# Stupid Question(s) about Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2019, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657 "2019-12-31T05:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/21 "2019-12-31T19:55:00Z")
I can see an X-games exploitation, The Grail Climb, a rock wall-climb with assorted Grails on top. Climbers reaching the top, those who haven’t fallen into Peredition, must choose a Grail. Some choose… unwisely… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/22 "2019-12-31T20:20:55Z")
The immortality granted by the Grail was a function of its healing properties. It doesn’t just heal gunshots. Arteries getting a little occluded? Cleared. Pre-cancerous spot on your lung? Gone. Kidney function a bit on the decline? Grail gets it back up to speed. You keep smoking, drinking, and eating red meat, all of those conditions could eventually come back - but if you’re taking a sip from the Grail every morning, they get fixed again. That’s the Grail’s immortality. Perfect health, forever, so long as you keep drinking. The Jones boys likely added a decade or more to their lives from their respective sips, just clearing up any incipient conditions that might have killed them further down the road. The seal was just a security system. It didn’t have anything to do with immortality, except in so far as it made it impossible to take the Grail and be immortal in the comfort of your own home. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/23 "2019-12-31T20:41:05Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > My recollection is: > > - Senior both drank from the grail as well as had it poured on his wound. > - The immortality only worked if you stayed within the seal. so it healed him but he became mortal again once they left the site. > - The grail itself couldn’t be moved past the seal, this is why the whole place collapsed. Makes you wonder why they even bothered guarding it? > [@Miller](#): > > The seal was just a security system. It didn’t have anything to do with immortality, except in so far as it made it impossible to take the Grail and be immortal in the comfort of your own home. _“The Frogurt is also cursed!”_ ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/24 "2019-12-31T20:55:33Z")
Here’s what the Knight says: > [@](#): > > ``` > You have chosen wisely. But the Grail > cannot pass beyond the Great Seal. > That is the boundary and the price > of immortality. > > ``` I took it to mean “You have to keep drinking from the Grail to stay alive, but you can’t take the Grail with you.” ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/25 "2019-12-31T21:32:17Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Here’s what the Knight says: > I took it to mean “You have to keep drinking from the Grail to stay alive, but you can’t take the Grail with you.” The question then becomes why that was the case. My impression is that it was the three knights who created the seal in some way or another. Had they not gotten a hold of the grail, the grail would probably have continued it’s wanderings without any issues. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/26 "2019-12-31T22:38:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that the false Grails were brought in, not by the knight, but by the Nazis (and by whatever other visitors there were in the millennia before them). They expected to see a fancy bejeweled cup, so that’s what was there. Impossible? Well, of course. Or rather, miraculous. I may be wrong here (probably) but I thought the knight told Indy that he was the first to find him. If so, then I think the other cups were collected by the three brothers when they searched for the grail and finally found it). Then the knight who was left set them all up like that. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/27 "2020-01-02T13:30:05Z")
The book I’ve been reading – Nicholas J. Higham’s _King Arthur – The Making of the Legend_ cites a source that throws some light on the questions asked. I assume that Spielberg or Locas or one of their researchers dug up this nugget of information.\* In Chretien de Troyes’ final Arthgurian poem, _The Story of the Grail_ states: > [@](#): > > … And do not iumagine that he [the Fisher KIng, in whose castle Sir Perceval sees the Grail, twice] is served pike or lamprey or salmon [from the Grail]. A single Host\*\* that is brought to him in that Grail sustains and brings comfort to that holy man – such is the holiness of the Grail! And he is so holy that his life is sustained by nothing more than the Host that comes in the Grail. (page 106 in Highan The Fisher KIng, like the Knight in the Indiana Jones movie, stays within his castle and does not (cannot) leave, so the parallel is pretty close. - Lucas was a big fan of mythology, acknowledging his debt to mythologist Joseph Campbell. Bill Moyers devoted one of his shows to discussing mythology and Star Wars with Lucas. \*\* The Consecrated Host (as, for instance, the Communion Wafer), which transubstatiates to the Body of Christ. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/28 "2020-01-02T16:01:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > - Lucas was a big fan of mythology, acknowledging his debt to mythologist Joseph Campbell. Bill Moyers devoted one of his shows to discussing mythology and Star Wars with Lucas. Which is another way of saying “I’m too lazy to come up with my own plot beats, so I’ll just rip off ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces’ from Sophomore Anthropology.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/29 "2020-01-02T17:03:21Z")
I kind of figured Old Indy in _The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles_ was hale and healthy in his old age (eye patch and all) due to drinking from the Grail. He did kick young punk butt in one of the intro sequences. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/30 "2020-01-02T17:11:12Z")
I’m not saying trans-dimensional crystal-skulled aliens, but trans-dimensional crystal-skulled aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/31 "2020-01-02T18:50:09Z")
I thought it neat that the first film (Raiders of the Lost Ark) centered around a Jewish artifact, while the third film centered around a Christian artifact (the less said about the second film, the better). So I thought the next film should have centered around an Islamic artifact, to complete the Abrahamic faith trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/32 "2020-01-02T20:08:28Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Indiana Jones: Worst Archeologist EVER! Absolutely trashed every place he went to. Thank God he never went to Machu Picchu. He would have leveled it! [Indiana Jones receives the tenure decision from his employer](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-globetrotting-adventure-indiana-jones-checks-his-mail-and-discovers-that-his-bid-for-tenure-has-been-denied). ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/33 "2020-01-03T00:50:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought it neat that the first film (Raiders of the Lost Ark) centered around a Jewish artifact, while the third film centered around a Christian artifact (the less said about the second film, the better). So I thought the next film should have centered around an Islamic artifact, to complete the Abrahamic faith trilogy. Next come searches for 1) the Maltese Falcon, 2) Cthulhu, and 3) an Oscar. That last may never appear. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/34 "2020-01-03T12:57:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought it neat that the first film (Raiders of the Lost Ark) centered around a Jewish artifact, while the third film centered around a Christian artifact (the less said about the second film, the better). So I thought the next film should have centered around an Islamic artifact, to complete the Abrahamic faith trilogy. A lot of people liked the plot of the video game _Indiana Jones and the Treasure of Atlantis_, which got turned into a limited run comic book series, and many hoped might be the basis for another movie. It would be an Indiana Jones movie with a McGuffin that had NO religious significance whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/35 "2020-01-03T13:22:16Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > But, while we’re unsuspending disbelief, I’ve always wondered how all those traps (not just in Last Crusade, but in every other adventure) manage to stay in good working order after so many hundreds of years. Real machines don’t work like that. They need to be maintained. The natives in Raiders may have been maintaining those traps, although that is admittedly a stretch. I don’t remember traps in Temple, but there were lots of acolytes so maintenance would not be a problem there. The Crusades traps were built by the brother knights, so there is no reason to think the remaining guy didn’t keep them working. It’s not like he had a lot else to do. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/36 "2020-01-03T15:13:13Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > But, while we’re unsuspending disbelief, I’ve always wondered how all those traps (not just in Last Crusade, but in every other adventure) manage to stay in good working order after so many hundreds of years. Real machines don’t work like that. They need to be maintained. Me, I’ve always wondered about the nature of those stone-age-level-of-technology light-activated sliding spear-doors worked. The only thing I could figure was that they hired teenage boys on their summer vacation for the job – you had to look through the spyhole and see if anyone was standing in the light; if so, you pulled the lever that sent the Wall of Spears sliding toward them. Then you had to get out and crank the whole thing back into place (with the body still on it) so you could spear whoever was the next guy to step into the light. These guys got paid minimum wage, because you spent most of your time just looking through the spyhole at nothing. Guys who goofed off, or pulled the door lever just for kicks had to be disciplined. Either that, or they had a surprisingly sophisticated knowledge of how to work selenium. In any event, pulling “Beak the light/Wall of Spears Door” Duty was still better than having to crouch behind the Big Stone Wall and blow through the blow gun tube if someone stepped on the floor button. Those guys were crowded really close together. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/37 "2020-01-03T15:52:08Z")
I always wondered how nobody at the museum noticed how Jones was supplying them with looted artifacts, “no questions asked”. Sure, Brody was facilitating it, but nobody in the administration noticed anything? Nor anybody at the college wonder how he could afford that house? I mean, Malraux was totally busted. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/38 "2020-01-03T16:21:41Z")
One more question: How long did he have to hold his breath when that submarine took the Ark to that little island??? And how did he manage to hang on to is hat??? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/39 "2020-01-03T16:26:00Z")
1. The U-boat never submerged. 2. Pop-Rivets. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657/40 "2020-01-03T16:38:05Z")
The U-boat thing makes historical sense. They travel faster on the surface and the crew preferred the fresh air. They’d submerge for stealth on torpedo runs or to escape enemy vessels but staying on the surface would have been a standard practice at the time, especially before war. Especially in 1936 before open hostilities were declared. A more interesting question is just how did the Nazis operate so openly and brazenly in Egypt, which was held by the British until a republic was established in the 50s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-s-about-indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade/845657.md?page=3)