Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) — The US government hires Indiana to stop Nazi agents from locating and acquiring the Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis are willing to ignore its Jewish origins because they think it will provide supernatural powers. It popularized many of the tropes of the modern adventure film genre, including the bruised-knuckle action hero who isn't afraid to get dirty. Widely considered to be the best of theIndyfilms.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) — Lighter and Softersequel to the first film, beginning with a flashback to Indiana’s youth, which explains his customary attire, usage of whip as a chosen weapon, the scar on his chin (Henry Jones Jr.'s chin, since it's also on Harrison Ford's chin) and his trademark fear of snakes. Alongside his previously estranged father (Sean Connery), Indiana races the Nazis to locate and get the Holy Grail, which was traced in Hatay State (a then-independent province in Turkey). the Nazis want it as they believe it grants eternal life to those who drink from it.
Lucas and Spielberg are known to be working on a fifth film, which would fit with their original deal with Paramount.
The Indiana JonesExpanded Universe consists of the normally expected items: television series, novels and video games, plus the most definitely unusual ride at Disneyland.The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a TV series produced by George Lucas in the early 1990s. Initially taking the form of hour-long episodes, the show chronicled the adventures of Indy as a young man, principally at the ages of 10 (as played by Corey Carrier) and 16-up (as played by Sean Patrick Flanery). The Carrier episodes focus on Indy touring the globe alongside his parents as part of a world lecture tour given by his father, while the Flanery episodes primarily deal with Indy’s service in World War One (in just about every theater!). In each episode, Indy would meet some famous person from the early 20th century, and learn some sort of moral lesson (yes, Lucas very openly intended the series as edutainment). Notably, the show aired in a very Anachronic Order, with Carrier's and Flanery's episodes often alternating. Each episode was also initially introduced by a 93-year old Indy with an eyepatch. One episode however, had a bearded Harrison Ford introduce the adventure.George Lucas prided Young Indy on managing a film-level quality production on a television budget, helped by revolutions in digital technology, and he has said that the show was partly a test to see how far he could take the later Star Warsprequels. Also like Star Wars, the series was subject to subsequent furious re-editing by Lucas, the new cuts first showing up during re-airings in the late '90s. This re-cut version, which is the only one currently available on DVD, is known as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. The Adventures combines the Chronicles episodes into two-hour tele-movies, two shows per film (often in a quite different, and much more strictly chronological, order than in the original airings).The franchise is also fondly remembed for the two LucasArts adventure games it spawned: an adaptation of The Last Crusade in 1989, and an original cinematic adventure story, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, in 1992. The latter had the fan nickname of Indy 4 for many years, creating speculation that it would be made into a film.Three platformer-style adventure games followed, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures in 1994, Infernal Machine in 1999, and Emperor's Tomb in 2003. In 2008, LEGO Indiana Jones was released, covering the events of the entire film series, but using characters and settings made entirely of virtual LEGO blocks, of course. Another video game, Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings, was released in 2009."Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye", a dark ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, has you boarding Jeeps. You get, depending on which path isn't occupied, tons of gold/a drink from the Fountain of Youth/sight into the future, so long as you don't look into the eyes of a giant gold head of a god. Someone, of course, looks, and you're on your way through a cave full of lava, snakes, and traps. The ride could fit anywhere into the continuity, really. A similar ride is at Tokyo Disney Sea, Temple of the Crystal Skull, changing to a South American setting with a sinister Crystal Skull and wind effects replacing the fire and lava. Finally, there's Disneyland Paris' Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril rollercoaster, which was notably once set to send the cars going backwards for several years.While Walt Disney World didn't get their own Indiana Jones ride, Hollywood Studios DID get the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!", a live action stunt show with massive sets that shows their own take on famous scenes from Raiders: the temple adventure from the intro, the Cairo marketplace and kidnapping of Marion (complete with an exploding truck), and the fight scene on, in, and around a Nazi airplane. This show is completely non-canon as it's dressed up as a "film shoot" of Raiders with the stunt performers claiming to be the actual stunt doubles for the actors. The show includes audience participation (including audience members being taken as "extras" for the Cairo scene), pyrotechnics, various physical stunts, and demonstrations of how different stunts are performed.Between the games, the TV show, the ride and the movies, Indiana Jones has become one of THE most popular and recognizable characters in a hundred years. Indeed, if adventure has a name...
Action Duo: Indy and Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) from The Last Crusade and Indy and Mutt Williams from Crystal Skull.
Action Film Quiet Drama Scene: In Raiders Belloq telling Indy they're not so different in the Arab bar. Last Crusade Indy and his dad's conversation in the zeppelin.
Also in The Last Crusade, the opening sequence has Indy getting Harrison Ford's scar (which originated in an auto accident) when using a whip for the first time as a teen.
Rene Belloq in Raiders, to the point that he and Marion power through a bottle of grappa and he tries to stop the Nazis from tossing her in the pit.
Walter Donovan in The Last Crusade.
Mac McHale and Irina Spalko in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Agent Scully: In Crystal Skull, Indy is a big skeptic about the existence of alien races, and in Raiders, considers the Ark of the Covenant nothing but a fancy gold box, until the end when he insists that he and Marion avert their eyes.
Arbitrary Skepticism: Indy dismisses the Crystal Skull as "just a story". Like the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, right? His skeptical attitude toward the Ark is also bit odd considering that he'd already been exposed to genuine supernatural phenomena in Temple of Doom, but that's more of a continuity issue.
Artifact of Death: The main MacGuffins in three of the four films: the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail if you take it from its resting place, the false Grails, and the Crystal Skull. However, it's worth noting that having pure motives appears to get you out of being harmed by any of them: Indy uses the Grail to cure his father, and suffers no ill effects, while Elsa tries taking it for her own glory and dies for it. The Shankara stones are similar: they only actually do harm to Mola Ram, while they bring the Indian village to its former life.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Almost once a movie. Because Belloq, Elsa, Walter Donovan, and Irina Spalko got exactly what they wanted, hysterical screams of terror notwithstanding. Mola Ram is the only one who seemed to be messing with powers that he actually did understand, and even he ended up guffing it up in the end. Lampshaded by Indy in Crystal Skull when he tells Irina "Careful, you may get exactly what you wish for."
During the tank fight in The Last Crusade, one Nazi comments to Indy getting beat up by saying, "Those Americans, they fight like women." Then Indy hits him in the head with the periscope he was looking through.
In The Temple Of Doom, the Maharajah of the temple is called 'Zalim' which means evil in Hindi. Fitting, as he is the bad guy. But only because his second-in-command was feeding him mind-control juice.
Jones is noticeably more mature and less greedy by the time of the The Last Crusade, especially when compared with his shady treasure hunter in the chronologically earliest Temple of Doom.
It goes even further when you watch the Young Indy series as you see him slowly grow more and more cynical and wily, especially during his activities during WWI. Not to mention that the Young Indy has to learn his famous Indy Ploy the hard way, as when he does try to plan things out they never go as he intends.
Subverted/Played With in Raiders. Marion's Establishing Character Moment shows her drinking a large, burly brute under the table. She tries to use her hard-drinking ability to get the cultured and effete Belloq drunk in an attempt to escape from him, but fails; part of his "cultured" background is that his family owns a vineyard, and he has been drinking since he was a preteen.
Temple of Doom. Willie throws away Indy's gun. Later on he's confronted by two swordsmen, reaches for his gun and... oops!
Last Crusade: Henry's umbrella he keeps carrying in his suitcase throughout the journey eventually proves to be very useful against incoming Nazi fighter planes.
Mutt's knife in Crystal Skull. "Possesses a knife" proves to be his only notable trait later on.
Clothes Make the Legend: Indy's fedora never comes off, except at dramatic moments, and you can bet he'll be back to get it if it does. This was even made part of the movie pitch.
Combat Pragmatist: Indy, who illustrates the page with a famous scene.
The Ark of the Covenant can be seen from inside a broken crate during the warehouse fight in the 4th movie. In fact, the Ark's Letimotif plays throughout that scene.
The third movie has Indy and Elsa Schneider seeing a painting of the Ark, which Indy identifies (complete with a few notes from the Leitmotif of the Ark added to the soundtrack).
Elsa: What's that? Indy: Ark of the Covenant. Elsa: Are you sure? Indy: Pretty sure.
An almost identical exchange takes place between Indy and Sophia in the Fate of Atlantis game.
Also one to the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles where young Indy is kidnapped by Pancho Villa.
In Raiders, Indiana Jones escapes pursuit from the Nazis by hiding the truck he was driving, along with the Ark in it, in an alcove of a crowded market place, which is immediately hidden by his friends to blend into the rest of the surroundings. Later in the third film, undoubtedly having learned from Indy, the Nazis play this trick in reverse to capture Marcus Brody.
Cool Old Guy: Henry Jones Sr. in the third, Indy himself in the fourth.
And the Grail Knight stayed in a small cavern with only one book for centuries to guard a magic cup.
Cool Horse: Ridden by Indy. The white one from Raiders and the black one from The Last Crusade.
Crossover Cosmology: Through artifacts, there's pretty hard evidence that at least that both the Hindu gods and the Judaic God are actual entities. Not to mention the interdimensional beings, too.
Plot complexities aside, even Indy's parting words to the second film's villain — "Prepare to meet Kali, in Hell!" — are a fairly concise example of this trope.
Dangerously Genre Savvy: Indy hides the truck carrying the Ark of the Covenant by disguising it as a Cairo fruit stand (Raiders of the Lost Ark). The Nazis, not to be fooled a second time, kidnap Brody by luring him into a truck that's disguised as a building (The Last Crusade).
In The Crystal SkullMac is smart enough to plant the suggestion while Indy is a captive that he's only pretending to work for the Russians, knowing Indy is likely to turn the tables at some point in the future. Also when Indy is playing chicken in the warehouse Car Chase.
"Don't get too clever Boris. You don't know him...YOU DON'T KNOW HIM!"
Distinctive Appearances: That's exactly why he has his fedora. During the creation of the character, the concept artists found that the fedora added a highly distinct look, silhouette, and appearance to the character. Indy could be in a crowded room with his back towards the audience (as he usually is when he's introduced in some of the movies) and he'd still stand out heroically. As well, the fedora allowed the character to be visible from further away such as during the bridge scene in Temple of Doom. On a more critical analysis, the fedora also marks the transition from Henry Jones Jr to Indiana Jones. This is also why most scenes have him wearing the hat except when he's being just a teacher — him taking it off would be like going back to his secret identity.
Of course, it's also a great way to hide the transition from Harrison Ford to Harrison Ford's Stunt Double.
"He chose poorly." The Grail Knight isn't talking about the cup Donovan chose, but his choice of trusted companion.
Irina to Mutt: "You fight like a young man; eager to begin, quick to finish!"
The Dragon: Gestapo agent Toht in The Raiders and SS colonel Vogel in Last Crusade.
Also, Antonin Dovchenko in The Crystal Skull fits in as well.
Dressing as the Enemy: Appears in several of the movies; played with in the first, where the first guard Indy knocks out in the sub pen is too skinny for his shirt to fit. Fortunately, a larger specimen turns up to scold him for being "out of uniform"...
Expanded Universe: And how!! A TV series, comics, video games, novels, young novels, make your own adventure novels, theme park rides... And according to LucasArts, everything is Canon.
Well, everything that isn't explicitly overwritten by something else, anyway. Elsa can be spared from her Plotline Death by having Indy pick up up the Grail before she does in the computer game version of The Last Crusade, but this isn't canon.
Expy: Avoided in the films. As one of Indy's characteristics was to be a Chick Magnet and as a result to have a new love interest in each movie, Spielberg and Lucas made their best effort to make any new girl as different as possible from the previous one. Kate Capshaw even had to dye her natural brown hair blonde to play Distressed Damsel Willie Scott in Temple of Doom, as the also brown-haired Karen Allen had played Action Girl Marion Ravenwood in Raiders.
Willie and Elsa are actually Expies of Lucas's original concept for the love interest of Raiders as a "Marlene Dietrich-type German lady singer/double agent". Willie is a singer and dancer; Elsa is German [Austrian] and a double agent (though loyal to the wrong side, unlike the girl Lucas first envisioned).
Played straight in the expanded universe however, where Sophia Hapgood has evolved gradually into a fake Marion Ravenwood with psychic powers. In the Dark Horse comic Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient (which is basically a retelling of Temple of Doom with elements of Raiders in it) she doesn't even have psychic powers anymore. There is also an Expy of Short Round in this comic, Khamal, which is different only in that he is Lebanese instead of Chinese and a Knife Nut rather than a Kung Fu fighter.
Also, Janice Le Roi from the "Tomb of the Gods" comics ends up being an Expy of all three love interests from the films: she's streetwise and tough as nails (Marion), she's VERY fond of the high life (Willie), and at one point she works with the Nazi Ahnenerbe agents to meet her own ends (Ilsa).
Maggie O'Malley from the Staff Of Kings game is sort of a cross between Marion and Elsa. She's generically spunky, but she also turns out to be a spy, but in this case it's for the British, so she stays a good guy after the reveal.
In the TV series episode Palestine, October 1917, that takes place in the Middle East during World War One, Indiana is helped in a mission by a local agent that is very much like Sallah. He is not however, as revealed by being named Kazim in the credits.
Yet the head of the Sword Brotherhood in the third film was named Kazim... Interesting?
Family Unfriendly Violence: The first two films would be rated PG-13 nowadays. Temple of Doom was one of the driving factors for the MPAA to create that rating in the first place.
Raiders would have received an R-rating had they not made certain edits.
Fanfare: The main theme is actually a mix of two fanfares the John Williams wrote. It was suggested he just combine them.
Foot Focus: Marion losing her heels in Raiders, and Willie walking barefoot through the jungle in Temple, as well as Indiana and Elsa navigating the rat-infested Venetian catacombs in The Last Crusade.
Generation Xerox: Indy receives his scar on the chin through his trademark weapon The Whip, and Mutt receives his scar on his right cheek through his trademark weapon The Sword.
This is the entire reason that Mutt's character was a greaser. He was originally supposed to be a geek, but it was decided that it would be better if he was a Rebel Without a Cause, so Indiana would have an idea of what his father had to put up with when raising him.
Genre Savvy: Even if what he does is basically a throwback to adventure serials, Indy is oftentimes fully aware of what NOT to do in a given situation, unless it just can't be avoided.
In Last Crusade, Donovan appears to be the savviest person in the series, right up until he trusts a double-agent — as though he didn't have a small army of people on hand to test it for him.
Giant Mook: Several. In the first three movies, all were played by the same actor, Pat "Bomber" Roach.
In Raiders, Roach played both the really big sherpa in Marion's bar, and the mechanic who gets diced.
In Temple of Doom, Roach played the slave driver who gets ground up.
Roach was an S.S. officer in The Last Crusade, but his fight scene was cut.
In Crystal Skull, Igor Jijikine portrayed the big Russian colonel.
Girl of the Week: Played straight in the original films, but averted by Crystal Skull.
Hard Head: Indy knocks out quite a few Nazis with his bare hands in The Last Crusade, yet in the same movie getting hit with the (fake) Priceless Ming Vase only stuns him for a moment.
In Temple of Doom, when Mola Ram falls to his death, he slams his head into the cliff-face, but he doesn't seem to notice, given his uninterrupted scream.
Mutt: (regarding elongated skulls on skeletons) Why are they like that? Indy: Incans would bind the heads of their infants with rope. Mutt: (horrified) Why would they do that? Indy: To honor the gods. Mutt: No! No! God's head does not look like that! Indy: That depends on who your god is.
Hot Dad: Indy for much of the female audience in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and surprisingly enough, Henry Jones the First in The Last Crusade, seeing as that was the year he was voted sexiest man alive!
How Unscientific: Inverted, as the first three films feature magical artifacts, and then Crystal Skull features interdimensional beings, suddenly becoming "How Scientific!" It works (or at least the rest of the film is good enough that it doesn't sink the story), but it does seem a little jarring.
I Know Karate: The kick-focused Northern-Style Kung-Fu to be exact, practiced by Short Round in Temple of Doom'.' The same style was also used by Indy himself briefly on the South-China seas in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles''.
Also subverted in Crystal Skull. After Mutt grabs the titular cranium, Spalko busts out previous unseen and unmentioned martial arts moves — and sucks at it. At most, it seems like it's annoying Mutt.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Uniform across the franchise; whether it's natives, Thuggees, Nazis, or Russians, they can't hit the broad side of a barn if Indy is standing in front of it.
Interesting Situation Duel: At least one per film: the flying wing fight in Raiders, the rock crusher fight in Temple, the tank fight in Crusade, and the sword fight on top of moving jeeps in Crystal Skull.
Belloq: Again, Dr. Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine.
Double Subverted in Last Crusade, when Indy literally hands Hitler the book explaining everything about the Holy Grail, its location, and how to retrieve it safely. Hitler has absolutely no idea of the book's significance, and mistakes Indy for an autograph hunter.
Made of Iron: Indy throughout the series, especially in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when he survives a nuclear test detonation by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator. Also, the Mechanic in Raiders, who shrugs off a direct punch to the face and a Groin Attack from Indy.
Match Cut: Each film begins with a cut from the Paramount logo to a mountain. In Raiders and The Last Crusade they're real mountains, but in Temple of Doom it's a fake mountain on the set of Willie's nightclub act. And in Crystal Skull it's a prairie dog mound.
The Last Crusade The transition between young Indy receiving the Fedora to Indy on the boat.
Mayincatec: The trap infested Hovitos underground temple in Raiders of The Lost Arc is one of the best-remembered Mayincatec trapped lair of all time. Also, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull features a Maya-style temple and Ancient Astronauts giving the Maya their technology.
In the first film one of the girls in his class went so far to write "Love You" on her eyelids to flirt with him, when he was in his nerdy tweed ensemble. One can only imagine what they'd if they saw him in the fedora and whip outfit.
The Mole: Dr. Elsa Schneider and Walter Donovan in The Last Crusade, who are actually Nazis.
Word Of God is that Donovan was a double mole and Elsa seems perfectly willing to be one as well once she's actually holding immortality.
Not to mention Mac in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: "I'm a capitalist. And they pay."
Also, both Kingdom and The Last Crusade make references to the captured Lost Ark of the first film. In Crusade, Indy passes by a picture of the Ark and recognizes it. Elsa asks if he's sure and Indy replies he is, thinking back to the events of Raiders. Then, in Kingdom, the Communists bring Indy to the warehouse where the Ark was stored at the end of the first film. During the inevitable fight scene that breaks out, the audience can see the Ark at one point.
Needle in a Stack of Needles: Indy sees Marion getting carried off in a straw basket, and chases her into the square — which is crammed with people carrying identical baskets.
At the end of Raiders, the Ark is put in a nondescript wooden crate and hidden in a warehouse full of other identical, nondescript wooden crates.
Nerds Are Sexy: When he is not killing Nazis or searching for magnificent items that always end up killing someone, he is a teacher of Archeology and encourages people not to follow the same "field work". If you get right down to it Indy is one of the worlds first heroic action nerds.
Nice Hat: Indy's trademark Fedora. The fact that Indy miraculously keeps the same hat throughout all his adventures is ultimately lampshaded in the third film.
It's in the Smithsonian.
Belloq and Mola Ram are fond of their hats, too. (The latter wears an animal skull adorned with Badass Longhair).
Not so Different: Belloq tries to make Indy think this in Raiders.
Belloq: Where else shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level? Indy: Try the local sewer.
In a more positive version, The Last Crusade is pretty much entirely about Indy learning that he and his dad are not so different as to be irreconcilable.
This is why Mutt's character was written as a Rebel Without a Cause rather than a geek (as originally planned). The filmmakers wanted Indy to have the same problems with his own son that Henry Sr had with him.
Oh Crap: In The Last Crusade, during the tank fight, Indy notices that the tank is about to go over a cliff — and his hat falls off for the only time in the series.
After he reaches safety, the hat is deposited next to him by the wind.
Indy actually lets out a little yelp of terror when he realises he doesn't have his gun in Temple Of Doom.
Indy is also stunned in Last Crusade as he finds himself face-to-face with Adolf Hitler himself.
Omniglot: It isn't prominent in the films, but in the expanded universe, Indy has supposedly picked up twenty-seven languages while wandering around the world. Belloq appears to speak even more, and mocks Indy because he doesn't speak the obscure tribal language of the Hovitos.
In the third film, Jones tries to pretend that Marcus is also one of these... it's just that his familiarity is limited to dead languages.
Reality Subtext: Indiana was the name of George Lucas' dog, who was also the inspiration for Chewbacca. The third film reveals that Henry Jones Jr. chose his nickname after his own dog.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: From The Raiders, Indy who suffers a serious snakes pohbia must face thousands of poison snakes who inhabited the Well of Souls.
Hilariously done in the Crystal Skull, where Indy is forced to hang on to a snake "rope" to get out of a quicksand pit.
Running Gag: Late actor/stuntman Pat Roach appeared in all three of the original films, sometimes in multiple roles, where his characters usually meet an untimely demise.
Say My Name: Count the number of times that the bad guys scream "JOOOOOONES!"
And all the times Indy's friends and allies yell "Indy!", or in Henry Sr.'s case, "Junior!".
And it's Henry Sr.'s gentle, insistent "Indiana" that saves Indy from Death by Materialism.
Scenery Porn: The Young Indiana Jones TV series loves to linger nostalgically on famous landmarks as establishing shots for the country of the week Indy is adventuring in. The series was intended to be semi-educational in nature. The films also do this to present the glamorous, exotic locales frequented by a globe-trotting adventurer.
The SS-Standartenführer in The Last Crusade also utters orders and other screams of horror and rage in a very high pitch.
Schmuck Bait: The MacGuffin artifact usually turns out to be long-lost for a reason. You know the bit about All Myths Are True? It also applies to curses, supernatural monsters, and divine wrath. Marcus lampshades the Ark's dubious rapport, for instance, about 10 minutes into Raiders.
Secret Government Warehouse: The ending of Raiders has one of the most famous examples. Revisited in Crystal skull
The nightclub where Temple of Doom begins is Club Obi-Wan.
In The Last Crusade, Donovan shoots Henry Sr. with a Walther PPK, the longtime choice weapon of James Bond. Which is made ironic if you notice that Donovan's actor (Julian Glover) played a Bond villain and Sean Connery is practically the James Bond. See Casting Gag above.
In Raiders at the scene where Indy and Sallah get the ark, you can see C-3PO and R2-D2 carved on a wall behind Indy if you look hard enough.
Smug Snake: Belloq from The Raiders, Donovan from The Last Crusade and Mac from The Crystal Skull.
Star Making Role: For Harrison Ford. Star Wars was a huge success and his Lovable Rogue became an Ensemble Darkhorse, but it was after Raiders of the Lost Ark that he stopped being "the guy from Star Wars" and became Harrison Ford.
Stock Scream: All the films use the Wilhelm Scream at some point.
Storming The Castle: Pangkok Palace in the second film, and Castle Brunwald in the third.
Theme Tune Cameo: The Ark of the Covenant's ominous leitmotif gets a cameo in The Last Crusade when we see a carving of the Ark on a crypt wall, and again in Crystal Skull, when we glimpse the actual Ark in the warehouse.
Those Wacky Nazis: The villains of the Raiders and The Last Crusade.
Incidentally, this almost partly killed the franchise. After the harrowing and humbling experience of filming Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg decided he could no longer in good conscience use Nazis as stock pulp villains as in Raiders and The Last Crusade.
Timeshifted Actor: Teenaged Indy is played by River Phoenix in The Last Crusade. The TV series had several actors play Indy at various ages.
In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones, yes, that Indiana Jones, is in a long cave where the floor is flooded with oil, or some other highly flammable liquid. It's dark, and he needs to see, what does he do? He makes a makeshift torch! He didn't figure it was safer to go back for a flashlight or anything, he just took a torch.
Took a Level in Badass: Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery) is initially portrayed as a Grumpy Old Man with discomfort and lack of experience in Indy's adventures (he sets the room on fire, he shoots the tail of his own plane with the machine gun, etc.). But moreover he reveals his hidden skills, becoming more like his son and evolving into a Badass Grandpa — he manages to crash a Nazi airplane by making a flock of seagulls fly into the air, he blinds a Nazi soldier with ink from his pen and he even blows away a whole truckload of enemies.
And Marcus Brody. Though in the first movie he lamented that if he was as young as Indy he would have went on his adventure. Though most people who seen Crusade have labeled him a clumsy oaf that got lost in his own museum; he was willing to put his complaint in Raiders aside to help Indy rescue Henry. He even had enough cojones to knock a Nazi out with an Artillery shell.
Marian in the 4th film has graduated from throwing the occasional punch at her captors to driving an amphibious transport off a cliff and onto a tree, then letting the tree snap back and smack into the cliff-climbing Mooks behind her.
Travel Montage: The famous map scenes that appeared in all of the films.
Tribute To Fido: Indiana Jones is named after George Lucas's dog Indiana. There is also an in-universe example that reflects the Real Life situation: in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, it is shown that the character chose the nickname "Indiana" after his family's dog.
Trilogy Creep: The Riding into the Sunset was meant to close the trilogy as well. But fans insisted on a fourth — which only started production after Lucas, Spielberg and Ford agreed to.
Tsundere: Marion Ravenwood all the way. She goes from yelling at Indy, to dreamily sighing when he leaves to blow up a Soviet transport.
Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Inverted: Indy's a teacher, not a student, but he does seem to have a rather steady job as a teacher for someone who does all that globetrotting...
Mutt Williams: You're a...teacher? Indiana Jones: Part time.
WhipAnd Gun: There was actually a fight sequence intended. Word Of God says that Harrison Ford had dysentery that day and asked "Why don't I just shoot him?" They thought about it and decided to give it a shot, but were going to film the fight later anyway. The first take was so good, Spielberg said "Print it!" and the rest is history.
Indy tried to subvert it again/beforehand in Temple of Doom but forgot that he lost his gun earlier in the movie.
A similar situation happened in "Staff of Kings". Though instead of losing the gun, it was out of bullets when he tried shooting "the dragon".
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Indy is afraid of snakes, Indy's dad is afraid of rats and Mutt of scorpions. Of course, this means they all encounter the subject of their debilitating phobias again and again in a series of contrived coincidences. Mind you, is Mutt's reaction to the scorpion a genuine fear of scorpions, or the normal person's reaction to seeing a massive scorpion?
Wicked Cultured: Belloq in the first movie is a brilliant archeologist, fluent in many languages, and enjoys fine wine and food. Donovan in the third movie might qualify, though few adults would recognize him as such. He's less cultured than Toht, who at least carries a coat hanger with him at all times.
World War II: Leading up to it, at least. Indy's military service during the war is also referenced in the fourth film.
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