williams. New additions to the main cast included actress Kate Capshaw, who played the role of Wilhelmina 'Willie' Scott (Jones' second female lead following Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, in Raiders of the Lost Ark), and Jonathan Ke Quan as Jones' 11 year old sidekick Short Round. It won an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Featuring themes of child slavery, and destructive cult rituals, the film is darker in tone than its predecessor. The original story was intended to be a horror movie as well as a remake with elements of Gunga Din (1939). The original title was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death.

Plot

Set in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film opens with Indiana Jones in a Shanghai nightclub named Club Obi-Wan, attempting to trade the remains of Nurhaci for a large diamond with a gangster named Lao Che. When the deal goes bad and Indy's friend Wu Han is killed in the ensuing violence, Indy and the club's singer, Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott, escape the pursuing criminals in a car driven by a young boy named Short Round, an ally of Indy. They board a cargo plane, not knowing that it is owned by Lao Che. As Indy, Willie, and Short Round nap during the flight, the pilots dump the fuel and parachute out of the plane. Indy and the others use an inflatable emergency raft to descend safely from the plane.

After a dangerous ride down the Himalayan mountains and a raging river, the trio eventually come to a desolate village in India. The poor villagers there enlist their help in retrieving a sacred stone, the Sankara Stone or Siva lingam stone, as well as the community's kidnapped children, from the evil forces of nearby Pankot Palace.

Initially, Pankot Palace seems normal enough, despite the grotesque food it offers its guests; the royal tenants are insulted by Indiana's questions about the villagers' claims. Later that night, however, Indy is attacked in his room by a would-be assassin, which leads him to seek and find a secret door. He, Willie, and Short Round make their way through the secret passage and discover a vast underground temple beneath the palace, where the village rock and two more are held by the Thuggee. An evil cult who worship the goddess Kali with human sacrifice, the Thuggee have enslaved the village's children to dig for two remaining Sankara stones that are lost within the mines of the palace. Their villainous leader Mola Ram hopes to use the power of the five united Sankara stones to rule the world. During the revelation, the protagonists witness a gruesome sacrifice ritual where Mola Ram bare-handedly digs a man's heart out of his chest; the man survives, his heart beating in Mola Ram's hand, until he is lowered slowly into a lava pit.

Indy, Willie, and Short Round are captured by the Thuggee and separated. Indy sides with the Thuggee after being forced to drink the "blood of Kali Ma", a mind-control potion which puts the drinker into the "black sleep of Kali". Willie is kept as a human sacrifice, and Short Round is put in the mines alongside the village children as a slave laborer; however, Short Round breaks his bonds and escapes back into the temple, where Willie is tied up and being lowered into a lava pit. He helps Indy return to his normal self by using a torch to shock him from his trance. Although Mola Ram escapes through a trap door, Indy and Short Round manage to save Willie, take the three Sankara Stones, and free the village children. In the fight to escape the palace, the three jump into a mine car and are closely pursued by two Thuggee-filled cars. Indy knocks the first car off the tracks with a board, but the second catches up to them. In the struggle, Short Round nearly falls into lava and a Thuggee jumps onto the back of their car. Willie delivers an unexpected punch that knocks the Thuggee back onto the track, whereupon the other car crashes into his body and derails.

Meanwhile, Mola Ram and others break the supports of a giant water reservoir, pouring the contents down the tunnels in an attempt to drown the three heroes. After Indy stops their mine car, they avoid the rushing water by running outside, only to find themselves stuck at the top of a sheer canyon. They try to cross a rope bridge but are trapped with the Thuggee on both sides. Taking a desperate gamble, Indy utters a warning in Chinese to his friends to brace themselves. He then uses a sword to cut the bridge in half, sending many of the Thuggee plummeting into the crocodile-infested river below.

Mola Ram and a few of his minions manage to cling to the heroes' side of the bridge. He fights with Indy for the stones; Indy invokes the stones' magic and causes Mola Ram and all but one of the stones to fall into the river, where the nefarious priest is ripped apart and devoured by crocodiles. At that moment, British troops appear to subdue the remaining Thuggee. The heroes triumphantly return to the village with their sacred stone and their children.

Production

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas aimed to make the sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark much darker due to their personal moods following their break-up and divorce, respectively. Lucas made the film a prequel as he didn't want the Nazis to be the villains once more, and had ideas regarding the Monkey King and a haunted castle, but wound up creating the Sankara Stones. He hired Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz to write the script as he knew of their interest in Indian culture. The major scenes that were dropped from Raiders of the Lost Ark were included in this film: an escape using a giant rolling gong as a shield, a fall out of a plane in a raft and a mine cart chase. Just as Indiana Jones was named after Lucas' Alaskan malamute, Willie was named after Spielberg's cocker spaniel, and Short Round was named after Huyck's dog.

Shooting began in Sri Lanka, with Kandy used for the village set. Harrison Ford hurt his back riding elephants, so stuntman Vic Armstrong spent five weeks as a stand-in for various shots. Production was primarily based at Elstree Studios, occupying eight out of nine soundstages as well as using the last one as a workshop. A second unit spent six days shooting elements of the Shanghai car chase in Macau and producer Frank Marshall directed another second unit in Florida, using alligators to double as marsh crocodiles. Additional shooting of the Mammoth Mountain and Tuolumne River were also done for elements of the raft scene. Ford again suffered back pains during the Elstree shoot and was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles. Nonetheless, Spielberg completed the film five days short of the 85 day schedule and within the $28 million budget.

Spielberg and Lucas wanted to continue to use the presence of "creepy crawlers" in the series. So, after the work with thousands of snakes in the previous film, this time, they went for bugs. Many large exotic (and harmless) bugs and worms were used in the catacomb sequence.

Cast

Stunt actor Pat Roach — who appeared in two roles as large, muscular henchmen who fights Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark — also appeared thrice in this film: first as the man banging the gong in Club Obi Wan, then the assassin in Jones's room and again as the slavemaster in the mines. Besides Ford, he is the only cast member to return for the second film. He also had a cameo appearance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas and starring Harrison Ford in the title role. It also stars Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, Alison Doody, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies.

When Dr. Henry Jones Sr. (played by Connery) vanishes while pursuing a life-long search for the Holy Grail, Indiana must retrace his father's steps in the hopes of rescuing him – and the Grail – from the clutches of the Nazi military machine. Worldwide, the film was the highest grossing movie of 1989.

Plot

The prologue depicts a young Indiana Jones in 1912 serving as a boy scout in Utah. He steals the Cross of Coronado (an ornamental cross belonging to Francisco Vásquez de Coronado) from grave robbers, as he believes it should be in a museum instead of a private collection. As they give chase, Indiana hides in a circus train, in the process using a whip (scarring his chin), and gains his fear of snakes. Although he rescues the cross, the robbers tell the Sheriff that Indiana was the thief, and he is forced to return it, while his oblivious father, Henry Jones, is working on his research. One of the robbers, dressed very similarly to the future Indiana, gives him his fedora with some encouraging words. In 1938, an adult Indiana is on the robbers' ship, the Coronado, off the Portuguese coast, finally retrieving the Cross and donating it to Marcus Brody's museum.

Indiana meets the wealthy Walter Donovan, who informs him that his father vanished while searching for a clue to the location of the Holy Grail, using an incomplete stone tablet as his guide. Indy receives a special package that turns out to be his father's Grail diary in which he recorded all his findings and clues towards the Holy Grail. Understanding that his father would not have sent the Grail Diary — his father's life's work — to him unless he was in trouble, Indiana and Marcus travel to Venice. There they meet the beautiful and mysterious Dr. Elsa Schneider who had been working with Indiana's father. They retrace his father's footsteps, starting at the library where he was last seen. Using the diary, Indiana finds an X (inlaid in the floor) literally marking the spot, then smashes through the floor to ancient catacombs underneath, filled with oil several feet deep and infested with rats. Inside is the tomb of Sir Richard, a knight of the First Crusade, whose shield holds a complete version of the information on the tablet. The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secretive and fanatical religious cult that protects the Holy Grail, set fire to the oil in the catacombs to kill Indiana and Elsa. Indiana overturns Richard's sarcophagus so that he and Elsa can take refuge inside from the flames, and emerge from a sewer grate in Venice outside the library. Indiana and Elsa commandeer a motorboat to escape, managing to fight off all but the cult's leader, Kazim, during the ensuing chase. Jones convinces Kazim that he is looking for his father, not the Grail, and Kazim reveals that his father is being held in Castle Brunwald near the Austrian-German border.

Indiana finds his father, but they are betrayed by Schneider and Donovan, who worked with the Nazis to stage Henry's kidnapping, so that Indiana would solve the mystery of the Grail for them. Elsa ties Indy and his father up from head to toe and then kisses Indy. Indiana and Henry escape together and travel to Berlin to retrieve Henry's diary, which he reveals also contains the clues to evade three booby traps. They arrive at a pro-Nazi book-burning rally, where a disguised Indiana corners Elsa and convinces her to return the diary to him, in the process bumping into Adolf Hitler, who assumes the diary is an autograph book and signs the first page. Indiana and Henry travel on an LZ-138 Zeppelin, which begins to turn around, letting Indiana realize the Nazis know they are on board. They escape the ship by taking an attached fighter plane, evading Nazi dogfighters. Henry accidentally shoots out the tailfin, and they crash land. They steal a car, causing one Nazi plane to be destroyed when it follows them through a tunnel. On a beach, Henry uses his umbrella to stir up a flock of seagulls. The seagulls cause numerous bird strikes on the second plane, crashing it. The Joneses meet up with Sallah and confront the Nazis, who have captured Brody. The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword also appears, attacking the Nazi caravan, but are defeated. Henry attempts to rescue Brody from the tank wherein he is being held, but is himself captured. Indiana jumps onto the tank and rescues the captives before it drives off a cliff, killing Donovan's aide, Colonel Vogel.

The Joneses, Sallah, and Brody reach the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, in Hatay near Iskenderun, the site of the temple housing the Grail. The Nazis capture them in the temple, and Donovan shoots Henry, forcing Indiana to retrieve the Grail, so as to heal his father's fatal wounds. Guided by the diary, Indiana circumvents the deadly booby traps, reaching a room where a knight of the First Crusade, kept alive by the power of the Grail, has hidden it among many false cups, while Donovan and Elsa follow. The knight informs them that, if they wish for the Grail, they must choose wisely for it, for while drinking from the true Grail will bring them everlasting life, a false Grail will take it from them. Schneider identifies a golden, bejeweled cup as the Grail, and Donovan impatiently drinks from it. Realizing the Grail is false, Donovan dies, aging rapidly into dust.

Indiana picks out the true Grail, a plain cup with a gold interior, worthy of a humble carpenter (Jesus), and drinks from it, whereupon the knight advises him that he has chosen "wisely". Indiana fills the Grail with water and uses it to heal Henry. Despite a warning from the knight not to let the Grail go past the Great Seal in accordance with the Law of God, Elsa tries to leave with the Grail and the interior starts to collapse. She loses her balance at the edge of a newly-formed crevasse; despite Indiana's attempts to lift her, she greedily reaches for the Grail and falls into the abyss. Indiana loses his footing and finds himself in the same situation, with his father keeping him from following the same fate as Elsa. He also tries to get the Grail, until Henry says simply, "Indiana. Indiana, let it go."

Realizing that this is the first time his father has properly referred to him by name (rather than condescendingly calling him Junior), and that his father did not want to risk losing him even to retrieve the Grail, Indiana reluctantly obeys. The Grail and the old knight are left in the ruins as the Joneses, Brody, and Sallah escape the crumbling temple. Afterward, Henry reveals that Indiana was the family dog's name, much to Sallah's amusement, and that Indiana's real name is Henry Jones, Jr. All four then ride off into the sunset.

Production

After the release of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg decided to complete the trilogy in order to fulfil his promise to George Lucas, and "to apologize for the second one". He turned down Rain Man and Big to make the film. The filmmakers returned to previously possible concepts of the Monkey King and a haunted castle, before Lucas suggested the Holy Grail. Spielberg had previously rejected it as too ethereal, and because he associated it too much with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Then he came up with telling a father-son story. He thought, "The Grail that everybody seeks could be a metaphor for a son seeking reconciliation with a father and a father seeking reconciliation with a son." Harrison Ford concurred, "It outfoxes the sequel syndrome." Lucas came up with the opening flashback of Indiana as a teenager. Menno Meyjes, who worked on The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun with Spielberg, co-wrote the story with Lucas while Jeffrey Boam wrote the script. Tom Stoppard polished the dialogue.

Filming began on May 16, 1988 with a budget of $36 million, shooting in Venice, Almeria, Jordan, Austria, Germany, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Texas. Filming began in Almeria, Spain, where the tank fight was shot. Spielberg had originally planned the tank fight to be a short sequence shot over two days, but he drew up storyboards to make the scene an action-packed centerpiece of the film. In Sean Connery's words, "The invention just went on and on." It took two weeks to film the entire ten-minute sequence. Two tanks were built for the scene. A smaller version consisting only of the tank's upper half was used for close-ups of the fight. Almeria was also used for Indiana and Henry Jones fleeing the Nazi planes. For the scene where Henry uses seagulls to take down a plane, the seagulls trained for the scene did not fly. After a ruined take, Spielberg decided to use doves instead.

The crew moved to Majorca, to finish off the plane sequence. They went to Guadix Station, Granada, which was transformed into Iskenderun, the marketplace where Brody is captured. After a total of three weeks in Spain, filming was conducted at Elstree Studios for ten weeks for various interior scenes. This included the catacombs sequence. 2000 rats were specially bred for the sequence, to keep out disease. Mechanical rats were also used. The shots of Indiana battling Kazim near a propeller was also shot at Elstree, and the German airport and the inside of the Zeppelin, were filmed there. The UK shoot also included visits to the Tilbury Docks in Essex, and the Stowe School in. Shooting in Venice began on August 7, 1988. The crew took over the Grand Canal for the boat sequences, and the San Barnaba di Venezia served as the exterior for the fictional Venetian church-turned-library. They shot at St. Mark's Square and the Doges Palace, before moving to the ancient city of Petra, which stood in for the temple of the Grail. The crew and cast became guests of the Royal Family of Jordan. River Phoenix shot his scenes in September, three weeks after main filming wrapped. After viewing a rough cut, Spielberg added the motorbike chase which was shot at Lucas Valley.

Cast

• Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones: The intrepid archaeologist and adventurer who seeks to rescue his estranged father.
• River Phoenix played the 13-year old Indiana. He had acted opposite Ford in The Mosquito Coast. Ford personally recommended Phoenix for the part, citing that of all the young actors working at the time, River Phoenix was the one who looked the most like himself when he was around that age.
• Sean Connery as Professor Henry Jones: Indiana's father, who cared more for looking for the Grail than for raising his son. Spielberg suggested Connery as Henry Jones, feeling no one else but the first James Bond could pull off the role. Connery initially turned it down, as he was only twelve years older than Ford, but he relented. Being a student of history himself, Connery began to reshape the character into somebody who was a match for his son. He told Spielberg, "Look, whatever Indy'd done my character done and my character has done it better."
• Denholm Elliott as Dr. Marcus Brody: Indiana's bumbling colleague. Elliott reprised the role as Spielberg sought to recapture the tone of Raiders of the Lost Ark, following their absence in the darker Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
• John Rhys-Davies as Sallah: A friend of Indiana and a professional excavator living in Cairo. Like Elliott, Rhys-Davies's return was another attempt to recapture the spirit of Raiders.
• Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider: An Austrian professor who is in league with the Nazis. She seduced both of the Joneses in order to trick them.
• Julian Glover as Walter Donovan: An American businessman who sent the Joneses on their quest for the Holy Grail. Donovan works for the Nazis and desires immortality.
• Michael Byrne as Colonel Vogel: A brutal Nazi colonel.
• Kevork Malikyan as Kazim: The leader of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, the organization that protects the Holy Grail.
• Robert Eddison as the the Knight who guards the Grail. He drank from the cup of Christ during the Crusades and is immortal as long as he stays away from the marked entrance.

Release

The film opened in 2,327 theaters in North America. The Last Crusade is estimated to have grossed over $197 million in the United States and $474 million worldwide. These sales figures put the film second to Batman in the United States and first globally for 1989. The film was also well received by critics, earning a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing and also it received nominations for Original Score and Sound, but lost to The Little Mermaid by Alan Menken and Glory respectively.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was released on laserdisc and VHS in 1990 and on DVD in October 2003. A VHS release in 1999 and the DVD release was packaged with the previous two theatrical films in the series: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Reaction

This installment in the Indiana Jones series has more humor than the previous two films. The humor is mainly shown through the relationship between Indiana and his father. Marcus Brody is also a much less serious character than his previous appearance in Raiders of the Lost Ark, being described as a museum curator who "once got lost in his own museum." The lightheartedness of the movie especially contrasts to its predecessor Temple of Doom, which is usually cited as the "darkest" in the trilogy.

The stunt where Indy jumps from a horse down onto a tank — performed by legendary stunt man and coordinator, Vic Armstrong — was voted one of the 10 best stunts of all time by Sky Movies viewers in the UK in 2002. The film has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.