81
votes
Accepted
Why is Henry Jones Jr. named Indiana?
It seems to be a name he gave himself when he was much younger. No date is given but, as I recall, he was nicknamed Indiana in the TV show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992-93)
We find out the ...
- 139k
54
votes
Accepted
Why did Indiana Jones contradict himself?
The script indicates that Indy is not unaware of the irony of the situation. For all his worldly experience (and noting the lies that he told his students to dissuade them from leading the kind of ...
- 25k
28
votes
Accepted
What are Elsa's reasons for selecting the Holy Grail on behalf of Donovan?
It was a deliberate attempt to take Donovan out of the picture so that she and Indy could take the grail. Elsa states during the movie that she has no particular loyalty to either the Nazis or to ...
- 885
24
votes
Accepted
Why was there a second saw blade in the first grail challenge?
In the script, the blade is a "triple pendulum" that swings down from the ceiling, rather than a blade that slices horizontally. There's no good indication why the VFX team turned this into ...
- 25k
20
votes
Why is Henry Jones Jr. named Indiana?
According to the wikia page for the dog:
The puppy Indiana was given to young Henry Jones, Jr. by his parents
Anna and Henry Sr. while still in the crib at their home in Princeton,
New Jersey.
...
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18
votes
Accepted
Why is Temple of Doom a prequel?
Lucas made the film a prequel as he did not want the Nazis to be the villains once more.
From Lucas himself:
Lucas: We made Temple Of Doom a prequel because we didn't want to use the same bad guys....
- 5,598
16
votes
Accepted
What exactly is inside the Ark?
The Ark of the Covenant, in biblical lore, is a chest that contains the stone tablets that constitute the Ten Commandments.
The Ark is a sacred object, and those who tried to steal it were often ...
- 11.9k
15
votes
Why does Indy pause while writing "neolithic" in the campus scene?
He's reminding himself how to spell the word.
If you listen, he spells the word to himself, trying to remember the correct letters.
"Neo," meaning "new"
and "lithic"... L-I-T-H...I-C, meaning "...
- 5,598
13
votes
What are Marion and Belloq drinking in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark?
While Kevin points out that Belloq is providing something from his family vineyard, that doesn't answer the question of what it actually is.
Given that it's clear, and they are getting very drunk, it'...
- 9,695
12
votes
In "Raiders of the Lost Ark", what script appears on the headpiece of the staff of Ra?
Yes, that script absolutely is Paleo-Hebrew. I recognized it instantly when re-watching the movie recently. But what is Hebrew doing on an Egyptian artifact? It’s a goof! There’s no good explanation ...
- 322
12
votes
Accepted
When did Indiana Jones learn to fly a plane?
According to the Lost Journal of Indiana Jones, he learned how to fly a Ford Tri-Motor Airplane following the events of The Temple of Doom.
Determining that killing Jones was worth the cost of the ...
- 28k
12
votes
Accepted
Why does the Ark burn the markings off its crate?
There is no commentary from the film-makers (that I can find) that covers this specific burning crate subject but it seems evident that it's...
..because the Ark refuses to be marked by evil which is ...
- 139k
12
votes
Why was there a second saw blade in the first grail challenge?
I think that the answer is much simpler. There was a specific spot that you were supposed to stop and kneel on in order to show reverence.
If you stood there the first blade would get you, if you went ...
- 3,144
11
votes
Accepted
Who poisoned the date?
Monkey Man, a local man wearing an eye patch, poisoned the dates.
An apparent native of Cairo, who wears an eye patch and is in the credits as Monkey Man, clearly sneaks into Sallah's apartment and ...
- 7,537
10
votes
Accepted
Was there any need for Indiana Jones' actions concerning the grail?
The water, as far as I'm aware, is simply that: water. It may not even be Holy Water, but I don't believe there is ever anything explicitly mentioned about having to drink from that particular font ...
- 38.6k
10
votes
Why did the guide pull his gun on Indy?
Why did the guide pull his gun on Indy?
Very short answer: greed. Once the temple and idol were located, they thought they could keep the gold for themselves.
Barranca and Satipo had decided long ago ...
- 12.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Why didn't he take the kids?
IN UNIVERSE: There was no other way out at the time.
After Indiana, Willie and Short Round free the children from their chains, the children start running toward the opening of the cave to escape. ...
- 28k
8
votes
What exactly is inside the Ark?
I think this is addressed early in the movie, when two Army officers are telling Indy and Brody about the Nazi communiqué they've intercepted. They ask Indy what the Ark looks like, and in response (...
- 489
8
votes
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, why do the students want his attention?
Look. If you've been a professor, you don't even blink at this scene. It seems, based on the time of year, like this is at the beginning of the semester, although oddly some of the student requests ...
- 81
8
votes
Does lead lining really work against a nuclear explosion?
Obviously not:
In response to this claim, a civic-minded scientist has subjected the
stunt to the rigors of scientific peer review and posted the results
on Overthinking It, a blog with a ...
- 49.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Was Michael Moore a second unit director on "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"?
That was a different Michael Moore (Mickey Moore, Michael D. Moore), born Dennis Michael Sheffield (1914 to 2013).
From his wikipedia page:
In the 1980s, Steven Spielberg hired Moore as second unit ...
8
votes
Accepted
What goes into Belloq's mouth exactly? Is this a mistake, a joke on purpose, or something more?
It's a fly BUT, in fact, it doesn't actually go into his mouth.
Apparently, according to Paul Freeman who played Belloq a few frames were cut out of the movie where the fly actually flew away.
Q: Can ...
- 139k
8
votes
Accepted
Did "Raiders of the Lost Ark" have a deleted scene with a Nazi soldier killing an hostage?
There was such a scene
..although it never made it into the final production cut.
There's a list of deleted scenes which includes
Sallahs' Execution
With Indy and Marion left to suffocate in the Well ...
- 139k
7
votes
Accepted
Whose arm is shown stopping the blade trap in The Last Crusade?
Whose arm is it? Surely not Indy's.
Yes, it surely was.
Aside from the "kneels before God" turning into a roll, that snippet of the scene was completely plausible.
...
- 14.4k
7
votes
Why does Indiana Jones not fall when he grabs the wrong letters in The Last Crusade?
Previous answers assume that only those letters which were on the path across had supports underneath them. For a floor that large to stay up, lots of letters had to have supports under them. All ...
- 77
7
votes
What happened to the Grail Knight?
The price for immortality was for the cup for the Holy Grail to never cross the Great Seal.
Elsa Schneider and Walter both wanted to take the Holy Grail out of the temple, breaking the only condition ...
- 4,952
6
votes
What are Marion and Belloq drinking in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Belloq states it is his family's wine label:
[Marion and Belloq are both very drunk]
Marion: [laughs] What is this stuff, Rene?
Belloq: [laughing as well] I grew up on this. It's my family ...
- 780
6
votes
Why does Indiana Jones not fall when he grabs the wrong letters in The Last Crusade?
One possible explanation is because he grabbed a correct letter.
This is what the tiles look like (I added some coloured circles for ease of explanation below):
The wrong letter on which he stepped ...
- 232
6
votes
Accepted
How does Indiana Jones take so much time off to treasure hunt?
Let's pretend you're the Dean of a Univeristy, and take the example from Last Crusade, where Indie seems to run off to find his father..
If you were a world famous Historian/Archaeologist, who ...
- 38.6k
5
votes
Was there any need for Indiana Jones' actions concerning the grail?
It seems to me that you're partially correct but...
I recall somewhere in the film that one of the other 'grail-guarding' brothers had 'stumbled out of the desert and died of extreme old age'.
This ...
- 3,660
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible