Indiana Jones: The Best (& Worst) Scene From Each Movie

The Indiana Jones movies stand among the most masterfully constructed action movies ever made – well, the first three, at least – with riveting set pieces, iconic characters, and pulpy adventure stories. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas set out to give American cinema its own answer to Britain’s James Bond franchise, and they succeeded admirably in that goal.

Despite their popularity, the movies aren’t perfect. They have plenty of scenes that are great (which means that the best ones are really, really great), but like almost all movies, they also have a few scenes that fall flat. Each movie has at least one fantastic scene and one terrible scene.

8 Raiders’ Best: The Opening Sequence

Almost every moment in Raiders of the Lost Ark is perfect, so choosing the best scene is pretty tricky. But its opening sequence sets the stage beautifully, from Indy’s silhouetted introduction to the palpable suspense during Indy’s escape from the temple to the iconic boulder roll.

It might be the greatest opening scene in the history of action cinema. It establishes the movie’s goal as a throwback to pulpy ‘30s adventure serials, sets up the rivalry between Indy and Belloq, and straps viewers in for a heck of a ride.

7 Raiders’ Worst: “You Knew What You Were Doing.”

While Raiders of the Lost Ark is practically a perfect movie, there is one uncomfortable element in that Indy and Marion first hooked up when he was a grown man and she was a teenager. According to Lucas, Spielberg, and Kasdan’s story discussions, she could’ve been as young as 11, but they settled on 15.

And what’s worse is that Indy takes no responsibility for seducing a kid. When Marion tells him, “It was wrong and you knew it,” he replies, “You knew what you were doing.” Granted, the movie is set in the 1930s, but it’s still creepy.

6 Temple Of Doom’s Best: The Minecart Chase

Spielberg and Lucas initially conceived the minecart chase sequence for Raiders of the Lost Ark, but they couldn’t find room for it in the story, so they saved it for the sequel (well, technically prequel) and it made the perfect climactic action scene for Temple of Doom.

It’s a nail-biting sequence as the minecarts race around the tracks and teeter on every bend. The stakes are raised when Mola Ram orders a giant water tank to be destroyed, flooding the mines.

5 Temple Of Doom’s Worst: The Banquet

The worst scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is when the characters sit down for a banquet with the Maharajah. Everything featured in the scene grew out of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ shared childish sense of humor.

Not only is this scene in poor taste; it’s also responsible for a lot of the negative stereotypes about Indian culture that Temple of Doom as a whole contributed to Western society, like the idea that frozen monkey brains is a part of Indian cuisine.

4 Last Crusade’s Best: Choosing The Holy Grail

While the tank chase is truly compelling, the best scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the climactic moment in which Indy gets Walter Donovan into the temple housing the Holy Grail, and the ghost of the 700-year-old Grail Knight asks them to pick out the Grail from a table full of chalices.

Donovan chooses the fanciest, most jewel-encrusted cup of the lot, takes a drink from it, and ages into a skeleton and turns to dust in seconds because he “chose…poorly.” Indy then takes a rusty, humble-looking cup that turns out to be the right one.

3 Last Crusade’s Worst: X Marks The Spot

After the awesome opening flashback starring River Phoenix as a young Indy in what is basically an origin story, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade takes a while to get going as Indy follows his dad’s diaries to a library.

Underneath the library is a tomb, but the way Indy finds out about it uses the oldest cliché in adventure stories: X marks the spot.

2 Crystal Skull’s Best: Meet Old Man Indy

There aren’t many scenes in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that could even be described as “good,” so choosing the best is pretty difficult – in a completely different way than choosing the best scene in Raiders was difficult.

But Indy’s first scene in Crystal Skull was a promising introduction to the older, slower, more bitter, more grizzled Indiana Jones that the rest of the movie didn’t really stick to.

1 Crystal Skull’s Worst: Nuking The Fridge

There are many contenders for the worst scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, from Mutt swinging through the jungle with CG monkeys to the Soviet villains getting attacked by CG ants, but the worst is arguably the one that coined the term “nuking the fridge” to refer to movie franchises going on too long.

When Indy finds himself in a mock-up town where the U.S. military is testing nuclear weapons, he hides in a lead-lined refrigerator to survive the blast. Even if Indy could survive a nuclear explosion in a fridge, he wouldn’t survive taking a trip into the sky in a metal box.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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