

accompanies Indy on the adventure, along with Rhys-Davies as Sallah and Denholm Elliott as Marcus Brody, Indy's boss at the university who briefly appears in Raiders but has a much more substantial role this time around. A mildly befuddled professor of Medieval literature, Henry Sr. The Grail might technically be the film’s MacGuffin, but what Indy is really out to discover is a renewed relationship with his father, Henry Jones (a perfectly cast Sean Connery).

So, you know … go easy on the continuity with these things.Īfter a short prologue set in 1912 that features River Phoenix as a young Indy, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade flashes forward to 1938, with Indy once again in a race against the Nazis as he searches for the Holy Grail, the legendary chalice that features heavily in both Christian iconography and Arthurian myth. At one point in the movie, Indy proudly declares that he doesn’t believe in any literal magic or hocus pocus, despite the fact that just one year prior he had witnessed a dude continue on living after having his heart ripped out of his chest during a ritual sacrifice. Joining him on his quest is Marion Ravenwood ( Karen Allen), a feisty former flame who can more than hold her own, and Sallah ( John Rhys-Davies), a gregarious Egyptian excavator. Here, Indy goes up against the Nazis, his most-hated group of enemies, in a race to find the Ark of the Covenant - the golden chest that held the ten commandments and is rumored to grant invincibility to any army who wields it. Anyway, Raiders was the first Indiana Jones film released, but it takes place in 1936, which makes it Indy's second adventure chronologically.

We don’t necessarily agree with it, but we’ll roll with it here to avoid confusion. Okay, yes, the film's original title was simply Raiders of the Lost Ark, but for the sake of consistency, Lucasfilm has been tacking on the “Indiana Jones and the …” prefix for years now. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
