20 facts you might not know about 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

Ultimate Steven Spielberg directed all four Indiana Jones films to date, but it was not his original concept. Instead, it was his friend George Lucas who first thought about making a movie based on the serials he watched as a kid. Then he got a little busy with another film based on his childhood influences, something called “Star Wars.”

Lucas has a lot of filmmaking friends, evidently. Prior to bringing the product to Spielberg, the “Star Wars” director talked to his friend Philip Kaufman about his idea for what was originally “The Adventures of Indiana Smith.” It was Kaufman who pitched the concept of the Ark of the Covenant being involved, which is why he and Lucas have a “story by” credit on the movie. Lucas also wanted Kaufman to direct, but he was busy with the Western “The Outlaw Joey Wales” at the time.

You know the joke in the third Indiana Jones movie about how Henry Jones Jr. got his moniker “Indiana” from the family dog. That was art imitating life. Lucas named Indiana Smith, soon to be Indiana Jones, after his Alaskan Malamute dog.

Lawrence Kasdan has had quite a career, and it started early. His first official credit as a screenwriter was “Empire Strikes Back.” It wasn’t the first script he worked on, though. Spielberg saw a script for a movie called “Continental Divide” that Kasdan had written which would also be produced in 1981. At the time Kasdan was brought on “Raiders,” though, he had been a professional screenwriter for all of one month.

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” is a globe-trotting adventure, but in the original concept, it involved even more of the globe being trotted. In the initial script, there was a trip to Shanghai which included a mine cart chase. Those ideas would end up in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

You might think Lucas would have loved having Ford, who he cast as Han Solo, as Indiana Jones. However, that was not the case. It was nothing against Ford. Lucas wanted an unknown actor to play the adventuring archaeologist. As is his wont, Lucas already had a trilogy in mind and was looking to make a star.

Eventually, the team landed on their Jones: Tom Selleck. The only hitch? He was under contract to CBS as he had made a pilot for a show called “Magnum P.I.” If it went to series, Selleck was required to star in “Magnum.” In a very Hollywood story, Lucas and Spielberg asked CBS to let Selleck out of his contract early so he could start shooting the film. Instead, CBS took this as a sign that Selleck was a hot commodity and green “Magnum” to series. This led to Selleck missing out on being Indiana Jones. That being said his show ran for eight seasons and 162 episodes, which made him a rich television star. Nobody really lost out here.

Sallah is a vital compatriot to Indiana when he arrives in Egypt, and for the role, the production originally wanted Danny DeVito. However, TV got in the way again, as DeVito was shooting “Taxi.” Instead, they hired John Rhys-Davies. It was a different take, as DeVito is famously on the short side, while Rhys-Davies is a burly 6’1’’ guy. Either way, it would have been a white guy playing an Egyptian.

The guide that Indiana has down in South America? The one who says “Throw me the idol, I’ll throw you the whip” and then meets an untimely fate? That is none other than Alfred Molina. This is actually Molina’s big-screen debut.

John Williams has been nominated for 52 Oscars. That’s not a typo, and only Walt Disney has more nominations. He’s won only five of those Academy Awards, but that’s neither here nor there. One of his many films is “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and he composed, among other songs, the iconic Indiana Jones theme. That song is officially called “The Raiders March.” And now it’s stuck in your head.

In 1981 they had not yet introduced the PG-13 rating. Famously, “Temple of Doom” is considered one of the progenitors of that rating. That means for “Raiders” it was either going to be PG or R. For a moment, it almost got that R rating. The reason? The deaths of the villains, especially Toht and Belloq. In fact, they ended up having to obfuscate Belloq’s violent end on-screen to avoid that R rating.

We’re happy to inform you that the monkey in the movie is not an actual Nazi. In fact, getting it to salute was quite tricky. They had to dangle a grape over the monkey’s head to try and get it to reach up, and it took 50 takes to get it right.

Tunisia stood in for Egypt for filming, and that stretch of the shoot was a disaster. Basically, everybody got sick, including Ford. He was feeling particularly ill the day he was supposed to have a lengthy sword fight with one of the baddies. Ford wasn’t up to it physically, so they reworked it so that Indiana just shot the sword-wielding villain instead. In that, an iconic movie moment was born.

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” debuted in theaters on June 12, 1981. It was fitting, given that Spielberg basically invented the summer blockbuster with “Jaws.” The movie was a hit over the summer…and beyond. “Raiders” proved so popular it was top 10 in the North American box office for 41 straight weeks, and it did not leave theaters until March of 1982. Unsurprisingly, it was the highest-grossing movie released in 1981.

These days, the biggest movies aren’t necessarily expected to compete for Best Picture. Maybe a Marvel movie gets a few technical nominations, but that’s about it. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was a different story. It was indeed nominated for Best Picture and Best Director out of nine total nominations. While it didn’t win other of those – “Chariots of Fire” – won Best Picture, but it did take home five Academy Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

In the early ‘80s, VCRs were only beginning to become popular. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was one of the first new movies to come out in the wake of the rise of the VHS. In 1983, Paramount produced a then-record 500,000 VHS copies of the film for retail sale. They cost a whopping $39.95, which was actually a lot lower than most VHS movies at the time. The price was not a deterrent apparently, as they had sold over one million copies by 1985, which was a record.

In 1989, Disney World debuted the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!,” a live show that featured replications of stunts from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” A lot of these live shows come and go, but not this one. Down in Disney World, you can still find the stunt show going all these years later.

The film certainly makes being an archaeologist seem fun and exciting. You travel the globe. You punch Nazis. You get tangible proof of the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. College girls write love notes on their eyelids for you. As such, it’s not a surprise that many people have said that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” got them interested in studying archaeology.

Three kids – Jayson Lamb, Chris Strompolos, and Eric Zala – saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and loved it from the start. In 1982, they began making a shot-for-shot remake when they were 12. They shot it over the summer throughout their childhoods, finishing in 1989. They screened it once in Gulfport, Mississippi, and then went off to college. In the 2000s, a bootleg copy of “Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation” started making the rounds and people got really into it. The three kids, now adults, even got to meet Spielberg, who said he was a fan. Then, like Lucas himself, the guys decided to tinker with the film. In 2014 they put together a Kickstarter to fund shooting the one scene they had not recreated as teenagers: Blowing up the flying wing airplane.

The internet is full of off-the-beaten-path pop culture opinions, many of them contrarian hot takes. However, here’s one that does make you think. Is Indiana Jones all that effective in “Raiders of the Lost Ark?” Think about it. He doesn’t stop the Nazis from finding the Ark of the Covenant. He isn’t able to save himself or Marion. What happens is that the Nazis open the Ark, which they would have done regardless, and then that is what kills them. Had Indy not shown up at all the Nazis would have suffered the same fate, right? Of course, it doesn’t make the movie any less fun to watch.