Released: June 12, 1981

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay By: Lawrence Kasdan

Story By:  George Lucas & Philip Kaufman

Music By: John Williams

Stars:  Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott

Plot:  In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler’s Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.

How did this movie do
Budget: $20 Million
Box office: $390 Million

• Received 5 awards:
  • Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects
    
    
• The film received a further 4 nominations:
  • Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score

• Actors considered for the role of Indiana Jones included Sam Elliot, Jeff Bridges, Paul Le Mat, Christopher Guest, Bruce Boxleitner, Barry Bostwick, Sam Elliott, Mark Harmon, Nick Mancuso, Peter Coyote, John Calvin, Michael Biehn, Sam Shepard, David Hasselhoff and Tom Selleck. Harrison Ford was cast less than three weeks before principal photography began.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg originally wanted Danny DeVito to play Sallah, and DeVito was set for the role, but he had to drop out, due to conflicts with Taxi (1978). DeVito later appeared as a second banana to Michael Douglas in the Raiders tribute and derivative, Romancing the Stone (1984).

Many elements within the Raiders of the Lost Ark story are pulled directly from passages in the Bible.

• Some of the Ark lore revealed in the movie is incorrect:
  • It does not contain 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
    • “At that time the Lordsaid to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”
  • 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.
• The 3 precautions in the Bible:Don’t touch it (2 Samuel 6:6-7)
  • • When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.
  • Don’t look into it (1 Samuel 6:19)
    • But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy[a] of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them.
  • It also brings plagues upon enemies who capture it. (1 Samuel 6)
    • The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors.[a] 7 When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.
  • 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)
    • Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool, saying, ‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.

       

• The Ark in the movie appears to be an accurate replica (Exodus 25:10-22):
  • Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.  Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.  Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. 16 Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.
    Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.
  • In biblical descriptions, the Ark is a gold-plated wooden box that must be carried with poles because it is too holy to be touched. This is referenced in deleted movie scenes.
• Indiana Jones referred to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Horeb. This mountain was also known as Mount Sinai among other names. Many times a mountain’s name depended on whichever directional side a tribe or region viewed it from.
• According to Graham Hancock’s book, “The Sign and the Seal”, the lost Ark of the Covenant resides in the city of Axum (Ethiopia), at the Saint Mary of Zion church.
• The words that Belloq slowly recites before opening the ark are (badly pronounced) Aramaic, and are part of a paragraph recited in many Synagogues today when the Ark that holds the Sefer Torahs (the Old Testament handwritten on Parchment) is opened as part of the Sabbath service.
• Belloq’s outfit at ceremony is inspired by Exodus 28:
  • Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests. Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests. Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.

• Despite having the dream team of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg behind the film, it was initially turned down by every studio in Hollywood. Only after much persuasion did Paramount agree to do it.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• The idea for Indiana Jones name came from the character Idaho Jones in Raiders of Ghost City (1944) and The Scarlet Horseman (1946).
  
  
• George Lucas initially created Indy with the name of Indiana Smith. Steven Spielberg didn’t like using the name Smith, and convinced Lucas to make the surname Jones instead.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• When Indy’s hat was made, the brim was shaped to cover his eyes for protection, and to help hide faces when stunt doubles were being used.
  
  
• Indy’s hat and jacket were designed by Deborah Nadoolman Landis , who also designed Michel Jackson’s iconic red and black jacket from his “Thriller” video.
  
  
• Indiana Jones has two Herbert Johnson Poet hats in this film. He has a grey dress hat (seen in the shot of him boarding the plane to Nepal, and in the ending scene on the steps of the Capital building) and the iconic brown “work” hat.
  
  
• Indiana Jones’s kangaroo-hide bullwhip was sold in December, 1999 at Christie’s auction house in London for $43,000. His jacket and hat are on display at the Smithsonian.
  
  
• In the third movie, Henry Senior teases Indiana about his nickname. He reminds him that they, “named the dog Indiana”. In real life George Lucas, in the early 70s, had a dog named Indiana that the character of Indiana Jones was named after. As a matter of fact, one day Lucas saw his wife pulling into their driveway, driving their station wagon; and watching her park; through the windshield; he saw his wife in the right hand driver’s seat, and his dog Indiana, sitting up in the left hand seat. He thought to himself, “they look like a pilot and co-pilot”. And that became the inspiration for Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). So Indiana the dog was the inspiration for two characters Harrison Ford played.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• 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 Marion’s “death”).
  
  
• Only Indiana Jones to be nominated for Best Picture Oscar. Also, this was 1981’s biggest grossing film.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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!”
  
  
• The sacred idol of the Hovitos, of which Dr. Jones takes possession at the beginning of the film, is apparently a fertility goddess. It is a molten image of a woman squatting down and giving birth.
  
  
• The call letters on the plane flown by Jock at the beginning of the movie are a subtle callback to characters from Star Wars: OB-CPO for Obi-wan Kenobi and C-3PO.
  
  
• During Indiana’s escape from the natives in the beginning of the film, he has his pilot start the plane in the water. When the engine starts, it is the same sound used when the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive engine fails from the Star Wars saga.
  
  
• Freeze-framing during the Well of Souls scene, you can notice a golden pillar with a tiny engraving of R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars saga. They are also on the wall behind Indy when they first approach the Ark.
  
  
• Indy’s line to Marion when they are on the ship (“It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage”) was ad-libbed by Harrison Ford.
  
  
• 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. 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.
  
  
• During filming in Tunisia, nearly everyone in the cast and crew got sick except director Steven Spielberg. It is thought that he avoided illness by eating only the food he’d brought with him: a lot of cans of Spaghetti-O’s.
  
  
• The out-of-control airplane actually ran over Harrison Ford’s knee, tearing a ligament in his left leg. Lucky for him, the heat had turned the rubber tire’s soft, so it did not crush the bone. Rather than submit to Tunisian health care, Ford had his knee wrapped in ice and carried on.
  
  
• Harrison Ford actually outran the boulder in the opening sequence. Because the scene was shot twice from five different angles, he had to outrun it ten times. Ford’s stumble in the scene was deemed to look authentic and was left in.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison wrote a script for ET during shooting breaks on the location of this film.
  
  
• The last line to be added to the script was Dietrich’s “I am uncomfortable with this Jewish ritual” because after reading through the script, the Screenwriters realized that there was no mention of Jews or the Nazis’ hatred of them.
  
  
• To create the sound of the heavy lid of the Ark being slid open, sound designer Ben Burtt simply recorded him moving the lid of his toilet cistern at home.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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. Once all the snakes were on set, it became clear that there were not nearly 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 lifted 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. The snake actually did spray venom onto the glass.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The Well of Souls scene required 7,000 snakes. The only venomous snakes were the cobras.
  
  
• Many of the snakes in the Well of Souls are not snakes, but legless lizards (look for the earholes, which snakes lack).
  
  
• In the submarine pen, the German who comes upon Indiana says, in German, “Good day. Tired? Why do you sleep? Where’s your shirt? Wash yourself, so that you don’t look like a pig at your court martial.” He is about to say “Stand upright”, but he is cut off when Indiana kicks him repeatedly.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Tom Selleck was Steven Spielberg’s second choice for the role of Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford was his first, but George Lucas objected, since Ford had been in his previous hits American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980), so he wanted to use someone different. Selleck was not able to take the role, because he was committed to Magnum, P.I. (1980).
  
  
• In order to make it match the follow-up movies in the DVD collections, 2008 DVD cover artwork changes the film’s title to read “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” instead of just “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
  
  
• The sinister Gestapo agent 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.
  
  
• According to the script, Abner Ravenwood was killed in an avalanche.
  
  
• The mouse that was writhing to the sound coming from the crated ark is there because this mouse was seen behaving this way and then filmed. As it later turned out, unknown to the crew, the mouse was sick with a brain tumor.
  
  
• In the map room, one of the buildings has red graffiti written on it that says, “Nicht stören”, which is German for “Do not disturb”.
  
  
• Cut Scene: 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 of the film: 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, 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.
  
  
• Cut Scene: Indy surviving the submarine journey by lashing himself to the periscope with his whip. In the final film, the plot hole goes largely unnoticed. This cut scene did appear in the Marvel Comics adaptation.
  
  
• The mine chase scene that wound up being in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) was supposed to be in this film, but time constraints eliminated this possibility.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg admitted to have heavily influenced by the Republic Pictures serials of the thirties and forties, to make this film, which is a tribute to the golden era of serials.
  
  
• The sound of the boulder in the opening is a car rolling down a gravel driveway in neutral.
  
  
• Most people think Romancing the Stone (1984) is a ripoff of Raiders of the Lost Ark; being another cliffhanger type swashbuckler along the lines of classic road movie adventures from the 30s and 40s like Gunga Din. Romancing the Stone (1984) is very much the same flavor as Raiders; with similar characters, Jack is very much like Indiana Jones; and Romancing the Stone (1984) came out three years after Raiders. But Romancing the Stone (1984) was written many years before both movies came out, in 1976, by Mailbu waitress Diane Thomas. And it had been circling around Hollywood for years before Robert Zemeckis committed to doing it. So in a way, Raiders is a ripoff of Romancing the Stone, not vice versa.
  
  
• Raiders of the Lost Ark has been re-released several times. It was first re-released in July 1982, when it earned an additional $21.4 million. The studio re-released it March 1983, when the film earned an additional $11.4 million. A remastered IMAX version, supervised by Spielberg, was released in 267 North American theaters. The success of the release led to the run being extended to 300 additional theaters. The film earned a further $3.1 million. These releases have raised the film’s worldwide theatrical gross to an estimated $389.9 million.
  
  
• Shortly after the film’s release, Stanley Rader and Robert Kuhn filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers for $210 million. They alleged the film was based on a screenplay and unpublished novel, Ark, by Kuhn. The outcome of this lawsuit is unknown.
  
  
• Trainer dangled a grape to get the monkey to do then Nazi salute.
  
  
• When the Ark is opened and the angels start flying around the observing Nazis, the look on Belloq’s face resembles that of the Golden Idol of the Hovitos.
  
  
• Two of the lead characters in two of Steven Spielberg’s series have the same name. The lead in Jaws (1975) is named Martin Brody, and one of the leads in the Indiana Jones films is named Marcus Brody.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Frank Welker: The prolific voice actor provides the monkey’s sounds, uncredited.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Renowned British wrestler Pat Roach plays the huge bald mustachioed Nazi mechanic who fist-fights Indy until he gets chopped up by the plane propeller in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Roach also plays several other roles in Raiders; and in fact appears in every film entry of the Indiana Jones tetralogy. He is Steven Spielberg’s preferred go to person when Spielberg needs an oaf, or an ogre, or some oversized person causing trouble.
  
  
• The spirit effects at the climax were achieved by shooting mannequins underwater in slow motion through a fuzzy lens to achieve an ethereal quality.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• As scripted, the scene where Indiana and Marcus meet with the Army Intelligence officials in Washington, D.C., was to be followed immediately by the Ark being stored in the warehouse. The filmmakers realized there was no resolution for Indiana’s relationship with Marion, and the new scene was written. It was filmed on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• According to the novelization, the writing on the headpiece of the Staff of Ra included a specific warning not to look into the Ark. This is why Indiana and Marion survive the conflagration at the end, simply by closing their eyes. It may be an allusion to 1 Samuel 6:19, where God “smote” the men of Beth Shemesh for looking into the Ark.
  
  
• Indiana Jones never kills the lead villain in any of the films. It is always the treasure itself / greed for said treasure or its powers that accounts for their deaths.
  
  
• The crate in which the Ark is placed at the end of the movie has the number 9906753.
  
  
• Body Count: sixty-four (including the monkey). Eleven by Indiana Jones.