Nowher close to Raiders but enjoyable one

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2016)

In 1912, 13-year-old Indiana Jones is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop at Arches National Park in Utah. While scouting caves, Indy discovers a group of grave robbers who have found a golden crucifix belonging to Coronado and steals it from them, hoping to donate it to a museum. The men give chase through a passing circus train, leaving Indy with a bloody cut across his chin from a bullwhip and a new phobia of snakes. Indy escapes, but the local sheriff makes him return the crucifix to the robbers. Impressed with Indy's bravery, the leader of the robbers gives Indy his fedora, and encourages him to not give up.
In 1938, Indy recovers the crucifix off the coast of Portugal and donates it to Marcus Brody's museum. Later, Indy is introduced to Walter Donovan, who informs him that Indy's father, Henry Jones, Sr., has vanished while searching for the Holy Grail, using an incomplete inscription as his guide. Indy then receives Henry's Grail diary via mail from Venice. Realizing that he would not have sent the diary unless he was in trouble, Indy and Marcus travel to Venice, where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover the tomb of a First Crusade knight, which also contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used, this one revealing the location of the Grail. They flee, however, when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society that protects the Grail from evildoers. After a speedboat chase, Indy and Elsa capture one of the Brotherhood, Kazim, and Indy tells him that his goal is only to find his father and that he has no interest in finding the Grail. Kazim tells him that Henry is being held in Castle Brunwald on the Austrian-German border. Marcus later reveals a map drawn by Henry of the route to the Grail, which begins in Alexandretta. Indy sends Marcus to İskenderun, the city built on the ruins of Alexandretta to rendezvous with their old friend Sallah, and he and Elsa head to Castle Brunwald.