Read More @HJ Previews: Trailer, Studio Stills, Wallpaper, Overview David Bruce, Webmaster

Henry Jones, Jr.? Who is that? Oh, did you say, Indiana Jones? Mention the first name in my house growing up and you'd be met with blank stares, but throw out the second, and each member of my family, including my little sister, would begin to hum the John Williams theme song. So, it's no surprise that I get nostalgic every time I see the Fedora-shaped silhouette of Harrison Ford rising up in the opening credits of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the feeling doesn't go away even after the final riding into the sunset with his motley crew in The Last Crusade.

For all of my childhood and pre-adolescent years, Indiana Jones was my hero. You could see glimmers of him in Han Solo (obviously,) in MacGuyver, in various incarnations of 1980s and 1990s superheroes, Robin Hoods and others. And I saw him in the mirror, or at least a younger version, when I donned my Fedora (yes, I bought one) and cracked my whip. And for every group of kids that dashed around like the crew of the Millennium Falcon, fighting over who would play the roles of Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca, there were moments, in private, where we tried to imitate swinging from one platform to another with our trusty whip.

Now, years later, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have announced the unleashing of a new Indiana Jones adventure, another episode in what seems like a Saturday morning serial.

Unlike the Star Wars trilogy that started it all, I find myself impressed by the majority of the Indiana Jones adventures when I revisit them. While the production is spotty at times with A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back (or if you just hate Ewoks), Indiana Jones lives timelessly in the 1930s, battling Nazis and wreaking havoc on the forces of evil and injustice. The humor is still funny, the acting still appropriate for the subject material, and the stunts done in a way that CGI can't make look terribly outdated just on principle.

Flashing forward twenty-five years from the first installment, we can see that Indiana Jones has undergone some transition. His path began pursuing fortune and glory in Raiders, but by the end of Crusade, he shows that while superheroes take days off, the epitome of everyman is constantly growing, adapting and developing. What made Indiana Jones likeable was his approachability, his resoluteness and his bravery, for a preadolescent (and a young adult!), but his longstanding position in my hierarchy of heroes is due to his ability to grow. There is a maverick attitude that every hero seems to possess, but the growth toward world-class hero happens before our eyes, on screen. There are no mandatory books or seasons 1-4 to understand before sitting down with the trilogy of adventures: it is just Harrison Ford onscreen, doing his thing.

Chronicling the three previously released adventures, I've attempted to break down the development of the man himself.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

We must begin our journey with the ultimate opening scene, defying sudden death with the giant poster (insert shout-out to MGM here so you can see it for yourself), and recognize that our archaeologist finds himself in danger because of his own greed and foolishness.

Once freed from Belloq's first master plan, Indiana Jones pursues the Ark of the Covenant almost from the very start in Raiders. As the current trailer states, "he protected the power of the divine," but really, Jones is a fortune-hungry academic moonlighting as an adventurer. Don't read that as condemnation of the man himself, but Jones is in to win it, and any divine work he provides by the end is a corollary to a) pursuing fortune and glory, and b) defeating the Nazis.

Defeating the Nazis is in itself a wonderful narrative, but Indy's struggle with Belloq in Raiders is more about establishing manhood and "first rights," both of the Ark and of Marion. Along the way, there are certainly laugh-worthy scenes, like the snake-in-the-biplane-cockpit moment of the first segment and the shooting of the giant swordsman in the town square—which legend tells us was due to Ford having dysentery that day. Still, the first movie is most notable for its straightforward one-man-versus-the-world moments, full of action and adventure to stir your blood.

What we learn about the Ark itself reflects more on the Nazis in this first installment than on our hero. Indiana Jones does put forth the effort to rescue Marion, but there are times he endangers her for the sake of glory. We know now that our heroes respond to a higher standard, and find a way around leaving the innocents left behind. But remember, he's an academic archaeologist first, and a heroic world-saver second. So far, there is not much development to report.

The Temple of Doom

The first real change for Indiana Jones occurs, I would argue, in Doom. While the current trailer says that Indy protects the "cradle of civilization," it's worth noting that the darkest of the three movies (thanks to the plot and John Williams' score) begins again with his dogged pursuit of riches and glory. The opening scene is priceless and campy all at once, and that's not counting the Dan Aykroyd cameo. But the depths of depravity revealed in Thuggee cult were terrifying to my sister and me back then, and no less easy to watch now. Where else as a ten-year-old could you see a man have his heart ripped from his chest?

Even so, the action and scares remain secondary to the first real development of Indy's character. After the village shaman sends Indy, Willie, and Short Round out with the injunction to rescue the children of the village, Indy is still most concerned with the Sankara stones than the Thuggee cult. Their subsequent capture comes as the result of his desire to steal the stones (for himself, history, extra credit) with little remembrance of the grieving mothers and the plight of the enslaved children. While we ourselves are guilty of overlooking the impoverished and imprisoned ourselves, we can still recognize that this is no way for our hero to behave.

It is only when Willie is nearly killed by the drugged and brainwashed Indiana Jones that Short Round breaks Indy from this curse by saying, "I love you, Indy," and burning him with a handy torch. In this moment, Indiana Jones changes forever. Yes, he will still be the hero archaeologist aimed at fortune, glory, and artifacts; but there is something new injected into his never-die attitude. While we may see him only freed from the Thuggees, it truly marks a "new Indy," a before-and-after moment, where what he was and what he did before falls away, and what rises out of the ashes (literally) is different.

Flinging Thuggee guards right and left, Indy rescues the children from the evil mining operation and sets free the people from the curse (caused by the damming up of the water). Sacrificing his quest for the Sankara stones, he literally creates freedom for the captives, redemption of the land and the defeat of the forces of evil.

While Raiders may have been more of a religiously-affiliated movie, Temple of Doom finds Indiana Jones in his moment of "conversion," from self-promotion to community-focused. In this moment, we find a hero-servant, willing to sacrifice himself and all of his dreams to fight for justice, and for freedom, for those who can't achieve it on their own.

The Last Crusade

In what I once feared was the final Indiana Jones adventure, "Junior" abandons peace, freedom and comfort to quest after his father (Connery) and the Holy Grail. Unlike the first two movies, where Indiana Jones discovers his motivation in the form of a self-promoting task for buried treasure, his two-fold charge is to rescue his father who has been lost searching for the Grail and to stop the Nazis from using the Grail's powers to provide everlasting life to their followers. While we see a new Indy, we are also provided with a refreshing, irreverent, and often unbelievably comic side of Ford, thanks to his playful sparring with the "elder" statesman playing the Senior Jones. There will certainly be guffaws through any re-watching of the third film, but the impetus is different.

While the movie in its entirety is just as fast-paced as the first, Crusade's final segment, where Indiana Jones must make choices to complete three tasks, is by far one of my favorite clips for theological discussion. First, Indiana Jones must practice humility, by bowing in the "Breath of God"; second, he must know the name of God (or correctly spell Jehovah in Latin); and third, my favorite, he must take a "leap of faith." Having not entirely believed in the Grail in the first place, his leap from the lion (of Judah?) into what he sees as empty space signals his pursuit of the Grail and eternal life, or at least, its saving grace.

What shines the light brightest on Indy's conversion is that he has taken on the challenges of the Grail's three tests on behalf of his dying father. In doing so, he proves to be a willing disciple of his father's faith, and comes to possess faith of his own. Choosing the correct cup and proving willing to abandon it, Indiana Jones proves that his transition within the trilogy, his arc of maturity, is complete. While we might previously expect to follow Indiana into fortune and glory, he admits to having found "enlightenment," and sees that as a satisfying end. If nothing else, we never expected this from our swashbuckling hero in Raiders, but I'm left hoping that the next installment will continue to "grow" Indiana Jones, if not in faith per se, at least in character and soul.

The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull promises more Stateside adventures, as well as South America, while changing up the Evil Empire from that of the Nazis to the Soviets. Set almost twenty years since the end of Crusade, one has to wonder how laughable the film will make the discrepancy between Ford's age and that of his character's. Needless to say, Ford has experienced much success since he first began this adventure, and his character's creators (Lucas and Spielberg) have much—documented forays into faith and "forces." What will we experience in this latest edition? Will it revert to glory and fortune, or will Indiana Jones continue to prove that he'll serve as more than just a hero, and will really be Everyman?