Plot:
In 1912, 13-year-old Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop at Arches National Park in Utah. While scouting caves, Jones discovers a group of grave robbers who have found a golden crucifix belonging to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and steals it from them, hoping to donate it to a museum. The men give chase through a passing circus train, leaving Jones with a bloody cut across his chin from a bullwhip and a new phobia of snakes. Jones escapes, but the local sheriff makes him return the cross to the robbers, who immediately turn it over to a mysterious benefactor wearing a Panama hat. Impressed with the boy's bravery, the leader of the robbers gives Jones his hat.
In 1938, Indiana Jones fights "Panama Hat" and his henchmen on a ship off the coast of Portugal. Escaping overboard just before the ship explodes, he recovers the cross and donates it to Marcus Brody's museum. Later, Jones learns from Walter Donovan that his father, Henry Jones, Sr., was searching for the Holy Grail using an incomplete inscription from a stone tablet as a guide and has since vanished. Jones receives Henry's Grail diary via mail from Venice and heads there with Marcus, where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr. Elsa Schneider.
Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Jones and Elsa discover a set of half-flooded catacombs that house the tomb of a First Crusade knight that contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used, revealing the location of the Grail. They flee when the petroleum-saturated waters of the catacombs are set on fire by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society whose mission is to protect the Grail. Jones and Elsa capture Brotherhood member Kazim. When Jones explains that his only goal is to find his father, not the Grail, Kazim tells them Henry's location. Looking through the diary, Marcus finds a map drawn by Henry of the route to the Grail, which begins in the ancient city of Alexandretta. Jones removes the map from the diary, gives it to Marcus for safekeeping, and sends him to İskenderun, the city built on the ruins of Alexandretta, to rendezvous with their old friend Sallah. Elsa begins a relationship with Jones before they depart to find Henry.
Jones and Elsa head to a Nazi-controlled castle in Austria where Henry is being held. Jones finds Henry and frees him only to be quickly captured by SS Colonel Ernst Vogel. He learns that both Elsa and Donovan are Nazis, who are using the Joneses to find the Grail for them. Elsa kisses Jones goodbye as she departs with Donovan and Vogel. Marcus is captured in Hatay State while meeting with Sallah. After their escape from the castle, Henry tells Jones that the Grail is guarded by three booby traps and his diary contains clues needed to pass them safely. Disguised as a German Army colonel, Jones recovers the diary from Elsa at a Nazi book burning rally in Berlin and comes face to face with Adolf Hitler, who autographs the book without recognizing it or him. Indy and Henry board a Zeppelin to leave Germany, but are discovered and forced to escape in its parasite biplane. A dogfight with Luftwaffe fighters ensues; although Jones and Henry are forced to crash-land, they survive and successfully bring down their pursuers.
In Hatay, Sallah tells them of Marcus's abduction. The Nazis have been equipped by the Sultan of Hatay and are already moving toward the Grail's location, using the map possessed by Marcus. Jones, Henry, and Sallah find the Nazi expedition, which is ambushed by the Brotherhood. During the battle, Henry is captured by Vogel while attempting to rescue Marcus; Kazim and his comrades are killed. Jones pursues the tank on horseback and, with the aid of Sallah, saves Henry and Marcus. He is caught up in a fight with Vogel, but escapes just before the tank goes over a cliff, sending Vogel to his death.
Jones, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah catch up with the surviving Nazis, led by Donovan and Elsa, who have found the temple in The Canyon of the Crescent Moon where the Holy Grail is kept but are unable to get past the first trap. Donovan shoots and mortally wounds Henry to force Jones to risk his life in the traps to find the Grail and use its healing power to save his father. Using the information in the diary and followed by Donovan and Elsa, Jones safely overcomes the traps (which include fast-moving saw blades, a word puzzle, and a hidden bridge over a bottomless pit) and reaches the Grail's chamber, which is guarded by a knight. The man has been kept alive for 700 years by the power of the Grail, which is hidden among dozens of false grails. The true Grail grants eternal life, while the false ones will kill any user. Elsa selects a wrong cup for Donovan, causing him to rapidly age and crumble to dust after drinking from it. Jones drinks from a simple clay cup that proves to be the true Grail,[3] but the knight warns that it cannot be taken out of the temple and that its guardian must stay within in order to remain immortal.
Jones fills the Grail with holy water and brings it to Henry, healing him instantly. Elsa disregards the knight's warning and tries to take the Grail with her, causing the temple to collapse around them when she crosses the Great Seal set in the floor at the entrance. When the Grail falls into a chasm in the floor, Elsa plummets to her death trying to recover it. Jones nearly suffers the same fate before Henry persuades him to leave it. The Grail Knight bids them farewell as they escape. After leaving the temple, the Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah ride off into the sunset.
Cast
See also: List of Indiana Jones characters
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones: The archaeologist professor and adventurer, who seeks to rescue his father and find the Holy Grail. Ford said he loved the idea of introducing Indiana's father because it allowed him to explore another side to Indiana's personality: "These are men who have never made any accommodation to each other. Indy behaves differently in his father's presence. Who else would dare call Indy 'junior'?"[4]
River Phoenix as a younger Indiana Jones. Phoenix had portrayed the son of Ford's character in The Mosquito Coast (1986). Ford recommended Phoenix for the part; he said that of the young actors working at the time, Phoenix looked the most like him when he was around that age.[5]
Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr.: Indiana's father, a professor of Medieval literature who cared more about looking for the Grail than raising his son. Spielberg had Connery in mind when he suggested introducing Indiana's father, though he did not tell Lucas at first. Consequently, Lucas wrote the role as "a crazy, eccentric" professor resembling Laurence Olivier, whose relationship with Indiana is "strict schoolmaster and student rather than a father and son".[6] Spielberg had been a fan of Connery's work as James Bond and felt that no one else could perform the role as well.[7] Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride wrote, "Connery was already the father of Indiana Jones since the series had sprung from the desire of Lucas and Spielberg to rival (and outdo) Connery's James Bond films."[8] Connery initially turned the role down as he was only twelve years older than Ford, but he relented. Connery—a student of history—began to reshape the character, and revisions were made to the script to address his concerns. "I wanted to play Henry Jones as a kind of Richard Francis Burton," Connery commented. "I was bound to have fun with the role of a gruff, Victorian Scottish father."[7] Connery believed Henry should be a match for his son, telling Spielberg that "whatever Indy'd done my character has done and my character has done it better".[5] Connery signed to the film on March 25, 1988.[6] He improvised the line, "She talks in her sleep", which was left in because it made everyone laugh;[9] in Boam's scripts, Henry telling Indiana that he slept with Elsa occurs later.[6]
Alex Hyde-White plays Henry in the film's prologue, though his face is never shown and his lines were dubbed by Connery.
Denholm Elliott as Marcus Brody: Indiana's bumbling English colleague. Elliott returned after Spielberg sought to recapture the tone of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), following the actor's absence in the darker Temple of Doom (1984).[5]
Alison Doody as Elsa Schneider: An Austrian art professor and Indy's love interest, who is in league with the Nazis. She seduces the Joneses to trick them but seems to be in love with Indy. While the character of Elsa is in her 30s during the film, Doody was 21 when she auditioned and was one of the first actresses who met for the part.[6]
John Rhys-Davies as Sallah: A friend of Indiana and a professional excavator living in Cairo. Like Elliott's, Rhys-Davies's return was an attempt to recapture the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark.[5]
Julian Glover as Walter Donovan: An American businessman who sends the Joneses on their quest for the Holy Grail out of a desire for immortality while secretly working with the Nazis for the same goal. Glover previously appeared as General Veers in Lucas's The Empire Strikes Back. He originally auditioned for the role of Vogel. Glover, who is English, adopted an American accent for the film,[10] but was dissatisfied with the result.[5]
Additionally, Michael Byrne portrays Ernst Vogel, a brutal SS colonel. Byrne and Ford had previously starred in Force 10 from Navarone (1978), in which they also respectively played a German and an American.[11] Kevork Malikyan portrays Kazim, the leader of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, an organization that protects the Holy Grail. Malikyan had impressed Spielberg with his performance in Midnight Express (1978) and would have auditioned for the role of Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark had a traffic jam not delayed his meeting with the director.[11] Robert Eddison appears as the Grail Knight, the guardian of the Grail who drank from the cup of Christ during the Crusades and is immortal as long as he stays within the temple. Eddison was a stage and television veteran only appearing in a few films since the 1930s (including a supporting role in Peter Ustinov's 1948 comedy Vice Versa). Glover recalled Eddison was excited and nervous for his return to film, often asking if he had performed correctly.[12] Laurence Olivier was originally considered to play the Grail Knight,[13] but he was too ill and died the same year in which the film was released.
Michael Sheard appears as Adolf Hitler, whom Jones briefly encounters at the book-burning rally in Berlin. Although a non-speaking role, Sheard could speak German and had already portrayed Hitler three times during his career. He had also appeared as Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back and as Oskar Schomburg in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the same scene, Ronald Lacey, who played Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark, cameos as Heinrich Himmler. Alexei Sayle played the sultan of Hatay. Paul Maxwell portrayed "the man with the Panama Hat" who took possession of the Cross of Coronado. Wrestler and stuntman Pat Roach, who played three roles in the previous two films, made a short cameo as the Nazi who accompanies Vogel to the Zeppelin. Roach was set to film a fight with Ford, but it was cut. In a deleted scene, Roach's agent boards the second biplane on the Zeppelin with a World War I flying ace (played by Frederick Jaeger), only for the pair to fall to their deaths after the flying ace makes an error. Richard Young played Garth «Fedora», the leader of the tomb robbers who chased young Indiana Jones and then gives him his hat. Eugene Lipinski portrayed the mysterious agent G-Man, while Vernon Dobtcheff appeared as Butler.
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