Goofs for
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

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• Continuity: Scenery around the time that Indy is in the caboose.
  
  
• Continuity: Old man's gun when Young Indy is pulled from the lion's carriage.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In trying to find his father, Indy goes through his father's mail, revealing a stamp which wouldn't have been issued at that time.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the first conversation when Indy and his father have entered the Zeppelin in Berlin his father is holding the newspaper he is reading upside down.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Plot holes: 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. As Indy had a firm grasp of the Latin inscribed on both of the dead brothers' shields, Indy and the knight should've communicated in that language.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: 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.
  
  
• 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: Immediately after Henry has been healed by the Grail water and the soldiers flee, Sallah grabs one of the dropped rifles and points them at the remaining Germans asking them to 'Drop your weapons, please!' In the next shot he is looking down at Indy with no weapon and his hands folded in front of him.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Jones is fighting the person on the boat, he shoots two shots at the boat window but three bullet holes are shown.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Donovan drinks from the false grail (at least 800 years old if it was brought by the knight, supposedly older), a steel hexagonal nut holding the base to the stem is clearly visible as Donovan tips the goblet.
  
  
• 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 mike 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the soldiers break into the room holding Indiana and his Dad, a rifle is thrown across the room breaking a lamp and an ashtray. The glass ashtray is a standard item manufactured exclusively by an LA glass company and was not made until the late-'50s/early-'60s.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the airport lounge, two people are reading German newspapers dated 1918, twenty years before the film is set.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When we see the gears operating the spinning blades in the grail temple, a crewmember's arm is visible for a few frames.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1938, the truck that Marcus is kidnapped in displays the German Afrika Korps emblem, not introduced until 1940.
  
  
• Factual errors: The whole Afrika Korps (DAK) thing is incorrect for 1938. They weren't formed until 1941. They were not part of the SS either. Therefore this is a whole made up unit of SS troops wearing beige uniforms with DAK insignia. Also SS troops in the field would not be wearing "Here I am-Shoot me" Nazi party armbands. Armbands were for parade ground and special occasions. However it is a fantasy film after all. There are also several Walther P38 pistols. The P38 refers to "Pistolen 1938". This means that the army accepted it's inception in 1938, however the P38 had a few design features that the army wanted added and therefore although accepted in 1938 it wasn't issued until 1940.
  
  
• Factual errors: It has been noted that in the desert scenes Ilsa is wearing an M43 cap which wasn't issued until 1943. This is not strictly true. The peaked cap was issued to the Gebirgsjager (Mountain troops) from 1938 and to the Afrika korps in 1941. The remainder of the Army had the side cap. In 1943 production was standardised and all branches of service were issued the peaked cap. The term "M43 cap" is a modern day collector’s term to help differentiate the different styles. To the Army of 1943 it was just a new style of cap which replaced their old style when it wore out. Therefore Ilsa could have been wearing a peaked cap though fairly unlikely. The cap she is wearing is incorrect in style but perhaps that is just being picky!
  
  
• Continuity: Henry Jones Sr.'s beard around the time the tank falls off the cliff.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the tank has fallen from the cliff, the turret falls off. But when we see the tank again, now rolling, the turret is in-tact again.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Indiana and Elsa are looking around his fathers place, Indiana is looking at Jones Sr.'s mail. The envelope has a clear plastic address window. This was not around until the 1960's, and the movie is set in the 1930's.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Continuity: 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: 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. But he frees it when we're not looking, by unbuckling it. However, he fell onto the barrel from directly above it. The barrel was too long for the bag strap to have gone around it in the first place.
  
  
• 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 book spines glued to a black background.
  
  
• Factual errors: 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.
  
  
• 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."
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Indy is wearing the uniform of a German Artillery Officer, there is a ribbon of the 1939 Iron Cross 2nd class in his buttonhole, yet the movie is set in 1938.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Continuity: When the tank hits the ground after falling off the cliff, the main turret separates from the tank body yet when we next see the tank rolling down the embankment at the bottom of the cliff, the turret is back on the tank body.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Continuity: 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The German Kubelwagens seen in the movie did not begin production until 1940, two years after the movie takes place.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The movie takes place in 1938. Marcus Brody and Sallah meet in Iskenderun, once known as Alexandretta, which is the starting point for the route to the grail identified by the markers. Alexandretta was not renamed Iskenderun until 1939.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the boat chase filmed in Tilbury Docks, you can clearly see some quite modern tubular steel, hydraulic Stothert & Pitt dockside cranes, which would not have been around until several years later.
  
  
• Factual errors: The crucifix shown on the old knight's tunic is not a type associated with Western Christianity in it's 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The bikes seen near the classroom are Schwinn models that did not appear until the early 1950s.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Henry Jones and Indy help Marcus Brody out of the tank, the radio antenna on top of the tank turret disappears.
  
  
• Factual errors: The book burning ceremony was held on May 10, 1933 but the film is set 1938. Also the place of the ceremony was Bebelplatz and in the film, a fictitious square is shown.
  
  
• 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: Indy blocks the tanks side gun with a rock and the gun explodes. Indy then shouts to his father and there is an internal shot of the tank and Henry but no smoke. Then the Colonel exits the tank via the turret and masses of smoke pours out of the tank.
  
  
• Factual errors: 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.
  
  
• Factual errors: Right after the sidecar chase, the Joneses stop at a sign that points in the direction of Venice. This sign would have read Venedig if it was in Austria, or Venezia if it was in Italy.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene in Venice where Indy and Elsa are attacked by Kazim and his men, Kazim appears to shoot at Indy and Elsa's boat with a British-built Sten gun (apparent from its distinctive horizontal magazine clip) -- this type of firearm wasn't made until 1941 (the movie is set in 1938). Similarly, in the later scene in the desert where the Nazis are attacked by Kazim's men, the Nazis also appear to be equipped with Stens -- not only has the gun not been made yet but the Nazis would not have been armed with British-built weapons (they would have more likely been armed with German MP35s).
  
  
• 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.
  
  

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