The Whip and the Scar

The Whip and the Scar

Indiana Jones and the Train Full of Man-Eating Circus Animals. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

The flashback that kicks off Last Crusade doesn't have a name, but if it did, that's our choice. Those animals don't just get the movie off to an exciting start; they're also instrumental in creating two more pieces of the Indiana Jones persona: his whip and his scar.

Indiana picks up both when he falls through the roof of one of the train cars and encounters the circus' lion. He grabs a bullwhip from the wall and cracks it at the snarling beast. He also cracks himself on the chin, too. Boom: now we know how Indiana Jones got introduced to his iconic whip, and we know what's up with the slash on his chin.

More importantly, we also know that Indiana's always flown by the seat of his pants. The whip and the scar symbolize his sense of improvisation. He's a man without a plan, and he always has been. "I don't know," he says to Elsa when she asks how they're going to rescue Henry later in the film. "I'll think of something." Even as an adult, he's still making it up as he goes.

In short, the scar on his chin and the whip on his belt illustrate Indiana's talent for thinking on his feet, a skill that's good to have, whether you're in the lion's den or in Hitler's Germany.