Goofs for
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Scenery around the time that Indy is in the caboose.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Indiana Jones fans have concluded that the movies take place in an alternate universe wherein 20th-century history happened differently, with certain events in technology, politics, war and culture happening earlier or later than in the real world. Some events are totally different than in the real world, for example, in the "Jonesiverse," the Hindenburg airship did not crash and burn in 1937, and the Afrika Korps had been established as early as 1936. Many anachronisms and factual errors are thus eliminated from consideration as goofs.
  
  
• Continuity: Blood dripping from alternate corners of Indy's mouth aboard the ship, and when fighting on the boat in Venice.
  
  

• Continuity: After swimming under petrol in the catacombs, Jones surfaces completely dry, except his wet hair, which makes wet spots on his clothes.
  
  
• Continuity: The flower on Elsa's blouse changes size when she is inside the catacombs.
  
  
• Continuity: The hand with which Indy is holding the Cross of Coronado in when he lands in the water.
  
  
• Continuity: When Elsa is reaching for the grail while holding onto Indy, the glove on her right hand starts slipping off. At first, it is seen slipping up to her fingers, but then it is seen again, this time still mostly on her hand and only slipping to the palm. The glove then slips off completely.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Joneses are watching the oncoming German vehicles from a hilltop, the sun is behind them (Connery's shadow moves) - but the sun is also behind the Germans (they see its reflection in Indy's binoculars).
  
  
• Continuity: Jones Sr., inside the tank, shoots a cannon at a truck next to the tank. The truck explodes, and a (dummy) body flies up and toward the tank. But in the next shot, the body falls on the other side of the smoke cloud, far from the tank.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the second test, to 'walk in the footsteps of the name of God', Indy nearly falls when he mistakenly starts to spell "Jehovah" with a "J" instead of an "I". While it is true that the use of the letter "J" came about centuries after the first crusade, the word "Jehovah/Iehovah" - or any other spelling - was not in use then either! It was created by faulty scholarship at the time of the King James Version translation of texts into English. Hebrew texts refer to God with YHVH, which is never spoken aloud. Instead, Hebrew manuscripts insert the vowel pointing for "Adonai" - "Lord" - which is substituted when the text is spoken aloud. The Christian translators were unaware of this, and inserted the vowels with the consonants and unknowingly created "Jehovah" for their English text. So there are several centuries difference between the era of the First Crusade, when the three knight brothers lived and heard/read scripture, and the translation of the King James Version which created the word "Jehovah".
  
  
• Continuity: When Marcus enters the classroom where Indy is teaching his class, the window to the right (nearest to Indy) is open. But after the class is dismissed, the window is closed.
  
  
• Continuity: Marcus unfolds Indiana's rubbing of the shield inscription and moves both of his hands away. In the next shot his left hand is back on it.
  
  
• Continuity: Indy and Elsa's boat is hit by submachine gun fire and sputters out, dark smoke billowing behind them. Elsa maneuvers the boat away whilst Indy duels on the other boat. When Indy is done fighting and his boat is being chopped to bits, Elsa maneuvers the boat back and ably picks up Indy and Kazim. That same boat (same bullet holes in the windscreen) is speeding down the Grand Canal a few moments later.
  
  
• Continuity: While the small boat is being destroyed by the propeller, Indy and Kazim leap from it onto the second boat being driven by Elsa. In the shot just before the jump, the boat is whole again. Then, its back to the destroyed one.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene at the temple when Indy is "walking the name of God" and falls through the floor after stepping on the wrong letter, the debris falls with him on the cutaway shot, but then strangely disappears as it passes behind an outcrop of stone instead of continuing down.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Before Indy's father frightens the seagulls into taking flight in the beach scene, the reflection of a camera is visible on his glasses during the close up on his face.
  
  
• Continuity: The blood on young Indy's chin switches from left to right, just before he gets his Fedora.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: In the catacombs after Indy passes the image of the ark of the covenant and approaches the next wall with the lighter, the shadow of a boom mic is briefly visible at the top of the lighted wall area.
  
  
• Continuity: When the plane used by Indy and Henry hits the ground, there is a close-up of the undercarriage collapsing under the force of the impact. However, it is clearly intact in the next shot, when the plane taxis towards the wall.
  
  
• Continuity: When both Joneses are tied up, the lighter on the ground clearly flips over.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Wire holding the bow of the boat when it's near the propeller.
  
  
• Continuity: When on the beach, it is possible to see the bullet shell casings in Indy's gun. When he opens it up, however, they are gone.
  
  
• Continuity: Indy kicks the periscope on the tank, spinning it a half turn anti-clockwise, and yet when seen from inside the tank, it makes a quarter turn in the clockwise direction.
  
  
• Continuity: Indy's face is almost black from dirt and grime when the tank's gun is grinding dirt onto him from the wall, yet after he climbs up from the side of the cliff to join the others his face is hardly dirty at all.
  
  
• Continuity: Henry Jones Sr.'s beard around the time the tank falls off the cliff.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: After Henry has drank the water from the grail, he is looking at it while holding it in his hands and you can see the small light in the bottom of the cup that is making it "Glow". The Glow comes and goes from time to time.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the tank falls off the cliff and hits the ground below, the turret falls off, revealing a flat surface underneath on the chassis model - there's no way for the occupants to climb out from the body of the tank through the turret, as we see them do several times previously.
  
  
• Continuity: State of repair of the letter behind Indy's foot for his first step.
  
  
• Factual errors: Blasting holes through the rudder of a small plane will not disable it, especially when Jones Sr.'s body was enough to cause wind drag. Although level turning would be impossible, the plane could still maneuver with the wing ailerons, which are more critical to level flight if ever damaged.
  
  
• Factual errors: Indy and Elsa dive under the burning petroleum. If it was really petroleum, it would have burned their eyes and possibly blinded them. Even if it was only a top layer, they would have passed through it.
  
  
• Continuity: When Henry and Indiana are in the German plane after Henry has shot the tailplane, there is a different amount of damage to the tailplane between the close up and long shots.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Could a bird actually stop the propeller of a plane when Indy's father scares the birds into the path of the German plane? At least one viewer says yes, it could; at the very least, it could stop the engine if it gets in the air intake.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the library scene where the large X is on the floor, Indy climbs a spiral stair case to get a better look at the floor. When he's at the top, the book case behind him is clearly made up of book spines glued to a black background.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The initial scenes of the movie are shot in Arches National Park (which is, as is stated, in Utah), and the troop dismounts at Double Arch. Indy takes the Cross of Coronado from a cave near that arch. However, there was no train line for miles in any direction at the time of the story. The railroad line present in the area today was built during the 1950s to serve a uranium processing mill at Moab. The nearest railroad at the time of the story is 40 miles to the north.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In an early scene in what is now Arches National Park, Balanced Rock is seen - but the smaller balanced rock ("The Chip off the Old Block") that stood beside it until 1975 is gone.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: The butler in the castle says "... and if you are a Scottish lord, then I am Mickey Mouse," but his mouth movements indicate something completely different than the words "Mickey Mouse" (in fact he says "... then I am Jesse Owens" and the line was altered in post-production so that audiences who didn't know who Jesse Owens was would still get the joke).
  
  
• Continuity: In the boat chase sequence, the film is flipped horizontally to preserve the continuity of the boat's motion. This causes a reversed image of the boat and its interior (Indy, Elsa and the steering wheel swap sides).
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the end of the boat scene, "Because you're looking for the holy grail."
  
  
• Continuity: During the flight on the airship when Indy and Henry are not having their father son talk the positions of the napkin and Henry's glass on the table change between shots.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: It has been suggested by many viewers that the X on the library floor is missing when Indy attempts to break through. In fact it is still there and is visible. It isn't nearly so obvious as when viewed from above, but that's rather the point they're making.
  
  
• Continuity: In the end when Indiana Jones is pouring the water from the grail on his fathers wound, he empties it completely. Yet when his father takes the grail in the next shot, there are plenty of water left in it. (In mitigation, while we are presented with no evidence that the grail has the power to refill itself, there's similarly no evidence that it does not).
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Indiana finishes crossing the invisible path and enters the room with the grail and the knight you can just see the shadow of someone moving (its definitely not the knight's shadow and there wasn't a hat on the shadow either so it's not Indiana, either).
  
  
• Continuity: When Indiana and Dr. Schneider arrive at the castle in Salzburg, Dr. Schneider is wearing a plain beret. However, when the door is opened and Indiana is wearing the beret, it changes to a French-style beret with band and tab on top.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy finds the "X" on the wall inside the catacomb, the wall is intact. When the shot goes back to Indy from Elsa, the wall is partially crumbled, but there is no noise or anything to suggest it was knocked over by force.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Henry's newspaper is already crumpled slightly when the Nazi captain pushes it down with his cane, as though from a previous take.
  
  
• Continuity: During the Castle Brunwald sequence and subsequent motorcycle chase, the length and knot of Indiana's tie changes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the tank fight there are several shots from behind the tank as it is moving. The tracks left in the dirt are from standard tires, not the steel tanks treads that they should be.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: You can see a member of the crew in the crack between the door and the doorframe in the background right before Indiana says, "How dare he?" and hits the butler,
  
  
• Continuity: When Donovan, Brody and Elsa are riding in the convoy in the desert, Colonel Vogel walks alongside the car and talks to Donovan. After having a drink, he steps back from the car and walks backwards down the convoy and we see that the Colonel has clearly passed the first car. In the next shot where Marcus says, "You are meddling with powers you cannot possibly comprehend," the Colonel is not in the shot, stepping into it later as if he had still been alongside the first car.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As Fedora runs after Young Indy after discovering the magic box is empty, he opens the back door. A crew member in a white shirt can be seen sitting on a railing in the glass reflection of the caboose door on the right side of the frame (may be visible in widescreen version only).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Shots inside the tank have been flopped - the German officer's armband is on the wrong arm.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy and his father are in the airplane while escaping the zeppelin, Henry shoots the plane's tail, ripping the top off. In subsequent shots of the plane, the tail can be seen with holes in it, but the top intact.
  
  
• Continuity: When Elsa walks beyond the seal, she falls into the cracks. Indiana saves her and there is a close-up of Indiana losing hold of Elsa's hand, but in a shot facing Indiana he has a grip on her wrists.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy helps Henry Sr. to his feet after he drinks from the grail, Henry Sr. clearly still has the grail with him. However, in the next shot the grail is on the floor, and Elsa picks it up.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the tank chasing Indy first turns to make a hard left, you can see the trailer it is mounted on.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy is first getting the exposition from Donovan, the amount of champagne in his glass increases after he drinks some without his refilling it.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The beginning part of the movie is set and filmed in Moab, Utah. But when the Young Indy is being chased by men onto the train, they quickly go through some forested land for a long time, with a green meadow. The nearest landscape like that would be in Southwestern Colorado, or Central Utah, not Eastern Utah as depicted.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy is hanging from his father's hand trying to get the fallen grail, his hand is shown to be slipping in close shots, yet wider angle shots show that Henry is holding him by the wrist and not the hand.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy, Elsa, and Brody are walking to the library, Indy is wearing his hat, but inside the library, Indy's hat has disappeared and he is not holding it in his hand.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In at least one scene, the SS officer Vogel is referred to as 'Herr Oberst' (Colonel), while his lapel insignia are those of a Standartenführer (SS equivalent to Colonel). An SS officer would have hated being called by an army rank.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Indiana and Elsa's clothes are wet, but are not stained or discolored by the oil.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Indiana Jones first sees the tablet, he identifies it as an Early Latin text from the mid 12th Century. The text is not Early Latin, but rather Late Latin. Early Latin refers to Latin before the Golden Age of Cicero and Caesar. In the 12th Century, people used only Medieval Latin.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The tank used in the Nazis' expedition to the holy grail is a version of a World War 1 British Mark IV model, not a 1930s Panzer unit that would have been commonplace in the German army by then. The tank was provided for the Nazis by the King of the Hatay (who would be much more likely to have vintage British Tanks than Brand new German Panzers) rather than brought by the Nazis.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Indy and Dr. Schneider enter the castle to view the tapestries, behind them at the entrance door you can see someone walk across the door frame on the outside.
  
  
• Continuity: From the scene onwards where Henry Jones and Indy help Marcus Brody out of the tank, the radio antenna on top of the tank turret disappears.
  
  
• Continuity: The shadows change between shots in the Jones' apartment. Especially visible around the painting with the cross.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy is about to cross the chasm (the Leap of Faith), you can clearly see the shadows of Indy's feet on the wall below, indicating that he is standing on the edge of a ledge and not on the rock bridge.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene in Indy's Venice apartment, Brody is pointing to the map in the diary and slams it shut for emphasis, but in the next frame the diary in Brody's hands is still open.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Indy wedges the rock into the side gun of the tank, the next shot bursts the barrel. An obstacle wedged into the barrel of a gun by hand would be dislodged by the next fired shot. At best, the shell would be deflected from its intended aim, but the barrel would remain both intact and functional.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indiana is fighting on top of the tank just before he drops the gun to his father, you can see he is losing his hat. However when the film cuts back to him moments later it is secured on his head once more.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Indy is on the tank and ends up shooting all three Nazi soldiers with one bullet, you can see the squibs/blood packets packed inside their uniforms.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Indy and his father drive into the tunnel to escape the firing aircraft, if you look closely, the "track" that the flaming aircraft slides on is visible.
  
  
• Factual errors: The aircraft that Indiana and his father fly from the airship is a British Tiger Moth. This was an RAF Training aircraft and unlikely to be in the Luftwaffe in 1938 although there were trade agreements with the UK so it is possible to suggest that the Germans purchased a few. However by 1938 they had a fairly decent selection of their own aircraft to choose from. As for shooting the tail section off, this would be impossible as the guns were fitted with an interupter gear to ensure that precisely that problem wouldn't arise.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Henry Sr and Jr (Indiana) escape in the Zeppelin Plane, during the WHOLE flight (in close-up shots) there is no sign that they are flying, or even that high in the air. Nothing flaps, moves, flutters... notice that their hats are perfectly still. At that altitude, let alone flying an open cockpit plane at high speeds, there would have been a lot of wind. The shots were obviously done on a stage where someone forgot to turn on the wind fan.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Henry Jones Sr. shoots the tail of their airplane by accident, clearly a lot more of it is missing and the rest tattered in the studio shot than the exterior shot (which has no tatters).
  
  
• Errors in geography: Unlike Rome, Italy, there are no catacombs beneath the city of Venice. If there were, they would certainly be below the water table and very likely flooded. Furthermore, there is no rock beneath Venice in which catacombs could exist. Venice is built on mud flats with hundreds of meters of poorly consolidated sands, silts, and clays below that. The foundations of the buildings are wooden pilings driven into the mud.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy and his father drive towards the direction-sign they pass it and stop behind the sign. Yet when Indy looks at the sign after the discussion it is in front of him. The writing has also changed: from 'Venedig' to 'Venice' (German and English names for the Italian city of Venezia).
  
  
• Continuity: When young Indy is fighting with one of the men on the roof of the circus train, a Rhino uses its horn to make three distinct holes in the roof. These disappear in subsequent shots.
  
  
• Continuity: At various points during the tank chase, we see Henry Jones from the inside looking out of the small port on the side of the tank. This port, however, does not seem to match the exterior shots of the tank. From the outside, the port is located on the sponson directly beside the side gun. On the inside, however, it is located behind the sponson, further down the wall and therefore closer to Henry Jones to look out of.
  
  
• Continuity: When Henry Jones enters the tank to rescue Marcus, the tank's crew and/or additional soldiers are not inside. Colonel Vogel then enters the tank with two aides. When Donovan from the outside informs Vogel that Indy is getting away, Vogel closes the tank's hatch and the tank's engine appears to start, signifying it is on the move. However, at no point did we see the tank's driver or additional crew enter the tank, whom we see in later inside shots of the tank. This suggests a lapse in continuity. If the tank's crew entered after this scene, Vogel's closing of the hatch appears to be entirely redundant.
  
  
• Continuity: In the library scene in Venice, the librarian stamps a book twice and places it on a stack immediately above two books with blue pages. In the next shot of the librarian, there are two books between the one with two stamps and the 'blue books'.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the grail protectors throw the match onto the petroleum it ignites similar to gasoline, in a sudden burst of flame. Petroleum burns slowly, as indicated by the cloth earlier in the scene, and would not be so explosive.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The blue stamp on Indiana's father's envelope commemorates the 100th anniversary of Texas statehood. This stamp was not issued until 1945.
  
  
• Continuity: After Sallah points a rifle at the soldiers, ordering them to drop their guns, the next shot shows Sallah with his arms crossed in front of his waist, not holding a weapon of any kind.
  
  
• Continuity: The large X at the library is shown dark with a white background and a red frame when Indy is looking at it from the top of the staircase, but it has no white background when he starts breaking the tiles a few seconds later.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The beginning of the movie is set in 1912 Utah. The rank patch on Young Indy's Boy Scout shirt shows him being a Life Scout. Since the Boy Scouts weren't established in the US until 1910, while not totally impossible, there is little likelihood that Indy would have been a Life Scout by 1912.
  
  
• Continuity: During the Venice canal chase, bullet holes in the windscreen of the boat Elsa is driving disappear and reappear several times.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Rolls-Royce is in fact not a Phantom II but the smaller, cheaper 20/25; the engine displacement and power data is neither correct for the Phantom II nor the 20/25, and finally such a heavy car could never accelerate 0-100 km/h in only 12.5 sec if it only had the measly 30 bhp the character talks about. As a reference the real Phantom II could only do 0-100 in 14.5s despite having a peak power of 122 bhp.
  
  
• Continuity: If you watch Kazim walk away after Indy and Elsa drop him off at the pier, he suddenly drops out of sight when he enters the doorway.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indiana and his dad escape the Nazi castle they end up outside near some motor boats. Indy starts one of them up to use as a diversion while they hide inside the crate on the motorcycle. The boat is set at full right rudder when Indy jumps out of it but somehow it straightened itself out and is motoring down the middle of the river when the Nazis come outside and jump into their boat.
  
  
• Continuity: After Elsa and the German colonel leave the room after saying goodbye when Indy and his dad are tied up, it shows Elsa and Donovan leaving in cars when it it dark outside. During the next few scenes when Indy and his dad escape they come outside by some motor boats and it is daytime.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: There is plenty of evidence that Adolf Hitler was right-handed. Contemporary movie reels and photographs show him writing, throwing and even bowling with his right hand.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the famous motorcycle chase scene, Indiana thrusts a flagpole into the spokes of a pursuing Nazi's motorcycle, and both Nazi and bike go flying almost straight up. In a "MythBusters" (2003) show, it was proven that while a flagpole theoretically could stop a speeding motorcycle, under no circumstances could it possibly leave the ground - much less go flying upwards.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene with the bridge at the end, the invisible bridge is shown to be an optical illusion caused by the bridge being carefully painted to blend in with the cliff behind it. When the illusion is exposed the camera moves just a few meters to Indy's right to reveal where the bridge is. However, during the sequence we several times see Indy in reverse angle, i.e the viewer is on the far side of the bridge looking back at him. From this angle the painted bridge should be obvious to the audience, as it can't possibly be painted to blend in with both cliff sides at the same time.
  
  
• Continuity: When the tank goes over the edge of the cliff you see the turret of the tank come off as it rolls. However in the next shot of the tank it is rolling with the turret still attached to the tank.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy is hanging from his right hand over the chasm after attempting to reach the Grail and his father gets his attention by calling him Indiana, Indy's left hand moves from hanging to his side to against the wall of the chasm between shots.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the train door is opened to reveal the young Indiana Jones running along the track to his escape a member of the crew is clearly visible in the reflection in the door window.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: For a few seconds after the Kubelwagen is impaled on the tank, the bottom doesn't look like a VW chassis - it's a replica made on a Citroen 2CV chassis.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy is fighting on the tank. His father falls onto the tracks and Indy uses his whip to stop him from going over. Then when Sallah rides up on the horse to rescue Indy's father, Indy is seen throwing the whip to Sallah on the horse. After the tank falls off the cliff Indy is seen with the whip attached to his belt before any one even notices he is alive.
  
  
• Continuity: Indiana completes his fathers shield pressing by rubbing it with a crayon or something similar to it. However, moments after he is forced into the petroleum with the rubbing in his pocket. Even if the wax somehow stayed in-tact, surely the tracing paper it was on would have destroyed, in part, some of the shield text. Yet we see it later looking just fine.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the airport lounge, two people are reading German newspapers dated 1918, twenty years out of date.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: While in the catacombs, burning pieces of Indiana's torch fall into the "petroleum", but it doesn't ignite until someone throws in a match.
  
  
• Continuity: When Indy is hanging from the gun barrel on the side of the tank as it is grinding into the side of the cliff, the strap of his bag is looped around the barrel, which was too long for the bag strap to have gotten looped around it.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In Venice as Indy's boat is being dragged into the big ship's screw the wooden hull breaks away - revealing that there is no motor in it, in fact there is nothing, it's just empty.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: While talking to Indiana in the boat, Kazim's shirt is open, then closed again so he can re-open it to show his tattoo. This is because the scene was originally longer. Indiana accidentally ripped open Kazim's shirt, revealing the tattoo while questioning him. The complete scene still appears in the Marvel comic adaptation.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The crucifix shown on the old knight's tunic is not a type associated with Western Christianity in its Catholic form. It is, however, used commonly by the Greek Orthodox church. The Crucifix used by the soldiers of the First Crusade was an even-legged variety and nowhere near as complex as the one shown in the movie. Perhaps he obtained this item from someone else.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the petroleum is ignited the surface catches fire, you can see the holes from where the advancing flames are blown.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The one surviving knight is at least 800 years old. As he has had no contact with anybody since then, he shouldn't be able to speak modern English. But in the classic B-movie genre which Indiana Jones imitates, English is the lingua franca of the universe, as the audiences are expected to have little patience for subtitles. Space-aliens and Ancient Egyptians speak English in those types of movies, a tradition continued here.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Signs written in English appear in German-speaking countries.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Some viewers have pointed out that Germans would never use a Rolls Royce for a staff car. They would have used a Mercedes-Benz or a Horch. However, the car belonged to Donovan, a Brit.
  
  

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