Lucasfilm

"Luke, I am Your Cousin. Kind of."

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a product of Lucasfilm, a.k.a. the house that Darth Vader built, which means the studio knows a thing or two about thrills, chills, and adventure. If Lucasfilm is famous for one thing, it's Star Wars.

But if it's famous for two things, it's Star Wars and Indiana Jones. In addition to producing all the films in the Indy franchise, the studio also produced The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for television, as well as several Indiana Jones made-for-TV movies and videogames. With its emphasis on elaborate action set-pieces and its wisecracking protagonist, Last Crusade and the rest of the Indiana Jones franchise fit right into Lucasfilm's fantastical wheelhouse.

Monkey Kings and Killer Peaches

Lucasfilm was founded by George Lucas, Last Crusade's executive producer, in 1971. Just because your name's on the studio door doesn't mean you always get your way, though. Originally, Lucas wanted the third Indiana Jones flick to feature a haunted mansion.

Director Steven Spielberg gave that a big, "Um, no," for fear of it being too much like the horror movie Poltergeist, which he also produced. Lucas also suggested that Indiana battle a Scottish ghost en route to the Fountain of Youth.

Those ideas got shot down, too, but not before screenwriter Christopher Columbus gave the whole Scottish ghost thing a go, swapping the Fountain of Youth for the Peaches of Immortality and throwing in cannibals and a Marshall College student stalker just for good measure. Columbus' take was called Indiana Jones and The Monkey King, and if you're curious about how that film would have looked, it's your lucky day. The entire script is online.

Lucasfilm Chose…Wisely

Ultimately, Lucas and Spielberg settled on the rollicking father-son quest for the Holy Grail that audiences know today—even though Spielberg worried that people might hear "Holy Grail" and immediately think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

If the film's plot made filmgoers conjure killer bunnies and imaginary horses, it didn't stop them from showing up to the multiplex in droves. The film earned Lucasfilm a record breaking $11,181,429 on its first day in theatres. No other film had sold more than $10 million in tickets in a single day before Indiana and his dad set off for the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, bickering all the way.