Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

ELSA

In this case it's the literal truth. We're on holy ground. These columns over here...

She indicates FOUR HUGE MARBLE COLUMNS that go from floor to ceiling.

ELSA

... were brought back as spoils of war after the sacking of Byzantium during the Crusades.

Indy glances at the Columns, then notices a stained-glass Window that depicts a Knight of the Crusades. Indy lingers for a moment in front of the window.

ELSA
Now please excuse me. The library's closing in a few moments. I'll arrange for us to stay a little longer.

The minute Elsa is out of earshot.

INDY

Marcus – I've seen this window before.

BRODY

Where?

Indy whips out the Grail Diary and opens it to the sketch he noticed in the airplane.

INDY

Right here. In Dad's Diary. You see?

Brody glances at the Diary, then at the window – noticing that the Roman numerals in question have been worked into the window's design.

BRODY

Look, Indy. The Roman numerals!

INDY

Dad was onto something here!

BRODY

Well, now we know the source of the numbers, but we still don't know what they mean.

Indy and Brody now see Elsa approaching. Indy quickly tucks the Diary back into his pocket.

INDY

(explaining to Brody)

My dad sent me this Diary for a reason. Until we find out why, I suggest we keep it to ourselves.

ELSA

Find something?

Indy doesn't reply. He's looking in five directions at once. His eyes moving across the walls and ceilings – charged with the thrill of discovery.

BRODY

(to Elsa)

Uh, yes. Three, seven and tent That window seems to be the source of the Roman numerals.

ELSA

My God, I must be blind

INDY

Dad wasn't looking for a book about the Knight's Tomb... he was looking for the Tomb itself

Elsa wears a blank expression.

INDY

Don't you get it? The Tomb is somewhere in the library! You said yourself it used to be a church! Look.

Indy's eyes travel up one of the four huge marble columns.

INDY

Three.

Indy looks again to the stained-glass window. He points.

INDY

Three!

Indy has discovered that each Column is numbered with a Roman Numeral. Indy hurries away toward Column VII. All Brody and Elsa can do now is try to keep up with him.

INDY

Seven.

He points again to the stained-glass window.

INDY

Seven... Ten.

He looks down to the scrap of paper in his hands.

INDY

And ten. Now where's the ten? Look around for the ten.

Indy walks past aisles of book-lined shelves. He stops, turns, then looks down.

INDY

Three, seven and ten.

He climbs a spiral staircase leading up to a LOFT and looks down at Brody and Elsa. The floor beneath their feet is an elaborate tile design containing a huge "X" – visible only from this higher angle.

INDY

Ten.

(wryly; to himself)

"X" marks the spot.

Indy rushes down the staircase and goes to the CENTER TILE where the two sides of the X intersect. He blows dust away from the tile and tries to pry it up, but cannot.

Indy rushes past Brody to a cordon held in place by a brass stand underneath the stained-glass window.

Indy raises the brass stand and timing his actions, hits the tile precisely as the Librarian stamps a book. The Librarian regards the stamper curiously.

Indy continues to pound at the tile as the Librarian resumes his stamping, still puzzled by the SOUND ECHOING through the library.

Finally Indy breaks the tile. As he bends to remove the pieces of broken tile, a TWO-FOOT SQUARE HOLE IS REVEALED.

Cold air and a wet, rancid smell escape from the hole.

INDY

Bingo.

ELSA

You don't disappoint, Doctor Jones. You're a great deal like your father.

INDY

Except he's lost, and I'm not.

ELSA

Lower me down.

Indy is impressed with Elsa's spirit, and cooperates agreeably – holding her by the hands and lowering her into the hole. When her feet finally touch ground below, Indy releases his grip on her and slips the Grail Diary to Brody.

INDY

Look after this for me, will you?

Then Indy disappears into the hole.

INT. CATACOMBS BELOW LIBRARY – DAY

Indy jumps down a steep step. He reaches back to help Elsa.

INDY

Come on.

Indy and Elsa glance around. This is really a horrid place. Dark and dank. foul smelling. Elsa turns. She removes a cigarette lighter with a unique ivory four-leaf clover design.

Indy and Elsa inspect markings carved onto the walls.

ELSA
Pagan symbols. Fourth or Fifth Century.

INDY

Right. Six hundred years before the Crusades.

ELSA

The Christians would have dug their own passages and burial chambers centuries later.

Indy takes the lighter from her and lights their way down a dark passageway.

INDY

That's right. If there's a Knight of the First Crusade entombed down here, that's where we'll find him.

INT. LIBRARY – DAY

THREE MEN carrying guns make their way down the spiral staircase toward an unsuspecting Brody. One of the Men, KAZIM, raises his gun and brings it down hard on Brody's head.

BRODY

Ohhhh...

Kazim gestures with his gun toward the now-unconscious Brody. The other two men take Brody's hands and drag him into one of the book-lined aisles.

INT. ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS – DAY

DECOMPOSING CORPSES rest in niches carved into the stone walls. Grotesque skeletal remains with rotting linen stretched across blackened bones.

Indy holds the lighter up as he and Elsa inspect symbols carved into the walls.

Elsa spots a symbol cut into the wall that she doesn't recognize. As she blows away some cobwebs:

ELSA
What's this one?

Indy only has to give it a quick glance to know.

INDY

The Ark of the Covenant.

ELSA

Are you sure?

INDY

(deadpan)

Pretty sure.

Indy holds the lighter up and he and Elsa enter another dark passageway.

ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS

Indy steps to the wall and runs his hand over the stone. He scrapes the cobwebs away to reveal the ROMAN NUMERAL "X."

INDY

Watch out.

Elsa now holds the lighter as Indy rams his shoulder into the wall. The wall collapses on impact and Indy falls through into another room.

ANOTHER ROOM – THE CATACOMBS

As Indy falls through the hole in the wall onto rocks surrounded by bubbling, green, slimy liquid. More skeletons surround him, resting in their carved niches. Elsa holds the lighter as she peers in at him through the hole in the wall.

INDY

Petroleum. I could sink a well down here and retire.

Indy reaches up and tears a piece of cloth from one of the skeletons, which breaks apart and falls into the oil-slick water.

Indy uses the scrap of cloth and a bone to fashion a crude torch, which he then dips into the oily water.

INDY
Give me the lighter.

ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS

Using the cloth-wrapped bone torch to guide their way, Indy and Elsa come upon a NARROW PASSAGEWAY. The water is knee-deep and TEEMING WITH RATS. Thousands of them Crawling on one another's backs. SQUEALING. Squirming. Thrashing in the water.

INDY

Oh, rats...

Elsa gasps as the rats scamper between her legs.

Indy moves forward through the rat-infested water as Elsa follows, still gasping in horror. Suddenly he slips into a hole. Recovering his balance, he reaches out to Elsa.

INDY
Come on!

She gasps once again, terrified. Indy lifts her and carries Elsa as he moves forward.

THE CATACOMBS – THE HOLE IN THE WALL

Kazim and his men step to the opening Indy made earlier and shine their flashlights through to the rat-infested water.

ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS

More rat-infested water as Elsa, now walking again, follows Indy through another passageway lined with skulls and bones.

Indy reaches for a wall to steady himself and inadvertently grabs a skeleton. A bone comes loose in his hand as rats scurry about and leap at him from all directions.

He takes a moment to compose himself, then steps across the water to Elsa's side. He steps into the water, then reaches up to help Elsa do the same.

INDY
Come here.

LARGE BURIAL CHAMBER

The chamber is flooded with black, briny water.

INDY

Look...

In the center of the chamber, jutting up above the water, is what amounts to an "island altar" on which SEVERAL ANCIENT COFFINS rest. They move toward the altar.

Indy and Elsa begin to inspect the ornately carved COFFINS like the scholars of antiquity that they are. These are big oak caskets held together by straps of etched brass.

INDY

It must be one of these...

ELSA

Look at the artistry of these carvings and the scrollwork.

One coffin is elevated above the others.

ELSA

It's this one.

Together they begin to push on the lid – STRAINING and GROANING until it slides away and BANGS against the stone platform.

INSIDE THE COFFIN

Lie the DECOMPOSED REMAINS of a KNIGHT IN ARMOR. Indy and Elsa look in...Elsa gasps.

INDY

This is it! We found it! Look – the engraving on the Shield. It's the same as on the Grail Tablets The Shield is the Second Marker!

Indy unfolds a piece of paper and holds it over the shield.

ELSA

What's that?

INDY

It's a rubbing Dad made of the Grail Tablet.

The missing portion of the rubbing is completed by the shield.