29 Behind-the-Scenes Gems from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

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  Indy's line to Marion ("It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage") was ad-libbed by Harrison Ford.

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  Early concept art for the character who ultimately became Toht depicted him as a uniformed Nazi officer with a mechanical arm that doubled as a machine gun and a radio antenna built into his head. George Lucas dismissed this as being too far-fetched Toht's appearance (notably the receding hairline and glasses with the circular frames) was deliberately based on Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS in Nazi Germany and one of the regime's most infamous criminals for his central role in the Holocaust.

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  In filming the Well of Souls sequence, the producers scoured every pet shop in London and the south of England for every snake they could lay their hands on. For that reason there are snakes that are identifiable from many different geographical areas. However, once all the snakes were on set, it became evident that there were not nearly enough, so Spielberg had several hoses cut into lengths, and these were used as well.. additionally, many of the snakes in the Well of Souls are not snakes, but legless lizards (look for the earholes, which snakes lack).

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  Traditionally, when one of his films is about to open, George Lucas goes on vacation to get away from all the madness. As Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was just about to debut, Lucas traveled to Hawaii where he was joined by Steven Spielberg. When the numbers 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 shared that he always wanted to direct a James Bond film, to which Lucas countered with a more interesting idea, an adventure movie called "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Apparently the conversation happened while the two were making a sand castle (aww). After their trip, they got together and developed the script with Lawrence Kasdan. Despite having the dream team of Lucas and Spielberg behind the film, it was initially turned down by every studio in Hollywood. Only after much persuasion did Paramount agree to do it

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  While filming in Tunisia, nearly everyone in the cast and crew fell ill except director Steven Spielberg. It is believed that he dodged sickness by eating only the food he'd brought with him: cans of Spaghetti-O's

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  While filming the snake pit 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 serpent (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 stagehand did just that, the python released its hold on Tomblin's hand, and Tomblin got medical attention. The python itself was not injured

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  Legendary composer 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 well-known and loved movie themes of all time

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  Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison worked on a script during filming breaks on the location of this film. Mathison was there to visit her husband, Harrison Ford, and Spielberg dictated to her a story idea he had. That script was eventually called E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

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  This famous scene where Indy shoots the show-off swordsman was not in the original script. Harrison Ford was supposed to use his whip to get the sword out of the attacker's hands, but the food poisoning he and the rest of the crew acquired made him too ill to perform the stunt. After several unsuccessful attempts, Ford suggested "shooting the sucker." Spielberg immediately took him up on the idea, and the scene was successfully filmed... Unfortunately, I could not find any BTS images of this scene.. but of course, I had to include at least something about it... the Boulder chase scene is another I had difficulty finding BTS images of, sadly (CeleryMan7)

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  The Well of Souls scene required 7,000 snakes. Most were not venomous, but a few real cobras were used. Snake handler Steven Edge served as the double for Marion's legs. According to Edge, Karen Allen's stunt double refused to stand 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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  The out-of-control airplane actually ran over Ford's knee, tearing a ligament in his left leg. Lucky for him, the intense heat had turned the rubber tire soft, so it did not crush the bone. Rather than risk Tunisian health care, Ford had his knee wrapped in ice and carried on.

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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" The truck chase sequence took five weeks to film for six minutes of screen time.

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  One reason that George Lucas was originally against casting 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 "My (Lucas') Bobby."

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  Harrison Ford's performance as Indy was so good that small pre-release clips persuaded the makers of Blade Runner (1982) that he was ideal to play Rick Deckard in the film. Dustin Hoffman had been the front-runner for months (can't really see that one)

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  Indiana Jones' hat came from the famous Herbert Johnson hat shop in London. The hat was the shop's "Poet" model. On the Bonus Features DVD, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman said that in order to authentically 'age' the hat, she grabbed and twisted it, then she and Harrison Ford both sat on it, and it eventually resembled "a very lived-in, and well-loved" hat.

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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're sealed in the Well of Souls, but the script didn't include why she ended up in the dress. In order to get her into the dress, Karen Allen and Paul Freeman improvised the scene where 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

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  Sam Neill was briefly considered for the part of Indiana Jones. He would eventually play a character with an iconic hat in another Spielberg-directed movie: Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park.

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  Spielberg said that he loved the melting head effect, calling it the most impressive effect he'd ever seen at the time. The effect proved to be so popular that special effects/make-up artist Chris Walas was flooded with calls, mostly from people who appreciated his work. He also got several calls from fellow special effects artists who were working on different films, asking him what was needed for the effect so they could utilize it for a similar scene

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  In 1999, Raiders was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. It is the only Indiana Jones film to have been inducted. Films are chosen for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." 

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