Indiana Jones is one of the most beloved action-adventure franchises ever. Created by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the movies (and one episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) star Harrison Ford as the adventurous Dr. Jones, always after important artifacts. With Ford’s last outing as Indy in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, let’s dig into 10 behind-the-scenes facts about this iconic series.
10 Indiana Jones Features Connections to Star Wars
It’s no shock that Star Wars and Indiana Jones share connections, given George Lucas’s involvement in both. Harrison Ford is the most obvious link, but there’s more. Lucas’s Alaskan Malamute, Indiana, inspired both Dr. Jones’s name and Chewbacca. Lucas said that Indiana (the dog) would “always sit next to me when I was writing. And when I’d drive around, she’d sit in the front seat… Having her with me all the time inspired me to give Han Solo a sidekick who was like a big, furry dog.”
The Indiana Jones movies have Star Wars Easter eggs, too. In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), R2-D2 and C-3PO appear in the hieroglyphics in the Well of Souls. The club in Temple of Doom (1984) is named Club Obi-Wan. And in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Indy even says “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” a line from every Star Wars movie. [1]
9 Diarrhea Changed a Fight Scene in Raiders
During the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia, almost everyone got dysentery, including Harrison Ford. Ford said that the scene where he shoots the swordsman was because he was “suffering from dysentery” and “found it inconvenient to be out of my trailer for more than 10 minutes at a time.”
The fight was supposed to be “the ultimate duel between sword and whip.” But Harrison didn’t want it to take two to three days to film, so he “proposed to Steven that we just shoot the son a bitch, and Steve said ‘I was thinking that as well.’”
Spielberg didn’t get sick because he “packed a steamer trunk of canned food” with “Spaghetti-O’s, pork, and beans—whatever they had from Sainsbury’s in England.” [2]
8 Temple of Doom Helped Create the PG-13 Rating
Temple of Doom is darker than the first movie because George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were both heartbroken. Lucas said, “We were not in a good mood, so we decided on something more edgy. It ended up darker than we thought it would be. Once we got out of our bad moods, which went on for a year or two, we kind of looked at it and went, ‘Mmmmm, we certainly took it to the extreme.’”
The movie led to Spielberg meeting his future wife, Kate Capshaw, who played Willie. “I came out of the darkness of Temple of Doom, and I entered the light of the woman I was eventually going to marry and raise a family with,” he said.
When Temple of Doom was released in 1984, there was no PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association of America felt the movie didn’t need an R rating, so it was PG, which upset many parents. Gremlins, which Spielberg produced, was released a month later and had the same issue.
Spielberg called it “a perfect storm of movies that I either produced [or] directed.” He agreed the movies were neither PG nor R, so he asked MPAA President Jack Valenti for a rating in between. “Jack was proactive about it, completely agreed, and before I knew it, there was a PG-13 rating,” he said. [3]
7 Renowned Playwright Helped Writing The Last Crusade
George Lucas, Jeffrey Boam, and Menno Meyjes are credited with writing The Last Crusade (1989), but Tom Stoppard, a famous playwright, also helped. The movie is about Indy’s relationship with his father, played by Sean Connery. “It was an emotional story, but I didn’t want to get sentimental,” Spielberg said. “Their disconnection from each other was the basis for a lot of comedy. And it gave Tom Stoppard, who was uncredited, a lot to write. Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue.”
One line not by Stoppard was Jones Sr. saying he knew Elsa Schneider was a Nazi because “she talks in her sleep.” This line was improvised by Connery. Julian Glover, who played Walter Donovan, said that “they had to stop filming. Everybody just fell on the floor, and Steven said, ‘Well, that’s in.’” [4]
6 Ford and Connery Didn’t Wear Pants in One Last Crusade Scene
Indiana and his dad on a zeppelin in Last Crusade is fun, but filming was unpleasant. It was hot on set, so for the scene where they argue, Connery took off some layers.
“I played it without my trousers,” Connery said. “And Harrison says, ‘You’re not gonna play the scene without your trousers.’ I said, ‘Well, if I don’t, I’ll be stopping all the time because I sweat enormously; I sweat very easily.’” Ford also ditched his pants because of the heat. [5]
5 Ke Huy Quan Accidentally Got the Part of Short Round in Temple of Doom
Ke Huy Quan didn’t plan to audition for Indy’s sidekick in Temple of Doom. He said that “my little brother went to audition, I tagged along, and I was coaching him behind the camera, and the casting director saw me and asked me if I wanted to try.”
He met with Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford the next day. “My mom heard ‘Hollywood,’ heard ‘famous director,’ she thought it was a really fancy meeting,” he said. “So she put me in this three-piece suit with a little gold chain hanging out of the side pocket.” Spielberg saw he was uncomfortable and asked him to come back in regular clothes, which sealed the deal. Quan hadn’t seen Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark, so he didn’t know how famous the men were. [6]
4 The Flying Wing Fight in Raiders Was Improvised
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana fights Nazis to steal their plane, and Spielberg came up with the fight on the spot. “I threw out the storyboards, and I began just to choreograph the fight, and I basically made that scene up as we shot it,” he said. “That scene was only meant to be a couple of punches, and it turned out to be something like 60 or 70 different shots.”
Frank Marshall, the producer, played the pilot because all the stuntmen were sick. Spielberg asked Marshall to step in, and he later said, “Maybe the stuntmen were sick on purpose” because it was “about 140 degrees” inside the cockpit.
Harrison Ford also got hurt filming this scene. He fell, and the plane’s wheels ran onto his knee, tearing his ACL. He wrapped and iced it and kept filming. [7]
3 Mine Cart Sounds in Temple of Doom Are Disneyland Rollercoasters
There are Indiana Jones rides and attractions in Disney parks, and Disneyland in California appears in Temple of Doom. The sound designers recorded rollercoaster sounds at Disneyland for the mine cart scene.
They went into the park at night and recorded the rollercoasters without music. “A very strange night was spent there,” said Ben Burtt. Those sounds were used for the mine cart chase. [8]
2 Dan Aykroyd Has a Cameo in Temple of Doom
Dan Aykroyd has a short, easy-to-miss cameo near the beginning of Temple of Doom. He plays Weber, helping Indy, Willie, and Short Round escape Hong Kong on a plane.
The Ghostbusters actor is on screen for about 20 seconds, but it’s at night with no close-ups, so his face is hard to see. He also uses an over-the-top English accent, hiding his identity. [9]
1 The Raft Sequence in Temple of Doom Was Shot in One Take
The trio jumps from a crashing plane onto an inflatable raft. While some find this stunt unrealistic, it was filmed in one take. Frank Marshall said they wanted to do it practically because “the more real things we can use, the more fun and the better it’s going to look.”
Marshall had a raft made that would inflate with one pull. It was put into a plane with dummies, and the shot was set up at Mammoth Peak in California. Marshall said that when the raft came out, “it perfectly balances, unfolds right side up, the people are in it, it comes down and hits and bounces, and they’re weighted enough where it looks real and then slides down.” He said, “I think we got it,” and they stopped after one take. [10]
These behind-the-scenes facts offer a fresh look at the Indiana Jones movies, highlighting the creativity, challenges, and happy accidents that shaped this iconic franchise. From surprising casting stories to improvised scenes and technical innovations, these details make the series even more impressive.
What’s your favorite Indiana Jones movie moment? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
