FILM · 1981 · USA
Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Directed by
- Steven Spielberg
- Runtime
- 115 min
- Studio
- Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilm Ltd.
415 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.
415 Interesting Facts About Raiders of the Lost Ark
Interesting Facts (26)
- #001
In 2014, Steven Soderbergh published an experimental black-and-white version of the film, with the original soundtrack and dialogue replaced by an electronic soundtrack. Soderbergh said his intention was to encourage viewers to focus on Steven Spielberg's extraordinary staging and editing: "This filmmaker forgot more about staging by the time he made his first feature than I know to this day."
- #002
- #003
The March 2004 issue of Vanity Fair contained an article about three South Mississippi boys named Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb who, in the summer of 1981, started videotaping a homemade remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark staring themselves and their elementary and middle school classmates. Their movie project continued on and off for seven years and several thousands of dollars, finally resulting in a near shot-for-shot, low-budget, unauthorized recreation of the original film, albeit one in which the actors age from 12 to 17 and back again between scenes. Now professional filmmaker Eli Roth (who went on to direct Cabin Fever) saw a much-passed-around copy of the remake at N.Y.U. Film School and was instrumental in having it screened at Harry Knowles' film festival in Austin, Texas, and eventually getting a copy to Steven Spielberg, who wrote Strompolos, Zala, and Lamb a complimentary letter in 2002. After the Vanity Fair article was published, their story was optioned as a movie by producer Scott Rudin for a rumored mid-six figures, under the auspices of Paramount, the studio that released Raiders of the Lost Ark in the first place.
- #004
- #005
The giant boulder that chases after Indiana Jones at the start of the film was made of fiberglass. On the Bonus Features DVD, sound designer Ben Burtt said that in order to get the proper sound effects for the giant boulder, he and the sound crew tried pushing boulders down a hill, but the sounds they were getting weren't what they were looking for. Later that day, as they were leaving in a Honda Civic and coasting down a gravel embankment, Burtt noticed that the sound was just what they were looking for, so he grabbed a microphone and held it near one of the Civic's rear tires to record the effect.
- #006
During the scene where Indiana threatens the Nazis with a Panzerfaust, you can clearly see a fly creeping into the mouth of Paul Freeman. Contrary to popular belief, he did not swallow it. Freeman explained in an interview years later that the fly flew off at about the instant he uttered the word "bad," but Steven Spielberg noticed it and decided it would be funny to cut out a few frames so the fly would not be seen flying away. This made it look as though Freeman ate it, and he found the edit highly amusing. Empire Magazine chose this scene as one of the most common scenes for which people press the "Pause" button on their VCRs.
- #007
- #008
- #009
John Williams had actually written two themes for the film. He played them both for Steven Spielberg on the piano and Spielberg loved them so much, he suggested that Williams use both of them. He did and the result was the famous "Raiders March," performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (who did not perform in any more Indiana Jones films). The March has become one of the most popular movie themes of all time.
- #010
- #011
The monkey raising his paw and saying (in his own language) "Heil Hitler" was thought up by George Lucas, and is one of Steven Spielberg's two favorite scenes (in the video box set, he says his other favorite is the "where doesn't it hurt" love scene on the ship). In Empire magazine, Frank Marshall said that they got the monkey to do the Nazi salute by putting a grape on a fishing pole, and getting the monkey to reach for the grape, which was dangling just out of camera range. This took about fifty takes before it actually looked like a Nazi salute. Voice-artist Frank Welker provided the chattering sounds for the monkey, including the "Sieg Heil"-like chirp that the monkey gives when it raises its paw in salute. (Welker later provided similar monkey chatter for Abu, the spider monkey in Disney's Aladdin (1992).)
- #012
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- #014
- #015
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- #017
- #018
- #019
- #020
While filming the snake scenes in the Well of Souls, a python bit and would not release the hand of first assistant director David Tomblin. Tomblin calmly asked someone to grab the python (still attached to Tomblin's hand) by the tail and whip it, so that the motion would send a wave through the snake's body and force it to let go. A crew member did exactly that, the python's bite released Tomblin's hand, and Tomblin received medical attention. The python itself was not injured.
- #021
- #022
When Brody first comes to Indy's house to discuss the mission, Jones is dressed that way because he was entertaining a young woman in his bedroom. The script originally planned to show her before moving to the next scene, to give Indy a more worldly personality (like James Bond). However, the shot was cut because Steven Spielberg felt that being a playboy did not suit Indy's character. (This also helps explain why some of his university students fawn over Jones and why one girl wrote "love you" on her eyelids.)
- #023
- #024
Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison wrote a screenplay during breaks in filming on this film's location. Mathison was there to visit her husband, Harrison Ford, and Spielberg dictated a story idea that came to him for her to write down. That screenplay was eventually titled E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
- #025
Indiana Jones's hat came from the famous Herbert Johnson hat shop on Saville Row in London. The hat was the shop's "Poet" model. In the bonus features on the DVD, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman said she grabbed and twisted the hat to age it properly, then she and Harrison Ford sat on it, until it finally resembled "a very lived-in, and well-loved" hat.
- #026
Production Story (187)
- #027
- #028
- #029
- #030
- #031
Though the film was originally intended as a small low-budget adventure, the scope of the film quickly increased as soon as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas got involved. Still, Spielberg told Lucas that he would only do the film if they could do it really fast, since he was desperate to avoid the experiences of his previous three movies, Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and 1941 (1979), which had all run wildly over schedule and over budget. Even though production costs of Raiders would triple to $20 million during its conception, the film was delivered within its finally intended budget, and ahead of schedule.
- #032
The name of the sadistic Nazi interrogator is never mentioned in the film (although Marion calls him Herr Mach), but it is Toht, pronounced like Tod, the German word for death. The role was offered to Klaus Kinski, who wrote in his memoir, "As much as I'd like to do a movie with Spielberg, the script is as moronically shitty, as so many other flicks of this ilk." Kinski turned it down in favor of Venom (1981), because the salary was better. Kinski had actually enlisted in the German Army during World War II at age 16, but was captured in the Netherlands on his second day of service, and spent the remainder of the war in a British prisoner of war camp. Michael Sheard also auditioned to play Toht, but Ronald Lacey, who had given up acting to become an agent, was finally chosen because he reminded Steven Spielberg of Peter Lorre. Toht only speaks a total of 14 lines in English, and the rest of his dialogue is in German.
- #033
Several scenes were cut from the film. In the uncut conversation between Indy and Marion at the Raven Bar, Marion explains the cause of Abner's death and tells Indy about the difficult last two years of her life. After arranging the next day's appointment for the delivery of the medallion, Indy turns to leave but returns at Marion's urging. She grabs his jacket and pulls him close for a kiss. The entire Raven Bar scene was cut because it was considered too long. The kissing part can be seen in The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark documentary. The scene appears in a script draft, the novelization, and the Marvel Comics movie adaptation. A plot element involving the Ark of the Covenant was cut from the film and is only hinted at during the finale when the Ark is opened. Basically, there were two rules about the Ark not mentioned in the final cut: 1. If you touch the Ark, you die. 2. If you look at the Ark when it is opened, you die. This is first explained in additional dialogue for the scene when Indy and Sallah visit the Imam. Before translating the writings on the headpiece that give the height of the Staff of Ra, the Imam warns Indy not to touch the Ark or look at it when it is opened. The next scene involving this Ark subplot is when Sallah and Indy remove the Ark from the Well of Souls. When Sallah first sees it, he reaches out to touch it. Indy stops him before he does and reminds him of the Imam's warning. Then they insert long poles through each side of the Ark to lift it out of its crypt. Notice that nobody ever touches the Ark throughout the rest of the film until the finale. While Indiana Jones is in the map room trying to find the exact location of the Well of Souls, two German soldiers approach Sallah and order him to help them remove their truck that had been stuck in the sand. In the process, Sallah loses the rope with which he was supposed to help Indy get out of the map room. In a continuing scene, we see Sallah entering a German tent looking for something to substitute for his missing rope, and a while later he comes up with a "rope" made of bed sheets and a Nazi flag. What we don't see is Sallah in a state of panic, wandering in the Nazi camp at breakfast time. A group of German soldiers ask him to serve them water from a marmite. Sallah spills the contents of the marmite on the German officers' uniforms and leaves promising to return with fresh water. The scene called for smoke in the background, but unfortunately the tires used to produce the smoke were too many, thus making the scene too dark. Steven Spielberg opted to cut this scene instead of spending half a day shooting it again. With Indy and Marion left to suffocate in the Well of Souls, the Germans decide that Sallah should be executed. A young German soldier was supposed to carry out the dirty job, but things changed when he started having second thoughts. A German youth vacationing in Tunisia had been hired for the part of the young soldier. The funny thing is that this inexperienced young man managed to express brilliantly the moral dilemma of a young soldier forced to decide whether or not to kill a harmless stranger. This is the business of foreign wars, and this unknown German boy was able to convey it as well as any actor. The result was beyond description, with this German student playing an intensely moving and emotional scene, making David Wisnievitz and Karen Allen call it the greatest moment since the film began. Spielberg said the bitter truth was that brilliant and memorable though the scene was, it would probably end up on the cutting room floor because it was just too long. So it did. There was a small cut during the scene where Indy and Marion escape from the Well of Souls. When Indy pushes the large stone brick out of the room filled with mummies, there is an Arab guard standing outside. When the Arab and Indy come face to face, Indy simply knocks him unconscious. Evidence of this scene still remains in the film. As Indy steps out of the chamber, he pauses and looks off to the left side of the screen. In the following shot, when Indy and Marion run from the building to the German plane, the Arab is visible lying on the ground by the building. Indy surviving the submarine journey by lashing himself to the periscope with his whip. In the final film, the plot hole goes largely unnoticed. Most people seem to assume either that Indy snuck inside the sub or that it stayed on the ocean surface for the duration of the trip. This cut scene did appear in the Marvel Comics adaptation.
- #034
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- #036
Traditionally when one of his films is about to open, George Lucas goes on vacation to get away from all the hoopla. As Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was just about to open, Lucas went to Hawaii where he was joined by Steven Spielberg. When the grosses for Lucas's film came in and it was clear it was going to be a hit, Lucas relaxed and was able to discuss other topics with his friend. It was at this point that Spielberg confessed he always wanted to direct a James Bond film, to which Lucas replied he had a much better idea, an adventure movie called "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The conversation happened while the two were making a sand castle. After their trip, they got together and developed the script with Lawrence Kasdan.
- #037
The script describes Marion as being 25 years old. George Lucas originally wanted her to be younger, but Steven Spielberg objected to her age at the script conference. Lucas said, "Once she's sixteen or seventeen it's not as interesting anymore. But... she was 15 and he [Indiana] was 25 and they actually had an affair the last time they met." Lawrence Kasdan left her age out of the dialog, with Marion telling Indiana only that, "I've learned to hate you in the last ten years... I was a child!"
- #038
Part of the reason that George Lucas was originally against using Harrison Ford was that he had noted how his film colleague and close friend Martin Scorsese had earned a reputation for casting Robert De Niro in most of his movies, and didn't want Ford to become known as what he called "My (Lucas') Bobby."
- #039
This was Lawrence Kasdan's first script for George Lucas. He was actually recommended for the job by Steven Spielberg. Upon their first meeting, he warned Kasdan that Lucas would try to hire him for the sequel to American Graffiti, and told him not to take it. The story at that point was little more than a description of the character (the fedora, jacket, and whip), and the "McGuffin" of going after the Ark of the Covenant. The rest of the details were developed during a long weekend spent together by Spielberg, Lucas, and Kasdan. Upon receiving the first draft, but before even reading it, Lucas asked him to write Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as well.
- #040
- #041
There was a screen test with Karen Allen playing Marion, playing opposite Steven Spielberg, who's playing Indiana. Spielberg is sans glasses, acting tough, wearing a leather jacket and a fedora, and going through all the physicality of the role, in the confrontation scene at Marion's bar in Nepal, although he's none too convincing as Indiana Jones. The screen test can be found online at YouTube.
- #042
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas disagreed on the character of Indiana Jones. Although Lucas saw him as a 007-like playboy, Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan felt the character's academic and adventurer elements made him complex enough. Spielberg had a darker vision of Jones, interpreting him as an alcoholic, similar to Humphrey Bogart's character Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). This characterization fell away during the later drafts, though elements survive, especially Jones's response to Marion's "death."
- #043
On the Bonus Features DVD, John Rhys-Davies talks about how when he auditioned for the role of Sallah, he was concerned, since the script originally described Sallah as a "five-foot-two, skinny, Egyptian digger." Steven Spielberg mentioned that when he first heard Rhys-Davies speak, he reminded him of the Shakespearean character Falstaff. Spielberg then told Rhys-Davies that for his performance as Sallah, to combine his earlier role as "Vasco Rodrigues" from the miniseries Shogun (1980) with the character of Falstaff.
- #044
- #045
It was originally offered to 20th Century Fox on the back of the worldwide success of Star Wars. According to a number of books on the behind the scenes on the original Star Wars Trilogy there was a dispute between Lucas and the bosses at 20th Century Fox which led to them turning down Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Fox would still do the remaining 2 films on Star Wars for distribution but would turn down Raiders Of The Lost Ark which was why it ended up at Paramount.
- #046
Although the Nazis speak German in many scenes, most of the lines were dubbed for the German versions of the film, because the actors spoke very bad German with a very strong American accent. Some lines were simply wrong. On the recent DVD release, no German lines are wrong. The majority of the German lines seem to be spoken by native German speakers, with a slight south German accent.
- #047
When Brody first goes to Indy's house to discuss the mission, Jones is dressed the way he is because he is entertaining a young woman in his bedroom. The script originally planned to show her before moving to the next scene, to give Indy a more worldly persona (like James Bond). However, her appearance was cut, as Steven Spielberg thought that being a playboy did not fit Indy's character. (This also helps explain why several of the co-eds fawn over Jones and why one girl wrote "love you" on her eyelids).
- #048
Instead of the standard Paramount logo used between 1975 and 1987, the opening logo was a version of the studio logo used in the 1940s or 1950s which read "A Paramount Picture." The only difference is that it also read "A Gulf+Western Company." This logo was also used in the sequels, instead of then-current logos, to parallel the franchise's set time period.
- #049
As originally scripted, the scene in which Indiana and Marcus meet the Army Intelligence officials in Washington, D.C. was to be followed immediately by the Ark being stored in the warehouse. It was Marcia Lucas (an accomplished editor) who pointed out to director Steven Spielberg and her then-husband, writer and producer George Lucas, that there was no resolution for Indiana's relationship with Marion and that the movie "needed that little bit of closure." An additional scene was written and filmed on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall.
- #050
- #051
In the original draft, Toht and Dietrich are named Belzig and Schleimann. Also in that draft, Toht/Belzig is in the rear car during the desert chase and goes off the cliff with it (this scene is related in the storybook based on the movie, yet Toht is later twice seen in this same book, in movie stills of the crowd of Nazi onlookers at the Ark altar near the end of the story). Dietrich is not present for the opening of the Ark, which takes place inside a Tabernacle tent. Instead he is outside and is killed while pursuing Indy and Marion in their escape.
- #052
- #053
John Williams had actually written two themes for the film. He played them both for Steven Spielberg on the piano, and Spielberg loved them so much that he suggested Williams use both. Williams did, and the result was the famous "Raiders March," performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, which did not perform in any more Indiana Jones films. The March has become one of the most popular movie themes of all time.
- #054
Steven Spielberg had originally offered the role of Major Arnold Toht to Roman Polanski, himself a real Holocaust survivor. Polanski was intrigued at the opportunity to work with Spielberg, but decided to turn down the role because he wouldn't be able to make the trip to Tunisia.
- #055
- #056
Contains a major spoiler — show
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas argued over who Indiana's companion should be. One idea was that she was to be a Nazi spy. After discarding that idea, they couldn't decide if they wanted the character to be Indiana's former mentor or an old lover. It was Lawrence Kasdan's idea to combine the two ideas by making her the daughter of Indiana's teacher. The idea of Indiana traveling with a Nazi spy was re-used for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
- #057
Contains a major spoiler — show
An early draft of the script had Indiana Jones traveling to Shanghai to recover a piece of the Staff of Ra. During his escape from the museum where it was housed, he was to be sheltered from machine gun fire behind a giant rolling gong. Also in the same script, Indy and Marion flee the chaos caused by the opening of the Ark in a wild mine-cart chase sequence. These scenes were cut from the script but ended up in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
- #058
George Lucas had a habit of going on vacation to escape the pre-release hoopla of his films. Just before Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) was released, he went to Hawaii, and Steven Spielberg joined him there. When the box office numbers came in and it became clear the film would be a major hit, Lucas relaxed and turned to other topics with his friend. When Spielberg admitted he had always wanted to direct a James Bond film, Lucas told him he had a much better idea: an adventure film called "Raiders of the Lost Ark." This conversation took place while the two were building a sandcastle. After the vacation, they got together and developed the script with Lawrence Kasdan.
- #059
- #060
- #061
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas argued over who would be Indiana's companion. One idea was that she would be a Nazi spy. After rejecting that idea, they could not decide whether the character should be Indiana's former mentor or a former lover. Lawrence Kasdan combined the two ideas and came up with the idea of making her the daughter of Indiana's teacher. The idea of Indiana traveling with a Nazi spy was used again in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
- #062
George Lucas made an unusual deal for the time on this film. The studio Paramount Pictures would finance the film's entire 20 million dollar budget. In return, Lucas would own more than forty percent of the film and would collect nearly half the profits after the studio reached a certain amount of revenue. It was a very lucrative deal for Lucas. Paramount executive and future Disney CEO Michael Eisner said that this film's script was the best script he had ever read.
- #063
- #064
In the script, the scene in which Indiana and Marcus meet with Army Intelligence officials in Washington D.C. was initially followed immediately by the Ark being placed in the warehouse. However, master editor Marcia Lucas pointed out to director Steven Spielberg and her then-husband, writer-producer George Lucas, that there was no resolution in Indiana's relationship with Marion and that the film "needed this little closing." Thereupon, an additional scene was written and shot on the steps of San Francisco City Hall.
- #065
In an early draft of the script, Indiana Jones was going to Shanghai to obtain a piece of the Staff of Ra. During his escape from the museum, he was to be protected from machine-gun fire behind a giant spinning gong. In the same script, Indy and Marion escaped the chaos caused by the opening of the Ark with a wild mine cart chase. These scenes were cut from the script but appeared in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
- #066
The film was first offered to 20th Century Fox after the worldwide success of Star Wars. According to many books about the behind-the-scenes of the original Star Wars trilogy, there was a disagreement between Lucas and the heads of 20th Century Fox, which led to Fox rejecting Raiders of the Lost Ark. Fox would continue to distribute the remaining 2 Star Wars films but would reject Raiders of the Lost Ark; so the film went to Paramount.
- #067
Although the film was initially conceived as a small-budget adventure, its scope quickly expanded with the involvement of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Still, Spielberg told Lucas that they could only make the film if they could shoot it very quickly, because his previous three films Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and 1941 (1979) had gone far over schedule and budget. Although Raiders' production cost tripled to 20 million dollars at the concept stage, the film was delivered within its final budget and ahead of schedule.
- #068
Lawrence Kasdan came onto the project through Steven Spielberg's suggestion when he was writing the first script for George Lucas. At their first meeting, Spielberg told Kasdan that Lucas would try to hire him for a sequel to American Graffiti and that he should turn it down. At that point the story consisted only of a sketch of the character with his fedora, jacket and whip, and the "McGuffin" of pursuing the Ark of the Covenant. The details took shape over a long weekend the three spent together. As soon as Kasdan delivered the first draft, Lucas asked him to write Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back as well, before even reading it.
- #069
- #070
Scenes cut from the film include the uncut conversation between Indy and Marion at the Raven Bar, two rules concerning the Ark of the Covenant (if you touch it you die, if you look when it is opened you die), and details such as Sallah making a rope from a sheet and a flag at the Nazi camp. Also cut was the scene in which Indy survives the submarine journey by tying himself with his whip to the periscope; this plot hole goes unnoticed in the final film.
- #071
The March 2004 issue of Vanity Fair covered three boys from southern Mississippi (Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb) who began in the summer of 1981 and spent seven years on a nearly scene-by-scene, low-budget recreation of the original film that cost a few thousand dollars. The actors aged from 12 to 17 and back again between scenes. Professional filmmaker Eli Roth saw a much-passed-around copy at the N.Y.U. Film School and arranged for it to be shown at Harry Knowles's film festival in Austin; the copy eventually reached Spielberg, prompting him to write a letter of praise in 2002. Their story was optioned for a mid-six-figure sum under the auspices of Paramount.
- #072
- #073
In the original draft, Toht and Deitrich were named Belzig and Schleimann. In that draft, Toht/Belzig is in the rear car during the desert chase and goes over the cliff (this scene is described in the film's storybook, but Toht later appears in the Nazi crowd at the Ark altar). Deitrich, meanwhile, is killed not at the opening of the Ark but outside, while following Indy and Marion's escape.
- #074
- #075
Michael Bay, while an intern at Lucasfilm at the age of 15, was tasked with filing the storyboards of this film. When he first met Spielberg as an adult, he said: 'I saw the whole film in storyboard form and frankly I thought it was going to be terrible... Then when I watched it with my family at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, I said, "Oh my God, I have to do this."' Bay and Spielberg later worked together on the Transformers films.
- #076
Edgar Wright: 'Few films have shaped my love of cinema as profoundly as Raiders of the Lost Ark. I first saw it in the summer of 1981, when I was seven, just before my family moved from Dorset to Somerset. Back then, box-office champions stayed in cinemas all summer, so I had the chance to see it in both places I grew up. The film is therefore etched into my earliest big-screen memories, but its impact goes far beyond nostalgia... I regularly watch Raiders of the Lost Ark while making a film. One of the best ways to learn visual storytelling is to watch great films with the sound off, and Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the finest examples imaginable. The only discouraging part is realizing you can never make something this good. For me, it will live forever as one of cinema's most valuable works.'
- #077
In December 2024, a new Indiana Jones game titled Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024) was released through a collaboration between Bethesda Softworks, Lucasfilm and Machine Games. The game's tutorial section recreates the opening scene in South America down to the finest detail. In the game, Indiana Jones is brought to life by veteran video game voice actor Troy Baker, whose performance received great praise. Baker's impression of Harrison Ford is so successful that game producer Axel Torvenius said he could not tell Baker's and Ford's lines apart when he heard them side by side. Ford made a surprise appearance on stage at the 2024 Game Awards, praising Baker's performance and saying wittily, 'If I'd known how good it was, I'd have done it myself.'
- #078
The iconic scene in which Indy shoots the swordsman was not actually in the script. The plan was for Harrison Ford to take the attacker's sword with his whip, but when Ford and most of the crew came down with food poisoning, he had no strength left to do the stunt. After a few failed attempts, Ford suggested, "let's just shoot the guy," and Spielberg immediately agreed.
- #079
- #080
In the scene where Indiana threatens the Nazis with a Panzerfaust, a fly can clearly be seen entering Paul Freeman's mouth. Contrary to popular belief, he did not swallow it; years later, Freeman explained that the fly flew away the moment he said the word "bad," but that Spielberg cut a few frames to make it look as if the fly had been swallowed. Empire magazine named this scene one of the most paused moments on VCR.
- #081
During the snake scenes in the Well of Souls, a python bit first assistant director David Tomblin's hand and would not let go. Tomblin calmly asked someone to grab the python by the tail and whip it; this motion created a wave through the snake's body and made it release. The python was not injured.
- #082
- #083
George Lucas traditionally takes a vacation shortly before his films are released. Before the release of A New Hope, Lucas went to Hawaii with Steven Spielberg. When Lucas's film exploded at the box office, he relaxed and turned to other topics with his friend. When Spielberg said he had always wanted to direct a James Bond film, Lucas told him he had a better idea: Raiders of the Lost Ark. This conversation took place while they were building sandcastles.
- #084
- #085
When Brody comes to Indy's house to discuss the assignment, Jones's attire suggested he had been entertaining a young woman in his bedroom. The script had actually planned to show her before moving on to the next scene, but Spielberg cut the shot, feeling that womanizing did not suit Indy.
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- #095
In the Well of Souls scene, snake handler Steven Edge doubled for Marion's legs. According to Edge, Karen Allen's stunt double refused to stand among the snakes. Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity by asking whether he would be willing to shave his legs and wear a dress. In the scene where Indy comes face to face with a hooded cobra, Edge said the snake handlers encouraged the cobra to hood by using a toy rabbit held just outside the frame. Edge noted that, unlike Indiana, Harrison Ford was not afraid of snakes.
- #096
Although the Nazis speak German in many scenes, most of the lines were dubbed for the film's German versions because the actors spoke very bad German with a very strong American accent. Some lines were completely wrong. In the final DVD release, no German line is incorrect. Most of the German lines appear to have been spoken by native German speakers with a slight southern German accent.
- #097
The giant boulder that chases Indiana Jones at the beginning of the film was made of fiberglass. Sound designer Ben Burtt said that he and his sound team tried rolling rocks down a hill to get suitable sound effects for the giant boulder, but the sounds they got were not what they were looking for. Later that day, as he was leaving in a Honda Civic and driving down a gravelly slope, Burtt realized the sound was exactly what they were looking for, and he grabbed a microphone and held it near one of the Civic's rear tires to record the effect.
- #098
- #099
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas argued over who Indiana's companion would be. One idea was that she would be a Nazi spy. After rejecting that idea, they could not decide whether the character should be Indiana's former mentor or a former lover. Lawrence Kasdan proposed combining the two ideas by making the character the daughter of Indiana's teacher. The idea of Indiana traveling with a Nazi spy was later used again in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
- #100
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas disagreed about the character of Indiana Jones. Although Lucas saw him as a 007-like womanizer, Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan felt the character's academic and adventurous sides made him complex enough. Spielberg had a darker vision of Jones, interpreting him as an alcoholic similar to Humphrey Bogart's character Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). This characterization disappeared in later drafts, but some elements (especially Jones's reaction to Marion's 'death') persisted.
- #101
Costume designer Deborah Nadoolman based Indy's outfit, flight jacket and fedora on Charlton Heston's costume in Secret of the Incas (1954). In that film, Heston played a treasure-hunting adventurer; after examining an ancient model 'map room,' he locates the treasure using a beam of sunlight reflected from a crystal. In the same film, Heston flies a plane he has hijacked and travels down a river on an inflatable yellow raft; these scenes recall events in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
- #102
The submarine pen on the island where the Ark is taken and finally opened is not a set, but a real German submarine pen from World War II in La Rochelle, France. Producer Robert Watts, admiring how well preserved the submarine pen was (down to the graffiti on the walls), described it as 'a real set that already existed.'
- #103
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- #105
Indy being dragged under the truck is a tribute to Yakima Canutt's stunt work in Stagecoach. Terry Leonard got the chance to attempt this move again after failing to pull it off in The Legend of the Lone Ranger, but he agreed only if his friend Glenn Randall, Jr. drove the truck. The truck was specially raised and the middle of the road was dug out. In the documentary, the camera can be seen set to 20 frames per second, meaning the truck was not moving as fast as it appears on screen. Harrison Ford was actually dragged in some shots and injured his ribs. When asked whether it was dangerous, he joked, 'If it were really dangerous, they would have shot more of the film first.' In the chase, Ford defeats three stuntmen: Terry Leonard plays the driver, while Vic Armstrong and Martin Grace play the soldiers clinging to the truck.
- #106
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For the Well of Souls scene, the producers scoured every pet shop in London and southern England to collect snakes. When there still were not enough, Spielberg cut several hoses into pieces. On close inspection, it is possible to tell which ones are real snakes. Some of the weeds seen in the scene were taken from the Dagobah set. There was a sheet of glass between Harrison Ford and the cobra; the snake spat venom at the glass.
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The German who encounters Indiana at the submarine base says in German, 'Good morning. Are you tired? Why are you sleeping? Where is your shirt? Go wash up so you don't look like a pig at the court-martial.' Just as he is about to say 'Stand up straight,' Indiana cuts him off with a kick.
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The scene in which Marion puts on the dress and tries to escape from Belloq's tent, as well as the entire fight on the plane, were improvised. Karen Allen and Paul Freeman improvised the scene in which Marion hides a knife among her old clothes, giving a logical reason for her to put on the dress. Allen also considered referencing the drinking game scene.
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In the first script, Indiana and Marcus's meeting with the Army Intelligence officials was followed by the Ark being placed in storage. Marcia Lucas, noting that there was no resolution to Indiana's relationship with Marion, ensured that an additional scene was written on the steps of San Francisco City Hall.
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In 2014, Steven Soderbergh released an experimental black-and-white version of the film in which he replaced the original audio with electronic music. His aim was to encourage viewers to focus on Spielberg's staging and editing: 'This director forgot more about staging when he made his first film than I know today.'
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The sadistic Nazi interrogator Toht is never named in the film (though Marion calls him 'Herr Mach'); his name is pronounced like the German 'Tod' (death). The role was offered to Klaus Kinski, but Kinski found the script 'stupidly bad' and chose Venom instead. Kinski had joined the German Army at 16, was captured on his second day, and spent the rest of the war in a British camp. Michael Sheard also auditioned, but Ronald Lacey was cast because he reminded Spielberg of Peter Lorre. Toht speaks a total of 14 lines of English; his other dialogue is in German.
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The opening scene was partly based on Carl Barks's classic Disney Duck adventure 'The Prize of Pizarro.' In the story, Donald Duck, his nephews and Scrooge McDuck escape traps including flying arrows, a decapitating blade, a giant boulder and a tunnel filling with gushing water. Lucas and Spielberg were fans of the comic. Another Barks story, 'The Seven Cities of Cibola,' features a lost city and a giant round boulder that crushes everything.
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In a 2001 'Making of' special, it was revealed that the death effects of three antagonists used, respectively, a vacuum machine, a time-lapse heat gun and a shotgun. When the film was submitted to the MPAA, it received an 'R' rating because of the exploding head; flames were added over the image to lower the rating. It ultimately received a 'PG' (PG-13 did not yet exist).
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In the third film, Henry Senior teases Indiana about his nickname: 'We named the dog Indiana.' In real life, George Lucas had a dog named Indiana in the early 1970s, and the character took his name from this dog. One day Lucas saw his wife drive into the house and saw her in the passenger seat and the dog in the driver's seat through the windshield; he thought, 'They look like a pilot and a co-pilot.' This inspired Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars. So the dog Indiana inspired two characters played by Harrison Ford.
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In an early draft of the script, Indy goes to Shanghai to obtain a piece of the Staff of Ra and, during his escape from the museum, shelters from machine-gun fire behind a giant spinning gong. In the same draft, Indy and Marion escape the chaos caused by the opening of the Ark with a wild mine-cart chase. These scenes were cut but appeared in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
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Although the film was initially planned as a small-budget adventure, its scope grew with the involvement of Spielberg and Lucas. Spielberg wanted to shoot quickly to avoid the budget and schedule overruns of his previous films. Even though the budget tripled, the film was completed within the planned budget and schedule.
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This film was the first screenplay Lawrence Kasdan wrote for George Lucas, and it was suggested by Spielberg. At their first meeting, Spielberg warned Kasdan about turning down Lucas's offer for an American Graffiti sequel. The story initially consisted only of a fedora, a jacket, a whip and the Ark of the Covenant; the details were developed over a weekend the three spent together. Lucas asked Kasdan to write The Empire Strikes Back before reading the first draft.
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The sound quality of the Indiana Jones films was unique. Sound designer Ben Burtt said the sounds after the Ark is opened were synthesized using human vocalizations and the cries of dolphins and sea lions. The shimmer and beam sounds, meanwhile, were recorded with old equipment used in early Frankenstein films.
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John Rhys-Davies was anxious when he auditioned for the role of Sallah because the script described the character as a '1.57-meter-tall, scrawny Egyptian digger.' Steven Spielberg said that when he first heard Rhys-Davies, he reminded him of Shakespeare's Falstaff, and asked him to combine Falstaff with Vasco Rodrigues, whom he had previously played in Shogun, when playing Sallah.
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A screen test was made of Karen Allen's Marion with Steven Spielberg playing Indy. Without glasses, with a tough demeanor, wearing a leather jacket and fedora, Spielberg performs all the physicality of the bar scene in Nepal but is not very convincing as Indiana Jones. The screen test can be found on YouTube.
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The Bible Indiana gives to Major Eaton and Colonel Musgrove at the start of the film is an old Dutch version and shows 2 Chronicles chapter 5, which recounts that 'the ark of the Lord's covenant was brought into the temple's inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place, and placed under the wings of the cherubim.'
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A fiberglass boulder seven meters in diameter was built for the scene in which Indiana escapes the temple. Steven Spielberg was so impressed by production designer Norman Reynolds bringing the idea to life that he gave the boulder a more prominent role in the film and told Reynolds to roll it fifteen meters further.
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The Pan American seaplane Indiana Jones flies to Nepal in is a Short Solent Mark III flying boat dressed up with matte effects to resemble a Martin M-130; it bears the words 'China Clipper'. When the producers contacted the plane's owner, he said he was happy to help, but reported that only one engine was in working order; this is why we see only that engine running in the film. Additionally, to indicate that this is a passenger plane, Spielberg filmed several production assistants in period clothing walking through the plane's door.
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The scene where Indy clings to the underside of a moving truck was inspired by John Ford's Stagecoach; this reference was expanded in the 'Hollywood Follies' episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Set in 1920, this episode has Indy working as a stuntman on a western directed by John Ford and performing the same stunt: crawling under a moving wagon.
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Scenes cut from the film: In an uncut conversation between Indy and Marion at the Raven Bar, Marion explains the cause of Abner's death and tells Indy about the hardship of her last two years. After arranging the medallion delivery for the next day, Indy turns to leave, but returns at Marion's insistence. Marion grabs his jacket and pulls him toward her to kiss him. The entire Raven Bar scene was cut because it was found to be too long. The kissing portion can be seen in the documentary 'The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark'. The scene appears in the script draft, the novelization and the Marvel Comics film adaptation. A plot element concerning the Ark of the Covenant was cut from the film and only implied at the finale, when the Ark is opened. Essentially, there were two rules not mentioned in the film's final cut: 1. If you touch the Ark, you die. 2. If you look at it when it is opened, you die. This is first explained through additional dialogue in the scene where Indy and Sallah visit the Imam. Before translating the inscriptions on the headpiece that give the height of the Staff of Ra, the Imam warns Indy not to touch the Ark or look at it when it is opened. The next scene containing the Ark subplot is the one where Sallah and Indy remove the Ark from the Well of Souls. When Sallah first sees it, he reaches out to touch it. Indy stops him and reminds him of the Imam's warning. They then insert long poles through both sides of the Ark and carry it out of the crypt. Note that for the rest of the film, no one touches the Ark until the finale. While Indiana Jones is trying to find the exact location of the Well of Souls in the map room, two German soldiers approach Sallah and order him to help pull their truck out of the sand. Meanwhile, Sallah loses the rope that would help Indy get out of the map room. In the following scene, we see Sallah enter a German tent looking for something to replace the lost rope, and after a while he emerges with a 'rope' made from a bedsheet and a Nazi flag. What we do not see is Sallah wandering the Nazi camp in a panic at breakfast time. A group of German soldiers ask him to give them some water from a canteen. Sallah pours the contents of the canteen onto the German officers' uniforms and leaves, promising to return with fresh water. The scene required smoke in the background, but the tires used to produce the smoke were too many and made the scene too dark. Steven Spielberg chose to cut the scene rather than spend half a day reshooting it. As Indy and Marion are left to drown in the Well of Souls, the Germans decide that Sallah is to be executed. A young German soldier was to carry out this dirty work, but things changed when he began to have second thoughts. A young German vacationing in Tunisia had been hired for the role of the young soldier. The funny thing was that this inexperienced young man managed to brilliantly express the moral dilemma of a young soldier having to decide whether to kill a harmless foreigner. This is the work of foreign wars, and this unknown German boy was able to convey it as well as any actor. The result was indescribable; this German student played an extremely poignant and emotional scene that David Wisnievitz and Karen Allen called the greatest moment since the beginning of the film. Spielberg said the painful truth was that, although the scene was brilliant and unforgettable, it would probably stay in the cutting room because it was too long. And so it did. There was a small cut in the scene where Indy and Marion escape from the Well of Souls. As Indy pushes the large stone block out of the room full of mummies, there is an Arab guard outside. When the Arab and Indy come face to face, Indy knocks him out. Evidence of this scene is still present in the film. As Indy exits the room, he stops and looks to the left side of the screen. In the next shot, as Indy and Marion run from the building toward the German plane, the Arab can be seen lying on the ground beside the building. Indy surviving his submarine journey by tying himself to the periscope with his whip. In the final film, this plot hole goes largely unnoticed. Most people assume either that Indy sneaked onto the submarine or that he stayed on the ocean surface throughout the journey. This cut scene appeared in the Marvel Comics adaptation.
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When Indy asks two US officials whether they ever went to Sunday school, he himself seems not to have paid much attention in class. Much of the Ark legend he tells them is wrong. The Ark contains the second set of the Ten Commandments, not the first broken tablets. It also contains a bowl of manna and Aaron's budding staff (Deuteronomy 10:1-5; Hebrews 9:4-5). It is carried into battle and paraded around the walls of Jericho; when the trumpets are blown, the walls collapse, but there is nothing in the Bible about it leveling mountains or firing death rays. Curiously, he does not tell them about the two most important precautions in the Bible: do not touch (2 Samuel 6:6-7) and do not look inside (1 Samuel 6:19), though he remembers this last prohibition at the film's climax. It also brings plagues upon the enemies who capture it (1 Samuel 5). The reason for these prohibitions is that the Ark symbolizes God's presence, serving as his throne or footstool (Jeremiah 3:16-17; Psalm 132:7-8). Fortunately, the Ark in the film appears as an accurate replica (Exodus 25:10-22), and so do the priestly robes Belloc wears.
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The opening logo carries the words 'A Paramount Picture'; this was a common feature of Paramount productions before 1968, but it had fallen out of use by the time the film was released. Since 1968 it has appeared only in the Indiana Jones films released in the 1980s, as a tribute to classic film productions.
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The March 2004 issue of Vanity Fair told the story of three boys from southern Mississippi (Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb) and their homemade Raiders remake, begun in the summer of 1981 and spread over seven years. Costing a few thousand dollars, this shot-for-shot copy reached Steven Spielberg thanks to Eli Roth, and Spielberg wrote them a letter of praise in 2002. Their story was optioned by Scott Rudin under Paramount's auspices for a six-figure sum.
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In the first draft, Toht and Deitrich were named Belzig and Schleimann. In this draft, Toht/Belzig was in the rear car during the desert chase and rolled down the cliff (this scene is described in the storybook adaptation of the film, although Toht later appears twice in film frames of the Nazi spectator crowd at the Ark's altar in the same book). Deitrich is not present at the opening of the Ark; he is outside and is killed while following Indy and Marion's escape.
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Egyptian workers sing an Arabic song: 'Salle ala Nabi. Wa heyla. Heyla. Salle ala Nabi. Ya m' ouwwe. Salle ala Nabi. Heyla. Heyla. Salle ala Nabi. Ya m' ouwwe.' This means 'Prayers upon the Prophet. Let's go. (And come on. Come on) Prayers upon the Prophet. O giver of strength. (Give us strength) Prayers upon the Prophet. Let's go. Let's go. (Come on. Come on). Prayers upon the Prophet. O giver of strength. (Give us strength).'
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Determined not to exceed the budget, Spielberg had miniature models of every major set built during pre-production and used them to plan camera blocking and editing in advance. So when he arrived on set, he shot only the angles he would use in the final cut and completed scenes in a few takes. This allowed more shots to be filmed per day on set and required less editing in post-production.
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The fertility idol prop was actually a gold-plated, lightweight, hollow fiberglass model. This piece, which still exists today, has become fragile, lost its gold plating and revealed a pale green color and eyes resembling realistic human eyes. Another idol model, seen only very briefly in one scene, was solid gold, except for the animatronic eyes that followed Indy's movements.
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In the opening credits, the Paramount logo is superimposed over the real mountain Indy will explore. Cecil B. DeMille had achieved the same effect in The Ten Commandments (1956) using Mount Sinai; the place where Moses saw the burning bush and received the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Clearly, the Ten Commandments played an important role in the plots of both films.
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The Raiders of the Lost Ark poster logo design (and the subsequent Indiana Jones film poster logos) resembles the cover typeface of the American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, published from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Steven Spielberg would later develop the anthology television series Amazing Stories (1985), whose title was licensed by the owners of the science fiction magazine.
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Michael Bay worked as an intern at Lucasfilm when he was 15 and was given the task of filing the storyboards for this film. When he first met Steven Spielberg as an adult, he told him, 'I saw the whole movie [in storyboard form] and thought it was going to be really terrible... Then when I went with my family to Grauman's Chinese Theatre to see it,
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Edgar Wright: 'Few films have affected my love of cinema as deeply as *Raiders of the Lost Ark*. I saw it at age seven in the summer of 1981, and I still watch it with the sound off to learn visual storytelling. Knowing you can never do it this well is discouraging; for me it will forever be one of cinema's most treasured works.'
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In December 2024, *Indiana Jones and the Great Circle* was released through a collaboration between Bethesda, Lucasfilm and Machine Games. The game's tutorial section recreates the opening scene in South America shot for shot. Troy Baker, who voices Indiana, drew praise for his impression; producer Axel Torvenius said he could not tell Baker's and Ford's lines apart. Ford made a surprise appearance at the 2024 Game Awards, praised Baker's performance and joked, 'If I'd known how good it was, I would have done it myself.'
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Behind the Scenes (115)
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For the Well of Souls sequence, the producers scoured every pet shop in London and southern England for every snake they could find, so the snakes on screen are identifiable as coming from many different geographical areas. Once all the snakes were on set, however, it became clear that there were nowhere near enough of them, so Steven Spielberg had several hoses cut into lengths and these were used as well; looking closely, you can tell which are the real snakes and which are not. Some of the weeds in the scene were taken by Lawrence Kasdan from the Dagobah set of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). A sheet of glass separates Harrison Ford and the arched (and highly dangerous) cobra when he falls in, and the snake actually did spray venom onto the glass.
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Marion doesn't really win the drinking contest in that she doesn't actually consume the second shot, even though she does indeed appear to still be so much more alert than her opponent — who passes out after his own second glass — that she would not likely have also passed out herself if she'd taken that second shot.
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The Pan American seaplane that Indiana Jones flies to Nepal in is a Short Solent Mark III flying boat modified by matte effects to resemble a Martin M-130 with the name "China Clipper." The producers contacted the owner of the craft about using the flying boat for the movie, and though he responded that he was happy to help out, he informed them that only one of the flying boat's engines had been restored to working order; therefore, for the shot used in the movie, we see only that single engine running. Additionally, in order to convey the fact that it was a passenger aircraft, Spielberg had several production assistants dressed in period clothing and filmed them simply walking through the doorway of the plane.
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A fiberglass boulder twenty-two feet (seven meters) in diameter was made for the scene where Indiana escapes from the temple. Steven Spielberg was so impressed by production designer Norman Reynolds's realization of his idea that he gave the boulder a more prominent role in the film, and told Reynolds to let the boulder roll another fifty feet (fifteen meters).
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Originally the monkey's death from eating the poisoned dates was to be depicted on screen using an animatronic puppet, and voice actor Frank Welker even recorded the monkey's death sounds. Director Steven Spielberg thought it was too sad, so it was decided its death was to be depicted off-screen.
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Indiana Jones's hat came from the famous Herbert Johnson hat shop in Saville Row, London. The hat was the shop's "Poet" model. On the Bonus Features DVD, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman said that in order to properly age the hat, she grabbed and twisted the hat, then she and Harrison Ford both sat on it, and it eventually looked like "a very lived-in, and well-loved" hat.
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Pilot of the flying wing: all the stuntmen were sick on the day Marion hits the pilot of the flying wing over the head, so producer Frank Marshall agreed to do it. Unfortunately for him, the shot took three days, and much of it involved him sitting in a cockpit that was over one hundred degrees.
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The insert scene where the small capuchin monkey gives the Nazi salute to the German spies was part of the film's post-production pickup schedule, an allotted time to re-shoot or tweak scenes from the principal production shoot, supervised by George Lucas at Elstree Studios in London. Although the animal trainers had trained the monkey to perform the move prior to the shoot, they couldn't get the monkey to do it during a take. At first, the animal trainers were tapping the monkey on the head to get a reaction, but days dragged on, and the monkey didn't do the proper salute. Finally, they resorted to dangling grapes with fishing line just off camera to provoke the monkey, and that was what got the little actor to do a good take. The final shot in the film is the monkey reaching for the grapes just above the frame.
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Costume designer Deborah Nadoolman based Indy's outfit, flying jacket and fedora, on Charlton Heston's in Secret of the Incas (1954). In that film, Heston played a treasure-hunting adventurer who, after studying an ancient model "map room," uses a beam of sunlight reflected off of a crystal to pinpoint the location of the treasure. In that film, Heston also flies a hijacked airplane and goes down a river in an inflatable yellow raft, reminiscent of events in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
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Indy being dragged under and then out behind a moving truck is a tribute to Yakima Canutt's famous stunt in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). In fact, it was a stunt that stuntman Terry Leonard had failed to pull off the year before in The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981). He was thrilled at the chance of having another shot at it, but only agreed to do it if his friend and colleague Glenn Randall, Jr., was driving. The truck was specially constructed to be farther off the ground than normal to allow clearance for Indiana Jones to pass underneath safely, and the center of the road was also dug out. In Great Movie Stunts: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), we see on the camera slate that the camera was set at twenty frames per second instead of the traditional twenty-four. In other words, the shots were done in "fast motion," so the truck was not really moving as fast as depicted on-screen. Harrison Ford was actually dragged behind the truck for some of the shots, badly bruising his ribs. When asked if he was worried, Ford quipped: "No. If it really was dangerous, they would have filmed more of the movie first." During the chase, Harrison Ford dispatches all three of his stunt doubles, all of whom are playing German soldiers. Terry Leonard plays the driver of the truck, who gets punched out of the cab by Ford. Vic Armstrong and Martin Grace play soldiers hanging onto the side of the truck before being knocked off.
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The scene where Marion puts on her dress and attempts to leave Belloq's tent was improvised, as was the entire plane fight. The script called for Marion to shed her conservative Egyptian garb and don a revealing dress to heighten the tension when she and Indy are fending off snakes as they are sealed in the Well of Souls, but the script did not include why she ended up in the dress. To get her into the dress, Karen Allen and Paul Freeman improvised the scene in which she hides a knife with the older clothes she takes off to try to seduce Belloq and escape, thus giving her character a plausible reason to be in the dress. Allen thought it would also be a good idea to call back to the drinking game scene that introduces her character at the beginning of the movie.
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The famous scene in which Indy shoots a marauding and flamboyant swordsman was not in the original script. Harrison Ford was supposed to use his whip to get the sword out of his attacker's hands, but the food poisoning he and the rest of the crew had gotten made him too sick to perform the stunt. After several unsuccessful tries, Ford suggested "shooting the sucker." Steven Spielberg immediately took him up on the idea, and the scene was successfully filmed.
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The scene where Jones fires at the truck was a botched stunt. The truck was supposed to flip over by means of a telegraph pole being fired by explosives through the floor. The explosive wasn't powerful enough and it simply forced the truck to tip over at an angle as can be seen in the finished movie. Time did not permit any further attempts at getting it right.
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The giant boulder that chases Indiana Jones at the start of the film was made of fiberglass. On the Bonus Features DVD, sound designer Ben Burtt said that to get the proper sound effects for the giant boulder, he and the sound crew tried pushing boulders down a hill, but the sounds they were getting weren't what they were looking for. Later that day, as they were leaving in a Honda Civic and coasting down a gravel embankment, Burtt noticed that the sound was just what they were looking for, so he grabbed a microphone and held it near one of the Civic's rear tires to record the effect.
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All of the German vehicles in the desert chase sequence are replicas of pre-World War II German vehicles. The Mercedes-Benz 320 staff car is a Jaguar MK9 with a modified MK5 body; two were built for the movie by Classic Cars of Coventry. The cargo truck is a Mercedes-Benz LG3000 replica, built on a GMC CCKW. Gobler's troop car is a replica of a Mercedes-Benz G5 "Geländewagen."
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The fertility idol prop was actually a lightweight, hollow fiberglass model plated with gold. That prop still exists but has become fragile and has since lost its gold plating, revealing a pale jade colour and realistic, human-looking eyes. Another model of the idol, which can be seen very briefly in one shot, was made completely of gold except for animatronic eyes that were supposed to move to follow Indy's movements.
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While filming the snakes scenes inside the Well of Souls, a python bit first assistant director David Tomblin's hand and wouldn't let go. Tomblin calmly asked someone to grab the python (still attached to Tomblin's hand) by the tail and whip it, so that the snap would send a wave up the snake's body and force it to let go. A stage hand did just that, the python released its bite from Tomblin's hand, and Tomblin got medical attention. The python itself was not injured.
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Pan American Airways started passenger service across the Pacific in October of 1936. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of a one-way ticket was approximately $16.00, it involved stops at Hawaii, Wake, Midway and the Philippines, and it took some 70 hours. The original plane was a Martin M-130, which was designed for Pan Am for this specific purpose. As none survived to the time of filming, a British Short Solent Mark III was used instead. Also, to make the airline more recognizable to audiences, the classic "PAA" logo was replaced with the name "Pan American". Ironically, the original Pan Am plan to establish a route across the Atlantic was stymied by the British, who had yet to design a flying boat that could do the job. As a result, Pan Am president Juan Tripp focused on the Pacific. Regarding the run-up to World War II, Pan Am's establishing of landing and radio bases across the Pacific was backed by the U.S. government and was viewed by the Japanese as being a direct threat to their plans to dominate the region. This directly contributed to their eventual attacks on each of the key stops along the route.
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During the Well of Souls scene, snake handler Steven Edge served as the double for Marion's legs. According to Edge, Karen Allen's stunt double refused to stand among the snakes. Steven Spielberg offered Edge the chance by asking if he was willing to shave his legs and put on a dress. For the scene in which Indy is face to face with a hooded cobra, Edge says snake handlers induced the cobra to hood by holding a toy rabbit just out of frame. Edge noted that, unlike Indiana, Harrison Ford is not afraid of snakes.
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A visit to the Elstree set by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick led to an investigation by the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). She had complained that the snakes in the tomb scenes were being unfairly treated, and this led to filming being delayed by one day.
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Determined to keep the film under budget, Steven Spielberg had miniature models of every major set built during pre-production, which he used to plan out camera blocking and edits in advance. This meant that when he came to set, he only shot the angles he knew he'd use in the final cut, wrapping scenes in just a few takes. This allowed more setups per day on set and required less to edit in post.
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One of the unique selling points of the Indiana Jones movies was their sound quality. Ben Burtt, the sound designer, said that the sounds used after the Ark was opened were synthesized using human vocalizations and recorded animal cries of dolphins and sea lions to make it sound otherworldly. The sounds for the subsequent sparkle and beams were recorded with the old gear used for the early Frankenstein movies.
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The Egyptian workers sing an Arabic song while digging: "Salle ala Nabi. Wa heyla. Heyla. Salle ala Nabi. Ya m' ouwwe. Salle ala Nabi. Heyla. Heyla. Salle ala Nabi. Ya m' ouwwe." This translates to "Prayers for The Prophet. Let's go. (And come on. Come on) Prayers for The Prophet. You, who gives strength. (Give us strength) Prayers for The Prophet. Let's go. Let's go. (Come on. Come on). Prayers for The Prophet. You, who gives strength. (Give us strength)."
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During filming, visual effects artist Joe Johnston designed a shirt for the crew that featured Indy with the Nazi fighter plane behind him. Steven Spielberg disapproved of the crew wearing shirts featuring swastikas, so a new shirt was made that featured an eagle. Both shirts have since become rare collectors' items.
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Production designer Norman Reynolds had found a rusty-looking ship that was perfect for the Bantu Wind. However, when the time came for this sequence to be filmed, he was horrified to discover that the ship had been repainted, and now looked pristine. It had to be swiftly repainted to achieve its distressed look.
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In a 2001 "Making of" special, it was revealed that the effects used in the three antagonists' rather gruesome deaths (Dietrich, Toht, and Belloq) were a vacuum machine, a time-lapsed heat gun and a shotgun, respectively. When the movie was submitted for an MPAA rating, it was given a rating of "R" because of the exploding head. In order to lower the rating, flames were superimposed over this image. The result was the appearance of a head exploding behind a dense curtain of flames. The rating was lowered to "PG" (at the time, the PG-13 rating did not exist).
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During the Well of Souls scene, snake handler Steven Edge served as the double for Marion's legs. According to Edge, Karen Allen's stunt double refused to stand in amongst the snakes. Steven Spielberg offered him the chance by asking if he was willing to shave his legs and put on a dress. For the scene in which Indy is face to face with a hooded cobra, Edge says snake handlers induced the cobra to hood with a toy rabbit held just out of frame. Edge noted that unlike Indiana, Harrison Ford is not afraid of snakes.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The submarine pen on the island where the Ark is taken and finally opened is not a set, but in fact an actual German U-Boat pen left over from World War II in La Rochelle, France. Producer Robert Watts was so amazed at how preserved the submarine pen was (even down to the graffiti on the walls) that he described it as "an actual set in existence."
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Steven Spielberg said that he loved the melting head effect, which he called the most impressive effect he had ever seen at the time. The effect became so popular that special effects and make-up artist Chris Walas was flooded with calls, mostly from people who appreciated his work. He also received several calls from fellow special effects artists working on different films, who asked him what was needed for the effect so that they could make a similar scene.
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Although the Nazis speak German in many scenes, most of the lines were dubbed for the film's German versions because the actors spoke very bad German with very strong American accents. Some lines were completely wrong. In the final DVD release, no German line is wrong; most appear to be spoken by native German speakers with a slight southern German accent.
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Indy being dragged under the truck was a tribute to Yakima Canutt's stunt work in John Ford's Stagecoach. Stuntman Terry Leonard had failed to pull it off a year earlier on The Legend of the Lone Ranger; he was delighted at the chance to try again, but agreed only if his friend Glenn Randall, Jr. drove the truck. The truck was higher than normal and the middle of the road had been dug out. Because the shots were "undercranked" at twenty frames per second, the truck was not moving as fast as it appears on screen. Harrison Ford was genuinely dragged in some shots and injured his ribs. Asked whether it was dangerous, he said, "If it had been really dangerous, they would have shot more of the film first." In the chase, Ford got the better of all three of his stuntmen: Terry Leonard played the truck driver, while Vic Armstrong and Martin Grace played the soldiers on the side.
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For the Well of Souls, the producers scoured every pet shop in London and southern England. When they still could not find enough snakes, Steven Spielberg cut a few hoses into pieces. On close inspection, it is possible to tell which ones are real. Some of the weeds used in the scene had been taken by Lawrence Kasdan from the Dagobah set of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. There was a sheet of glass between Harrison Ford and the cobra; the snake spat venom at the glass.
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In 2014, Steven Soderbergh released a black-and-white experimental version of the film, replacing the original audio with electronic music. His aim was to focus viewers on Spielberg's staging and editing: "This director forgot more about staging when he made his first film than I know today."
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The opening logo was the version used in the 1940s or 1950s, 'A Paramount Picture,' rather than the standard Paramount logo used between 1975 and 1987. The only difference was the addition of the phrase 'A Gulf+Western Company.' This logo was also used in the sequels, in keeping with the period in which the series is set.
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One of the distinguishing features of the Indiana Jones films was their sound quality. Sound designer Ben Burtt said the sounds after the Ark is opened were synthesized using human vocalizations and dolphin and sea lion cries. The beam and shimmer sounds, meanwhile, were recorded with old equipment left over from early Frankenstein films.
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The Pan American seaplane Indiana Jones flies to Nepal is a Short Solent Mark III flying boat modified with matte effects to resemble a Martin M-130, and its name is 'China Clipper.' When the producers contacted the plane's owner, he said he would be happy to help but that only one engine was working; that is why we see only that single engine running in the film. Additionally, to emphasize that it is a passenger plane, Spielberg filmed several production assistants dressed in period clothing walking through the plane's door.
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The scene in which Indy clings to the underside of a moving truck was inspired by John Ford's Stagecoach. This reference is expanded in the 'Hollywood Follies' episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: set in 1920, the episode has Indy working as a stuntman on a western directed by John Ford and performing the same trick by crawling under a moving wagon.
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All the German vehicles in the desert chase scene are replicas of pre-World War II German vehicles. The Mercedes-Benz 320 staff car is a Jaguar MK9 with a modified MK5 body; two were produced for the film by Classic Cars of Coventry. The cargo truck is a Mercedes-Benz LG3000 replica built on a GMC CCKW chassis. Gobler's troop car is a replica of a Mercedes-Benz G5 'Geländewagen.'
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Determined to keep the film under budget, Steven Spielberg had miniature models built of every major set during pre-production and used them to plan camera blocking and editing in advance. As a result, when he arrived on set he shot only the angles he would use in the final cut and completed scenes in a few takes. This allowed more footage to be shot per day on set and required less editing in post-production.
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The fertility idol prop was made of lightweight, hollow fiberglass with gold plating. The piece, which still exists today, has become brittle, lost its gold plating and taken on a pale green color and an appearance resembling realistic human eyes. Another idol model, seen only very briefly in one scene, was solid gold and had animatronic eyes that followed Indy's movements.
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During filming, visual effects artist Joe Johnston designed a T-shirt showing Indy with a Nazi warplane behind him. Spielberg did not approve of T-shirts featuring the swastika, and a new T-shirt with an eagle motif was made instead. Both T-shirts have since become rare collector's items.
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Characters & Cast (29)
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Steven Spielberg and George Lucas disagreed about the character of Indiana Jones. Lucas saw him as a womanizer similar to 007, while Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan felt his academic and adventurous sides were complicated enough. Spielberg's darker vision likened Jones to Humphrey Bogart's alcoholic character Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Although this interpretation was lost in later drafts, some elements remained, especially Jones's reaction to Marion's "death."
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Costume designer Deborah Nadoolman based Indy's flight jacket and fedora on Charlton Heston's outfit in Secret of the Incas (1954). In that film, Heston played an adventurer who finds treasure with sunlight reflected through a crystal after examining an old model "map room." He also flew a hijacked plane and traveled down a river on a yellow inflatable raft, recalling Temple of Doom (1984).
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Marion putting on the dress and escaping from Belloq's tent, as well as the entire fight on the plane, were improvised. The script called for Marion to take off her conservative Egyptian clothing and put on an explanatory dress, but did not explain why. Karen Allen and Paul Freeman improvised the scene in which Marion seduces Belloq and hides a knife among her old clothes in order to escape, creating a logical reason. Allen also added a callback to the drinking game scene at the beginning of the film.
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The sadistic Nazi interrogator's name is never spoken in the film (though Marion calls him Herr Mach); he is actually Toht, pronounced like Tod, the German word for death. The role was offered to Klaus Kinski, but Kinski found the script "stupidly bad" and chose Venom (1981) instead. Michael Sheard also auditioned, but Ronald Lacey was cast because he reminded Spielberg of Peter Lorre. Toht speaks only 14 lines in English; his other dialogue is in German.
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The script describes Marion as 25 years old. George Lucas initially wanted her to be younger, but Spielberg objected. Lucas said, "When she's 16 or 17, it's not that interesting anymore. But... she was 15 and he [Indiana] was 25, and they had really had a relationship the last time they saw each other." Lawrence Kasdan removed the age from the dialogue; Marion only says, "I learned to hate you in the last ten years... I was a child!"
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John Rhys-Davies was anxious when he auditioned for the role of Sallah; the script initially described the character as 'five foot two, skinny, an Egyptian digger.' When Spielberg heard Rhys-Davies speak, he told him he reminded him of Shakespeare's Falstaff and asked him to combine Vasco Rodrigues from Shogun (1980) with Falstaff in his performance.
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Easter Eggs & References (23)
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Frank Welker, who voices (among other voices and sound effects) the monkey befriended by Marion and Indy, would later implement the exact same voice for a similar pet monkey in the Disney animated film Aladdin (1992). Like the monkey in this film, Aladdin's Abu also wears a vest, and also engages in deception and misdirection on behalf of his master in a desert city's public market.
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The scene where Indy hangs onto the underside of a moving truck was inspired by John Ford's movie Stagecoach, a reference expanded in the "Hollywood Follies" episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In this episode, set in 1920, Indy serves as a stuntman on a western directed by John Ford, where he performs the same stunt, crawling along the underside of a moving wagon.
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The opening scene in the lost South American temple was partly based on a classic Disney Ducks adventure, written by legendary artist Carl Barks, many of whose comic books have inspired George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Exploring a lost temple, Donald Duck, his nephews and Scrooge McDuck must evade a succession of booby traps like flying darts, a decapitating blade, a huge boulder, a tunnel flooded with a torrent of gushing water, etc., in the story "The Prize of Pizarro" ("Uncle $crooge" no. 26, June-August 1959), which hit the newsstands when Lucas and Spielberg, both avowed fans of that comic book, were respectively fifteen and twelve years old. Another Barks story, "The Seven Cities of Cibola" ("Uncle $crooge" no. 7, September 7, 1954), has a native American lost city, and a valuable idol that triggers a giant round rock to smash everything in its way.
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Gestapo agent Todt's name is a variation on "Toht," ostensibly the surname of Nazi Germany's inspector of roads; it was actually the code name for a secret organization that carried out special projects on their behalf, especially those involving exotic and unusual weapons or engineering projects such as the Ark, the secret submarine base and the flying wing aircraft. Also of note is that writers give characters names that symbolize their nature, and Todt is a German word for death.
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The Bible that Indiana hands to Major Eaton and Colonel Musgrove in the beginning of the movie is an old Dutch version, and shows 2 Chronicles 5, which describes how "the Ark of the Lord's covenant is brought to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim."
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The Raiders of the Lost Ark poster logo design (and the design of subsequent Indiana Jones film poster logos) is highly reminiscent of the cover lettering of the long-running American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, as seen on issues from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Steven Spielberg would also later develop the anthology television series Amazing Stories (1985), whose title was licensed by the rights owners of the science fiction magazine.
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The tune that Sallah keeps singing, "A British tar (is a soaring soul)," is from Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore." He also sings the words "I am the Monarch of the Sea, The Ruler of the Queen's Navee" from the song "Give Three Cheers," which is from the same musical. A British Tar is the same song that Captain Picard sings to distract an out-of-control Commander Data in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998).
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Brody reassures Indy that he is in compliance with the International Treaty for the Protection of Antiquities. There is no such treaty. The only law resembling that, and in name only, was the Antiquities Act, which authorized Theodore Roosevelt (United States president from 1901 to 1909) to establish national parks and monuments.
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Deeper Meaning (33)
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Edgar Wright said, "Few films have shaped my love of cinema as profoundly as Raiders of the Lost Ark. I first saw it when I was seven years old, during the summer of 1981, just before my family moved from Dorset to Somerset. In those days blockbusters stayed in cinemas all summer long, so I was lucky enough to see it in both places I grew up. Because of that, the film is vividly burnt into my earliest big-screen memories, but its impact on me goes far beyond nostalgia... I regularly watch Raiders whenever I'm making a film. One of the best ways to learn visual storytelling is by watching great films with the sound off, and Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the finest examples imaginable. The only discouraging part is realizing you will never make anything quite that good. For me, it will live for ever as one of cinema's most precious artifacts."
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While Indy asks if the two US officials ever went to Sunday school, he doesn't seem to have paid close attention in class himself. Much of the Ark lore he tells them is off. It contains not the first broken tablets of the Commandments but the second set. It also contained a bowl of manna and Aaron's flowering staff. (Deuteronomy 10:1-5; Hebrews 9:4-5) It is carried into battle and around the walls of Jericho, which fall when trumpets are blown, but there is nothing in the Bible about it leveling mountains or shooting death rays. Oddly enough, he doesn't tell them about the two most significant precautions in the Bible: don't touch it (2 Samuel 6:6-7) and don't look into it (1 Samuel 6:19), though he apparently remembers this last prohibition at the climax of the film. It also brings plagues upon enemies who capture it. (1 Samuel 5) The reason for these prohibitions is that the Ark symbolizes the presence of God, serving as his throne or footstool. (Jeremiah 3:16-17; Psalm 132:7-8) Happily, the Ark in the movie appears an accurate replica (Exodus 25:10-22) as do the priestly robes Belloc dons.
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Having the monkey raise its paw in a "Heil Hitler" salute was George Lucas's idea and is one of Steven Spielberg's two favorite scenes. Frank Marshall recounted that to get the monkey to give the Nazi salute, they tied a grape to a fishing line and got the monkey to reach for the grape swinging off-camera. It took about fifty takes before it looked like a real salute. Voice artist Frank Welker provided all the monkey's sounds, including a "Sieg Heil"-like chirp; Welker later did similar voice work for Abu in Disney's Aladdin (1992).
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The German who encounters Indiana in the submarine hangar says in German: "Good day. Are you tired? Why are you sleeping? Where is your shirt? Go wash up so you don't look like a pig at your court-martial." As he is about to say "Stand up straight," his words are cut off when Indiana kicks him.
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The opening scene in the lost South American temple was based on Carl Barks's classic Disney Duck adventure "The Prize of Pizarro" (Uncle $crooge no. 26, 1959). In the story, Donald Duck, his nephews and Scrooge McDuck escape traps including flying darts, a decapitating blade, a giant rolling boulder and a tunnel of gushing water. Lucas and Spielberg were fans of this comic book at ages fifteen and twelve, respectively. Barks's "The Seven Cities of Cibola" (Uncle $crooge no. 7, 1954) features a lost Native American city and a giant round boulder triggered by a valuable idol.
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According to the novelization, the inscription on the headpiece of the Staff of Ra contained a specific warning not to look at the Ark. This is why Indiana and Marion survive the fire at the end simply by closing their eyes. This may be a reference to 1 Samuel 6:19, where God "struck down" the men of Beth Shemesh for looking into the Ark.
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All three archaeologists in the film mention that the Ark contains the fragments of the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written and which were smashed by an angry Moses at the foot of the mountain. However, according to the Bible, the broken tablets were replaced with new ones, and it was this second set that was kept in the Ark; it also contained Aaron's budding staff and some manna.
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Many characters die as a result of Indiana Jones's actions (or inaction), but he deliberately kills only eight people: he shoots the Mongol in the bar, shoots the Egyptian swordsman, shoots the two Arabs in the truck carrying explosives, sends three Nazis in a carriage over a cliff, and runs over one Nazi with a truck. By these standards, it is possible that Marion deliberately killed more people than Indiana: she shoots the Sherpa in the bar and a group of Nazis with the plane's tail gun. Exactly how many Nazis she killed is unclear, but there are at least seven men in the back of the transport vehicle and she appears to have killed them all, which at least equals her body count with Indiana's.
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The melody Sallah hums comes from the song "A British Tar" in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore." He also sings the lyrics "I am the Monarch of the Sea" from the piece "Give Three Cheers" in the same work. This song is the piece Captain Picard uses in Star Trek: Insurrection to distract the out-of-control Data.
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Indy asks the two officials whether they went to Sunday school, but he himself misstates the legend. The Ark contains the second set of the Ten Commandments, not the first; it also holds a jar of manna and Aaron's rod. The Bible does not say that the Ark leveled mountains or shot death rays. Indy does not mention the prohibitions against touching the Ark or looking inside it, but in the film he remembers this. Fortunately, the Ark and Belloq's priestly garments in the film are accurate replicas.
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Career & Awards (2)
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Michael Bay worked as an intern at Lucasfilm when he was 15, and was tasked with filing the storyboards for this movie. When he first met Steven Spielberg as an adult, he told him, "I saw the entire movie [in storyboard form] and I honestly thought it was going to suck... [then] When I went to the Grauman's Chinese [Theater] with my parents and saw it, I went 'Oh my God, I've got to do this.'" Bay and Spielberg worked together on the Transformers movies.
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The film led to an increase in students studying archaeology, and many modern archaeologists have cited the film as an inspiration. Rhys-Davies said that he had met over 150 lecturers, professors, and archaeologists who told him their interest in the field began with the film. Conversely, archaeologist Winifred Creamer described Jones as the "worst thing to happen to archaeology" as he "walks a fine line between what's an archaeologist and what's a professional looter."
Related pages
- Body Heat — Raiders of the Lost Ark comes up in the facts on that page
- Home Alone — Raiders of the Lost Ark comes up in the facts on that page
- Danny DeVito — Raiders of the Lost Ark comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work