Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
24 May 1989 ● English ● 2 hrs 6 mins
This action-oriented thriller follows the twists and turns in the life of Indiana Jones, famed adventurer and archaeologist, when he acquires a diary that holds clues and a map with no names to find the mysterious Holy Grail, which was sent from his father, Dr. Henry Jones, in Italy.
Upon hearing from a private collector, Walter Donavan, that the mission for the Holy Grail went astray with the disappearance of his father, Indiana Jones and museum curator Marcus Brody venture to Italy in search of Indy's father.
However, upon retrieving Dr. Henry Jones in Nazi territory, the rescue mission turns into a race to find the Holy Grail before the Nazis do – who plan to use it for complete world domination for their super-race. With the diary as a vital key and the map with no names as a guide, Indiana Jones once again finds himself in another death defying adventure of pure excitement.
Cast: Alison Doody, Harrison Ford
Crew: Steven Spielberg (Director), Douglas Slocombe (Director of Photography), John Williams (Music Director)
Rating: U (India)
Release Dates: 24 May 1989 (India)
Tagline: He's back in an all new adventure.
Did you know? Steven Spielberg's favorite of the first three "Indiana Jones" films. Read More
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Direction
Director
Production
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Film Type:
Feature
Language:
English
Colour Info:
Color
Sound Mix:
6-Track 70mm, Dolby
Frame Rate:
24 fps
Aspect Ratio:
2.39:1 (Scope)
Stereoscopy:
No
Taglines:
He's back in an all new adventure.
Have the adventure of your life keeping up with the Joneses.
The man with the hat is back. And this time, he's bringing his Dad.
Have the adventure of your life keeping up with the Joneses.
The man with the hat is back. And this time, he's bringing his Dad.
Movie Connection(s):
Spoofed in: Despicable Me 2 (English)
Goofs:
Audio/Video Mismatch
The butler in the castle says "... and if you are a Scottish lord, then I am Mickey Mouse," but his mouth says "... then I am Jesse Owens". The line was altered in post-production because it was assumed that audiences wouldn't know who Jesse Owens was.
Audio/Video Mismatch
When the chubby Boy Scout is asking Young Indy what the grave robbers are doing, his lips are clearly not moving; the words were obviously dubbed in after the film footage was shot.
Audio/Video Mismatch
The last Luftwaffe fighter plane gets disabled by the seagulls flying up, and we see the propeller stop and hear the engine sputter out. Yet in the shot of the plane whizzing toward its fiery demise on the hillside, we hear its engine droning again.
Audio/Video Mismatch
At the end of the boat scene, "Because you're looking for the holy grail."
Character Error
The crucifix shown on the old knight's tunic is not a type associated with Western Christianity in its Catholic form. It is, however, used commonly by the Greek Orthodox church. The Crucifix used by the soldiers of the First Crusade was an even-legged variety and nowhere near as complex as the one shown in the movie. Perhaps he obtained this item from someone else.
Character Error
When Henry tells Indiana to count to 20 in Greek, Indiana starts counting in Modern Greek. But a medieval scholar like Henry would certainly have intended his son to count in Ancient Greek.
Character Error
In at least one scene, the SS officer Vogel is referred to as 'Herr Oberst' (Colonel), while his lapel insignia are those of a Standartenführer (SS equivalent to Colonel). An SS officer would have hated being called by an army rank.
Character Error
When Indiana Jones first sees the tablet, he identifies it as an Early Latin text from the mid 12th Century. The text is not Early Latin, but rather Late Latin. Early Latin refers to Latin before the Golden Age of Cicero and Caesar. In the 12th Century, people used only Medieval Latin.
Character Error
While Indy is in Germany, Colonel Vogel is seen wearing a black SS dress uniform. It is quite unlikely that he would be wearing a dress uniform in the field, and would more likely be wearing the gray field uniform seen later in the film.
Character Error
Elsa claims that she competed and won the silver medal in the 50 meter freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympics for the Austrian swim team. In actuality, the event wasn't introduced in the real world Olympic Games until the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Character Error
In the library/church Elsa states "we are on holy ground". This is incorrect. Any church would be de-sanctified before it was put to another use. An archeologist should know that.
Character Error
The Rolls-Royce is in fact not a Phantom II but the smaller, cheaper 20/25; the engine displacement and power data is neither correct for the Phantom II nor the 20/25, and finally such a heavy car could never accelerate 0-100 km/h in only 12.5 sec if it only had the measly 30 bhp the character talks about. As a reference the real Phantom II could only do 0-100 in 14.5s despite having a peak power of 122 bhp.
Continuity
The large X at the library is shown dark with a white background and a red frame when Indy is looking at it from the top of the staircase, but it has no white background when he starts breaking the tiles a few seconds later.
Continuity
After swimming under petrol in the catacombs, Jones surfaces completely dry, except his wet hair, which makes wet spots on his clothes.
Continuity
Indy and Elsa's boat is hit by submachine gun fire and sputters out, dark smoke billowing behind them. Elsa maneuvers the boat away whilst Indy duels on the other boat. When Indy is done fighting and his boat is being chopped to bits, Elsa maneuvers the boat back and ably picks up Indy and Kazim. That same boat (same bullet holes in the windscreen) is speeding down the Grand Canal a few moments later.
Continuity
In the library scene in Venice, the librarian stamps a book twice and places it on a stack immediately above two books with blue pages. In the next shot of the librarian, there are two books between the one with two stamps and the 'blue books'.
Continuity
When Indy is hanging from the gun barrel on the side of the tank as it is grinding into the side of the cliff, the strap of his bag is looped around the barrel, which was too long for the bag strap to have gotten looped around it.
Crew/Equipment Visible
Wire holding the bow of the boat when it's near the propeller.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Indiana finishes crossing the invisible path and enters the room with the grail and the knight you can just see the shadow of someone moving (its definitely not the knight's shadow and there wasn't a hat on the shadow either so it's not Indiana, either).
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Indy and Dr. Schneider enter the castle to view the tapestries, behind them at the entrance door you can see someone walk across the door frame on the outside.
Errors in Geography
Unlike Rome, Italy, there are no catacombs beneath the city of Venice. If there were, they would certainly be below the water table and very likely flooded. Furthermore, there is no rock beneath Venice in which catacombs could exist. Venice is built on mud flats with hundreds of meters of poorly consolidated sands, silts, and clays below that. The foundations of the buildings are wooden pilings driven into the mud.
Errors in Geography
The beginning part of the movie is set and filmed in Moab, Utah. But when the Young Indy is being chased by men onto the train, they quickly go through some forested land for a long time, with a green meadow. The nearest landscape like that would be in Southwestern Colorado, or Central Utah, not Eastern Utah as depicted.
Factual Mistake
If a match would cause catacombs to explode, Indy's torch would have certainly set them alight first.
Factual Mistake
Blasting holes through the rudder of a small plane will not disable it, especially when Jones Sr.'s body was enough to cause wind drag. Although level turning would be impossible, the plane could still maneuver with the wing ailerons, which are more critical to level flight if ever damaged.
Factual Mistake
There are a number of factual errors involving the Zeppelin seen in the film. The registration is given as "D-138." All actual Zeppelins used for passenger travel had a registration number in a "D-LZ (number)" format. Even if this number was meant to be consistent with actual Zeppelins, no real life Zeppelin was built after the D-LZ130 Graf Zeppelin II, which was manufactured alongside the Hindenburg but was never used for commercial travel. Finally, the film is set in 1938, and no commercial Zeppelin travel continued following the Hindenburg disaster in May of 1937.
Continuity
When Indy is fighting on the tank, his father falls onto the tracks and Indy uses his whip to stop him from going over. Then when Sallah rides up on the horse to rescue Indy's father, Indy is seen throwing the whip to Sallah on the horse. After the tank falls off the cliff Indy is seen with the whip attached to his belt before any one even notices he is alive.
Continuity
When Indiana returns to his dying father with the Grail full of water, he empties the Grail completely on Henry's bullet wound to heal him. But a few moments later, when Henry takes the Grail from Indiana's hand, it still has water in it.
The butler in the castle says "... and if you are a Scottish lord, then I am Mickey Mouse," but his mouth says "... then I am Jesse Owens". The line was altered in post-production because it was assumed that audiences wouldn't know who Jesse Owens was.
Audio/Video Mismatch
When the chubby Boy Scout is asking Young Indy what the grave robbers are doing, his lips are clearly not moving; the words were obviously dubbed in after the film footage was shot.
Audio/Video Mismatch
The last Luftwaffe fighter plane gets disabled by the seagulls flying up, and we see the propeller stop and hear the engine sputter out. Yet in the shot of the plane whizzing toward its fiery demise on the hillside, we hear its engine droning again.
Audio/Video Mismatch
At the end of the boat scene, "Because you're looking for the holy grail."
Character Error
The crucifix shown on the old knight's tunic is not a type associated with Western Christianity in its Catholic form. It is, however, used commonly by the Greek Orthodox church. The Crucifix used by the soldiers of the First Crusade was an even-legged variety and nowhere near as complex as the one shown in the movie. Perhaps he obtained this item from someone else.
Character Error
When Henry tells Indiana to count to 20 in Greek, Indiana starts counting in Modern Greek. But a medieval scholar like Henry would certainly have intended his son to count in Ancient Greek.
Character Error
In at least one scene, the SS officer Vogel is referred to as 'Herr Oberst' (Colonel), while his lapel insignia are those of a Standartenführer (SS equivalent to Colonel). An SS officer would have hated being called by an army rank.
Character Error
When Indiana Jones first sees the tablet, he identifies it as an Early Latin text from the mid 12th Century. The text is not Early Latin, but rather Late Latin. Early Latin refers to Latin before the Golden Age of Cicero and Caesar. In the 12th Century, people used only Medieval Latin.
Character Error
While Indy is in Germany, Colonel Vogel is seen wearing a black SS dress uniform. It is quite unlikely that he would be wearing a dress uniform in the field, and would more likely be wearing the gray field uniform seen later in the film.
Character Error
Elsa claims that she competed and won the silver medal in the 50 meter freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympics for the Austrian swim team. In actuality, the event wasn't introduced in the real world Olympic Games until the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Character Error
In the library/church Elsa states "we are on holy ground". This is incorrect. Any church would be de-sanctified before it was put to another use. An archeologist should know that.
Character Error
The Rolls-Royce is in fact not a Phantom II but the smaller, cheaper 20/25; the engine displacement and power data is neither correct for the Phantom II nor the 20/25, and finally such a heavy car could never accelerate 0-100 km/h in only 12.5 sec if it only had the measly 30 bhp the character talks about. As a reference the real Phantom II could only do 0-100 in 14.5s despite having a peak power of 122 bhp.
Continuity
The large X at the library is shown dark with a white background and a red frame when Indy is looking at it from the top of the staircase, but it has no white background when he starts breaking the tiles a few seconds later.
Continuity
After swimming under petrol in the catacombs, Jones surfaces completely dry, except his wet hair, which makes wet spots on his clothes.
Continuity
Indy and Elsa's boat is hit by submachine gun fire and sputters out, dark smoke billowing behind them. Elsa maneuvers the boat away whilst Indy duels on the other boat. When Indy is done fighting and his boat is being chopped to bits, Elsa maneuvers the boat back and ably picks up Indy and Kazim. That same boat (same bullet holes in the windscreen) is speeding down the Grand Canal a few moments later.
Continuity
In the library scene in Venice, the librarian stamps a book twice and places it on a stack immediately above two books with blue pages. In the next shot of the librarian, there are two books between the one with two stamps and the 'blue books'.
Continuity
When Indy is hanging from the gun barrel on the side of the tank as it is grinding into the side of the cliff, the strap of his bag is looped around the barrel, which was too long for the bag strap to have gotten looped around it.
Crew/Equipment Visible
Wire holding the bow of the boat when it's near the propeller.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Indiana finishes crossing the invisible path and enters the room with the grail and the knight you can just see the shadow of someone moving (its definitely not the knight's shadow and there wasn't a hat on the shadow either so it's not Indiana, either).
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Indy and Dr. Schneider enter the castle to view the tapestries, behind them at the entrance door you can see someone walk across the door frame on the outside.
Errors in Geography
Unlike Rome, Italy, there are no catacombs beneath the city of Venice. If there were, they would certainly be below the water table and very likely flooded. Furthermore, there is no rock beneath Venice in which catacombs could exist. Venice is built on mud flats with hundreds of meters of poorly consolidated sands, silts, and clays below that. The foundations of the buildings are wooden pilings driven into the mud.
Errors in Geography
The beginning part of the movie is set and filmed in Moab, Utah. But when the Young Indy is being chased by men onto the train, they quickly go through some forested land for a long time, with a green meadow. The nearest landscape like that would be in Southwestern Colorado, or Central Utah, not Eastern Utah as depicted.
Factual Mistake
If a match would cause catacombs to explode, Indy's torch would have certainly set them alight first.
Factual Mistake
Blasting holes through the rudder of a small plane will not disable it, especially when Jones Sr.'s body was enough to cause wind drag. Although level turning would be impossible, the plane could still maneuver with the wing ailerons, which are more critical to level flight if ever damaged.
Factual Mistake
There are a number of factual errors involving the Zeppelin seen in the film. The registration is given as "D-138." All actual Zeppelins used for passenger travel had a registration number in a "D-LZ (number)" format. Even if this number was meant to be consistent with actual Zeppelins, no real life Zeppelin was built after the D-LZ130 Graf Zeppelin II, which was manufactured alongside the Hindenburg but was never used for commercial travel. Finally, the film is set in 1938, and no commercial Zeppelin travel continued following the Hindenburg disaster in May of 1937.
Continuity
When Indy is fighting on the tank, his father falls onto the tracks and Indy uses his whip to stop him from going over. Then when Sallah rides up on the horse to rescue Indy's father, Indy is seen throwing the whip to Sallah on the horse. After the tank falls off the cliff Indy is seen with the whip attached to his belt before any one even notices he is alive.
Continuity
When Indiana returns to his dying father with the Grail full of water, he empties the Grail completely on Henry's bullet wound to heal him. But a few moments later, when Henry takes the Grail from Indiana's hand, it still has water in it.
Trivia:
For the scene at the Nazi rally in Berlin (where Indy confronts Elsa and steals back the diary), Steven Spielberg had all the extras who did the "Sieg Heil" arm salute also put their other arms behind their backs and cross their fingers.
Steven Spielberg's favorite of the first three "Indiana Jones" films.
In the scene where Indy has to choose which cup is the grail, he picks the right one by saying "That's the cup of a carpenter". It is said in the Bible that Jesus - like his mortal father Joseph - was a carpenter. Interestingly, as a struggling actor Harrison Ford used a book on carpentry from the library to start doing odd jobs and earn a living. He was working on George Lucas' house.
Sean Connery and Harrison Ford wore no trousers during the shooting of the entire Zeppelin sequence (mainly because it was filmed in a very hot studio and Connery didn't want to sweat too much).
Steven Spielberg is on record as saying he made the film for two reasons: 1) to fulfill a three-picture obligation he had with George Lucas, and, 2) to atone for the criticism that he received for the previous installment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
When George Lucas met with Steven Spielberg to discuss a third Indiana Jones movie, he wanted to have it set in a haunted mansion. Spielberg had just finished Poltergeist (1982) and decided that he wanted to do something different. Lucas then came up with the idea of the Holy Grail and Spielberg added the idea of a father/son sub-story.
Watching Indiana wrestle with a Nazi, the soldier at the periscope tells his teammates, in German, "The Americans! They fight like girls!"
Most of the uniforms worn by the Nazis in the Berlin book burning scene are authentic WW2 uniforms and not costumes. A cache of old uniforms was found in Germany and obtained by costume designer Anthony Powell to be used in the film.
Harrison Ford nominated River Phoenix to play him as a teenager. When describing how he prepared for playing the role, Phoenix explained that he didn't really base his portrayal on the Indiana Jones character, but on Harrison Ford. So he observed Ford out of character before acting his part.
Henry Jones senior was, according to backstory material written but not presented in the film, born in the 1860s, and was a Scottish university professor before emigrating to Utah, where Indy was born. He was roughly 75 years old in 1938. Sean Connery was only 58 at the time of filming (and only 12 years older than Harrison Ford), hence the beard and general "old man" attire his character wears. Indy impersonating a Scottish lord at Castle Brunwald was a nod to this unspoken backstory.
Harrison Ford cut his chin in a car accident in Northern California when he was about 20. In the movie, this cut is explained by young Indiana Jones cutting his chin with a whip.
Sean Connery was always Steven Spielberg's first choice to play Indiana Jones's father, as an inside joke to say that James Bond is the father of Indiana Jones. If that had failed, Gregory Peck and Jon Pertwee were back-up choices for the role. Spielberg had always wanted to do a Bond film but did Indiana Jones as a James Bond type character. In keeping with the James Bond theme, the movie has many Bond movie co-stars: John Rhys-Davies, Alison Doody, Julian Glover, Stefan Kalipha, Pat Roach, and Eugene Lipinski.
When shooting in Venice, they were allowed to have complete control of the Grand Canal from 7am to 1pm for one day.
Two thousand rats were bred for the production (they had to be bred specially as ordinary rats would have been riddled with disease).
Indy's trademark hat, jacket, and whip currently reside in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. These items remained on display during filming of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as they used numerous duplicates for their prop costumes.
When Tom Stoppard was brought in for rewriting the dialogue, specifically the lines for Henry and the Henry-Indy exchange. He was paid $120,000. After the film's release and success, he was paid another $1 million as a bonus. In "The Last Crusade: An Oral History," an article published in Empire magazine in 2006, Spielberg said about the Jr. and Sr. conversations, "It was an emotional story but I didn't want to get sentimental. Their disconnection from each other was the basis for a lot of comedy. And it gave Tom Stoppard, who was uncredited, a lot to write. Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue."
The temple right at the end of the movie exists, but not in Alexandretta. It is in Petra, in Jordan. However, there is no inside to it - the doorway that can be seen on screen is huge, eight or nine people shoulder to shoulder can easily walk through it. It leads to a huge empty square room carved from the top down over two stories high. Similarly, they would be unable to get "lost" down the valley as the valley stretches for about a mile or so, and there is no other route but out. The filming at Petra was visited by Queen Noor and her children.
John Williams inserts the Ark of the Covenant's theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) when Indy and Elsa come across a representation of the Ark on a wall in the catacombs below Venice.
The character named "Fedora" in the credits (played by Richard Young) was in the script originally named Abner Ravenwood, Marion Ravenwood's father and Indiana's mentor who was mentioned in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
When Dr Jones Sr. scares the "seagulls" to fly up and stop the plane, they are in fact pigeons, and not seagulls, as seagulls are not trainable. If you look closely you can also see that there are a number of 'cut out' seagulls in the sand, which do not move as the others do.
During the Castle Brunwald rescue, Dr. Jones Sr. expresses dismay at Indy inadvertently bringing the diary into enemy hands saying that he "should have mailed it to The Marx Brothers". Harpo Marx revealed in his autobiography that he once really had to smuggle a journal of important documents out of Russia to keep them from falling into enemy hands.
First Indiana Jones movie to receive a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. Although Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) was instrumental in the development of the PG-13 rating, the MPAA only gave it a PG-rating.
Kevork Malikyan (Kazim) lost the role of Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to John Rhys-Davies, but was remembered by Steven Spielberg for this movie.
After Indy and Elsa kiss and hit the bed, Indy looks up and says, "Ahh, Venice", which is a nod to author Thomas Mann, who wrote the line in his 1912 book, "Death in Venice".
Laurence Olivier was briefly considered to play the Grail Knight, but he was too ill to commit to the role.
Unable to keep his hat on during the scene where he was chasing the tank on horseback despite trying glue, tape, and newspaper wedges, Harrison Ford pretended (in a "Making Of" special) to staple the hat to his head.
Denholm Elliott and John Rhys-Davies make their last appearances in the Indiana Jones franchise as Marcus Brody and Sallah respectively. They were brought back to this film in order to give the film a lighter tone in contrast to the dark tone of the previous film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and due to their absences in that film. However, both characters are acknowledged in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
Chris Columbus wrote a rejected draft in which Indy traveled to Africa and dueled a Monkey prince, but the script was also rejected because of too many negative African stereotypes. However, the tank chase sequence in the film was taken from his draft.
River Phoenix becomes the first actor to portray Indiana Jones as a teenager. The prologue sequence featuring young Indy inspired George Lucas to create the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) released three years later. Phoenix was asked to play young Indy in that series, but turned it down, since he didn't want to return to television.
When Henry climbs into the tank to rescue Marcus, he taps Marcus on the shoulder (scaring him in the process), after which Henry says "Genius of the restoration...", to which Marcus replies with "...aid our own resuscitation!" That particular phrase was originally an old toast that was traditionally given at the University Club in Manhattan.
Steven Spielberg's favorite of the first three "Indiana Jones" films.
In the scene where Indy has to choose which cup is the grail, he picks the right one by saying "That's the cup of a carpenter". It is said in the Bible that Jesus - like his mortal father Joseph - was a carpenter. Interestingly, as a struggling actor Harrison Ford used a book on carpentry from the library to start doing odd jobs and earn a living. He was working on George Lucas' house.
Sean Connery and Harrison Ford wore no trousers during the shooting of the entire Zeppelin sequence (mainly because it was filmed in a very hot studio and Connery didn't want to sweat too much).
Steven Spielberg is on record as saying he made the film for two reasons: 1) to fulfill a three-picture obligation he had with George Lucas, and, 2) to atone for the criticism that he received for the previous installment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
When George Lucas met with Steven Spielberg to discuss a third Indiana Jones movie, he wanted to have it set in a haunted mansion. Spielberg had just finished Poltergeist (1982) and decided that he wanted to do something different. Lucas then came up with the idea of the Holy Grail and Spielberg added the idea of a father/son sub-story.
Watching Indiana wrestle with a Nazi, the soldier at the periscope tells his teammates, in German, "The Americans! They fight like girls!"
Most of the uniforms worn by the Nazis in the Berlin book burning scene are authentic WW2 uniforms and not costumes. A cache of old uniforms was found in Germany and obtained by costume designer Anthony Powell to be used in the film.
Harrison Ford nominated River Phoenix to play him as a teenager. When describing how he prepared for playing the role, Phoenix explained that he didn't really base his portrayal on the Indiana Jones character, but on Harrison Ford. So he observed Ford out of character before acting his part.
Henry Jones senior was, according to backstory material written but not presented in the film, born in the 1860s, and was a Scottish university professor before emigrating to Utah, where Indy was born. He was roughly 75 years old in 1938. Sean Connery was only 58 at the time of filming (and only 12 years older than Harrison Ford), hence the beard and general "old man" attire his character wears. Indy impersonating a Scottish lord at Castle Brunwald was a nod to this unspoken backstory.
Harrison Ford cut his chin in a car accident in Northern California when he was about 20. In the movie, this cut is explained by young Indiana Jones cutting his chin with a whip.
Sean Connery was always Steven Spielberg's first choice to play Indiana Jones's father, as an inside joke to say that James Bond is the father of Indiana Jones. If that had failed, Gregory Peck and Jon Pertwee were back-up choices for the role. Spielberg had always wanted to do a Bond film but did Indiana Jones as a James Bond type character. In keeping with the James Bond theme, the movie has many Bond movie co-stars: John Rhys-Davies, Alison Doody, Julian Glover, Stefan Kalipha, Pat Roach, and Eugene Lipinski.
When shooting in Venice, they were allowed to have complete control of the Grand Canal from 7am to 1pm for one day.
Two thousand rats were bred for the production (they had to be bred specially as ordinary rats would have been riddled with disease).
Indy's trademark hat, jacket, and whip currently reside in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. These items remained on display during filming of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as they used numerous duplicates for their prop costumes.
When Tom Stoppard was brought in for rewriting the dialogue, specifically the lines for Henry and the Henry-Indy exchange. He was paid $120,000. After the film's release and success, he was paid another $1 million as a bonus. In "The Last Crusade: An Oral History," an article published in Empire magazine in 2006, Spielberg said about the Jr. and Sr. conversations, "It was an emotional story but I didn't want to get sentimental. Their disconnection from each other was the basis for a lot of comedy. And it gave Tom Stoppard, who was uncredited, a lot to write. Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue."
The temple right at the end of the movie exists, but not in Alexandretta. It is in Petra, in Jordan. However, there is no inside to it - the doorway that can be seen on screen is huge, eight or nine people shoulder to shoulder can easily walk through it. It leads to a huge empty square room carved from the top down over two stories high. Similarly, they would be unable to get "lost" down the valley as the valley stretches for about a mile or so, and there is no other route but out. The filming at Petra was visited by Queen Noor and her children.
John Williams inserts the Ark of the Covenant's theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) when Indy and Elsa come across a representation of the Ark on a wall in the catacombs below Venice.
The character named "Fedora" in the credits (played by Richard Young) was in the script originally named Abner Ravenwood, Marion Ravenwood's father and Indiana's mentor who was mentioned in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
When Dr Jones Sr. scares the "seagulls" to fly up and stop the plane, they are in fact pigeons, and not seagulls, as seagulls are not trainable. If you look closely you can also see that there are a number of 'cut out' seagulls in the sand, which do not move as the others do.
During the Castle Brunwald rescue, Dr. Jones Sr. expresses dismay at Indy inadvertently bringing the diary into enemy hands saying that he "should have mailed it to The Marx Brothers". Harpo Marx revealed in his autobiography that he once really had to smuggle a journal of important documents out of Russia to keep them from falling into enemy hands.
First Indiana Jones movie to receive a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. Although Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) was instrumental in the development of the PG-13 rating, the MPAA only gave it a PG-rating.
Kevork Malikyan (Kazim) lost the role of Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to John Rhys-Davies, but was remembered by Steven Spielberg for this movie.
After Indy and Elsa kiss and hit the bed, Indy looks up and says, "Ahh, Venice", which is a nod to author Thomas Mann, who wrote the line in his 1912 book, "Death in Venice".
Laurence Olivier was briefly considered to play the Grail Knight, but he was too ill to commit to the role.
Unable to keep his hat on during the scene where he was chasing the tank on horseback despite trying glue, tape, and newspaper wedges, Harrison Ford pretended (in a "Making Of" special) to staple the hat to his head.
Denholm Elliott and John Rhys-Davies make their last appearances in the Indiana Jones franchise as Marcus Brody and Sallah respectively. They were brought back to this film in order to give the film a lighter tone in contrast to the dark tone of the previous film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and due to their absences in that film. However, both characters are acknowledged in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
Chris Columbus wrote a rejected draft in which Indy traveled to Africa and dueled a Monkey prince, but the script was also rejected because of too many negative African stereotypes. However, the tank chase sequence in the film was taken from his draft.
River Phoenix becomes the first actor to portray Indiana Jones as a teenager. The prologue sequence featuring young Indy inspired George Lucas to create the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) released three years later. Phoenix was asked to play young Indy in that series, but turned it down, since he didn't want to return to television.
When Henry climbs into the tank to rescue Marcus, he taps Marcus on the shoulder (scaring him in the process), after which Henry says "Genius of the restoration...", to which Marcus replies with "...aid our own resuscitation!" That particular phrase was originally an old toast that was traditionally given at the University Club in Manhattan.
