MovieChat Forums > Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Discussion > Indy's only "successful" quest?

Indy's only "successful" quest?

posted 8 years ago by SteveM-1
8 replies | jump to latest

In each Indiana Jones movie, we see him on two quests. We come in towards the end of one quest and then he moves in to the "Major" quest of the film. The only film that didn't follow this formula was "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

If you look at most of Indy's quests, he actually fails most of them or at least walks away empty handed. In fact, I'm thinking he does that for all of his quests, except one.

Let's break them down.

In "Raiders", we start with his quest to obtain the golden idol. He gets it out of the temple, but it's taken by his rival, Belloq. Strike #1. The main quest of the film is the Lost Ark of the Covenant. In the end, it's confiscated by the U.S. Government. Strike #2.

Let's then go to Temple of Doom. Starts out in Shanghai where he's obtaining the remains of the First Emperor of the Manchu Dynasty in exchange for a very large Diamond. He leaves Club Obi Wan with no diamond. Strike #3. They go to India to obtain the lost Shankara stones. One stone is returned to the village, the rest are lost. Again, he walks away empty handed, so Strike #4.

Next is the Last Crusade. I'll skip the fist part and go to the quest of the Holy Grail. Although he patches things up with his Dad (which Spielberg insists was the "real" quest all along), the Grail stays in the cave, so empty handed again.

In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there's only one quest because the prologue was tied in to the aliens, so it's all about finding the lost city and the secrets of the Crystal Skull. In the end, the aliens go back home, the city was wiped out and Indy again doesn't really have anything tangible to show for it (except for patching things up with Marion Ravenwood and learning about his Son).

So six "failures" in that he doesn't get the treasure, but he's usually happy because he gets the girl or his Dad or whatever.

Let's go back to the Last Crusade. The quest at the beginning is the Cross of Coronado. He starts as a teenager and first loses the Cross to the rich guy. Fast forward to adulthood and he does finally get the Cross. He gets to take it back to his University and although it's not in his personal possession, he does achieve what he set out to do: Bring the Cross back and put it in a museum.

So, it would look like the Cross of Coronado is Indy's only real Success in terms of getting the object of pursuit.

Is there significance in this? Doubtful since Spielberg is Jewish, so a Christian Crucifix doesn't hold much for him personally. I'm thinking more along the lines that Spielberg wanted to give Indy a Break for once and have him succeed in at least one quest.

I just find it interesting that Indy really has a high failure rate when you look at his history.

I've never watched "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", so maybe he's had more successes, but in the movies, not so much.

Agree? Disagree?

[–] ghostly_host 8 years ago

Interesting, I've never thought of it that way. You can probably thank George Lucas for the Christian stuff in Last Crusade. When he originally approached Spielberg with the idea of the Holy Grail, Spielberg didn't want to do it. That could be because he's Jewish but also could just be that he wanted to do something else. The core of the Indy films is not in the material prize, but in the adventure itself on the way to getting there. As Henry Jones Sr. says, "Elsa didn't believe in the Grail. She thought she'd found a prize." Henry found his illumination and Indy found his father and once again saved the world from the evil nazies. In Temple of Doom he saved the village and freed the captive children and stopped the evil Thuggee cult. So, it's also a quest to save the world from evil as much as it is to obtain prizes.

[–] SteveM-1 8 years ago

No doubt, to be sure, the real prizes of all of the movies are Love, Friendship and Family (and defeating the Bad Guys). Indy walks away with at least something of this in each film.

However, if you were the curator of a museum and you were looking for a particular piece of antiquity to display, maybe the best person to hire would NOT be Indiana Jones, given his track record.

😀

[–] ZakkWyldeMyLittlePony 8 years ago

I guess that's why I like this film more so than Raiders.

"Metallica loves Equestria."-James Hetfield, October 10, 2010

[–] The_Ultimate_Hippo 8 years ago

I found the dialogue between Indy and Connery to be incredibly corny and stupid, their relationship didn't seem to work either. This is my least favorite Indy film by far.

"I really wish Gia and Claire had became Tanner" - Honeybeefine

[–] ThatGuy25 8 years ago

He won in love!
(The US government should just send people with better records after stuff)

[–] sandman81 8 years ago

I disagree about the Ark. He was hired by the U.S. Government to recover the Ark, and more importantly prevent the Nazi's from obtaining it. He delivered the Ark and received payment that he was satisfied with. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Now afterwards, he wasn't satisfied with the Governments handling of the Ark. He and Marcus correctly guessed that they would not do any research of it. But most likely they were more upset that they weren't hired to be the ones who researched it. However they were never hired to do so, so it was not their mission.

The Stones in Temple he was never hired for. He found them and chose to return them to the rightful owners.

And in Last Crusade his exact quote is "I didn't come for the Cup of Christ. I came to find my Father." Likewise, his father explains that its not just about finding the Grail, its about preventing the Nazi's from getting it.

[–] SteveM-1 8 years ago

I disagree about the Ark. He was hired by the U.S. Government to recover the Ark, and more importantly prevent the Nazi's from obtaining it. He delivered the Ark and received payment that he was satisfied with. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Nope. Watch the scene where Marcus meets Indy at his house before he leaves for his trip. In their discussion, they say that the government promised to pay them and to let the museum have the Ark. At the end of the movie, the government went back on their word and didn't let the museum have the Ark. Instead they kept it.

Indy was hired to keep the Ark out of the Nazis' hands, not to give it to the government. At the end, Indy wasn't upset that he didn't get to research it, but because he saw first hand how dangerous the Ark was and he didn't feel that the government would handle it properly. So, the mission didn't end as he thought it would.

The Stones in Temple he was never hired for. He found them and chose to return them to the rightful owners.

The Village Elder asked Indy to bring back their stone. So, yes, he was "hired". When he realized that this stone was one of the lost Shankara stones, he saw fortune and glory and decided to go for all of them. In the end he only kept one stone and the other two were lost again. So, he brought back only one stone and didn't get the Fortune and Glory he was hoping for.

[–] sandman81 8 years ago

If both cases you show that he accomplished his mission, but still insist that he didn't.

In Raiders, he was hired to keep the Ark out of the Nazi's hands. He does that. He might not have been satisfied with anything after that (aside from his payment) but that was not part of the mission. And we don't know the exact agreement between Marcus and the agents. Maybe they never intended to let the museum have it and lied, or maybe when Indy told them about what had happened they realized the Ark was to dangerous to leave out in the public sector and it needed to be locked away somewhere. Or maybe there was never any agreement about the museum getting it. Perhaps Marcus just assumed they would let him keep the Ark. We don't know.

In Temple, the Elder hired Indy to recover their stone which he does and returns it to them. Mission Accomplished. Like you said he realized the value of the stones and tried to recover the others for his own gain, but was unable to do so. But the mission he was hired to do was achieved, and as an added bonus he rescued the children, and destroyed the Cult.