Grail Diary
From Indiana Jones Wiki
- "This is his whole life. Why would he send this to me?"
- ―Indiana Jones
The Grail Diary was a possession of Dr. Henry Jones Sr. In it, he recorded all of his findings on the topic of the Holy Grail, the study of which he had made his life's work, which also bears Adolf Hitler's signature.
Dr. Jones Sr. had almost found the secret location of the Grail from his years of study, and had recorded the nearly complete route inside his diary. The information the diary contained was of such great importance that possessing it was dangerous for one's life; this was due to Adolf Hitler's desire for occult and supernatural objects like the Holy Grail, and subsequently a desire of the Nazi army that he controlled.
After being hired by Walter Donovan, Jones added to his diary a rubbing of Donovan's Grail tablet. Upon realizing that his expedition colleague Elsa Schneider was a Nazi, Dr. Jones Sr. sent the diary to his son Indiana Jones in 1938 to keep it out of Nazi hands.
However, Indy brought the Grail Diary with him to Venice, where, after finding the second Grail marker, he determined where the Grail could be found - the Canyon of the Crescent Moon was outside Iskenderun. Indy removed the map from the diary and gave it to Marcus Brody, who traveled to Iskenderun. When Indy went to rescue his father from the Nazis, he was captured, and the diary was taken by Donovan and Vogel. Since the map was missing, the Nazis sent the diary to Berlin to show progress on their search.
Henry knew that the grail diary was still needed to overcome the defenses of the Grail Temple, and so went with his son to Berlin to retrieve it. Indy disguised himself and took it from Schneider. However on his leaving and while holding the Diary, he stumbled upon Hitler who was signing autographs. Hitler took the Diary in his hands and skimmed through its pages; thinking that the unknown man only sought a signature from him, he did so, and handed the booklet back, ignorant that it was what his men were looking for. After leaving Berlin, father and son studied the diary on their way to Hatay.
Indy's knowledge of his father's research in the diary helped him slip past the traps in the Grail Temple and recover the Grail to save his wounded father.
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[edit] Behind the scenes
The diary is actually a detailed movie prop created especially for the film. It contained several sketches, illustrations and notes, as well as some 'inserts' kept by Henry (like a dollar bill, dated 1899, the year his son was born). The text on the diary is mainly unreadable on-screen however detailed scans and photos of some of its pages can be seen in the visual guides. In reality, much of the text was taken from the real life-book The Grail: Quest for the Eternal (ISBN 0824500350) by John Matthews.[1]
The richness and heavy detail of the movie prop, has intrigued and inspired a portion of fans who proceeded in making their own replicas of the prop.
A minimalistic replica of the Diary was given in the package of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure video game. It actually served as a copy protection
[edit] Appearances
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (First appearance)
