I was watching it Saturday night with a bunch of friends, and not one of them could answer this question that is bugging the hell out of me and have always bugged me everytime I watched it.
Who the hell was that guy who lit the catacombs on fire? Why did he have such a strange marking on his chest? I get that he is supposedly the “protector” of the secret of the Holy Grail, but why?!?!?! And why is he, one minute trying to kill Indy, but then everything is A OK, nevermind that the guy’s cronies are all dead from trying to kill Indy. It was just “Oh, be careful getting the Holy Grail! No hard feelings about killing off my friends or anything!”
At first, I thought he was one of the three knights, but with the confusion surrounding the immortality concept of the Holy Grail, I thought the knights who left the temple would have already been dead. Either because their immortality cannot go beyond the seal, or that they have to drink from the grail often to keep themselves fresh spring chickens!
Other than that, such a great movie… I never get tired of watching it!
They’re members of a group that has been trying to keep the Grail and its cave secret. They don’t have any obvious connection to the knight. Either they weren’t in existence yet, or else the knights got in past the ancestors of these guys.
I’ve never been happy with this part of the story, or why he forgives Indy so easily for offing his companions. And they seem to be singularly useless in actually keeping anyone, Nazis included, away from the Grail. But I guess they needed some extra menace to give everyone a hard time getting to the Grail.
The guy asked Indy “ask yourself why you seek the cup of Christ” and Indy explained that he was not seeking the Grail he was seeking his kidnapped Father.
I think up to that point, the guys had been assuming that Indy was willingly working with the Nazis. After they get wiped out, and the dying leader talks with Indy, he realizes that Indy does not want the Grail at all, but rather is their last chance to keep the cup out of the hands of the Third Reich.
I may be mistaken but I thought that the fellow with the tattoo on his chest says that the order was started by the two knights who came out of the desert after finding the grail.
Nah, it changed prior to that. When he is in the boat with Indy, he’s at first all “My soul is prepared [to die], how is yours?” and then suddenly he agrees to tell Indy everything in exchange for being allowed to get away. After that comes the question and answer you describe.
Thanks for the answers. I find it a little agravating that an Indiana Jones movie that is supposed to be filled with fast paced action and a simple plot wanted me to use my imagination and try to interpret the motivation of that weird guy. It still doesn’t explain why the marking on his chest was significant though.
Dooku, you’re proving my point. After the exchange you quoted, comes the question and answer shamrock227 mentioned, namely this (from memory):
Kazim: Ask yourself why you seek the Cup of Christ. Is it for his glory, or for yours?
Indy: I didn’t come for the Cup of Christ, I came to find my father.
Kazim: In that case, may God be with you in your quest.
He changes his tune, and after that clearly shows that he still believes Indy is after the Grail.
As said before, the guy was a member of the brotherhood trying to protect the grail. He set the catacombs on fire to kill Indy and Ilsa. He only changed his tune after he discovered Indy was not after the grail, but his father.
The cruciform sword on his chest was the same design as that found on the tablet in the beginning of the movie and the shield placed over the body of the knight in the catacombs. (It also apperas as a sketch in the “Grail Book” that Indy’s father had. It suggests that the knights who came out of the desert started the Brotherhood.
(Funny how we accept with utter faith every other ridiculous thing in that movie, but can engage in a serious debate about the motivations of that one guy with the tatoo. ;))
Oh, and my favorite line from the movie, as long as we’re here:
Case in point: It takes but one match from Inconsistent Tattoo Man to ignite the catacombs, yet none of the flaming bits from Indy’s torch over the preceding several minutes is sufficient to the same task.
Of course it is! I never said any different! Damn, this seems to be difficult. Let’s go through it:
Sad and Deranged is saying that Kazim’s tune changes.
Here, shamrock227 says the guy’s tune changed because of the exchange when Hazim asks why Indy searches the Cup of Christ, and Indy replies that he didn’t come for the Grail but for his father. With me?
Here, I’m saying that the guy’s tune changed prior to the exchange noted above (Cup of Christ et cetera, let’s call it the “CoC exchange”. Still with me? Dooku then quotes the part of the screenplay where Kazim changes his tune which, as I said, comes before the CoC exchange.
And here I point that out, and quote the CoC exchange. And then Miller pops in to say that the “quest” Kazim speaks of is the quest for Indy’s father, which is, of course, entirely correct and entirely off the point.
So, to sum up: I claim the guy’s tune changes prior to the CoC exchange. Dooku quotes the bit where the guy’s tune changes, which is indeed prior to the CoC exchange. The first line of the CoC exchange clearly shows that when the CoC exchange started, Kazim still believed Indy was after the Grail. Ergo: The guy went from “ready to die” to “let me go, I’ll tell all” while still believing Indy was after the Grail.
