Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

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.)

• 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

• 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"