Fortune and Glory

 I'm sure you know where this quote comes from if are a big movie buff and geek. If you don't, how can you even call yourself a fanboy or girl. I'll give you a hint, Harrison Ford. You still don't know? Oh come on I'm referring to Willie Scott's comment to a certain archeologist-adventurer who has a penchant for getting into trouble with the German's, Russian's and Nazi's. Yes I'm talking about the iconic Dr Indiana Jones! He is so enduring that Harrison Ford is going to don the fedora and leather jacket for the last time at 80 years of age this summer in 'The Dial of Destiny'.

Star Wars and Dr Jones was quite literally my childhood in a nutshell. With John William's theme playing in my head, I would reenact scenes from the movie. In fact I aspired to be an archeologist growing up thanks to George Lucas and Steven Speilberg. The  first movie 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' follows Indy's quest in Cairo  to uncover the location of the ark of the covenant, all the while being chased by Nazi's. This first adventure features the amazing boulder escape scene in the jungles of Peru and the face melting scene. Here we meet Indy's good friend Sallah, played by John Rhys Davies and Indy's old flame Marion Ravenwood, played by Karen Allen.

The second installment of the trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, takes a much darker turn, much like Empire in the Star Wars trilogy. In this Indy has to face a blood thirsty cult to recover some sacred stones to save a village from famine and free the village children who have been enslaved by the Maharaja of Pankot palace and the Thugees. He is aided in his quest for the Shankara stones by a street urchin named Short Round, played by Ke Huy Quan, and the sassy Willie Scott, played by Kate Capshaw, of whom he runs into after a botched deal with some thugs in Shanghai. This movie stood out to me due to the bloodcurdling sacrifice scene, but has the best action sequences in the mine car chase sequence and the finale rope bridge over the chasm scene.

The third part of the original trilogy is my favorite out of the three. It explores Indy's relationship with his dad Dr Henry Jones, played by the incredible Sir Sean Connery. His dad goes missing and Indy has to follow the breadcrumbs left behind by his dad, using dad's 'grail diary'. Henry made finding the Holy Grail his life's work. Using the clues in dad's diary, Indy travels to Austria with Marcus Brody and finds his dad, as well more clues to the chalice that held Christ  blood at the crucifixion. Legend tells that whoever drinks from the chalice will be granted immortality. Set in awe inspiring Petra in Jordan, Indy's final trial puts his faith on the line as he races against time to save his dad.

This trilogy made Harrison Ford a bona-fide star and started the whole scruffy tomb raiding action genre. We had Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone. There are shades of Indiana Jones in the Tomb Raider games and movies as well, with Lara Croft being a female Indy. Then there is Nathan Drake in the Uncharted games and movies. Heck even the Brendan Fraser Mummy series draws inspiration from these. Need I go on? In fact Indy was so popular, they brought the original cast back for Indy 4, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and introduced Indy's and Marion's son Muff, played by Shia LaBeouf. And as mentioned above, we are getting a fifth installment featuring Sallah and his daughter. 

We shall see how things play out. Personally I would have preferred if they had left it at The Last Crusade with our heroes riding off into the sunset. I didn't enjoy the whole extraterrestrial theme of The Crystal Skull, and the whole time travel thing in The Dial of Destiny just doesn't scream  Indiana Jones to me!