Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott)

Character Analysis

Marcus Brody is a loyal friend…and a total liability. This museum curator and the Joneses go way back: both Henry and Indiana trust Brody implicitly. That's why they involve him in their schemes, even if he isn't the most street smart or savvy adventurer—or an adventurer at all, really.

Brody's a scholar, more comfortable in a museum than on the run from thugs. Check out this scene, for example, when Indiana tries in vain to convince Donovan and Elsa that they'll never find Brody or the crucial diary pages he's carrying:

ELSA: It's perfectly obvious where the pages are. He's given them to Marcus Brody.

HENRY: Marcus? You didn't drag poor Marcus along, did you? He's not up to the challenge.

DONOVAN: He sticks out like a sore thumb. We'll find him.

INDIANA: The hell you will. He's got a two-day head start on you, which is more than he needs. Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He'll blend in, disappear; you'll never see him again. With any luck, he's got the grail already.

Cut to the middle of a chaotic Middle Eastern bazaar and Marcus Brody sticking out like a sore thumb.

BRODY: Uh, does anyone here speak English—or even ancient Greek?

Ancient Greek? Oh, man.

Brody's an extremely intelligent man, with a surplus of talents and skills, but they're not the most practical talents and skills, as demonstrated when he wants to know if anyone speaks a dead language. When Indiana tells Donovan that Brody will "blend in, disappear," he knows full well that Brody's probably doing the exact opposite.

Brody's lack of resourcefulness, varnish, and machismo is played for laughs throughout the film. While Henry and Brody are both academics, comfier with books and bones than guns and knives, Brody's fussier and funnier, as evidenced by the following exchange:

STREET VENDOR: Water?

BRODY: Oh, water? No thank you, sir. No. Fish make love in it.

Brody may be the film's comic relief—and he may change the way you look at your school's water fountain—but he's no fool. He's smart and witty. You don't become a museum curator by watching TV and pounding cheese balls. When he and Henry are taken prisoner aboard a Nazi tank, for example, and Henry blinds one of their captors with the ink from his fountain pen, Brody's delighted by his pal's ingenuity:

BRODY: Henry, the pen.

HENRY: What?

BRODY: Well, don't you see? The pen is mightier than the sword.

Dropping some clever wordplay in the middle of a Nazi tank battle? Classic Brody. He may not ooze with common sense. He may be downright clueless sometimes. But he's forever a dutiful friend and clever confidant. You can see why he's charged with preserving priceless artifacts and why the Joneses would place their trust in him—even if he did once get lost in his own museum.