Ability over Appearance: More "ability over age". Sean Connery was only twelve years older than Harrison Ford but there was never a doubt in Steven Spielberg's mind that the only actor who could play Indiana Jones' father was James Bond.
In the opening sequence, Indy is a Life Scout, the rank right below Eagle. Harrison Ford was a Boy Scout in his youth, and attained the level of Life Scout.
Indy tells his class "If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall." When he was in college, Harrison Ford took a philosophy course taught by Dr. William Tyree.
Most of the movie was filmed in England and Spain, where precisely none of it takes place. The biggest exception is Venice and even then most of the Venice boat chase was filmed in England. Also, Petra in Jordan is apparently where the Grail resides.
The motorcycle chase was filmed in California, whereas the scenes before and after it were actually filmed in Europe. The reason for this is that the sequence was conceived after principal photography, because Speilberg felt there wasn't enough action in that part of the movie.
Julian Glover was originally cast as Col. Vogel before being cast as Walter Donovan.
Kevork Malikyan (Kazim) was originally set to play Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but lost the part to John Rhys-Davies when his car broke down on the way to the audition. Steven Spielberg remembered him and wrote the part of Kazim specifically for him.
According to Jeffrey Boam's script Indy was taken to Donovan’s apartment against his will. In this sequence Indy encounters Walter Donovan's henchmen, they pull a gun on him and Indy agrees to follow them because he doesn’t want to endanger students with a fight on campus. Some more footage of Indy's coerced trip to Donovan's penthouse apartment is also shown. In the finished film the scene was cut considerably and an artful cut between the men approaching Indy and Indy standing in Donovan's apartment leads the story.
Originally the film was to show more of Indy and Marcus on their flight to Venice. While studying his father's diary, Indy finds a charcoal rubbing of Donovan's grail tablet and sees the stained-glass window sketch above Roman numerals. This foreshadows the discovery of the secret passage in the Venice library and sets up Indy's interest in making a rubbing of the knight's shield. What remains of this footage was incorporated into the montage as the familiar red line traces Indy's route across the globe.
As Marcus and Sallah tried to run from the Nazis at the Iskenderun train station, there was originally two additional actions, one of Sallah slapping a camel and causing it to spit mucus all over the Nazis nearby and another of Sallah fighting the Nazis.
When Indy and Elsa arrived at the Brunwald castle to free Henry from the Nazis Indy presents himself as a Scottish lord by imitating a Scottish accent. The suspicious butler who opens the door acknowledges Indy’s skim and answers by saying, "If you are a Scottish lord, then I am Jesse Owens." The reference to the black Olympic runner who defeated Nazi Germany at the Olympic games of 1936 was appropriate for the time and place, but might have gone over the heads of many viewers. Lucas and Spielberg changed the reference to Mae West, but decided again that modern movie audiences would miss the joke. So, they settled on Mickey Mouse, something everyone young and old can relate to, even though it wouldn’t be the first thing to come to the mind of an elderly German butler from the '30s. With his bluff called off Indy knocks the old butler unconscious, takes him on his back and starts looking for a place to hide the body while Elsa congratulates him for his accent. Finally, they hide the butler in a sarcophagus that once closed its lid features a face similar to the butler’s face. In the finished film, we see Indy knocking off the butler and from there we witness Indy and Elsa wandering in the castle with no interest in the butler’s body.
Originally, the sequence in which Indy recovers the Grail diary and gets it signed by Hitler was longer. Before the book burning rally started, Hitler was seen marching with his lieutenants while a woman was filming the scene. Although her name was not mentioned the woman was assumed to be Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s official biographer.
Indy is stopped by a Nazi wearing a long black overcoat who reprimands him for intruding on the procession. Much like the scene in 'Raiders', Indy knocks the bossy superior officer out cold and steals his clothing. This brief comedic scene explains where Indy got the disguise he wears at the Berlin airport in the following scene. Possibly it was cut to avoid repeating the same joke too many times.
More of Indy's unique brand of subterfuge was cut in the airport sequence. As Indy and father prepare to buy a ticket, Indy spots Vogel and other Nazis standing guard at the plane ticket lines. He rushes Henry back through the crowd to hide him, then goes to the only unguarded ticket line. This explains why they ended up using as unorthodox means of travel as a zeppelin. It seems like the scene where Indy tells dad he "got the first available flight out of Germany" was filmed as an efficient substitute for this longer cat-and-mouse sequence.
There was originally a German World War I flying ace trying to impress fellow zeppelin passengers with his spectacular war stories. This scene would have probably cut back and forth between the flying ace and the conversation between Indy and Dad over on the other side of the passenger lounge. After Indy and Dad head down below to the biplane, everyone in the passenger lounge is alerted to the presence of "spies" onboard. The drunken flying ace jumps up to help in catching these spies, and with several others he heads down below to find that Indy and Dad have already left in the biplane. Fortunately for Indy's pursuers there is another plane attached to the bottom of the zeppelin. Without thinking, the flying ace hurriedly jumps into the plane's cockpit along with a young pilot that tagged along. In his drunken state, the flying ace forgets to start the plane's engine before detaching it from the zeppelin, therefore causing the plane to plummet to the ground. This scene also features the appearance of Indy veteran Pat Roach as the black dressed Gestapo agent who follows the Flying Ace to death.
A brief scene showing Indy and Henry getting off the train at Iskenderun to meeting Sallah. It would have answered the question of how they got to Iskenderun and meet with Sallah. Again, this is a simple transitional scene without a great deal of importance to the storyline.
Kazim's death scene was originally much longer. He was to collapse into Elsa’s arms and slide down her body. After grabbing him, she pulls her hands back to find them covered with blood. The shot never managed to achieve the impact Spielberg wanted and he finally dropped it. The scene was actually a recreation of David Gelin’s from The Man Who Knew Too Much.
After surviving the tank battle, Indy and co. witness an explosion in the distance. The Nazis are blasting a wider entrance through the canyon. This scene was part of a larger cut story element, about the Grail Temple being hidden past a narrow chasm. This also explained how it could go undiscovered for so long. Since Henry has a copy of the map to the canyon in his diary, this transitional scene was considered unnecessary, though the filming of it did make it into the teaser trailer.
The second challenge in the Grail Temple was first planned to have tarantulas hidden under each wrong letter. Indy is shown being menaced by a tarantula crawling up his body, after stepping on the "J." While in post-production Spielberg decided the scene didn’t had the impact he was looking for and he came up with the chasm under the stone tablets.
Dueling Dubs: The film was dubbed into Latin American Spanish twice. The first was dubbed in December 1989 by Los Angeles-based Magnum Estudios, with Antonio Farré and the late Víctor Mares voicing Indy and his father, respectively; this version was eventually carried over to the Disney+ release. When Paramount re-released the film on Blu-ray in 2008, it was re-dubbed at Iyuno • SDI Group; Mexico, with the late José Lavat reprising his role as Indy and Blas García voicing Henry.
Fake American: English Julian Glover plays Walter Donovan with an impeccable accent (but listen closely to when he talks about Hitler and the Nazis wanting "to write themselves into the Grail legend. Take on the world" and you'll hear his accent slip a little).
Fake Nationality: Welsh John Rhys-Davies plays Egyptian Sallah, English Michael Byrne plays German Ernst Vogel, Irish Alison Doody plays Austrian Elsa Schneider, and English Alexei Sayle as the Sultan of Hatay.
Sean Connery. Not only was he the first to play James Bond on film, he continued playing action-heavy badass roles well into his seventies. In this movie, he's an out-of-his-depth bookworm who more or less never throws a punch.
Denholm Elliott was a skilled horse rider and was required to act foolishly as Marcus gallops off.
The Original Darrin: After being briefly replaced by Antonio Farré for the 1989 Latin American Spanish dub, José Lavat returns to voice Indy for the 2008 re-dub.
Playing Against Type: Sean Connery, the original James Bond who spent most of his career playing tough, cunning heroes, here plays a squeamish "bookworm" who is not prepared for his son's rougher, tougher adventures - and he's absolutely hilarious in the part.
Reality Subtext: Sallah is quite surprised at Indy's true name and the origin of his nickname, "Dog? You are named after the dog!?". George Lucas indeed named Indy after his pet dog, who was also the inspiration behind Chewbacca.
Returning from the previous films are Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Denholm Elliott as Marcus Brody and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah. For Elliott, it would be the final time he portrayed Brody before his 1992 death.
Also returning for the 2008 Latin American Spanish dub are José Lavat as Indy, Jesse Conde as Brody and Rubén Moya as Sallah.
Spared by the Cut: In a deleted scene, Pat Roach's agent boards the second biplane on the Zeppelin with a World War I flying ace (played by Frederick Jaeger), only for the pair to fall to their deaths after the flying ace makes an error.
Throw It In!: "She talks in her sleep", was an ad-lib by Sean Connery. The take that was used in the film is not the first, they had to reshoot it after Connery came up with the line on the spot and the entire crew busted out laughing.
Sean Connery plays Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., father of Henry Jones, Jr., or Indiana Jones, who is played by Harrison Ford. However, Connery was only 12 years older than Ford (Connery was born in 1930, Ford in 1942).
Alison Doody was 22 when she was cast as Dr. Elsa Schneider, and although her age wasn't stated onscreen, she would have to be at least 30 to have her credentials as an experienced archaeologist.
Wag the Director: Rhys-Davies wanted Sallah to have become richer in the time between Raiders and Crusade, hence why he wears nicer clothes.
Laurence Olivier was considered for the part of the Grail Knight before Robert Eddison was cast, but was too ill to commit to the project and subsequently passed away a year after production.
The initial plan for the third Indy film was a completely different movie, Indiana Jones and the Monkey King. Written by Chris Columbus in 1985, this story saw Jones traveling to the jungles of Africa in search of the titular Monkey King, Sun Wukong himself, with a cast of allies that included a female archeologist inspired by Katharine Hepburn, a smitten female student of Jones', and an African pigmy who is over 200 years old. This film's many fanciful features would have included an opening sequence set in a haunted Scottish castle, an army of intelligent gorillas, Indy riding on the back of a rhinoceros, a river boat chase, a Nazi villain with a mechanical arm, and a finale where Indiana is actually killed in battle, only being resurrected through the magic of the Monkey King's golden peaches. Although pre-production went fairly far along, with the script going through multiple drafts and location scouting commencing, the project was ultimately scrapped, for a number of reasons: Spielberg considered the story overly juvenile, a production in an African wilderness with so many animals, extras, and elaborate special effects would have been extremely expensive and difficult, and the script repeated many of the mistakes which Temple of Doom had been criticized for (such as an annoying female lead, stereotypical portrayals of indigenous people, few returning characters aside from Indy, and a lack of character development). Although Last Crusade mostly started fresh, the boat chase and tank attack scenes originated from this script, as did the concept of a MacGuffin which granted eternal life. Incidentally, the script also featured a game of Human Chess, and Columbus would go on to direct a similar set piece in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
In an early draft, the character of "Fedora" was going to be Abner Ravenwood, father of Marion Ravenwood, who was mentioned in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Sean Connery originally had a very different characterization in mind for Henry Sr., stating in a promo interview for the film that as Indy's father whatever Indy does "I did it first and I did it better." This initial characterization Connery pitched in the interview does not match up with the characterization in the film, where Henry Sr. is more of an Absent-Minded Professor and all around professional "bookworm", and while he does have his savvy moments, he spends much of the film fumbling and bumbling his way through the adventure.
George Lucas initially suggested making the film "a haunted mansion movie", for which Romancing the Stone writer Diane Thomas wrote a script. Spielberg rejected the idea because of the similarity to Poltergeist, which he had co-written and produced.
Jeffrey Boam wrote a draft set in 1939. The prologue has adult Indiana retrieving an Aztec relic for a museum curator in Mexico and features the circus train. Henry and Elsa (who is described as having dark hair) were searching for the Grail on behalf of the Chandler Foundation, before Henry went missing. The character of Kazim is here named Kemal, and is an agent of the Republic of Hatay, which seeks the grail for its own. Kemal shoots Henry and dies drinking from the wrong chalice. The Grail Knight battles Indiana on horseback, while Vogel is crushed by a boulder when stealing the Grail. In his second draft, Indiana's mother, named Margaret in this version, dismisses Indiana when he returns home with the Cross of Coronado, while his father is on a long distance call. Walter Chandler of the Chandler Foundation features, but is not the main villain; he plunges to his death in the tank. Elsa introduces Indiana and Brody to a large Venetian family that knows Henry. Leni Riefenstahl appears at the Nazi rally in Berlin. Vogel is beheaded by the traps guarding the Grail. Kemal tries to blow up the Grail Temple during a comic fight in which gunpowder is repeatedly lit and extinguished. Elsa shoots Henry, then dies drinking from the wrong Grail, and Indiana rescues his father from falling into the chasm while grasping for the Grail.
Menno Meyjes submitted a script that depicted Indiana searching for his father in Montségur, where he meets a nun named Chantal. Indiana travels to Venice, takes the Orient Express to Istanbul, and continues by train to Petra, where he meets Sallah and reunites with his father. Together they find the grail. At the climax, a Nazi villain touches the Grail and explodes; when Henry touches it, he ascends a stairway to Heaven. Chantal chooses to stay on Earth because of her love for Indiana. In a revised draft dated two months later, Indiana finds his father in Krak des Chevaliers, the Nazi leader is a woman named Greta von Grimm, and Indiana battles a demon at the Grail site, which he defeats with a dagger inscribed with "God is King". The prologue in both drafts has Indiana in Mexico battling for possession of Montezuma's death mask with a man who owns gorillas as pets.
Written-In Infirmity: Harrison Ford's chin scar, originating from an auto accident, is explained as coming from Indy's first experience using a whip, slashing his chin accidentally.
Incidentally, Michael Sheard, who plays Hitler, appeared as Oskar Schomburg (the U-boat captain) in Raiders, and was the runner-up to play Toht.
Pat Roach, who played The Heavy in the previous two films, has a short cameo as the Nazi who accompanies Vogel to the Zeppelin.
In the 2008 Latin American Spanish dub, Ernst Vogel is voiced by Guillermo Coria, who also voiced Indiana Jones in Sonomex's dub of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The video game
Feelies: The game came packaged with a hard-copy Grail Diary. The very detailed 34-page booklet contains Henry's field research about the Grail and doubles as a subtle Copy Protection method, as the in-game information resorts to it. The fine quality of the book made it look like a collector's item and some editors didn't realize the booklet was not a cosmetic addition so it was not included in any form in some versions. Wired wrote an article praising the quality of this feelie. The Steam version fortunately has it in a PDF file.
in Jordan is apparently where the Grail resides.