By this point in “The Last Crusade,” Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has narrowly survived a rat-infested tomb containing clues to the location of the Holy Grail, a perilous boat Chase through the canals of Venice, imprisonment at the hands of Nazis in Austria, and a chase taking both Indy and his father Henry, Sr. (Sean Connery) from a German zeppelin to a biplane to a foot chase as a Luftwaffe fighter plane bears down on them. Oh, and at one point Indy comes face-to-face with the Führer himself and lives to tell the tale. So when the surprisingly lengthy tank sequence begins fairly late in the film, it could’ve easily felt like overkill to impatient audience members who simply wanted to see our group of heroes make it to their goal.

Instead, Spielberg and co-writers George Lucas, Menno Meyjes, and Jeffrey Boam managed to construct one of the most thrilling story-within-a-story set pieces in blockbuster history. The scene begins with Indy, his father, and dear friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) intent on rescuing the bumbling academic Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) from the Nazis and beating them to the location of the Grail. The catch: Indy spying on the convoy from afar through shiny, reflective binoculars gives away their position and, one well-placed tank shell later, their only means of transportation is destroyed. (“That car belonged to my brother-in-law,” Sallah mournfully states as a fiery wheel rolls on by in one of Spielberg’s many visual gags.) With nowhere else to go and Brody moved into the tank for safekeeping, the odds are stacked against Indy before the action even begins.

But in another twist, the arrival of the Order of the Cruciform Sword, the secret society tasked with protecting the Grail against all intruders, throws everything into chaos.