Finn Rollings, writing at Lucasfilm.com, shares how the first downloadable content for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, The Order of Giants, gives us a greater insight into the personal growth of Indiana Jones between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade.
Spoiler warning: This article contains narrative spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. So to quote Dr. Jones, if you haven’t played yet, “Don’t look, Marion! Keep your eyes shut!”
The One That Got Away
Every time I begin The Last Crusade, I always ask myself: wait, where’s Marion Ravenwood? The Great Circle fills us in in no time at all, opening with a stunning recreation of Indy’s quest to retrieve the golden fertility idol as seen at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The unforgettable boulder chase takes on a new meaning in-game as it’s punctuated by the disembodied voice of Marion. Seemingly crushed by the boulder, Indy awakens from his bad dream, safe in his office, but alone; Jones recently returned from his latest adventure in Siwa to find Marion gone.
This time, Indy tries to lose himself in his work, but as he packs, he finds a gift from Marion: a journal still in its wrapping. Despite Marcus Brody’s encouragement to process his emotions, Indy crumples the note and chooses adventure once again. This tension helps flavor Indy and Marion’s fraught relationship beyond the films, recharacterizing their arc in Raiders in which they transform from seemingly scorned ex-lovers to surviving the wrath of God together (now that’s a compatibility test). That “enemies to lovers” plotline is enriched by The Great Circle as it lends a rare softness to Jones’ character, illustrating the nuance during the in-between moments of the iconic couple. While the two argue in Raiders over who really hurt who and Jones seems to laugh it off, instead we’re afforded a glimpse into the Jones we’ll later see return in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The return of Ms. Ravenwood near Akator is all the more emotional for audiences and Indiana alike knowing that he’s missed her in waking and dreaming moments for almost twenty years. Later in the game, a hallucinatory sequence again includes the voice of Marion, and even the discovery of the headpiece to the Staff of Ra — a Ravenwood family heirloom fans have seared into their memory from Raiders, once again proving Marion still burns in Indy’s mind.
Indy’s love life is further complicated when Gina Lombardi arrives in The Great Circle, searching for her missing sister. A sharp-witted journalist, she truly gives Dr. Jones a run for his money, becoming a close friend and almost something more. From sharing a charged moment in Sukothai to a long overdue kiss while departing Ur in the endgame, Jones’ sensitive side shines through. Although he will eventually learn in The Dial of Destiny that the road of adventure ends and family can be as good a treasure as any golden idol, the Indiana we see in The Great Circle isn’t quite there yet. For now, adventure remains his first love.
Father and Son
Marion isn’t Indy’s only estrangement. The badgering relationship between the Jones’ Sr. and Jr. is my personal favorite part of The Last Crusade. Completing a side mission at the Vatican in The Great Circle expands upon familial tensions between the two before their eventual reunion at Castle Brunwald a year later in 1938. Opening a Nazi safe in the Vatican reveals an intel report done on both generations of the Jones family in order to “investigate possible connection between subject’s research and son’s excavation.” We come to learn the Jones boys have been “estranged for many years” and as such are “unlikely [to] be working together” further heightening the familial and comedic tensions between the two about a year before Indy crashes into his old man (literally).
Also, if you happen to have good ears and bad aim and accidentally shoot the tail fin of your Shanghai escape plane, Indy will exclaim — “They got us!” — just as his father Henry Sr. does down the line following their airship escape. Some excuses are evergreen.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants is available now for Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 5, PC, and Game Pass and will be made available on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026.
