The opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is rife with callbacks and foreshadowing (what the cool kids these days call 'Easter eggs'). We witness the origin of Indiana Jones' iconic wardrobe; a wardrobe that he will, for the most part, remain faithful to for the next 60+ years of his life. Spoiler alert - the felt fedora was inexplicably gifted to him by a sweaty stranger. We find out how Indy got Harrison Ford's chin scar (freak whipping accident). But the sequence that is most meta is River Phoenix's chase along the length of the Dunn & Duffy circus train.
There are four distinct set pieces on the train:
- The first, and most obvious callback, is the House of Reptiles carriage. It is reminiscent of the Well of the Souls in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and is responsible for Indy's totally justified fear of snakes.
- Indy tussles with a whooping street tough on top of the next carriage, which houses a raging rhino. The rhinoceros horn protruding through the roof of the carriage and almost skewering our hero brings to mind the spike chamber in Indiana Jones Part Deux - The Temple of Doom.
- The Last Crusade's Nazi book burning parade is foreshadowed in the next carriage, the Den of Lions. Later in the film, Indy's dad will convince him to retrieve the grail diary by going to Berlin, 'into the lion's den'.
- And finally, we get an inkling of the sorry state of Indiana Jones' fourth film adventure, upon entering Doctor Fantasy's Magic Caboose. In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy meets inter-dimensional, magical super beings. He also hides inside a fridge to avoid being disintegrated by an atomic blast, which is a bit like how he hid in a box to escape Doctor Fantasy's Magic Caboose.
