This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Indiana Jones: The Order of Giants.
Though it was inspired by classic Westerns, James Bond movies, and even Scrooge McDuck comic strips, Raiders of the Lost Ark itself is one of the most influential action-adventure movies of all time. There have been countless homages to Raiders‘ iconic opening, its thrilling car chase, and its haunting climax over the years, but one of the best love letters came in the form of last year’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, an overt passion project by developer MachineGames.
While Indiana Jones and the Great Circle tells its own original story, it contains plenty of nods to the adventurer’s first silver screen outing. The 2024 game begins with a recreation of Raiders of the Lost Ark‘s Peru temple raid, its second major level takes Indy back to Egypt, and the overarching plot sees him racing a band of Nazis to retrieve an artifact of religious importance. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t afraid to wear its Raiders influences on its sleeve, but its recently released DLC spends much of its runtime revering another Indiana Jones movie.
Indiana Jones: The Order of Giants Feels Like a Love Letter to The Last Crusade
The Order of Giants Explores A Familiar Location
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sees the titular hero going in search of his missing father, who disappeared while searching for the Holy Grail. Indy’s adventure kicks off in Venice, where he finds an ancient catacomb hidden underneath the Biblioteca di San Barnaba. This dimly lit network of underground stone caverns eventually leads to the tomb of Sir Richard, one of the knights of the First Crusade who’s said to have found the Holy Grail.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s The Order of Giants DLC follows in The Last Crusade‘s footsteps very closely. This story DLC sees Indy leaving the confines of the Vatican and exploring the waterways and sewers of Rome. During the course of the 3–4 hour adventure, players will find themselves walking through very similar environments to those used in The Last Crusade‘s Venice sequence, with stone-lined catacombs and rat-filled sewers being common settings in the DLC.
Indiana Jones: The Order of Giants even has Indy popping up from a sewer manhole at one point, which is reminiscent of the scene in The Last Crusade where Indy and Elsa exit the sewer and end up on the busy streets of Venice’s Piazza San Marco.
The Order of Giants Expolores a Familiar Mythology
Indiana Jones: The Order of Giants‘ story focuses on three members of the Nephilim Order, a secret organization of “giants” who have been tasked with protecting the keys to a religious artifact. Already, this concept of a secret organization protecting an item of religious significance feels like an homage to The Last Crusade‘s Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword. But the similarities stretch further.
Those who have completed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s story will know that this religious artifact is actually Noah’s Ark, which uses the Nephilim-protected keys to open up a portal to different sites around the globe. It’s mentioned in The Great Circle that it might not be Noah’s Ark specifically, as there have been many great floods throughout mythology and history, but the Bible is referenced frequently during the game.
The Order of Giants’ story continues the base game’s exploration of Christianity. One of the aforementioned Nephilim giants the DLC revolves around is the ‘Nameless Crusader’, a soldier sent to obtain one of the Noah’s Ark keys from the city of Antioch under the guise of helping the Crusade’s war effort. The Nameless Crusader’s tragic life is detailed via one of The Order of Giants’ tomb puzzles, which looks and feels like an unused Last Crusade sequence thanks to its similar use of stark, white lighting, its stone architecture, and its Christian/Crusader imagery.
The Order of Giants Even Has a Similar Third Act Twist
To top the homage off, Indiana Jones: The Order of Giants even features a similar third act twist with its villain. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy is hired by Walter Donovan to find his missing father and his diary. After recovering the diary and using it to find the starting location for the hunt for the Holy Grail, Indy is betrayed by Donovan, who’s revealed to be working with the Nazis.
The Order of Giants begins with a Vatican priest named Father Ricci tasking Indy with uncovering the secrets of the Nephilim Order tombs. After retrieving the artifacts from each tomb, Indy is betrayed by Father Ricci, who reveals himself to be the leader of a cult operating underneath Rome.
