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Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
In Steven Spielberg's third action-adventure film in
the series franchise - about the late 1930s search for the authentic
Holy Grail, in competition with the Nazis, to attain its life giving
properties:
- the amazing stuntwork during the "Young Indiana
Jones" prologue sequence (with River Phoenix playing a teenaged
Indiana Jones as a Boy Scout, and showing early antecedents in
1912 of his first use of a whip - the reason for his chin scar,
his fedora, his phobia about snakes, etc.), in which Indy fought
throughout a passing circus train against treasure-hunting cave
robbers who had acquired the famed Cross of Coronado, a gold crucifix
- the exciting speed-boat chase scene in Venice in the
late 1930s, with grown-up Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his father's
flirtatious, sultry blonde Austrian art professor/colleague, Dr.
Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), fleeing from machine-gun fire delivered
by a secret society - members of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform
Sword, who thought he was looking for the Holy Grail (the ancient
cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper); Indy claimed otherwise: ("I
didn't come for the Cup of Christ. I came to find my father")
- the rat-infested catacombs and sewers under Venice
- Indy's suspicions about Dr. Schneider - who was actually
secretly working undercover with the Nazi sympathizer, leader and
art collector Walter Donovan (Julian Glover); he angrily told her: "Since
I met you, I've nearly been incinerated, drowned, shot at, and chopped
into fish bait. We're caught in the middle of something sinister
here. My guess is Dad found out more than he was looking for. And
until I'm sure, I'm gonna continue to do things the way I think they
should be done"; during their subsequent and memorable kissing
scene, he forcefully kissed her, and she exploded back at him: "How
dare you kiss me!" but grabbed his head and aggressively lip-locked
with him; when he finally came up for air, Indy threatened: "Leave
me alone. I don't like fast women," although they continued
their passionate kissing as she bit his ear and replied: "And
I hate arrogant men!"; they sank down to have sex, presumably,
as Indy sighed: "Ah, Venice!"
- the amusing and witty repartee between Indy and
his father Dr. Henry Jones (Sean Connery), a professor of antiquity
- including such lines as: "We named the dog Indiana," and
Indy's retort to his dad: "Don't call me Junior"
- the scene of Indy and his father tied up and about
to be consumed by fire in Castle Brunwald (a secret base for the
Nazis) on the German-Austrian border, and their successful escape,
although chased by a fleet of Nazis on motorcycles
- the many chase sequences (with a train, zeppelin,
boat, airplane - through a tunnel!, motorcycle, etc.)
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Indy Tied Up with Father Henry Jones (Sean Connery)
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Motorcycle Pursuit
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- the moment that Indy (disguised as a Third Reich
officer) accidentally came face-to-face in a crowd of Nazis at
a Berlin book-burning rally, with Hitler (Michael Sheard) himself
- and Indy surprisingly had Henry's Grail diary autographed by
the Fuhrer
- the scene onboard a Zeppelin in which Indy disguised
himself as a white-coated ticker-taker, and punched out brutal SS
Colonel Vogel (Michael Byrne) in pursuit - and then told the other
astonished passengers: "No ticket!"
- their search for the Holy Grail and combat against
the Nazis, including the scene-stealing moment when Indy's father
chased a flock of white seagulls along a beach shoreline with his
opening/closing umbrella as an unlikely weapon - and the technique
inadvertently caused a strafing Luftwaffe enemy Nazi plane to be
blinded and crash
- the sequence of Indy's major battle atop a giant
Nazi armored tank commandeered by Nazi Colonel Vogel, and the astonished
words of Henry when the tank carrying Indy went over a steep cliff
edge (taking Vogel to his death) and he believed his son was dead: "Oh,
God. I've lost him" - but Indiana had survived and showed up,
peering over the edge with everyone else
Indy's Struggle Atop Nazi Tank
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"Oh, God. I've lost him!"
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- the final, supernatural showdown in the Middle
Eastern Canyon of the Crescent Moon where the Jones' had to encounter
and evade three booby traps before they could find the sacred cup
- the climactic scene in which Nazi sympathizer Walter
Donovan was tricked by Dr. Elsa Schneider, already revealed as an
undercover Nazi agent, into drinking from a false Holy Grail (a solid
gold, emerald-encrusted goblet); he drank and then realized something
was wrong ("What is happening to me?"); afterwards, his
hair suddenly sprouted, and he quickly perished from immediate decomposition
when his body aged rapidly; his skeletal remains shattered and disintegrated
into dus
- the guardian Grail Knight (Robert Eddison) made a
calm observation:
"He chose... poorly"
- after Donovan died, Elsa told Indy: "It would
not be made out of gold" as he selected a different chalice
- a simple, worn, earthen-ware cup of a humble carpenter; Indy drank
from it and was told by the Knight: "You have chosen wisely"
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"Young Indiana Jones" Prologue Sequence
Speed-Boat Chase
Face to Face With Fuhrer Hitler
"No ticket!"
Dr. Jones Scaring Flock of White Seagulls
Donovan Drinking From Wrong Grail Cup
Grail Knight: "He chose...poorly"
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