All 5 Indiana Jones movies ranked from worst to best

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

The final installment in the original trilogy was released in 1989 and it is the crown jewel of the Indiana Jones films. The (not so) Last Crusade starts off with a flashback that gives some unnecessary but fun backstory as to why Indiana does what he does. Twenty years prior to the events of the film, a young Indiana (played by the late River Phoenix) steals a Spanish gold cross from the 1500s, but is thwarted by an unnamed adventurer before he can put it in a museum. The man wears the same thing that Indy does on his adventures, and he gives the young Indy his fedora and tells him that even though he lost today, he doesn’t need to like it.

The story jumps ahead to 1938, when Indy is tasked by a rich guy named Walter Donovan to find the Holy Grail, the chalice that Jesus Christ supposedly drank  from during the last supper. The Grail also apparently has healing powers and could possibly give the gift of immortality. In addition to finding this prized artifact, Indy needs to also track down his father Henry (Sean Connery), who went missing on his own pursuit of the Grail. On the way, he finds a clue in Venice, Italy with the help of a woman named Elsa, who Indy of course has a romantic encounter with. However, he is betrayed by Elsa when they finally track down Henry. Elsa and Walter both turn out to be Nazi conspirators out to get the Grail for Hitler.

Several precarious situations play out with the duo of Ford and Connery proving to be awesome and hilarious. Indy constantly tries to get his dad to keep up as they get into a dog fight in the sky, a tank fight on the ground and a book burning in Berlin where Adolf Hitler himself unknowingly gives Indy his autograph. Eventually everyone makes it to the Grail’s location in the Syrian desert, where a 700-year-old knight has been guarding it the whole time. Donovan and the Nazis are there and shoot Henry in the gut as a way to force Indiana to retrieve the Grail for them. Donovan dies of rapid aging after drinking from the wrong Grail and Elsa dies after trying to leave the temple with the artifact. Indiana chooses the right Grail and saves his dad, but the Grail is buried in the temple when it collapses.

All in all, the Last Crusade is a really fun movie with great action, witty dialogue and great supporting characters like Sallah, Henry, Marcus, Donovan and Elsa. Even though the movie just kind of ends after the Grail gets buried in the temple, there’s something really satisfying watching Indiana and his companions ride off into the sunset on horseback.

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