I review Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade In 1912, 13-year-old Indiana Jones is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop in Moab, Utah. He discovers a group of thugs who have found a golden cross that belonged to Coronado and steals it from them, hoping to donate it to a museum. The men give chase through a passing circus train and Indy escapes but the sheriff makes him return the cross. Meanwhile, Indy's oblivious father, Henry Jones, Sr., is logging extensive research on the Holy Grail in a diary. This episode shows the origin of Indiana Jones' hat, bullwhip, chin scar, and phobia of snakes. In 1938, Indy recovers the cross (in a harrowing battle at sea) and donates it to Marcus Brody's museum. Later, Indy is introduced to Walter Donovan, who informs him that Henry has vanished while searching for the Grail, using an incomplete inscription as his guide. Indy then receives Henry's Grail diary via mail from Venice. Realizing that he would not have sent the diary unless he was in trouble, Indy and Marcus travel to Venice, where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover the tomb of a First Crusade knight, which also contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used, this one revealing the location of the Grail. They flee, however, when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society that protects the Grail from evildoers. After a speedboat chase, Indy and Elsa capture the Brotherhood's leader, Kazim, and Indy tells him that his goal is only to find his father and that he has no interest in finding the Grail. Kazim tells him that Henry was abducted to Castle Brunwald on the Austrian-German border. Marcus later reveals a map drawn by Henry of the route to the Grail, which begins in Alexandretta. At Castle Brunwald, Indy rescues Henry, but learns that Elsa and Donovan are actually Nazis using him to find the Grail for them. Meanwhile, Marcus is captured in Hatay, Turkey while waiting with Sallah for the Joneses. The Joneses escape from Castle Brunwald and recover the diary from Elsa at a Nazi rally in Berlin, barely escaping an accidental face to face encounter with Adolf Hitler. They board a Zeppelin to leave Germany, but the Zeppelin soon turns around and the Joneses escape in a parasite biplane. They crash while engaging in a dogfight with the Luftwaffe, but manage to beat off the attacking planes from the ground. The two meet up with Sallah in Hatay, where they learn of Marcus's abduction. The Nazis are already moving towards the Grail's location, using the map possessed by Marcus. In exchange for a Rolls-Royce Phantom II, the Sultan of Hatay has given the Nazis full access to his equipment for the expedition, including a large tank. Indy, Henry, and Sallah find the Nazi expedition, which is suddenly ambushed by the Brotherhood. During the battle, Henry is captured while attempting to rescue Marcus from the tank. The younger Jones pursues the tank on horseback and, with the aid of Sallah, saves Henry and Marcus before the tank goes over a cliff. Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah catch up with the surviving Nazis, including Donovan and Elsa, who have found the temple where the Grail is kept but are unable to pass through the three protective booby traps. Donovan shoots Henry, mortally wounding him, and Indy is forced to risk his life in the traps to find the Grail and use its healing power to save Henry. Using the information in the diary and followed by Donovan and Elsa, Indy successfully reaches the Grail's chamber, which is guarded by a knight. He has been kept alive for seven hundred years by the power of the Grail, which is hidden among dozens of fake Grails. Elsa betrays Donovan by deliberately giving him a fake Grail, which causes him to decay into dust upon drinking from it. Indy then uses his expert knowledge to find the true Grail, which the knight warns cannot be taken beyond the great seal at the temple's entrance. Indy fills the Grail with water and takes it to Henry, who is instantly healed. Elsa then takes the Grail past the great seal, ignoring the knight's warning. The temple begins to rapidly collapse and, even as Indy attempts to save her, Elsa falls to her death into an abyss because she is unable to let go of her obsession with the Grail. Indy nearly suffers the same fate, but is saved by Henry. The Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah then narrowly escape the collapsing temple before riding off into the sunset.

• published: 14 May 2014
• views: 785