Movie Review – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Five years after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones returned for a third (and what was then) final movie in the legendary film franchise.
While the Temple of Doom was a dark and evil film, Last Crusade ended the trilogy on a lighter and more uplifting note. And when it premiered on May 24, 1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade proved to be not only a smash hit, but an epic conclusion for one of the most successful movie trilogies of all time.
This time around Indy brings along his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade starts back in 1912 as young Indy (River Phoenix) is just a thirteen-year-old Boy Scout. As he’s out with his fellow scouts in the mountainous terrain of southern Utah, Indy and his friend go off and explore some caves. They hear some digging and quickly discover a gang of robbers. The robbers, as Indy explained to his fellow Boy Scout, discover a cross that belonged to Coronado. “It belongs in a museum.”
Indy quietly snatched the cross from the robbers, but he’s spotted and the robbers give chase. The young adventurer rides horseback and flees to a circus train. There he dodges and escapes above and through the different animal cars, trying to lose the robbers. It’s in a boxcar with a lion where Indy meets his destiny with his trademark tool and weapon: the bullwhip.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
After escaping from the robbers, Indy runs home and tries to show his father Coronado’s cross. Before he gets a chance, the other Boy Scout returns with the town’s sheriff, and to Indy’s surprise, the very robbers that he was fleeing. The sheriff sides with the robbers and Indy is forced to give them back the cross that once belonged to the legendary Spanish conquistador.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Fast forward to 1938.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has caught up with the Cross of Coronado aboard a tramp steamer. The ship’s crew captured him, and Indy fought the crew and escaped the ship before it exploded. Shortly later he returned to Barnett College and proudly presented Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) with the cross, donating it to his museum.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
After fleeing from his students out a window, Dr. Jones is kidnapped and taken to the home of Walter Donovan (Julian Glover). Donovan shows Indy a stone engraving telling part of the tail of the Holy Grail. The stone is considered to be one of the markers leading the way to the secret location of the holy object. Indy tells Donovan that he should have consulted with his father if he wanted better help for finding the Holy Grail. Donovan informs him that Henry Jones, Sr., his team’s leader, had vanished.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Indy goes to his father’s home and discovers that it’s been ransacked. He then discovers that a package recently mailed to his college address contained his father’s diary, a book full of his father’s years of painstaking research into the Holy Grail. It’s up to Indiana Jones to follow in his father’s footsteps and pick up the search for the Holy Grail.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody head to Venice, Italy, the last known location of Henry Jones, Sr. There they meet with Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), Henry’s colleague and project assistant. It’s in a library (Schneider explained that it used to be an old church) where Indy discovers a secret entrance to underground catacombs. He and Elsa descend underneath the library and ultimately discover the tomb of one of the three brothers who discovered the Holy Grail during the First Crusade. The inscription on the knight’s shield tells them the location of the Holy Grail’s resting place.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
While Indy and Elsa are underground, Marcus is attacked by members of The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret organization dedicated to protecting the Holy Grail. The set the catacombs on fire, but Indy and Elsa escape. They’re then pursued by the Brotherhood in a thrilling boat chase through Venice’s busy waterways.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
After sparing one of the attackers, Indy learns the location where his father is being held captive. Together, he and Elsa travel to Brunwald Castle on the Austria-German border. They infiltrate the castle and Indy rescues his father (Sean Connery) from his prison cell. Indy and his father are captured, and there Indy learns that Else was working with the Nazis the whole time and using Indy to help them find the Grail. After escaping from a fiery room and outwitting Nazis in a motorcycle chase, Indy and his father ultimately escape from Brunwald Castle.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
But that’s just part of the adventure in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
The remainder of the movie involves a chance encounter with Adolf Hitler, an escape from an airship, battling German troops and a tank out in the desert, and Indy’s ultimate challenge of faith battling the three traps that secure the Holy Grail.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
As a whole, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a fantastic adventure movie and perfect conclusion to the Indiana Jones movie trilogy. The story is original, the action scenes are excellent, and the movie even throws in a few laughs along the way.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Indy’s relationship with his father shows more of the human side behind the ass-kicking archaeologist and college professor. While this isn’t a new concept for Spielberg or other films from the mid to late 1980s, it’s still an interesting story when it’s done correctly. Here in Last Crusade, it works. Sean Connery does an outstanding job playing the role of Henry Jones, Sr. You can practically feel the tension at times between Indy and his father’s estranged relationship.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Part of what makes Last Crusade so interesting is Indy’s father and the back story between the two of them. But that’s in addition to Indy’s mission for the Cross of Coronado and him and his father’s ultimate quest for the Holy Grail. Throw in the Nazis also racing for the Grail, and there you go. Lots of action, lots of adventure, and lots of fun.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is an outstanding film. Personally, I like Raiders of the Lost Ark better, but it’s a fine line between Raiders and Last Crusade. They’re both tremendous films.
Indiana Jones Diet Coke commercial
The worst thing about Last Crusade was that it was (at that time) the final of the Indiana Jones movies. Sure, we’d have the Young Indiana Jones TV series for a few years after that, but no more movies until 2008, almost twenty years after Last Crusade. There were computer games, novels, action figures, and even some theme park attractions, but no more Indiana Jones movies.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – movie trailer
If you’re a fan of Indiana Jones or adventure movies, then Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a must for your video collection. ‘Nuff said.
Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (to Indy while being rescued from a German tank) – “You call this archaeology?”