Harrison Ford has one heck of a career. In fact, he's played some of the biggest and most iconic characters in the history of cinema.
But none more so than the fedora-wearing, whip-cracking archaeologist, Indiana Jones.
Below are 10+ Raiders of the Lost Ark behind the scenes secrets that fans didn't know. Have a look and see how your knowledge of the film measures up!
Spielberg actually shot in the middle of the Sahara.
According to an interview the legendary director gave on the Dick Cavett Show, the days averaged around 135 degrees — in the shade!
While making an appearance on The Rachel Ray Show, Tom revealed that he had done a screen test for the part.
It came down to him having to make a choice between doing Raiders of the Lost Ark or starring in Magnum, P.I..
The way Steven rationalizes his behavior was that he was being a "method director." He needed a real blood-curdling scream from Karen and figured there was no better way.
I would have walked off the set immediately were I in Karen's place.
The bulk of what you see, especially the Jungle scene at the beginning of the movie, is the real deal.
Raiders of the Lost Ark shot on the Hawaiian Islands, in parts of Tunisia, and even France!
During an appearance on The Conan O'Brien Show, Harrison was asked by Indiana Jones super fan, Jordan Schlansky, what color the whip-fall was in the first film?
Harrison responded, "Who gives a [expletive]?"
Indiana was an Alaskan malamute. Indiana was always going to be the nickname for Henry Jones, Jr. but his last name was originally going to be Smith!
Supposedly, Lucas' dog was also the inspiration for Chewbacca as well!
No, that's not a joke. If you look at the panels of the comic, you'll see that the scene from Raiders is nearly identical.
I guess you never know where or how inspiration will strike?
"I knew that it was meant to be a series. And while I had not agreed to do three Star Wars films, in the case of Indiana Jones I felt there was enough information to allow me to do a number of those," Ford told Vanity Fair.
Translation: Indy got paid.
This was actually the future award-winning actor's breakout American film role. These days, Alfred is regarded as one of the better character actors working today in Hollywood.
I'm blown away by how young he looks!
When they first began shooting, the tarantulas stayed perfectly still on Alfred Molina's back. They were all male, so none had reason to act in an aggressive manner.
Once they introduced a female to the group, they began to move around.
In the original script, Indiana wasn't supposed to shoot the swordsman. He was supposed to wage an all-out duel.
However, Harrison's health was waning at the time and he was looking for a way out.
Harrison further explained during his Reddit AMA that the stuntman was confused at the change:
"The poor guy was a wonderful British stuntman who had practised his sword skills for months in order to do this job, and was quite surprised by the idea that we would dispatch him in five minutes."
Well, because according to Steven Speilberg, that's how many were required to make the shot look menacing! Originally, they'd budgeted for only 2000 snakes but it wasn't enough to fill the room.
So steven decided to go out and find another 5000 slithering serpents!
According to Spielberg, the pythons were absolutely vicious! They were biting and snapping at the snake wranglers on set, as well as the actors themselves!
There isn't enough money in the world to make me do that.
By today's standards, it not only seems pretty tame but fairly fake. Back in the '80s, this wasn't the case.
Production had to edit the scene to make it appear less gruesome.
