Since Disney bought Lucasfilm, there has been a whole lot of hype surrounding the Star Wars franchise, but very little talk about one of my childhood favorites and that’s Indiana Jones which Disney also acquired when they purchased Lucasfilm.There are rumors about who may take the reigns of the franchise or that there won’t be anyone else other than Harrison Ford. But other than that, not a whole lot has been announced. So here is my “26 Indiana Jones Facts You May Not Know”.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
1. Director Steven Spielberg had wanted to make a 007 movie for a few years. While vacationing in Hawaii with pal George Lucas, Spielberg mentioned this to him. Lucas told him that he had an idea for a much better character.
2. The scene where Indy meets face to face with the swordsman in the street wasn’t exactly shot the way it was scripted. There was a much more extravagant fighting scene. Ford was suffering from food poisoning on the day of the scene and decided to improvise pulling his pistol and just shooting the swordsman. Spielberg decided to use that instead in the film.
3. This was Alfred Molina’s first film. He would later go on to play Doc Oc in the second Spider-Man
4. In the Well of Souls scene, try to find the engraving of C3P0 and R2-D2 on a pillar.
5. The movie was originally slapped with an R rating by the MPAA due to the villain 6. Belloq’s head exploding when the Nazi’s open the ark. Flames had to be added to earn the PG rating. There wasn’t a PG-13 rating at the time, but more on that later.
7. Harrison Ford got a torn ligament in his knee from an out of control airplane.
8. Magnum P.I. (Tom Selleck) himself was originally chosen to play the role of Indy, but chose to play the role of Magnum instead.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
9. The name of the club in the beginning is called Club Obi Wan.
10. The sound effects for the mine car scene were recorded by sound designer Ben Burtt at Disneyland. He was given access to all the roller coasters after hours and recorded what they sounded like.
11. This movie single handedly created the PG-13 rating.
12. Ford had to have emergency back surgery due to an on set accident. Production was halted for several weeks.
13. Spielberg met Kate Capshaw during the filming of this movie. They soon married and had 7 kids together.
14. Temple of Doom is actually a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
15. Want to make your own “chilled monkey brains”? All you need is some custard and raspberry sauce.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
16. Spielberg chose to come back to direct the third installment after turning down the films “Big” and “Rain Man”.
17. Lucas wanted to make a haunted ghost movie but Spielberg refused because he didn’t want anything like “Poltergeist”.
18. Sean Connery was the original choice for Henry Jones even though he was only 12 years older than Harrison Ford.
19. Harrison Ford recommended River Phoenix after working with him on The Mosquito Coast.
20. This movie explains where Indiana’s scar on his chin came from.
2000 disease free rats were bred just for the crypt scene.
21. Henry Jones was shot with a Walther PPK, the gun of choice used by James Bond.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
22. This film takes place 19 years after the Last Crusade, which is the same amount of time between the actual filming of the movies.
23. Sean Connery did not appear in the film because he was enjoying retirement too much.
24. Paramount wanted all of the bullwhips to be CGI, Ford deemed that ridiculous and demanded real whips are used.
25. Spielberg refused to shoot the film on digital cameras. He wanted it to look as close as possible to the other three.
26. The only Indy movie to not get an Oscar nomination.
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