Bloo - Last Crusade

In the Indiana Jones Trilogy, we see Indiana Jones in different stages of the knight’s journey. In Temple of Doom, we see Indiana’s transformation from a mercenary knight into an indentured knight, and in Raiders of the Lost Ark we see him again as an indentured knight. However, his journey is not yet completed. He has to go on a Grail quest in order to become a Grail quest knight. This final stage is shown

in the Last Crusade, but not only do we get to see him as a Grail quest knight, we also see the other stages of his journey as

well. All these stages come back in the film to show Indiana’s development and it helps the audience to understand where Indiana is coming from.

In the first scene, Indiana Jones is presented as a mercenary knight. He steels the Cross of Coronado, which he had stolen

before when he was a child. Even though he acknowledges the value of the Cross by saying ‘’it belongs in a museum’’, in the end he also steels it for his own good.

Throughout the film, Indy transforms into the indentured knight. Serving for a lord is one characteristic of the indentured

knight. In the beginning of the film, Walter Donovan is his ‘’lord’’, because he assigns Indiana to find the grail. He gets another task, when he learns that the Nazis are also looking for the grail and have bad intentions with it plus they have abducted his father. Indiana must find the grail first to save the world.



One of the elements that belongs to the Grail quest knight is that the knight must atone with his father and submit to his ‘’spiritual authority’’. Henry Jones senior represents the spiritual authority, he understands that it is not about the chalice but about ‘’illumination’’. Indiana, on the contrary, does not understand this. After eluding the Nazi soldiers on the motorcycles, Indy and his father come to a fork in the road with a sign indicating left to Berlin where the diary is or right to Venice, to save Marcus. Because Indiana is still in the stage of the indentured knight, he wants to go to Venice, because he feels an obligation to Marcus to save him. However, his father understands the spirituality that comes with finding the Grail and tries to convince Indiana to go to Berlin. Eventually, Indiana submits to his father’s will and they go to Berlin. This shows that Indiana partially understands that it is not about finding the Grail itself but about spiritual enlightenment.