Behind The Scenes Of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

By | May 31, 2022

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Actors Harrison Ford and Sean Connery on the set of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

“Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade” drew the curtain on the ‘80s while reviving the beloved franchise. Even Director Steven Spielberg agreed with throngs of fans disappointed by the sequel, “I wasn't happy with the second film at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There's not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom."

Thankfully, the iconic director and creator George Lucas went the extra mile to deliver another classic Indiana Jones film. With four different writers and the crucial additions from the one and only Sean Connery, we could have ended up with a far different movie.

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Executive producer George Lucas (left) and director Steven Spielberg on the set of the film 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', 1989. Presumably in the set for the fictional catacombs beneath Venice. (Photo by Murray Close/Getty Images)

A Bevy Of Screenwriters

Normally, when a movie goes through multiple screenwriters, it spells disaster for the project. For “Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade”, Chris Columbus, Menno Meyjes, and Jeffrey Boam all tried their hands at it. Not to mention, playwright Tom Stoppard also beefed up the father-son dynamic of the Jones boys, partly at the behest of Connery.

So many cooks in the kitchen along with Spielberg and Lucas throwing in their own ideas led to a Monkey King, Peaches of Immortality, 200-year-old cannibalistic pygmy tribes, and a penultimate chess game against said Monkey King. Amidst all those less than stellar ideas, there were kernels of the Holy Grail, a father-son relationship, and of course, Nazis.

Healthy Skepticism

Constructive criticism often yields great rewards, especially when it’s coming from the quintessential James Bond. As star Harrison Ford explained, Connery held some reservations:

“Well, Sean, at first, he resisted the idea of playing my father - he’s only 12 years older than I - and also felt that the character was too thinly drawn and he’s a student of history, Sean is. So, I think he brought a lot of ideas to George and Steven that were incorporated into his character. He is less Yoda-like than originally thought of and quite the match for his son in many ways, including the fact that the central heroine has had a physical relationship with him before she ever meets me.”

The best parts of “The Last Crusade” feature the undeniable chemistry of Connery and Ford, who played the slightly absentee father-son dynamic to perfection. Apparently, the fact that neither of them was wearing pants in a few of the scenes only added to the comradery.