The Weekly Planet - Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

We made it! The final movie before we can finally get to the good stuff. The Last Crusade goes deep into Indiana Jones lore with the adventure being shared with Henry Jones Senior played by Sean Connery. With the return of the Nazi's, a magical religious artifact, booby traps, an origin action sequence and tanks this one has it all. It's a great lead in to the fourth entry. Thanks for watching our Caravan Of Garbage review.Video edition: https://youtu.be/6T245fd9dNkHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-moviesThe Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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You know what's interesting about The Last Crusade? What? Steven Spielberg is on record as saying that he made this movie for two reasons. One, to fulfill the three movie obligation that he had made to George Lucas. Oh, that's perfect. Not just friends. Yep. Contractually bound together.

Oh, nice. I can relate. And two, to atone for the criticism that he received for the previous instalment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But here's the thing, Mason. Go on. This is obviously, and people agree, the worst one in the French. Oh, James. Don't you think?

Please leave a like. How long are you going to keep this bit going is the question. Look, we joke. You joke. I do joke, yeah. But you shouldn't joke about this one. No. How long are you going to keep this bit going is the question. Look, we joke. You joke. I do joke, yeah. But you shouldn't joke about this one. No. Let me tell you this.

Look, admittedly, this is the first one I saw in the cinemas as a kid. Sure. But, man, this is the good stuff. This one's incredible. Wow. The action is just so much fun and smooth, and everything's perfectly choreographed, and it's funny, and everybody's on the top of their game.

Harrison Ford and Jonathan Rhys-Davies and the guy that plays Marcus Brody, whose name I don't have in front of me. It's on the screen. It's right there. Everybody's doing great. Henry Jones, Sean Connery as Henry Jones. What a great addition to the dynamic. That pairing.

And obviously it's a callback because we talked about it in previous videos that Spielberg wanted to direct a Bond movie and George Lucas came up with this idea. But that pairing of those two together, I'd never seen Sean Connery as a kid. This was my first exposure to him. So I was like, oh, this is like just a fun old guy in movies. I had no idea that he's never done anything this funny.

You didn't know he was in Zardoz before this. I didn't. You didn't know he was in that one where he's a moon cop. No. A moon cop man. High moon. Yes. There isn't another movie where he is used like this.

And have they never re-teamed again, right? No. Well, there would have been some crossover in the Jack Ryan movies. Oh, of course. But they're not in the same Jack Ryan movie. That's right. Hunter Red October and Clear and Present Danger. Yeah. And Patriot course. But they're not in the same Jack Ryan movie. That's right, Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger.

Yeah. And Patriot Games. I just love that dynamic of, first of all, there's 12 years between them, which is insane. Right. But it works. It doesn't matter.

Who cares? But also I get the sense that Henry Jones Senior could have had a kid at 12, so whatever. That's true. He moves fast, that guy. Or Sean Connery could have at the very least. Yeah, that definitely is. Yeah.

But I just love this kind of running gag of Indiana Jones is just doing the most amazing shit and really, really violent stuff. And his dad is either like unimpressed or completely oblivious. Right. There's the moment where they, you know, they get shot out of the sky and they've crashed and the plane circling around to machine gun them. And his dad's like, they're trying to kill us. And Indiana Jones is like, I know. Like he's just like, he just had an absolute gutful. And just, I also love that, you know, just,

and it's true for a lot of father-son relationships that Indiana Jones has had this massive storied career and he's gone around the world in an era where that wasn't common. He's had the most incredible, he's fought the Nazis. He's fought, you know. He saw God,'t common. He's had the most incredible... He's fought the Nazis. He's fought, you know... He saw God, sort of. He saw God. But then when his dad is back in the picture,

he regresses to like a teenage boy. Like, Dad! Dad! I'm doing my own stuff, Dad. Well, let's talk about that because in the opening of this, there's an origin where we see River Phoenix as a young Indiana Jones jones they work together on

mosquito coast and harrison ford was like get this guy because he he looks a lot like me and i like him in general and then we see him get his whip his scar his fear of snakes his hat he steals his entire look and personality from another guy now do we know who that guy is like it does is he canonically uh i'm sure he's in comics and whatever. He's not Ravenwood, right? No, he's not Ravenwood. I think initially maybe in some drafts he was going to be. I think you do that in a worse movie.

None of that should work. Well, none of it should work, but I think the reason it does work, and it hasn't in most subsequent movies that do a similar thing to this, is that it is played kind of tongue-in-cheek and it's also over in 15 minutes. Whereas future movies, including perhaps Solo or... Perhaps. Perhaps Solo.

Or, you know, any other movie that we see the origin of a character's iconic look or their whole deal, that's the entire movie. I think if they made this now... They couldn't make it in those bloody days, I tell you that it would be young Indiana Jones gaining all those things over two hours. Yes.

And we'd only be complete Indiana Jones right at the end. Now he's Indiana Jones ready for more adventures. Well, I kind of wanted him doing his adventures at the start, but thanks for wasting my time for two hours. You know what would happen? Yes. A swordsman would appear in front of him. You'd get a wry smile.

He'd reach for his gun, and it would cut the credits. Oh, my God. You're absolutely right. There'd be a running gag where he's doing a bunch of sword fights with dudes, and then at the end he's like, there's got to be a better way. Like it's an infomercial. This is hard.

This sucks. Hey, Junior, have you heard of guns? Anyway. You know what I like also about when you look at these first three movies as a whole? Also, that guy's very charismatic. The guy he steals the look from. Yeah, he's incredible. What I like about these first three movies, and you can see it looking back on them,

you do get a different side of Indiana Jones in each one. Obviously, the first one is the introduction. You've got the archetypes of the character is built, and you find out he's an adventurer and a bit of a buffoon and a cat and he's kind of smart and maybe he needs glasses, maybe he doesn't, we'll talk about it. Second one, which is a prequel, you go back a little bit when he's a complete grub, just an absolute maniac.

A menace. Just on a big tear. And this one... Like an Australian tourist in anywhere other than... Just an Australian tourist in Bali, I guess. Exactly. Just being a mess, tearing up the landscape. And then you get to this one and you do get that kind of more responsible,

studious side of him, but then you find out more about his origin and he's just kind of killing his way through his feelings with his dad by his side. It's wonderful added depth, which we don't see in the next movie absolutely and you know what else what else we get in this one we get just great mystery solving and a bit of you know that that we've got that archaeology we get the grail diary which i loved as a kid yeah i bet you can get a replica of that now and it's 200 absolutely but you know we get signed by hitler that's right no that's extra um we we get you know we get the mystery, we get... Signed by Hitler. That's right. No. That's extra. We get, you know, we get the mystery solving.

We get the... Every action sequence is incredible. We get just a bunch of great supporting character. Anyway. Yeah. Great stuff. Just one of the more minor action sequences is where they escape on the motorbike and he just jousts the dude.

Yes. And the other guy, he sticks the flag in the spoke and the bike flips. Yeah, yeah. And his dad just looks at him just like kind of unimpressed. When he jousts the dude, though, he does give him a look of like, oh, this is cool, actually. I love this kind of stuff.

I'm warming up to my kid. There is a line in this where Henry Jones Sr. goes like, you left just when you were starting to get interesting. Yeah. Which is such a dad thing to say, I think. Yeah, absolutely. But like, you know, this goes from from that to a action sequence on a blimp to the the um dog fight to a tank chase yeah incredible and as you mentioned like it being the funniest one the marcus brody henry senior dynamic is great they feel like old friends they've got like

barely any scenes together. But they've got secret handshakes and stuff. They've got secret handshakes, little boys kind of club stuff and whatever. I love that joke of Indiana Jones explaining in detail about how Marcus Brody can blend in in any culture on earth and you'll never find him. He's just this international, like incredible man of mystery and it just smash cuts to him bumbling around the market.

Exactly, yeah. Like just a guy who's like well maybe they'll understand english if i talk louder yeah exactly the bit where his dad like shoots up the tail of the plane they got a son incredible exactly no ticket the seagull bit it's just there's not a second wasted of this movie that tank sequence my goodness oh the bit where he shoots three guys in a row. Amazing. And he's just like, huh, yeah.

This has got one of what's considered to be the best stunts of all time where Vic Armstrong, Harrison Ford's stunt double, leaps from the horse onto the moving tank. No wires, no green screen. Just looks like a really hard fall from a horse to a tank. Really big fan of that. And the trials, that whole sequence of semi kind of realistic booby traps where you're like, yeah, I guess this could kind of work

in the Force perspective and whatever. They really sell that idea. And I love how he finally gets to the knight and the knight's like, oh, thank goodness you're here. You're so brave and you have vanquished me in battle. Now it is your job to look after the grail. And he's just like, no, I'm not. I'm not doing that.

Look, there's a lot to explain and I can't because it's been 500 years. I've got, look, I'm pretty sure in future I've got to sleep with a lot of women who are going to betray me in some way. We can wrap this up real quick. I'll just take the one I know. I'll just take the grail that I need.

She's great also. Elsa Schneider. Elsa, really good. As a kid, i'm like what re-watching this as an adult i'm like oh of course she's a nazi she's just gonna look about it and it's the third one so of course the love interest is gonna betray him at this point and it's a bond trope but at this point yeah but i'm like i had no idea i'm like oh pretty lady pretty blonde lady pretty Pretty cool. Yeah. Very well put together. Great uniform in this blonde lady. Ooh. Yeah, absolutely. She's a what?

I think also, like, that Donovan death is really good because that kind of harkens back to the first one. Yeah. You know, that kind of horrific death and the advanced aging and there's some CGI morphs kind of in there as well coupled with, you know, some real practical effects that you see. I also think that, like, if you took any of those other grails, that's useful.

That's a great thing to, like... FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever?

Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca. Oh. Assassination tool. An espionage, a tool of espionage, yeah.

Make a horse drink it at a party if you're a weird rich guy. Sure. Would it work on a horse, though? I don't know. Because I kind of feel like the Ark of the Covenant. Like maybe it's your intent is also, like a horse drinking from the Holy Grail. That probably hasn't,

you know, probably isn't expecting eternal life. Probably not. So. Imagine, yeah. My goodness. I also,

watching this again for the, you know, the thousandth time. I think this is the one I rewatched the most maybe. I don't know. Probably this and Temple of Doom

I've probably seen the most. But I love the idea from like the knight's perspective that this pack of weirdos run in, set off all the traps. One of them drinks the wrong grail. He just watches that unfold. The other guy takes it and he goes, you can't get it out of here.

And he goes, right, got it. They go out. They try to leave with it. This is his perspective. Caused an earthquake. They drop it into the earthquake. The whole building goes under and they leave. Like, what did he even do any of this for?

He could have just dropped it down a pit. That's absolutely right, yeah. They really, like, wrecked his shit. Do you reckon he's like, I've got to go get that now. I've got to go down there and find it. Lousy immortality. Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

He's lost to time. But even that, like, that last connection that you get with him and his dad, just a really good touching moment. I think the emotional stakes of this, on top of everything else which is done perfectly, it really elevates it, I feel, above the other ones. It's such a believable relationship. They really sell it.

And even the conversations are interesting. Like the conversation on the blimp that you mentioned. Like that's interesting. That's good stuff. I know I said earlier that this was the bad one but I was joking Mason. I don't know if you picked up. I picked up on it.

This is a good one. I'm going to do a big complaint though. Two big complaints. RIP the comments. River Phoenix's hair is not era appropriate. It's true. It's very floppy 90s, isn't it? I like it. Love the casting.

They did want him to come back for young Indiana Jones. He obviously did pass away in the mid-90s. But, yeah, obviously he wasn't going to do young Indiana Jones. Sure. It was too edutainment. It was too edutaining? Yeah. Look, we're not going to get to it.

No. We will probably at some point. Too edutainment. It's too edutaining? Yeah. Look, we're not going to get to it. No. We will probably at some point, but I have some things to say, I guess, at some point. And the other one is the moment where they're going through the underground tunnel in Venice and it's all petroleum. Oh, yes. And he's holding a big fiery torch and there's a moment where you just see fire just falling off into the petroleum.

And I'm like, that's not realistic, actually. Yeah. Yeah. And I was mad about it. Seems that way, isn't it? Yeah. But other than that, no. But how about this?

Uh-oh. Every week, we're looking at these and we're going, are these fashion specs? Yes. Does he need glasses? Yeah. Okay. So what does he do in this movie? I was not paying thorough attention.

Perhaps I need bloody glasses. But you have, obviously. So what does he do in this movie? I was not paying thorough attention. Perhaps I need a lot of glasses. But you have, obviously. You've been watching diligently and taking notes. So how does he use glasses in this movie, James? I'm hoping we get more information about this next week because I don't feel like this helps. He only uses them as a professor at the start. Okay.

And then there's a moment where he goes to meet Donovan and he puts them on to, like, inspect the different things that he's looking at. It's a very appropriate use of reading glasses. So obviously there, I mean, that second example would be reading glasses because he needs to look at stuff close up. But if he's wearing them in a classroom setting, maybe he needs to look at the students to see if anybody's acting up

or putting pervy messages on their eyelids, for example. So what are they then? They don't look like bifocals. I was going to say, are they bifocals? Maybe it's a subtle, I don't know, could you do that back in the day? I would have thought bifocals back in the day to be a very distinct slice down the middle.

Absolutely. Or one, the lenses would be different. You have to close your eye to make it work. We'll find out more next week, I guess. I i still suspect fashion specs though yeah that's what i'm suspecting because have you considered this he's got two pairs i haven't maybe he's maybe he's short-sighted and long-sighted or whatever the reverse that is maybe he's bad at distance and close up and he switches them out okay the same he went to spec savers he got two pairs for 199 dollars but why doesn't he wear them in other times then like why doesn't he switches them out. They look the same. He went to Specsavers and he got two pairs for $199.

But why doesn't he wear them at other times then? Why doesn't he wear them both at the same time? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, right. But he doesn't need them for a joust. That's true. Or to shoot a man in the head

as we saw. Yeah, but then he's just guessing. Most of the time he just assumes everybody around him is a bad guy. And also, in this era, you shoot a bloke, no cameras. That's true.

I didn't do it. Well, I's true. I didn't do it. Well, I guess he said he didn't do it. Yeah, exactly. He shot that librarian, but there's no witnesses, so I guess he gets away with it. You know what? I did do it, but proof it. Here's another thing I want to talk about fashion in general.

Okay. His outfit, at one point, has the inclusion of a tie. A leather jacket and a tie. How are you feeling about that? I don't love leather jacket and a tie. How are you feeling about that? I don't love leather jacket and a tie. I mean, I think he carries it off. Because he's Harrison Ford? Because he's Harrison Ford.

Because he's a young 46-year-old Harrison Ford. But I think everybody who has been inspired by this movie to dress like that, they're not carrying it off. No. Also, I love the way he decided the best strategy for infiltrating that castle was swap hats and jackets with Elsa and just walk in with a Scottish accent. And then headbutt a guy or whatever he does.

Yeah, just walk in, man. What are you doing? And she's going along with it because, one, she's a Nazi, and, two, he's very handsome. She's like, I guess this handsome dumb guy is a fun idea. Let's give it a whirl. The Jon Hamm's character in 30 Rock Syndrome. Absolutely it is.

I also think, and I know it is a different hat for every movie, though it's technically supposed to be the same hat, there's debate about that. There's also a moment where his hat rolls back to him and you see inside of it that is a fresh white lining. Maybe he's getting it relined. Maybe he is. You would back in the day.

You would, I guess. I think this hat is smaller. The brim is shorter. Yeah, you might be right. Something to think about. Maybe an edge got cut and he had to cut all the way around. It's like, that's embarrassing and I can't. What am I going to sew that up?

I have a big exposed stitch on there. No, I've got to take the edge off. Great point. Man, I tell you what. Anyways, Mason, it's time for Indiana Jones in the trivia. Nice, I love that. This is a segment of the show where we do some trivia, Mason, including this one.

2,000 rats were bred for the production. Breeding them specifically was necessary, as ordinary rats would have been riddled with diseases. I bet, yeah. Mm-hmm. The initial instruction said, we need 2,000 pounds of bread. That was some miscommunication. Absolutely.

Quick, release the bread. Wait, what the hell? Rumour has it, and you'll see this in a lot of places, that Harrison Ford was sick of his hat flying off in the tank chase sequence. He actually did a lot of his own stunts for this one because we know in Temple of Doom he was injured. That's right. But most of the stuff, not all he did in this,

like the tank jump he didn't do, for example. But the rumour was that his hat kept coming off and he stapled it to his head. There's a behind-the-scenes, though, like, fun gag where he's pretending to do it, but he didn't really put staples into his head because he needs his face for, like, being on camera and stuff.

Being beautiful and so forth, yes. Yeah, exactly. Pat Roach, who you might recognize as the really big guy he fights in the two previous movies. He's actually, in this movie, briefly used... They bred 2,000 pounds of Pat Roach. That's right.

You do see him. He's one of the guys running up to the blimp to stop it. Yeah, right. And there was going to be another fight where he fights Pat Roach. They did film it, but it was cut from this movie. So he's technically in the first three movies. Right. Yeah.

You know what's a fun little Easter egg in this? What's that? Hitler. That's fun, isn't it? Just like that Kingsman movie. Yeah, right. Oh, that's right, where he's revealed Avengers style at the end. As an actor, how do you feel when your agent calls and is like,

we need you for Hitler? Yeah. You look like Hitler, is what we're saying here. I mean, it's work. Yeah. And it's not a pro-Hitler movie, is it? No, that's true, yeah. That's right.

So this is a fun little detail that I actually just noticed this time around, work yeah and it's not like you know it's not a pro hitler movie no that's true yeah so uh this is a fun little detail that i actually just noticed this time around but after the tank fight you see indiana jones has a bloody lip and he's got a tank tread mark on his face okay yep uh-huh because you know he gets his face pinned down to it but when he goes into the temple and he gets the grail and he drinks from it you see afterwards like those wounds are healed like he's still got the marks like the blood but the yeah right those wounds are healed. Like, he's still got the marks, like the blood, but the wounds are actually gone. That's a good moment where Sean Connery's like,

I think my son died. I should have been nice, maybe. And then he's like, oh, he's all right. That's fine. Let's move on with this. I almost had to think about something for a second. But now I'm glad I don't have to. Yeah, Sala, let's go.

And the last bit of trivia is, Indiana Jones and the trivia, I should say, is that this is Steven Spielberg's favourite of the Indiana Jones film franchise. Probably because it's the best one. Probably because it's the best one, I would say. But look, we're revisiting Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and we haven't seen Dial of Destiny yet. That's true.

And, you know. No one has, as far as we know. I mean, that's basically 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Exactly. Currently, sure. At this point, it's all looking very good. But I don't disagree with that. This is like peak Spielberg

Indiana Jones action. All the lessons and story beats and everything that was learned about this character in these movies, it all comes together in this one. And I feel like if they were going to do another one, they probably should have done it in the 90s. We'll talk about it next week but before we do that Mason, box office

for this on a budget of $48 million it made $474 million it was again the biggest movie of the year it beat Batman internationally Wow okay. Batman was a big Batman movie. It was one of the biggest Batman movies at the time. Yeah. Aren't we getting a new Batman and Indiana Jones movie as well?

They're back They're back in a new Batman and Indiana Jones movie as well? They're back. They're back in a big way and they'll be equally loved. Exactly. And people won't have forgotten about one of them. They're both still in the zeitgeist as far as I'm

concerned. Correct. Here's the thing though. Go on. We are coming back to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We'll be doing that next week but if you do want to

see it early you can head over to BigSandwich.co. That's right. They always go up there early. And we've got a bunch of other stuff there, including video game Let's Plays. We're going to do some Indiana Jones stuff there. Yeah.

Also, there's bonus podcasts. There's movie commentaries. Our podcast, The Weekly Planet, where we talk movies and comics and TV shows, that normally comes out Monday. That comes out ad-free. On Sunday, we talk about the big movie of the week and all the movie news, don't we, Mason? That's right.

Bigsandwich.co. It's like that warehouse full of crates of cool stuff. Yep. All sorts of stuff. Various, a lot of blasphemy. Yep. One of them has the, you open it and it's a box and God's in it and it shoots a laser at you.

Yeah, and you love it. And you love it. You love it. Yeah. You're like, wow, I remember that from when I was a kid. You know? Nostalgia, it's very powerful. Boy, is it.

All right, thanks, everybody. Grab that gem, you guys? Nostalgia, it's very powerful. Boy, is it. All right, thanks, everybody. Grab that gem, you guys. We'll see you next week. Goodbye. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands

of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.