Movie Trivia: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Did you guys hear that Indiana Jones 5 is apparently in the works? Are you all as horrified as I am? If you’re like me and hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a passion, then you prefer to dwell on the classics – Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, and yes, even Temple of Doom. Here’s some trivia to remind you of the good times.
The movie was filmed during the summer of 1980.
You’ve probably heard the rumors, and yes, they’re true – Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas’ dog, Indiana. He was the prototype for Chewbacca as well, so his old malamute had a pretty big impact on Lucas’ two biggest series.
“Indiana Smith?” Yep, almost, until Steven Spielberg told Lucas it just didn’t sound right. The equally-generic “Jones” was suggested and flowed much better.
According to George Lucas, almost every studio in town turned down the movie, feeling that it would cost too much money to make.
Tim Matheson and Tom Selleck both tested for Indiana Jones; Karen Allen actually screentested with Tim Matheson. Tom Selleck did very well and was the frontrunner, but had to bow out due to Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford was brought up early in the casting discussion, but George Lucas wanted to avoid casting him since he had already become so closely associated with Star Wars.
The role of Sallah was offered to Danny DeVito – he was Spielberg’s first choice – but was unable to do it because of Taxi. The job went to John Rhys-Davies instead. Picture from BlogCDN.
Indy’s leather jacket looks old and beat up, but in reality, it was brand new – and there were 10 of them. The costume director “aged” each jacket with a metal brush and Harrison Ford’s own pocket knife.
The famous hat is from Savile Row in London, a place called Herbert Johnson. The hat had a very wide brim and the crown was quite high, apparently the fashion Down Under since it was their Australian model. After a couple of fittings, it was declared the Indiana Jones fedora. When the customized hat arrived at the studio, the costume designer rolled it up and crushed it, then various members of the cast (including Harrison) took turns sitting on it to make it look like a very worn-in, well-loved hat.
Someone was actually sent out to find a mountain that specifically looked like the Paramount Studios logo mountain so they could create the opening shot of the movie. I suppose these days Lucas would have just made a CGI mountain…
There was a complication during the scene where Alfred Molina is covered in spiders – they didn’t want to move. They just sat stagnant on him, making the excitement of the scene rather… well, not exciting. They discovered that all of the spiders were male, so a female spider was put on Molina’s chest. It did the trick – the male spiders were immediately more active and started to crawl in the direction of the female.
The golden idol was based on an Incan fertility statue. Photo from FanPop.
The movie was filmed in Tunisia because it was a lot cheaper to shoot there than Egypt, and since the script never called for shots of the Sphinx or the pyramids, so they were able to get away with it. In fact, one of the scenes was shot in the exact same canyon where R2-D2 was stolen by Jawas in Star Wars.
The part where Indy watches a swordsman go through a very elaborate routine with his scimitar only to shoot him at the end of it happened because Harrison Ford really had to go to the bathroom. Indy was supposed to have a huge fight scene using his whip, but a bout of dysentery had left him weak and desperately needing the john. Because of this, someone – reports vary on whose idea it was – suggested that Indy just dispatch the dude like anyone who had a gun in his arsenal would.
Harrison wasn’t the only one who got sick – a majority of the cast and crew found themselves incapacitated at some point during filming in Tunisia. Steven Spielberg didn’t get sick because he ate only canned food from the U.K. Everyone else who ate food in the restaurants or at the hotel got horribly sick at least once during filming.
During the scene where Indy fights while the plane is rolling around, Harrison Ford actually sustained an injury when the wheels of the plane got too close and rolled right up onto his leg. It tore his ACL, but rather than submit to Tunisian hospitals, Ford wrapped it in ice and continued to shoot. He also bruised his ribs during the scene where he is dragged behind the truck.
Unlike his character counterpart, Harrison Ford isn’t afraid of snakes and had no problem working with them during the Well of Souls scene. Precautions were taken anyway – if you look closely, a reflection gives away the fact that a sheet of glass was placed between Ford and the cobra. It was a good thing, too – at one point the cobra actually sprayed venom onto the glass.
Some of the sound effects weren’t fancy at all: the sound of snakes slithering was really just the sound designer squishing his fingers through a cheese casserole, the sound of people getting punched was really a pile of leather coats being hit with a baseball bat, and the lid sliding off of the Ark was a toilet lid being slid off the back of a toilet. The sound designer was having trouble coming up with just the right sound for the rolling boulder at the beginning of the movie and ended up using the sound of a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel hill.
Marion was the writer’s grandmother-in-law’s name, and he had been mulling over a surname for a while when he came across a streetname called “Ravenwood” and loved the way the two names fit together. Photo from TheShadyCat.
The boat was actually the submarine model from Das Boot.
Although most shots were done in four takes or less because Lucas and Spielberg wanted a “quick and dirty” feel to the movie – nothing too perfect – there was one shot that took more than 50 takes. It was the scene where the monkey salutes with a “Heil Hitler” gesture. A grape was attached to fishing line and held just out of reach of the camera shot to achieve the salute, but it took a while to get it just right. It ended up being one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite moments in the movie.
Those of us who like little movie secrets know that George Lucas likes to include a reference to “1138” in all of his movies in homage to his first movie, THX 1138. You’ll find it in Raiders during the Nazi harbor scene if you listen to the numbers being read over the loudspeaker. It’s subtle, though, because the numbers are read in German – “Ein, ein, drei, acht.”
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March MODOK Madness
Image: Ray Alma (who went as MODOK himself on Halloween!)
I’m fascinated with blogs that focus so narrowly on a single topic as to become a universe of their own. Take, for instance, this one called MARCH MODOK MADNESS – which as you can tell from the title is dedicated to everything MODOK (technically, artists’ renderings of the supervillain.
Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, the name stands for Mobile/Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. And so far I haven’t seen Ms. MODOK in the lineup: Link
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Movie Mistakes of 2008
Despite costing hundreds of millions of dollars to make, Hollywood movies are filled with "mistakes" (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero even parodied these mistakes by purposely incorporating them in the film).
But one man’s mistake is another man’s bread. To wit, here’s MovieMistakes, a website dedicated to documenting the glaring, silly, and obscure mistakes that occur in some of Hollywood’s greatest hits. Here are their list of 2008 Movies with the Most Mistakes:
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – 67 mistakes
- The Dark Knight – 46 mistakes
- Mamma Mia! – 45 mistakes
- Twilight – 42 mistakes
- High School Musical 3: Senior Year – 40 mistakes
… and the list for the Best Movie Mistakes of 2008:
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
At the beginning when Indy is talking to Spalko, his hands keep alternating from being in his pockets to just resting at his sides between shots. - Iron Man
When Iron Man and Iron Monger are fighting, Iron Man catches the SUV, and you can see the family inside the car. Although the car is completely vertical, the hair of the people in the car seem to defy gravity. - Solstice
The moon is full every night the highschoolers are at the lake house. - 10,000 B.C.
After Evolet got hit by the arrow and presumably dies, D’leh is staring at a mammoth. Behind the mammoth, you can see that the background is a picture. - Meet the Spartans
When Britney Spears gets pushed into the Pit of Death, you hear her talk and scream but her lips are not moving. - The Dark Knight
At around an hour and a half into the movie, during Batman’s interrogation of Joker, when he picks him up and slams him against the wall, for a very brief moment you can see the camera and the cameraman in the reflection of the mirror on the right.
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Indiana Jones Golden Idol Cake
Lori of Clever Cake Studio made this fantastic Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark Golden Idol birthday cake. The Golden Idol is made from marzipan, and Lori was thoughtful enough to make a marzipan bag, so you can perform the famous switch! Link – via Super Punch
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