Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the third film in the franchise and was considered to be the last film until Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out many years later. This film (along with other films such as Batman, Back to the Future Part II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and The Little Mermaid) helped end the 1980’s with a huge bang and is considered by many people (as well as myself) to be a better sequel than Temple of Doom. Joining Indy (Harrison Ford) in this third film is his father, Professor Henry Jones Sr (Sir Sean Connery), Dr. Elsa Schneider (Allison Doody), Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott), Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), and Walter Donovan (Julian Glover).
So, here’s an interesting story. I did not know much about Sean Connery and his iconic portrayal of James Bond until I saw him as Professor Henry Jones Sr in The Last Crusade. Funny enough, I only knew of him from Saturday Night Live’s Celebrity Jeopardy and mistakenly thought Darrell Hammond as the real Sean Connery.
I would later find out that Sean Connery was the original James Bond and is considered to be the best portrayal (Yeah, I know other people like Pierce Brosnan, but Sean Connery is my absolute favorite). Watching Last Crusade, every time I heard Connery’s pronunciation of the letter “S” in his dialogue (he always pronounced it as “Sh-,” and it started happening near the middle and end of his film career.), I would think of Darrel Hammond’s portrayal. Now knowing that James Bond was one of the inspirations for Indiana Jones, it all becomes clear having Sean Connery play Indy’s father.
The film takes place in 1938 and sees Indy recovering an artifact that he first discovered/lost as a child (played by the late River Phoenix), when he is contacted and told by businessman, Walter Donovan, that he has found part of a tablet that reveals the location of The Holy Grail and that his father has been trying to find the other part of the grail tablet but is currently missing. After discovering that his father mailed him his diary (contains every clue to the grail that he discovered), Indiana, along with Brody, travels to the last known location of his father in Venice, Italy and meets up with Henry’s partner, Dr. Elsa Schneider, to pick up the expedition and try to find out where to find his father. After a series of escalating encounters, Indy finds his father and unfortunately discovers that some of his allies are actually enemies working with the Nazi party to try and recover The Holy Grail for evil purposes of Global Conquest. It’s a race against time as both Indy and his father battle the Nazis to recover The Holy Grail before it is too late. Right off the bat, this sounds like a repeat of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it some ways it is but it has the advantages of some of the best character development you’ll ever see in film, it has one of the best father-son duos, and the production/direction stakes are higher than ever in this third film.
The Last Crusade delves deeper into the character of Indiana Jones as you learn that he did not have a great relationship with his father and that he was alone for most of his childhood with minimal interactions with his father after his mother passed away. Also, you get to see the origin of his Indiana Jones’ adventurous traits through a brilliantly done opening sequence that shows how he got his fear of snakes, why he uses a bullwhip sometimes, how he acquired a passion for reclaiming antiquities, and most importantly, how he got his iconic brown Fedora Hat and inspiration for his outfit. Throughout the film, you see Indy interact with his Father as they finally connect with each other as family through dangerous events and talking with each other about the feeling of disconnection as Father and Son. Really though, it’s the development of both Indy and Henry that makes this film really good.
The chemistry of Indiana Jones and Henry Jones Sr is one of the best father-son relationships you’ll ever see in film. Sean Connery does an excellent job at portraying Henry as bumbling and somewhat wormy, but when he gets caught up in the action with his son, it makes for some good comedy and shows what could happen if a traditional bookworm were to get involved in dangerous situations. Harrison Ford, once again, does an excellent job as Indy and the way he reacts to his father’s inexperience with adventure makes for some great lines. Honestly, the relationship with his father can be summed up with one series of lines, (Henry) “They’re trying to kill us!”- (Indy) “I KNOW DAD!!!”- (Henry) “This is a new experience for me.”- (Indy) “Happens to me all the time.” In my opinion, Indy finally connects to his father, Henry when he gets shot (fun fact; Henry is shot with a Walther PPK, which was James Bond’s signature weapon, and he was shot by a former Bond villain, who is the main villain in this movie) in the stomach and Indy is forced to recover the grail in order to revive him. At the end of the film, Indy is hanging off a small abyss, trying to reach for the grail with one hand, when Henry reaches out and holds onto Indy with a danger of letting go if Indy doesn’t give him his other hand. Henry (Who was calling Indy, “Junior” for most of the film to Indy’s annoyance) calls his son by his nickname, Indiana, and tells him to let the grail go as it is not worth losing his son over a treasure that he’s searched for almost all of his life. That moment is when Henry finally connects to his son, Indy (Whose real name is revealed to be Henry Jones Jr., even though he likes being called Indiana).
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ collaboration are again, what makes this film so good. The decision to make the film a father-son relationship and give more depth into the character of Indiana Jones were great as the other two films gave no depth to this iconic character. There are so many good scenes of action, comedy, and drama, that I don’t know what to include, if I had to pick a few, it would be any of the action/comedy scenes with Indy and Henry, the development scene with Indy and Henry onboard a German Blimp, The Grail Challenges, the opening sequence with Young Indy, and most of the dialogue from Sean Connery. The Last Crusade massively improves upon The Temple of Doom by taking out comedic side characters like Short Round and Willie Scott, and replacing them with Henry Jones Sr., Marcus Brody, and Sallah. The film has more character development than the other two films and goes back to the basics that started with Raiders of the Lost Ark. 
Walter Donovan is, in my opinion, a good villain, and Julian Glover does a really good job. I like that he was shown to be good at first and then revealed to be bad with a valid motive for recovering the Grail, not to mention he becomes truly evil when he shoots Henry and forces Indy to recover the grail. I also like that the Indy Girl, Elsa Schneider is also revealed to be working with Donovan, it’s something that I haven’t seen in other films, like with most of the Bond Girls in the 007 films. Just like Glover, Allison Doody did a great job as well with playing Schneider as a villain who is only looking for the Grail as prize and not for glory. John Williams’ score was excellent as he composed some of Indy’s best score pieces like The Keeper of the Grail, The Belly of the Steel Beast, Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra, and Indy’s Very First Adventure. If I had to pick some of my favorite scenes in the film, it would probably be the escape from Castle Brunwald, the escape from the German blimp, the grail challenges/grail chamber, and the finale. I’ll show one scene below and that is the escape from Castle Brunwald.
Do I have any problems? Not really. Last Crusade is the perfect example of a sequel that does what a sequel should do, at least in my opinion, and that is to build off the first film and give more character development to the main characters.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is an excellent sequel that finally gives Indiana Jones some much needed character development and is an even bigger thrill ride from start to finish. The Last Crusade is the better sequel than Temple of Doom as it removes some of that film’s problems such as its characters and dark elements and brings the tone back to the light-hearted adventure elements seen in Raiders. The decision to bring in Indy’s father was very beneficial as it helps develop Indy as a character and is the actual focus of the film rather than recovering The Holy Grail. It’s almost equal to Raiders of the Lost Ark and is one of my favorite sequels of all time. I consider this to be the last great film in the Indiana Jones franchise and the best character-developed film in the original trilogy. As for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on that garbage fourth film, really soon.
This one was one of my favorites combining two actors I really like.