I never thought it would happen. Not after I last saw him ride off into the sunset 19 years ago. Not after numerous scripts that came and went by the wayside. I never thought I’d see him as an old man.
Before I launch into the greatest moments of one Henry “Indiana” Walton Jones, Jr., PhD, I should preface it by saying that I was four years old when Raiders of the Lost Ark opened in 1981. It is and remains my favorite action film followed closely by Die Hard. From a pure adrenaline standpoint, not even John McClane can touch Indiana Jones.
My formidable years as a child were spent watching Indy capture the lost Ark of the Covenant, rescue the sacred Sankara stones and drink from the Holy Grail. He was the screen epitome of what I thought a man should be. Strong but flawed. Daring yet cautious. Ambitious yet moral. Serious but with a healthy sense of self-deprecation.
All that and he could withstand one helluva beating. With the arrival of Indy’s fourth and possibly last screen adventure, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I figured what better time to go through the 20 best moments from his previous screen adventures.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
To be honest, I could do 20 moments from Raiders alone. You have no idea how difficult it is just narrowing it down to 10. Released in 1981, Raiders, which was the brainchild of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, redefined the action genre with its non-stop roller coaster action and breakneck speed and introduced arguably the greatest on-screen hero in the history of cinema in Indiana Jones.
Originally conceived for Tom Selleck, Harrison Ford took the character and made him his own so much so that you can’t imagine any other actor playing him. We meet Indy in 1936 and follow him in his quest to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do.
While the other films in the series have their moments, none of them can come close to the greatness that is Raiders which is why it has more great moments than any of the other two films.
1A. The Opening
Okay so I’m cheating right off the bat splitting the two centerpieces of the opening. I’d like to put them together but they are two different sequences. The Paramount mountain dissolves into a South American rainforest jungle mountain and we are on.
In all three Indy films and I’m guessing the fourth as well, Spielberg uses the Paramount logo to match dissolve into the opening shot of the film.
Archaeologist Indiana Jones leads an expedition into the jungle, which grows increasingly tense as the opening credits roll. He is seen only from behind sporting his trademark short, brown leather jacket, a brimmed felt fedora and a bullwhip. As he stops to examine two halves of a torn parchment, one of his treacherous guides, Barranca, reaches for a gun.
Jones hears the gun cock and with lighting speed uncoils his whip and wraps it around Barranca’s hand. The gun discharges, falls into the river and for the first time we see Jones’s face in full profile.
Jones leads his one remaining member of his expedition, Satipo (Alfred Molina) into a cave where the object of his search, a tiny, gold-jeweled idol, is. After numerous booby traps, Jones retrieves the idol but sets off another booby trap, which causes the destruction of the cave.
After being left for dead by Satipo, who is killed by spikes immediately afterwards, Jones outruns a giant boulder (one of the film’s many iconic moments) that seals the entrance of the cave. This leads directly to….
1B. “If Only You Spoke Hovitos”
After leaping out of the cave before the boulder seals the entrance, Jones finds himself face to face with his nemesis, the crafty French archaeologist Renee Belloq (Paul Freeman in one of the great screen villain roles ever) who has an army of native Hovitos warriors poised and ready to kill him.
When Indy makes his run for it, Belloq provides us with first of many non-sensical sounds that sounds cool even if you don’t understand it. Twitching his elbow up and down while giving the warriors a “Qué, Qué”, the natives give chase while Belloq’s maniacal laugh echoes throughout the forest.
Indy’s pilot Jock is fishing on an amphibious plane while Indy shouts out “Jock, start the engines! Get it up.” Jock really struggles with catching that fish he has but gets in the plane and starts the engine.
The propellers start and we get Moment of Pure Joy #1 as the John Williams score rises, Indy swings from the vines from the bank’s edge and into the water. Dodging darts and arrows, he is able to get into the vacant cockpit in front of Jock as the plane takes off. It is here where we learn of Indy’s affection “There’s a big snake in the plane, Jock.” for snakes.
2. Gunfight at Marion’s
The shootout between Indy and Toht’s (Ronald Lacey) men was significant for me for several reasons.
One, I had just been introduced to the archetype woman that I would be drawn to for the rest of my live in one Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Marion was cute, tough, irresistible, could throw a jaw crushing right punch and could out drink the king of Nepalese drunks. But that’s an issue for my therapist and me. Two, it was and still remains one of the great gun battles in cinema history.
Three, it also had an influence on what would become my acting career. For one glorious week in the first grade I was able to gather five of my friends who would be Toht and his henchmen and one girl who I had a crush on who would play Marion to recreate the scene in our classroom with toy guns during lunch time when the teacher and everyone else was gone.
Guess which role I played? I had taped the audio of the scene on a cassette tape, which I blasted a little too loud as it turned out. For five days we got away with it until another teacher who thought that we had actually brought a gun to class reported the loud gunfire. So I got paddled and sent home for the day. What a glorious time.
3. “Marion”
The extended sequence where Indy and Marion are attacked in a Cairo bazaar has several memorable moments whether it’s the still hilarious scene of Indy shooting a cocky Arab swordsman without hesitation, Indy knocking over baskets trying to find to the kidnapped Marion or Indy firing on the truck driver with Marion supposedly in the back which leads to the truck exploding into flames.
4. “You Know It’s True”
One of the better scenes in the film pits a drunken, sorrowful Indy against a hookah smoking Belloq in a bar where Belloq gets one of the great monologues in action film history that exemplifies how easy it could be for Indy to become a jaded mercenary like Belloq.
Belloq “You and I are very much alike. Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light.
Indy “Now you’re getting nasty.”
Belloq “You know it’s true. How nice.”
5. Map Room
I don’t know if this is an example of how good John Williams’s score is or how good Harrison Ford is but they both make this scene tense and exciting as Indy, with the help of Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) descends into the map room. Indy surveys the room and deciphers and calculates the hieroglyphics so as to determine where he must place the Staff of Ra.
When he snaps the staff with Marion’s headpiece into the right base, the sunlight moves along the wall and floor until it catches the top of the headpiece. The music moves along until it crescendos with the ray of light that shines through the headpiece and directly onto the correct location of the Well of Souls. Still gives me chills.
6. Plane Fight
This scene along with number seven on my list lasts a total of nineteen minutes but it’s my favorite nineteen minutes of the film. Or as I call it Moment of Pure Joy #2 where I learned as a young boy that adrenaline is indeed a drug that can be released by the bucket load from the body and gives one an almost orgasmic feeling of excitement.
Synchronized perfectly to John Williams’s score, Indy first tangles with a monkey wrench-wielding German mechanic only to have to deal with the seemingly invincible Pat Roach billed here as 1st Mechanic.
Once again, incomprehensible gibberish is key here as Roach taunts Indy with some of the greatest nonsensical German gibberish you ever heard. Roach would be the only actor other than Harrison Ford to appear in all three Indy films always as a hulking villain. With Marion locked in the cockpit and manning the machine gun while Indy gets the crap beat out him, you get one of the better edited action sequences you’ll ever see.
7. “I Don’t Know I’m Making This Up As I Go”
Quite simply my favorite action sequence in ANY film (John McClane leaping off of the Nakatomi Building would be a distant second). This sequence is also known as Moment of Pure Joy #3 in the film.
The moment you see Indy on the horse racing after the truck with the Ark in it accompanied perfectly by Williams’s soaring score, you’re heart rate is accelerated. Everything about the sequence whether it’s knocking Nazis off the truck or Indy smiling to himself when he thinks he’s made it is at full speed.
You get one of the all-time despised villains in the persistent white haired Nazi who takes advantage of Indy’s bullet ridden left arm and throws him through the windshield of a truck.
You then get the money shot of the film, along with the boulder sequence, of Indy hanging on to the hood ornament, which bends and cracks off leaving Indy to hang on only to the grill of the truck. To avoid being rammed into Belloq’s car, he lowers himself under the truck’s engine where he makes his way between the truck’s wheels to the rear wheel axle where he is able to attach his bullwhip.
He then gets dragged behind the trunk while holding onto the whip and is somehow able to pull himself forward and lift himself up onto the rear of the truck. He then repays the favor to the Nazi by bashing his head into the dashboard and throwing him through the windshield. Unfortunately for our pugnacious Nazi he cannot replicate Indy’s acrobatics and is crushed under the truck.
8. “I found him.”
Much of the enjoyment of this movie or really any action movie, SURPRISE, does rely on one’s “suspension of disbelief” as my favorite bisexual, ice-pick wielding woman Catherine Trammel would say.
The Nazis have just overtaken Katanga’s boat and have seized the Ark and Marion while Indy manages to escape. Katanga and his men search for Jones only to find him scaling the German submarine that contains the Ark and Marion.
John Williams’s score soars as the crew cheers for Indy as he runs to the top of the sub. How he was able to swim across choppy waters AND get in the sub you ask? Who cares.
9. “You’re Going to Give Mercenaries a Bad Name.”
This scene is debatable but lands on my list because it contains the other non-sensical sound Belloq makes (see #2) while being held at bazooka point by Indy. Belloq snatches a weapon from a Nazi guard and lets loose with what sounds like “Zoich” and freaks out the ENTIRE ARMY OF NAZIS even though he’s ONE FRENCHMAN with a machine gun.
Not even the subtitles on the DVD will help you on what he exactly says but it sounds funny. Belloq then gets his second great monologue where he calls Indy on his bluff to blow up the ark.
For further proof on how funny this scene is from the Belloq standpoint check out the Southpark episode where Cartman et al try to stop Spielberg and Lucas from making a family friendly (a la E.T.) cut of Raiders where the machine guns are replaced by walkie talkies. Matt Stone and Trey Parker do a spot on imitation of this scene complete with Belloq’s gibberish.
10. Opening of the Ark
This was the scene that gave me and countless others nightmares that my face would either melt away or blow up like Belloq, Toht and Dietrich. We see God’s fury unleashed in all its glory.
The scene works its way into a fever pitch as, after Belloq releases the sand he finds inside the ark, Dietrich sulks off in disgust and Toht laughs, the Ark releases electrical energy and charges.
All the cameras the Nazis are using to film the event are short-circuited. Then we get the eerie humming noise and white smoke coming out of the Ark and it’s on.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Is she great to look at? Absolutely and obviously Spielberg thought so too as they married after the film. Is every word out of her mouth a power down of the highest order? Yes. Coming off of Karen Allen’s strong performance in Raiders, Capshaw’s Willie Scott is such a poorly written character that it’s a credit to Capshaw that she could do anything with the part. Even the villains are one-note compared to the colorful rogues of Raiders.
Taking place a year before Raiders in 1935, Indy is seen more of a mercenary (fortune and glory) then the character that believes that all artifacts belong in a museum.
It seems like he’s guilted into finding the Sankara Stones by the village natives rather than genuinely wanting to.
This was also the film that freaked out parents so much that this film along with Gremlins and Red Dawn help bring about the PG-13 rating. What parent wouldn’t want their sons seeing hearts ripped out of chests, people drinking blood and emaciated child slaves being beaten?
You even get the bizarrely funny “Bad Indy” sequence after he’s been forced to drink the blood of the Kali Ma. It’s no wonder Spielberg went back to try and duplicate the tone of Raiders when he came around to The Last Crusade. Nevertheless, there are some worthy moments in it.
11. Anything Goes
Just like Raiders, Spielberg match dissolves the Paramount logo, this time into a mountain on a gong. We then get an obvious Busby Berkely homage with Willie Scott singing “Anything Goes” which is quite impressive.
We find Indy in a Shanghai nightclub (Club Obi-Wan…cute don’t you think) haggling over the remains of Nurhaci with gangster Lao Che and his creepy looking sons. Indy accidentally gulps down some nice champagne spiked with poison so he does what any one of us would do.
He groggily grabs a flaming meat skewer from a waiter and hurls it one of Lao’s sons. Mayhem ensues as the crowd scatters, Indy is looking for the antidote for the poison and Willie looks for a diamond that was supposed to be Indy’s payment for delivering Nurhaci.
What makes this scene for me is Indy hiding behind the large gong while one of Lao’s boys sprays it with machine gun blasts. Indy, while using the gong as cover grabs Willie who has herself found the antidote, crashes through a window and lands safely in Indy’s car driven by Short Round.
12. Dinner at Pankot Palace
This scene could also be called, along with the scene where we meet Mola Ram and learn of his enjoyment of ripping people’s hearts out with his bare hands as “The Scene That Caused All the Parental Units to Flip Out.”
What’s wrong with watching people eating live bugs, sipping on eyeball soup and enjoying a nice desert of chilled monkey brains? For once I was with Willie when she asked for Short Round’s baseball cap so she could puke in it.
13. “Willie, We are Going TO DIE!”
Quite possibly my second favorite moment in the film. Here we find Indy having to deal with the stupidity of both Shorty and Willie. First Shorty sets off a booby trap in a cave that seals both he and Indy in while large spikes start to close in on them. Then you get Willie bitching and moaning as Indy tries to walk her through the cave so that she can release the lever that will stop the spikes from impaling Indy and Shorty.
I think this has more to do with the greatness of Harrison Ford but the look of sheer defeat on his face when he pleads with Willie “We are going TO DIE” is still hilarious. Just that look alone makes me put this scene on the list.
14. Mine Car Chase
Originally planned for Raiders along with the gong scene and the scene where Indy, Shorty and Willie jump out of a plane with an inflatable raft, this is the action centerpiece of the film.
It’s literally a non-stop roller-coaster chase in mine cars where Indy, Willie and Shorty are pursued by Thugee soldiers, including the tug-of-war with Shorty while he’s suspended over a lava flow.
15. “He no nuts. He’s crazy”
The one and only Moment of Pure Joy in this film for me. Indy is cornered on a rope bridge by Mola Ram and the Thugees while Shorty and Willie are forced to walk out onto the bridge. Oh yeah and there’s crocodiles by the dozen below.
Again, here I am with gibberish but after getting a stroke of genius, Indy shouts to Shorty in Chinese something along the lines of “Cho Chi La fu tansa.” Obviously it means “I’m cutting this f***ing bridge” but it just sounds so cool coming from Indy.
I can still hear Kate Capshaw “Oh my god.” Power down. But we power up quickly when Indy shouts out “Mola Ram. Prepare to meet Kali…in hell!” Then we get the money shot of a ripped Indy chopping the bridge down while everyone freaks out.
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Spielberg and Lucas wisely returned to the Raiders roots of the Indiana Jones franchise with the third installment that finds Indy in 1938 trying to find the Holy Grail and keep it out of the Nazis´clutches while dealing with his estranged father Dr. Henry Jones Sr. perfectly played by Sean Connery.
This might well be the most emotional of the series as there are several wonderful moments where you sense the still wounded child inside Indy that was emotionally abandoned by his Grail obsessed father. The structure of the film is similar to Raiders and brings back such memorable characters as Sallah and Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott).
There are many standout action sequences but the real joy lies in the on-screen rapport of Ford and Connery. The Last Crusade is a rarity, a third sequel that almost lives up to the brilliance of the original.
16. Young Indy
Like the previous two films, the opening sequence is one of the best in the film. Spielberg does his usual match dissolve with the Paramount mountain logo that dissolves into a Southwestern Utah mountain. The year is 1912 and we are treated to a young Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) as a Boy Scout battling grave robbers for the Cross of Coronado.
During the chase between Indy and the robbers we are given a glimpse into how he came about his bullwhip, his fear of snakes and his trademark fedora. It’s a pure stroke of genius to show the leader of the robbers give a defeated Indy his hat then cut to a present day Indy in 1938 still trying to reclaim the cross from the same group of bandits and getting punched in the face.
There is more than a touch of melancholy when watching this sequence because of the tragic death of Phoenix who unquestionably would have carried on the film franchise as Indy for years to come.
17. Library Catacombs/Speedboat Chase
One of the better action sequences of the film finds Indy and the super hot Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) searching the catacombs underneath the library where Indy’s father was last seen. Filled with oil and rats, the catacombs also contain the tomb of Sir Richard, a knight of the First Crusade, whose shield holds crucial information.
A fanatical cult that protects the Holy Grail sets fire to the oil in the catacombs to kill Indy and Elsa. After escaping through a sewer grate, the two are pursued on speedboat by several cult members culminating with Indy and the cult’s leader stuck on a speedboat while the boat gets chewed up by the screws of a tanker.
18. “That’s For Blasphemy”
Probably the most emotionally powerful moment in the entire trilogy finds Henry Sr. slapping and emasculating Henry Jr. when he shrugs off his father’s obsession with retrieving the grail at all costs with “Jesus Christ.”
This leads to a painful moment where Indy recalls his mother and we learn that she died quietly without ever letting on to her son or husband her illness. 19. Zeppelin/Plane Chase
I’m cheating here again but the two sequences follow each other so sue me. The Zeppelin sequence I speak of is another one of the great emotional moments between father and son where we find out just how lonely it was for Indy growing up with a father that “taught me that I was less important to you than people who had been dead for five hundred years in another country” to which Henry Sr. replies with “You left just when you were becoming interesting.”
Many of Spielberg’s films have featured flawed (Close Encounters, War of the Worlds) or even non-existent (E.T.) father figures and Henry Jones Sr. is another one to add to the collection.
The plane chase occurs when the Zeppelin turns around back to Berlin. Both Joneses escape by taking an attached fighter plane and engage in a dogfight with Nazi fighters. Henry Sr. accidentally shoots out their tailfin and they crash land.
This sets up the wonderful sequence where Henry Sr. remembers his Charlemagne and uses his umbrella to frighten a flock of seagulls that blinds an oncoming Nazi fighter and causes it to crash.
20. Tank Chase The main action sequence of the film pits Indy, once again on horseback a la Raiders, attempting to rescue Marcus and his father who have been taken captive inside a German tank.
I’m hoping as all Indy fans are that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull won’t go down as one of the dreaded third sequels like Superman IV: The Quest for Peace or Alien: Resurrection.
The first three Indy films regardless are some of the greatest action-adventure films ever put on film. I’m not sure if the recent Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection release is worth double dipping but I am sure that if you don’t own the collection, it is well worth the investment.
The original Indiana Jones films have been boxed in a new Indiana Jones - The Adventure Collection DVD set. The set is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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