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Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones might be dazzling fans yet again in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but the fedora-wearing character has come a long way since he first made it to mainstream Hollywood in the 1980s. Director George Lucas introduced sci-fi and action lovers to the adrenaline-pumping world of Indiana Jones in 1981. Since then, the franchise has spun more installations with additional Jones exploits. Here’s a look through Indiana Jones’ voyages so far in preparation for seeing his new film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones, an American Archeologist, debuted on-screen on June 12, 1981, with a plot set in the 20th century. Played by actor Harrison Ford, Dr. Jones is on a mission into the Deserts of Africa, where he faces several obstacles to reach the biblical Ark of the Covenant. Jones is in a race to find the ancient artifact before the German Nazi soldiers do.
The fiction plays out with a storyline indicating that Adolf Hitler tries to obtain the ark to make himself and his army invincible. Jones is faced with fighting the Nazi soldiers until the end while ensuring the ark never gets to the antagonist. Indy teams up with Maron Ravenwood, the daughter of Dr. Abner Ravenwood, his former professor from college.
Made on a $20,000,000 budget, Raiders of the Lost Ark was the highest-grossing movie in the year it was released, and it won four Oscar Awards in 1982.
2. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The professor of archeology has more adventures in 1984’s The Temple of Doom, which was a prequel set one year prior to the events of The Raiders of the Lost Ark. The plot opens with Indy delivering the remains of Emperor Nurhachi to a notorious hoodlum, Lao Che, at Club Obi-Wan in Shanghai.
The action then moves to India, where Jones and his sidekick Short Round discover a cult beneath a palace in a village with no children. This happened because an oppressive group known as the Thuggees took all the kids captive and made them work in the mines to find a mystical stone. Indy and co. defeat the Thuggees in the end despite their use of dark magic.
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Five years later, in 1989, Indy encounters the Nazis again in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when his estranged father goes missing. The older Jones (Sean Connery) was on a voyage to find the Holy Grail when he dropped off the map. Indy then sets out to find him and the powerful Holy Grail before the Nazis do.
Indy is able to reach the location of the Holy Grail, but he meets the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a religious cult willing to lay down their lives to keep the relic protected. He also discovers that his father is held captive on the German border. Father and son reunite, and amid fighting to get to the Grail first, the Joneses fix their differences.
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
It would take a little less than two decades for the cast and crew of the Indiana Jones franchise to come together again for a fourth film. Released in 2008, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was set in 1957, with an older Ford stepping into the role of the titular character once again.
Jones is intercepted in Mexico by the Soviets as they attempt to conjure the powers of a crystal skull during the cold war. Indy’s services are needed in locating the ancient magical object, but the trajectory leads him to his own path. During the course of the movie, Indiana Jones meets Mutt Williams, an emissary sent by an old friend, but comes to find out he is the son he never knew he had. Mutt Williams is Indiana Jones’ son with his former lover, Marion. Together, the reunited family set out to return the crystal skull to its place of origin to keep it from Nazi hands.
