Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - 23 trivia entries
Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Alfred Molina, Denholm Elliott, Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
According to Steven Spielberg, in the scene when Indy steals the horse and chases after the truck, you can see two men in the camp are cooking a dog on a spit. Submitted by Mark Bernhard
When Belloq is yelling at Indy on the island from down in the canyon, you can see a fly crawling about his face. He doesn't flinch, nor does he make any attempt to shoo it. It eventually ends up in his mouth, and he still doesn't react. The actor actually ate the fly in order that there should not be another take, since they had shot that take many times already.
For your entry concerning Indy's bazooka ambush and the fly on Belloq's face, there is an interesting additional item: not only does the actor not react to the insect, but the audio guy attempts to cover for him by adding two subtle buzzes - one on the right channel for its arrival, one on the left for its "departure". Best heard with headphones.
The German U-boat in this movie is actually a mock-up built for Spielberg's earlier movie, 1941. It's only the front half of the sub, so you never see past the conning tower in close-ups. When you see the sub in its entirety, it's a model, which was also built for 1941. Submitted by Mark Bernhard
The filmmakers discovered to their chagrin that the snakes used for the Well of Souls sequence weren't afraid of fire at all - in fact, they would always try to get closer to the fire to warm themselves. At one point director Spielberg was caught on camera picking up a snake and telling it, face to face, "In the script, you're supposed to hate fire. Why do you like fire? You're ruining my movie."
Actor Michael Sheard appeared uncredited as the UBoat captain in Raiders. He also appeared uncredited as Adolf Hitler in the Last Crusade. Submitted by Lynette Carrington
When the Nazis have taken the ark from the Bantu Wind (Captain Katanga's ship) and no one can find Indy (until he climbs aboard the sub), Spielberg actually filmed Indy diving off the ship and swimming all the way to the sub. Harrison Ford did the stunt himself, though the footage was never used. Submitted by Mark Bernhard
The truck that Indy gets dragged under and the one that he blows up when he thinks he's killed Marion are actually the same truck. It was built specifically for the moving fight scene because they couldn't find a real truck that would work with all the stunts that were written for it. They used it again in the bazaar scene so that it would look like that type of truck was a common vehicle at the time. Submitted by Mark Bernhard
The scene where he shoots the sword wielding bad guy wasn't the original. 3 months' shooting had resulted in Harrison Ford having a nasty case of dysentery, and the choreographed fight would have taken three and a half days to shoot. Harrison Ford really didn't want to stay on set that long, so suggested that it would be a good alternative if he just shot him. Who actually suggested the change isn't certain, but it wasn't a spur of the moment decision, contrary to some thoughts - it was a planned alternative.
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