10 behind-the-scenes facts about Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones is one of the best action-adventure franchises of all time. Created by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the films (and an episode of The Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones) stars Harrison Ford as a whipping archaeologist who goes on dangerous missions to recover important artifacts. With Ford apparently making his last appearance this year as the daring Dr. Jones makes Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fatehere are 10 behind-the-scenes facts about the iconic franchise.
Related: Top 10 behind the scenes stories of the best action movies
10 Indiana Jones has a few connections to Star Wars
It’s no surprise that Star Wars And Indiana Jones share a few connections, given George Lucas’ involvement in both franchises. The most obvious shared element between the two is Harrison Ford, but it goes way beyond that. For example, Lucas’s Alaskan Malamute not only provided Dr. Jones on; she also inspired Chewbacca. Lucas explains that as he writes the original Star Wars movie, Indiana (the dog) ‘would always sit next to me when I was writing. And when I drove around, she sat in the front seat… Having her with me all the time inspired me to give Han Solo a sidekick that looked like a big, furry dog.
The Indiana Jones movies also include a few Star Wars Easter eggs. When Indy explores the Well of Souls in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), an image of R2-D2 and C-3PO can be seen in the hieroglyphics etched on the walls. The club where Willie performs Temple of Doom (1984) is called Club Obi-Wan. And in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Indy even utters the line that appears in every Star Wars movie: “I have a bad feeling about this.”[1]
9 Due to diarrhea, Ford changed a fight order in Raiders
While filming scenes for Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia (as a replacement for Egypt) nearly the entire crew contracted dysentery, including Harrison Ford. In a Reddit AMA, Ford explained that the comedic scene where he simply shoots the swordsman was a result of him “suffering from dysentery,” which meant he “found it awkward to be out of my trailer for more than 10 minutes at a time.” to be. “
Originally, this fight was “intended to be the ultimate duel between sword and whip”. But Harrison couldn’t bear the thought of it taking two to three days to film the fight, so “he suggested to Steven that we shoot that son of a bitch, and Steve said, ‘I thought so too.'”
Spielberg himself never really got sick, because before he left England for Tunisia, he “packed a steamer trunk of canned food.” His diet was essentially just “Spaghetti-O’s, pork and beans – whatever they had from Sainsbury’s in England.”[2]
8 Temple of Doom helped create the PG-13 rating
Temple of Doom is darker in tone than its predecessor, and part of the reason for this is that both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg experienced heartbreak, with the former going through a divorce and the latter going through a breakup. Lucas recalls: “We weren’t in a good mood, so we decided to do something more tense. It ended up getting darker than we thought it would be. Once we got out of our bad mood, which lasted for a year or two, we looked at it and said, ‘Mmmmm, we sure pushed it to the limit.’”
Though the movie was born out of emotional suffering, it led Spielberg to meet his future wife, Kate Capshaw, who played Willie. “I came out of the darkness of Temple of Doomand I came into the light of the woman I would eventually marry and start a family,” he says.
When Temple of Doom was released in 1984, there was no PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association of America felt that the film did not warrant an R rating, so it was rated PG, much to the anger of many parents. Gremlinswhich Spielberg’s executive produced was released just a month later and fell into the same category.
Spielberg described it as “a perfect storm of movies I’ve either produced [or] focused.” He agreed that the films were neither PG nor R, so he called MPAA president Jack Valenti to ask for a rating in between the two. “Jack was proactive about it, completely agreed, and before I knew it, there was a PG-13 rating,” he says.[3]
7 Renowned Playwright is an uncredited writer for the Last Crusade
George Lucas, Jeffrey Boam and Menno Meyjes are officially credited with writing The Last Crusade (1989), but they also had help from Tom Stoppard, a celebrated playwright who was later knighted for his contribution to the theatre. A lot of The Last Crusade is about Indy’s relationship with his estranged father, played by Sean Connery. “It was an emotional story, but I didn’t want to get sentimental,” says Spielberg. “Their disconnection from each other was the basis for a lot of comedy. And it gave Tom Stoppard, who was uncredited, a lot to write. Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue.”
But one line of dialogue not written by Stoppard was Jones Sr. who joked that he knew Elsa Schneider was actually a Nazi because “she talks in her sleep.” This line was improvised by Connery. Julian Glover, who plays villainous businessman Walter Donovan, recalls that “they had to stop filming. Everyone just fell to the ground and Steven said, ‘Well, that’s inside.’”[4]
6 Ford and Connery wore no pants in a final crusade scene
Indiana and his father take a ride in a zeppelin Last Crusade is a lot of fun, but filming these scenes was rather unpleasant. It got incredibly hot on set, so for the scene where Indy and his dad are bickering at a table, Connery decided to shed a few layers.
“I played it without my pants,” Connery admits. And Harrison says, ‘You’re not going to do the scene without your pants.’ I said, ‘Well, if I don’t do it, I stop all the time because I sweat profusely; I sweat very easily.’” Despite his earlier objections, the heat eventually forced Ford to take off his pants with Connery.[5]
5 Ke Huy Quan accidentally got the role of Short Round in Temple of Doom
When an open casting was held to find the actor for Indy’s young sidekick Temple of Doom, Ke Huy Quan had no intention of auditioning for the role. In an interview on Jimmy KimmelLive!explained to Quan that “my little brother was going to audition, I went along and I coached him behind the camera, and the casting director saw me and asked me if I wanted to try.”
The next day he was summoned to meet with Spielberg, Lucas and Ford. “My mom heard ‘Hollywood,’ heard ‘Famous director,’ she thought it was a really fancy meeting,” he recalls. “So she put me in this three-piece suit with a little gold chain hanging out of the side pocket.” Seeing how uncomfortable Quan was, Spielberg asked him to come back the next day in plain clothes, and that audition sealed the deal. Quan hadn’t seen it Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Arkso he had no idea how important the three men in the room were.[6]
4 The Flying Wing combat in Raiders was largely improvised
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana battles some Nazis to steal their plane, and Spielberg actually made this fight up on the spot. “I threw out the storyboards and I just started choreographing the fight, and I actually made that scene up as we shot it,” he recalled. “That scene was just meant to be a few punches, and it turned out to be like 60 or 70 different shots.”
Something else unexpected about that scene is producer Frank Marshall’s appearance as the pilot. This role was supposed to be played by a stuntman because the character is knocked out by Marion, but all the stuntmen were sick. Spielberg asked Marshall to intervene, and he later joked, “Maybe the stuntmen were sick on purpose” because the temperature in the cockpit was “about 140 degrees.”
Harrison Ford was also injured while filming this scene – just one of the injuries he received while filming. He fell over and the wheels of the plane landed on his knee, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his leg. He decided to just pack and freeze the injury and continue filming.[7]
3 Mine Cart Sounds in Temple of Doom are Disneyland roller coasters
There are a few Indiana Jones rides and attractions at Disney parks around the world, but also Disneyland, in California, is making its appearance Temple of Doom. For the minecart scene, sound designers Ben Burtt and Gary Summers were given special access to Disneyland to record the sounds of roller coasters.
The pair were allowed into the park when it was closed for the night to ride the various roller coasters and record the sounds they made without the music on. “It was a very strange night spent there,” says Burtt. The various rattles, screeches and rolling sounds recorded that night formed the basis for the sound design of the exciting minecart chase.[8]
2 Dan Aykroyd has a cameo in Temple of Doom
Almost at the beginning of Temple of Doom, Dan Aykroyd makes a brief cameo appearance that is easily overlooked. Playing a character named Weber, he helps Indy, Willie, and Short Round escape Hong Kong on a plane (although that plan doesn’t go as expected).
The Ghostbusters actor is on screen for about 20 seconds, which sounds like plenty of time to recognize his cameo. But the scene was shot at night and contains no close-ups, so Aykroyd’s face is hard to see. And while he has multiple lines of dialogue, the actor also imposes an exaggerated English accent, further obscuring his identity.[9]
1 The Raft Sequence in Temple of Doom was shot in one take
The plane our trio is boarding to leave Hong Kong crashed on purpose, but they jump to safety on an inflatable raft. This stunt is sometimes criticized for being too unrealistic, but not only is it theoretically possible, it was also filmed in one take. In an interview with Ain’t It Cool News, producer Frank Marshall explained that they wanted to make the recording practical because they “always felt like the more real stuff we can use, the more fun and the better it will look.”
Marshall asked a life raft manufacturer to design a raft that would inflate with one pull of the rip cord. This was bundled into a three-engine plane along with three dummies and the shot was set up on Mammoth Peak in California. Marshall recalls that when the raft came out, “it’s perfectly balanced, unfolds right side up, the people are in it, it comes down and bumps and bounces, and they’re weighted enough where it seems real and then slides down.” He said, “I think we got it,” and they closed after just one take.[10]