Trivia: The urban legend of Harrison Ford stapling his fedora to his head came about after a documentary crew stopped by the set. While clowning around, Ford was captured on camera holding a staple gun to his head and triggering it, but it was empty.
Trivia: Many shots of Connery & Ford are from the waist up, which is probably a good thing, as to cool themselves from the heat while on location in Spain, they shot the scenes wearing no pants.
Trivia: Sean Connery was born in 1930 and Harrison Ford was born in 1942. Sean Connery obviously developed early...
Trivia: Michael Sheard makes an uncredited appearance as Adolf Hitler. Sheard played Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back, which also featured Harrison Ford and Julian Glover. The film also features an uncredited appearance by Nick Gillard, who choreographed the lightsaber duels in the Star Wars prequels. All Lucasarts productions.
Trivia: During the motorbike chase Harrison Ford's hair is longer and Sean Connery's beard is fuller. This is because this scene was filmed after principal photography had ended, but Spielberg felt a chase scene was needed to explain their escape from the castle. The shot of Connery against a blue sky when the tank goes over the cliff was also filmed later, which again is why his beard is fuller.
Trivia: John Williams, the composer, used pieces of his score from Star Wars in this film. For example when young Indiana is on the roof of the train, you can hear bits of Star Wars.
Suggested correction: Is there an interview of John Williams saying this? Because this sounds like opinion. I personally don't hear it. There is a wonderful behind the scenes documentary on the DVD that goes in depth into the scoring of this movie. Neither John Williams, nor Steven Spielberg, nor George Lucas mention this.
Some extracts from The Battle of Endor are heard during the train scene.
Trivia: Steven Spielberg wanted Sir Laurence Olivier to play the Grail Knight, but he was too ill to accept the role. The actor died in 1989, the same year as the film's release.
Trivia: During the book burning scene, the Nazi uniforms worn by the extras are real, authentic uniforms. The costume designer, Anthony Powell, located them in Germany and had the extras wear them. (Source: CheatSheet.com).
Trivia: The tank chase sequence took ten days to film.
Trivia: Before Alison Doody was cast as Elsa, Amanda Redman was offered the role, but declined due to her real-life fear of rats.
Trivia: George Lucas originally wanted to set portions of the film in a haunted mansion where Indy would encounter various ghosts and specters, but director Steven Spielberg protested, as he had made "Poltergeist" a few years earlier and didn't want to repeat the same scares and imagery over again in an Indiana Jones film. Other early ideas had Indy searching for the fountain of youth and encountering the Chinese mythological figure the Monkey King.
Trivia: The little girl who approaches Adolf Hitler at the rally is the daughter of stuntman Vic Armstrong and his wife, Wendy Leech.
Trivia: When a Nazi kills a soldier by throwing a grenade at him during the desert scene, a "Wilhelm scream" can be heard.
Trivia: When Walter Donovan shoots Indy's father in the chest, the gun he uses is a Walther PPK, which is the same gun used by Sean Connery in the James Bond films.
Trivia: Michael Byrne had previously portrayed a Nazi opposite Harrison Ford in "Force 10 from Navarone" (1978).
Trivia: Denholm Elliott was extremely ill throughout most of the shoot. He had only recently been diagnosed with AIDS, which he would succumb to in 1992.
Trivia: It's third time lucky for British actor Michael Sheard who pops up as Hitler. He was originally considered for the Gestapo officer Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark but lost to Ronald Lacey. He shot some scenes as the captain of the U-boat which captures the Ark but due to rough seas causing camera stability problems, the shots were never used. He also played Hitler a few years earlier in the Uk sci-fi series The Tomorrow People.
Trivia: Having Sean Connery play Indy's father was an inside joke to James Bond being the father of Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg had always wanted to do a James Bond film but preferred to do Indiana Jones as a James Bond-type character.
