Starring Harrison Ford
as Professor of Archaeology Henry "Indiana" Jones, the
original Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981.
The original movie was such a huge success, that it
warranted a number of sequels: The Temple of Doom in 1984, The Last Crusade in 1989,
and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(2008). The movies were the brainchild of George
Lucas and directed by Stephen Spielberg.
In the original, Indiana tries to find the the Ark of
the Covenant before the Nazis find it. The Nazis
think it will make them invincible in the same way it
did the Israelites of the Old Testament. Although
Indiana was the first to find the Ark, the Nazi's find
him and steal it. At the end of the movie, the
Nazi's open the Ark and are killed by its Godly powers.
Indiana survives by closing his eyes and not looking
upon the glory of God.
In The Temple of Doom, which is
technically one year before the Ark incident, Indiana
finds himself escaping from Chinese gangsters, only to
crash land in India. He finds an Indian village
whose children have been kidnapped by a cult. He
is asked to retrieve the Sankara Stones, which have been
stolen by a cult. The cult plans on using the
power of the stones to rule the world, but Indy manages
to defeat the cult, free the kidnapped children, and
returns the stones to where they belong.
In the Last Crusade,
Indy is on a quest to find the Holy Grail while rescuing
his father (played by Sean Connery) at the same time.
In the end, Indy and his father realize their
relationship is more important than the grail, so they
give up on the quest. In the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull, Indy must fight the Russians to retrieve
a Crystal Skull. In the mean time, he rekindles
and old flame and bonds with his son (played by Shia