Original subtitles

Harrison Ford.

How can you not love the guy?

You probably think of him as a star.

- Han Solo. - I thought he was

so sexy and handsome.

As a Hollywood legend.

He's the icon.

All right, an icon.

Oh God.

He's a very interesting man.

And he is.

Who woulda thunk it?

But no one believed this ensemble actor

could be a leading man.

- This is our hero? - Ow!

- This guy? - Few thought

this former carpenter...

I didn't even know how long it took to bake a potato

...could hold much more than a hammer,

let alone a movie franchise.

Dr Jones.

Yes.

Harrison as a leading man.

But the history of Harrison...

He had so much potential.

...is the story of a man

who always knew what he wanted.

I didn't want to do the same thing over and over again.

And always worked to his own script.

He say you Blade Runner.

Tell him I'm eating.

He didn't like to rehearse.

- I love you. - I know.

He just ad-libbed that.

From Han Solo...

Harrison became the star.

...to going solo.

His success was not by accident.

From one big name...

George Steven.

...to the next,

dodging all the snakes in between.

Is this a real snake?

I think I'm the only actress in town that has a snake.

So join us.

Hold onto your potatoes.

For an adventure.

It's not necessarily a fun...

...adventure.

It's a wonderful story.

With the man who reinvented the genre.

It wasn't a sure thing.

And then reinvented himself.

Action star.

I didn't kill my wife!

And thinking, man.

Harrison decided that he wanted

to actually learn how to fly.

Get off my plane!

I hear the plane, "Zzz."

Crash.

Air Force One is down!

I'll tell you a story about Harrison that's true.

As told by the people in the room.

What would be the nice way to put it?

Harrison might've called him lurch.

On set.

He broke my fucking rib.

I'm not doing this piece of shit again.

Behind the camera.

He was acting all the way down

to the crotch and I was shooting.

And on it.

I was like, what the fuck are you doing?

What a lunatic!

Does the word asshole come into mind?

What the fuck is happening to my movie?

One man.

Get you anything, Mr. Trainer?

Coffee, tea, me?

Almost 5 billion in box office.

Holy mother of God.

Across nearly 50 years.

He was not there to just read the script.

I told him to say that.

So say it with us.

Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford.

Because this is

"Icons Unearthed: Harrison Ford."

Right from the get-go,

the young Harrison Ford was ambitious,

but realistic about acting.

I had no discernible talent for it, I think at first.

But he definitely came from the creative pedigree.

His parents were involved

in the advertising business in Chicago.

One quality that would ultimately help Harrison

with his acting ambitions,

his desire to learn by doing.

He was a hands-on guy. He was a carpenter.

We all knew Harrison as the guy

who'd finished our kitchens and did carpentry.

He did everything. He did all kinds of stuff.

He was even briefly a cook on a yacht.

I didn't even know how long it took to bake a potato.

Yo, he hadn't paid rent,

when he was an out-of-work actor.

His first lines in a film were short.

Paging Mr. Ellis. Paging Mr. Ellis.

You wanna hear my whole dialogue?

Paging Mr. Ellis.

And even his short appearance...

Room 607.

...wouldn't deter him from getting

on the radar of just the right people.

George Lucas gave him his break, his big break.

That was in 1973's American Graffiti.

I wanted the job very badly.

But when the studio came back with their offer...

I felt that what they were offering me was just unfair.

Well, if it's not fair,

someone should check the numbers.

They went over the entire budget and they called me back

and they offered me more money.

Sorry if I scared you.

And when I edited American Graffiti,

I was just enamored with Harrison's performance.

George's partner in life and film, Marcia,

had a knack for spotting talents,

and Ford was hard not to notice.

I thought he was so sexy and...

So handsome and he had so much potential.

Hey, doll, why don't you come on and ride with me.

He made such an impression.

You're gonna appreciate me soon.

After grappling with a few minor roles

In Francis's movie, The Conversation.

Don't get involved in this, Mr. Khan.

And Hi.

struggling to land a punch.

I felt I never had the opportunity

to develop a technique which finally began to serve me.

But Harrison quickly reunited with Lucas

for the breakout rule of a lifetime.

Han Solo.

I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon.

His big break is as Han Solo.

Great kid! Don't get cocky!

But as for Star Wars, well,

we've already un-earthed that saga.

Don't everybody thank me at once.

But if you want the full story

of how Harrison picked up the blaster

before a fedora,

you can always catch those episodes

on your favorite streaming services.

But in the meantime,

when the galactic opera first hit theaters.

We were in a crappy hotel in Hawaii

with George and Marcia, and he got a telegram.

I said, "You gotta watch the news tonight, George."

Tonight there was a strange happening

of lines around the block from a movie

that hasn't even opened yet.

Star Wars was a hit.

Yee-ha!

And lucky for Harrison,

Lucas had something else up his sleeve

and Steven Spielberg would be the first to know.

We were in Maui.

And George told Steven about this project that he had.

But George didn't just turn to Steven.

He also confided in Howard, a partner,

going back to the early days of Lucasfilm.

George, they were talking about taking old serials

and putting them together.

They wanted to do a cliffhanger like episodic television.

I'm sure that voice came from here.

Lucas wanted to make a movie that reminded him

of his first love of cinema.

Like the old time serials that we used

to see when we were kids.

And as you know, a serial is a cliffhanger.

You see episode one and the truck, a heroine is in it,

and the truck drives off the cliff and you think she's dead.

Next week, episode two,

just before it drives off the cliff,

she opens the door and jumps out, she's safe.

Old fashioned serials, but all in one.

The idea was both old and new

and the serials had established one thing George liked.

We had an archetype that had been created.

The swashbuckling,

occasionally vine swinging hero.

Steven was very, very clear about the archetype

of Indiana Jones.

And the archetype needed

the right person behind it.

Costume designer, Deborah Landis fit the bill.

I had a sketch pad in front of me

and I asked Steven to draw Indiana Jones.

And just like that, Spielberg's sketched

what would go on to become one of the

most iconic costumes in Hollywood history.

With his jacket and his hat and the fedora.

Of course, an archaeologist carries a whip, doesn't he?

Not.

The costume had been worn

by Charlton Heston in at least two films.

You hired me to pilot your plane. Got that?

So they had their archetypal hero.

The adventurer.

And the style of storytelling.

An adventure picture.

But Howard knew

the most important thing was still missing.

What is it we're after?

What is the treasure?

What is the McGuffin?

Whatever the McGuffin,

it was a man with a different name.

One of the local filmmakers in San Francisco

was Phil Kaufman.

Who came up with the McGuffin.

Great McGuffin. The Ark of the Covenant.

The lost Ark?

The Ark of the Covenant is the McGuffin, so to speak.

Nearly 3000 years,

man has been searching for the lost Ark.

Where did Phil Kaufman get that idea? His dentist.

They had their mission,

but who was the hero on it?

Did this guy even have a name?

And George wanted to call the hero Indiana Smith.

It could so easy have been Dr. Smith.

But for one thing.

I wanted to have a baby, and I had the baby crazies.

Except it became a fur baby.

Because George wasn't ready for a family just yet.

No, no, no.

His career wasn't really, you know, all that great.

He said, "But I'll get you a dog."

So then I said, "Okay, Great."

Then I call her "Indiana."

And that's how Indiana got her name.

Which is how Indiana got his name.

Indiana Jones.

He's named after the dog.

Jones just rolled off of your tongue better than Smith.

George Lucas had a great idea

led by a character named after a dog,

but he was without the one thing,

he really needed to realize his dream.

So I remember sitting out at the pool with George

and George was saying, "I gotta find a writer."

"Where am I gonna go?"

"How am I gonna get a writer?"

"Who should I get for writing?"

The answer to that question is gonna start

a career and kick off a franchise at the same time.

If there was one thing

that has always been true in Hollywood, it might be this.

There has to be a story. Story, story, story.

George was set on nearly every front,

except when it came to a writer.

Luckily, Empire Strikes Back writer Lawrence Kasdan

was ready to step in.

So Larry and Steven and George met

and they discussed the plot.

Kasdan created a story big enough

to film many a movie matinee.

Larry went off and wrote a draft,

which was very, very good.

Finally, the film had a writer.

- Yes. - Script.

- Yes. - The money?

Mmm.

At last, Indiana Jones had the writer

and script George had been waiting for.

But could they afford to make it?

No.

George didn't wanna fund Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Lucas wanted studio backing

and planned to leverage his Star Wars clout.

I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money.

And he had a name behind him with success.

But believe it or not,

George's partner, Spielberg wasn't coming in

with the same box office pedigree following

a real American disaster.

You're only as good as your last picture.

No, not Pearl Harbor ,

but Spielberg's movie about it.

Steven had just done 1941 .

Madness.

1941 was a catastrophe for going over budget.

But Steven's penchant for going over budget

wouldn't be the deal breaker.

The deal would be the deal breaker.

George said, you pay for it and I own it.

George Lucas owns the negative.

He owns merchandising,

he owns everything, and he has control.

We had four pictures that Steranko the artist conceptualized

and I went out to several of the studios

with the four pictures and the script.

The first was Fox.

Who would say no to the director

of the biggest blockbuster of all time?

Fox had done Star Wars .

So Howard and Co were not surprised

by Fox Head, Alan Ladd Jr's, reaction.

And he said, "This is a great picture."

It was a yes.

Mmm... No.

Alan Ladd was basically on his way out.

He said, "I would say yes, but I have no control here."

Ultimately Fox said no.

But George had other friends.

Because George had done American Graffiti at Universal.

And I took it to Ned Tannon, who I knew well.

He sounds approachable.

Ned Tannon.

Monday morning he handed me the script

and he says,

"Take the Germans out of the picture."

And I just looked at him.

My brain is going, "Take the Germans out?"

And he said, "It won't do well in Germany."

If we refuse?

It was difficult to understand why studios were saying no,

when you have George Lucas and a Steven Spielberg.

They were very powerful filmmakers

because their films had made so much money.

We were only asking for $20 million.

When films were costing more than that.

But Howard had at least one last door

that he could knock on.

We went to Paramount.

Paramount head, Michael Eisner,

was among the many executives not thrilled

about Lucas's terms.

Eisner didn't like the deal

and it had been the worst deal ever offered him,

or probably any studio.

So naturally he took it.

And they said, yes.

There's nothing to fear here.

Sounds too good to be true.

That's what scares me.

Paramount wanted insurance

for any potential booby traps laid by the Lucas deal.

So there was a catch.

As long as it was $20 million.

Any overage is paid by Lucasfilm,

because Steven did not have a good track record

about coming in on budget.

And avoiding another 1941 scale disaster

was all on Howard.

'Cause you break everything down.

Every car, every airplane, every actor,

everything is detailed.

But as Howard crunched the numbers,

one idea for the finale stood out

and nearly threatened to sink the entire film.

The sequence of boarding the submarine.

Originally, the submarine goes underwater.

A door opens up underwater

and arrives in a volcano.

But a volcano on this budget?

Basically impossible to do.

It was too expensive.

And it changed.

With his own money on the line for overages,

George Lucas wasn't relying on the bonds of friendship.

Georgia had told Steven, you shoot it like a B picture.

George told Steven, if he brings the picture in on budget,

"I will give you a $500,000 bonus."

Spielberg's reputation for largess

hung over the budget for every department.

Steven had said, you know, Deborah,

we're making a B movie.

Okay, we're making a B movie. I get it.

To keep the studio at bay,

Howard saw fit to deploy a little subterfuge.

Paramount said, how many days are you gonna shoot it in?

And I told them 85.

The real number was 73.

By scheduling extra days

and hopefully shooting fewer,

the production would appear to be coming in under.

Steven knew of the 73, and he liked that idea.

While Howard was trying to work out how

to pay for this film.

Howard was the enforcer.

He had this walk softly and carry a big stick attitude.

George and Steven were still trying

to work out who to pay as in who to cast.

George and Steven interviewed a lot of actors

to play Indiana.

In a parallel universe, Indiana Jones

could have been the actor Tim Matheson.

Trust me, it'll never get that far.

Or can you imagine Nick Nolte?

Maybe you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

How about Chevy Chase?

A very qualified acupuncturist.

In the end, Lucas found his man.

George came up to me once.

He had a headshot of an actor.

He said, "We found our Indiana."

Definitely not Harrison Ford.

Tom Selleck.

Tom Selleck was set to play Indiana Jones.

The team, can't split up the team.

With the leading man locked in,

attention shifted to finding his counterpart.

We also saw tons of people.

They needed someone with some fight in her.

In the screenplay she was a spitfire.

They wanted an equal.

Spielberg had his eye on a young actress

who already had a reputation as a spitfire.

He flew me out. I auditioned with Tom Selleck.

- Why start now? - Just shut up!

Shut up and listen to me.

Sean had been making waves on the East Coast.

And I was working on Jane Austen in Manhattan.

I mean, once you found someone.

And Steven asked to see the footage

that had been shot on me.

Steven said to me that I was "too raw" is what he called it.

And so it came down to Debra Winger.

Debra Winger was Steven's first choice.

Who would not screen-test.

The thought of it just makes me wanna puke.

- But-- - She wasn't available.

That's all I need.

Amy Irvin was also in the frame.

Amy Irving, you know this beautiful young woman.

But just as casting focused

on solving one problem.

Who should play Marion?

The solution to the original casting conundrum

turned back into a problem.

Tom Selleck suddenly was not available.

A big one.

And all of a sudden there was no Tom Selleck.

Actor Tom Selleck was set

to become Indiana Jones.

Sometimes everything goes exactly as planned.

George came and said, "You know what?

"We can't get Tom Selleck."

He was signed to Universal.

And he is contractually obligated on Magnum P.I .

And fate just wouldn't do that to me.

Yet Tom Selleck had chosen a Ferrari

over a fedora.

And the producer Glen Larson

didn't wanna release him.

Universal wasn't giving up

TV's most famous mustache because Selleck just happened

to be caught up in a much bigger battle.

Lucasfilm and Fox...

In fact, you could say it was a Battlestar.

...was suing Universal or Battlestar Galactica,

'cause they felt there was a ripoff of Star Wars .

But Howard wasn't giving up.

With an actors strike looming,

Raiders planned to shoot in the UK,

and that gave Howard one last card to play.

And we said, we're gonna be shooting the film in London,

not SAG, but under Equity.

That would allow Selleck to work in the UK

while the strike hit LA.

The answer was no. Geez.

So we still need an Indiana Jones.

With Tom driving off into

the Hawaiian sunset, casting continued,

and so did the no's coming from the first choice talent.

Danny DeVito.

I'm Louie De Palma.

Was the first choice for Sallah.

We couldn't afford him.

Don't you wish!

Jonathan Rhys-Davies was cast as Sallah.

I knew the Germans would hire you, Sallah.

But the producers were forced

to take a punt on untested talent like Alfred Molina.

Poison is still fresh three days.

Ronald Lacey was menacing.

Good evening, Fraulein.

Was the character Toht.

Heil Hitler.

But for his chief of menace...

I have the perfect man for this kind of work.

...Spielberg cast a favorite

of one of his favorite directors, Stanley Kubrick.

My first film was Barry Lyndon,

the Stanley Kubrick.

I am at your disposal.

And Steven knows all his films. It was a wonderful script

and even had some humor as well.

My feeling exactly.

For the role of Indiana's rival, Belloq,

Steven trusted his instincts.

I think he said there was something untrustworthy

about my eyes.

The eyes headed for British actor Paul Freeman.

I wasn't offended as long as I got the job.

Casting assistant, Marci Liroff

was still trying to put together

the right combination of leads.

It was more like a chemistry coupling.

And to concoct the perfect recipe--

We had this big wide open kitchen.

It was part of Lucas Film's headquarters,

known as the Egg Company.

Great offices. Beautiful offices.

Perfect for Marci's casting.

I would couple a guy and a gal and have them cook.

We'd be watching their chemistry.

One of the first cooks in the kitchen

was a woman who had just one movie under her belt.

Hanging around with a bunch of animals

getting drunk every weekend.

But it was a hit.

In Animal House, I knew nothing.

I'd never met an actor who had been in a film.

I had never met a single human being who had been in a film.

And then I got a call to audition.

It was gonna be a screen test.

I'd never done a screen test before.

I've learned to hate you in these last 10 years,

but no matter how much I hated you,

I always knew someday you'd come through this door.

And I remember him handing me the script

and seeing the title Raiders of the Lost Ark

and thinking, well, that's not a very good title

for a film.

Karen hated the title,

but when it came to her character.

I loved Marion Ravenwood.

I thought this is one of the best introductions

to a character.

Must have slipped his mind.

That kind of fierceness

and a sort of independence.

A strength of character and a,

you know, what people call feistiness.

Nobody tells me what to do in my place.

Karen seemed to be perfect.

But remember this depended on...

Chemistry.

But chemistry with whom?

We didn't have a leading man.

For Howard, it was as simple as two words.

Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford would be a perfect Indiana Jones.

But time was running out

to convince Spielberg and Lucas.

So I arranged a couple days later

for Harrison, George, Steven, and myself

to meet when I suggested why don't we have dinner?

I wanted George, and especially Steven,

just to see Harrison Ford, hear his voice.

Hello, Marion.

Look into his face.

Dinner was scheduled and Harrison Ford

was on the menu.

And I said, "Well, what'd you think about Harrison?"

And there was silence.

Spielberg was about to make one

of the biggest calls in his directing career.

And Steven said, "Look..."

By not making the call.

"George, you pick Indiana Jones

"and I'll pick the leading lady."

Steven picked Karen Allen.

I'm your Goddamn partner!

And George's picked for Indy?

George said, "Harrison Ford."

Steven called me and said, "It's gonna be Harrison."

So in comes Harrison.

The news of Harrison signing rippled

through the production.

We're devastated.

Every woman in the office.

Because Harrison shuffles in.

He had a quality of diffidence,

of shyness, introspection.

This is our hero? This guy?

Harrison, as a leading man? Who knew?

Howard knew.

If he isn't Indiana Jones, tell me who is.

It's not like he hadn't been in other movies,

but always as ensemble actor.

But there was no time for naval gazing.

The whole production pivoted towards its leading man.

- Jones. - It was

a whole new advert.

Jones!

The jackets that I made

for Tom Selleck were these crummy jackets,

and we threw all of those out.

And I had to remake all of them for Harrison.

Still, to be found,

an even more crucial item that needed to fit just right.

With the jacket scrapped,

the wardrobe team faced a new dilemma.

Was the hat next?

Harrison comes in for his fitting.

And we take these boxes and I empty them at his feet.

He is now knee-deep in fedoras.

He puts one on and he puts another one on.

Still nothing sat just right.

And I went to Herbert Johnson,

and they had something called their Australian model,

which sort of looked okay.

I essentially redesigned it.

Harrison Ford was very happy

to talk about his look.

Your appearance is exactly the way I imagined.

But when it came to his character,

he was keeping mum.

Coming from the theater we rehearse a lot.

We talk things through a lot.

We talk through scenes.

I remember trying to talk a little bit to him about the film

and the characters.

And he said to me, "I don't talk to other actors

"about the characters and the story."

So I had to make a big adjustment.

But Harrison Ford was looking

to make his own adjustments to the film script.

Steven wanted to have a script conference with George.

He wants Indiana Jones to be an alcoholic.

I like some complication in the characters that I play.

And Steven, you know,

has to listen to his actors, of course.

But I was against it.

I just didn't see it in this movie.

Not for the first time

in George Lucas's career--

Marcia speaks up.

The movie is about an archaeologist

who's a college professor.

Hired by the federal government.

This is all strictly confidential.

To find this Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis get it.

I'm gonna blow up the Ark, Rene.

And you think they're gonna hire an alcoholic?

I don't know. Whatever I said worked.

Because Harrison did not get to play an alcoholic.

While Indiana was sober...

Whiskey!

...the fee paid to Harrison Ford was enough

to drive any producer to drink.

Why? Are you willing to offer more?

Well now Harrison is locked in.

Harrison is being paid more than our original budget.

$20 million to do the movie, period.

At half a million dollars,

Ford was getting five times what was budgeted.

So now I have to take things out

of various other departments.

And here was this miniature plane with four engines.

It was a model for

a full-sized German flying wing and building it

was costing even more than Harrison Ford.

It's a million dollars. I don't have it in the budget.

He says, "What do you have in the budget?"

I said, "700,000."

He picks it up, grabs it like this, and he...

And he breaks wings and outer two engines off.

And he says, "Now how expensive is it?"

And I said, "It's in the budget."

Cameras were all set to roll

in June of 1980 on the west coast of France.

Finally, Harrison Ford was all dressed up

with somewhere to go, until--

George and I were walking the sets

before the Monday shoot.

And George said, "Oh, I haven't seen Harrison's jacket,

"the leather jacket."

So I brought it in my own luggage from London.

And she says, "Oh, it's right here."

And he says, "That's not what I want."

"Find a store and buy me a bomber jacket."

But if it was that easy,

you wouldn't need costume designers.

It wasn't a jacket that you could buy off the rack.

Instead, Deborah made it work.

I designed it and I custom-made it.

Like a fine wine.

It was all about the aging process.

I literally aged it the night before

we shot at La Rochelle in the submarine.

And that's the one we opened the picture with.

It's lovely.

And Harrison wasn't

the only cast member dealing with costume troubles.

It's beautiful.

Belloq gives Marion the white dress.

I would very much like to see you in it.

That's not a dress that Marion

would ever have chosen for herself.

She puts it on.

All right.

All I knew at the time is I hate this dress.

Yeah, she, yeah.

Every time I put it on, I was like...

She was not having that ballgown.

I have a big bow on my butt.

It was like this big fruffly thing and I was just like, ugh.

Ha! Ha!

Karen's struggle with Marion's dress,

went straight to the top.

Nobody cared what I thought.

It was made very clear to me.

It was Lucas's call on the dress.

George was the creative eye for the costumes.

He was immovable.

And it worked for the character,

actually for me to hate that dress.

Production designer Norman Reynolds

quickly found out he had a much bigger problem

than a frumpy dress.

My cabin is theirs.

Norman Reynolds found the Bantu Wind

and he found out that the Egyptians

who owned the boat had just painted it

to make it look sparkling clean.

That's exactly opposite of what everybody wanted.

And Norman was going crazy saying,

"What happened to my boat?"

So we got a crew out there and aged the boat down.

The boat was just one big ticket item

threatening to blow out the art department's budget.

- What's happening? - We have most important friends.

The submarine we had researched was built

for Das Boot.

But getting a submarine secondhand

definitely helped keep costs down.

It was actually not a submarine,

it was a submarine based on barges.

Whatever it was,

it was seaworthy, but only to a point.

Got in a small motorboat to be taken out

to this model submarine, which was bobbing

around in the waves and was very unseaworthy.

So it was moving the whole time.

They said, you can't take it out

in swells over 12 feet high.

And actually the swells were higher than 12 feet.

Several people got seasick.

Finally, on set and climbing into her role,

Karen discovered she had enrolled

in an actor's finishing school,

and Harrison Ford was her teacher.

I learned a lot from him because he had a lot

of experience working technically

in front of a camera, which I did not.

Now maybe 'cause she was nervous,

she didn't understand what to do.

I'd only done three films and a miniseries for television.

So I was very new to this world.

Steven worked very hard with her.

And many times Steven would sit

at that little table where they were drinking

and he would say, you pick up the glass

and you drink it and you do this.

That introduction was tough for her.

Just by watching Harrison work,

I was learning a lot about that relationship, thank God.

But Karen would still find ways

to bring her own experience to the film.

In the original script, as I remember,

the suggestion was that Marion

does have some sort of romantic liaison with Belloq.

Marion, you are beautiful.

I kept thinking this scene doesn't work.

Karen immediately marched over to her director.

And I kept sort of annoying Steven

by sort of pointing this out.

And he knew Karen and I

are both theater actors originally.

"Well, if you guys can come up

"with something better, we'll shoot it."

And we're perfectly happy

to rehearse it and go away and improvise.

You pour.

This was all

a seasoned theater actress needed to hear.

And we came up with this idea,

she's now gonna get him drunk.

And she's gonna escape.

Steven was delighted with what we'd shown him.

It's great. We'll do it that way.

Didn't ask us to alter anything.

Harrison wasn't one for devising

like his co-stars,

but he was about to inject a touch of himself

into one of cinema's most unforgettable props.

As the crew geared up to shoot an action scene

for Indiana Jones,

the leading man had a spark of inspiration.

Marion!

We're about to shoot the Arab with the sword.

They rehearsed the fight,

and then overnight, Harrison got really ill

with dysentery.

And when he arrived on set, he couldn't do it.

Throughout the entire picture,

I take my whip out and I fight the bad guys.

And he said, "Why don't I just shoot the fucker?"

And Steven says, "All right, we shoot the shorter version."

And then George said, "Wait, well what happened to the scene

"with the Arab fighting Indiana Jones?"

We go back and we shoot what's in the script.

Now Steven seems to be wondering

if that was the right direction to go.

The actors certainly had agency

on Spielberg's set.

Indy, why does the floor move?

But there were other performers

who would have their say too.

Then we did the snake pit.

Snakes.

Why did it have to be snakes?

It wasn't the most relaxing set in the world.

Asps.

There were pythons on the set

that were quite aggressive.

And dangerous.

How dangerous?

Very dangerous.

You go first.

We needed an ambulance out the stage door

and on the stage, a gurney

with a hypodermic needle actually injected

into the serum.

I told you it would be all right.

If you get it quick enough

I guess you can save somebody's life.

But who wants to go there?

Dangerous animals were the warm-up.

What happened next could have been catastrophic.

When Harrison swings into the water to get on the biplane,

the biplane takes off with Harrison Ford.

You could hear the zzz...

I hear the plane crash

and my heart crashed with it.

I couldn't get down the river

and all I could do was to yell to our security,

get down there and see what happened.

And then it was all silent.

And then on a walkie-talkie, "Everything's okay.

"Harrison is laughing."

He was laughing.

They pushed the door open, pushing a door open on a plane,

doing 9,000 miles an hour acts as a wind break.

Just pulled the lever on the engine

and just went straight into the mangoes.

That was my worst day.

May have been my worst day of all the pictures I've done.

Thankfully, principal photography was wrapped.

But visual effects supervisor, Richard Edlund,

still needed to find himself some Nazis.

I had to cast Marin County Nazis.

That wasn't so easy in 1981.

This was for the wrath of God sequence, because remember--

We could only shoot the long shots.

So I wound up having to shoot all of the closeups

of the Nazis getting.

Also on Richard's to-do list,

a small matter of making sure the Nazis lost face.

The deaths.

Our deaths.

Shut your eyes, Marion.

Don't look at it no matter what happens.

I think I had probably the biggest closeup

in the whole movie.

Not quite the biggest closeup,

but certainly unforgettable.

I can't quite remember what happened to my head.

I was going, he's gonna...

Here's a reminder.

Do I melt?

Blow up.

I know Wolf melts.

We didn't know what any

of the special effects were gonna be.

Steven would stand there going,

and now you know their faces are melting or whatever.

Of course, the real melting moment

was saved for the nastiest Nazi.

Yes, Ronald Lacey. It was pretty gross.

Thanks to some

excellent practical makeup effects.

This is the analog era.

Chris Walas was a great sculptor

and he basically sculpted a head made

with colored layers, then shot it with heat guns,

time lapse every two seconds of frame, we'd shoot a frame.

And it just worked out really great.

That was the end of the schedule.

And we basically, that was the last thing we did.

And we finished on time and on budget.

Spielberg had achieved

a first in his young career.

Steven got a $500,000 bonus

and George told Steven

to put it towards USCs building program.

And that is why the scoring stage

at USC has Spielberg's name on it.

Everything was now finally in the can,

and Spielberg hit the edit suite.

After several weeks when he had a rough cut,

Steven brings the film up for the first time

for George and I and Marcia to look at it.

I watched it and then the lights came on

and I thought, that's weird.

Something didn't sit right for Marcia

and it wasn't Indy's fedora.

The whole movie's about Indy and Marion

and he's saving her and they're having all these adventures

and you're gonna leave her tied up on the stick.

The rough cut left Marion

right about here because...

That scene outside the building with Marion and Indy.

- You don't look very happy. - Fools.

Wasn't in the movie.

Steven said, we didn't need that.

"We don't need it. We didn't shoot it."

I think that would've been very strange

to end the film with her just tied to the stake.

And I stood up and I said, I'm sorry,

but I do have a comment.

But you can't leave Marion tied to the stick.

Indy!

Marcia had a point.

Marcia understands story.

George and Steven start thinking about it.

George, "Well, I'll shoot it."

George says, "I'll shoot it."

"I'll shoot it second unit."

And so rather than ending here--

George shot the tag of the picture

with our two leading characters on the stairs.

They have their finale on film.

There was just one last piece to set in place.

Well, after we heard the first main score.

♪ Indiana Jones theme ♪

George leans over past me

and he says to Steven, "Sounds like Hogan's Heroes."

♪ Hogans Heroes theme ♪

Not the same.

It's nowhere the same.

Steven did not comment.

Maybe he was fuming.

No other comment.

Well, at least the next scene

would restore his faith in the film.

Steven says, "Well, I thought it worked better this way."

A little bit of silence.

During the first viewing of Indiana Jones,

George's reaction to seeing his street fight

turned into gun play, had Steven worried.

Little bit of silence and Steven says,

"Well, I thought it worked better this way."

Worried because George Lucas

still had final cut.

George puts back the fight

and Steven says, "I think it works better without."

Time to break another stalemate.

He says, "We'll have two screenings, one right

"after each other with a different audience.

"One with the shortened version and the longer version."

Raiders was test screened in May of 1981.

Sitting at the very back of the theater.

And the first is the Steven Spielberg version.

And the audience screams and goes crazy.

And George turned to Steven and says,

"Well, I guess that one works better than the other one."

We never had the second screening.

But even with all the hype,

the marketing had audiences more confused than convinced.

We did our own teaser trailer and gave it to Paramount.

For nearly 3000 years,

man has searched for the Lost Ark of the Covenant.

It was just the ark and some voiceover.

It is protected by forces beyond imagination.

So it was suggested by Paramount that we run it

with a real audience at the Chinese theater.

And at the end, they don't like it.

To many people, it was baffling. What's that?

So we will go back and change it, which we did.

And the mixed reaction to the trailer

posed even bigger questions.

It wasn't a sure thing.

It was cutting a new old genre. Cliffhanger.

One cliffhanger after another.

Would an audience accept that?

Did they want, you know,

something deeper and more substantial?

Shoot it like a B picture.

But did that mean George

and Steven had just made Harrison Ford

into an overpaid B actor?

Always as ensemble actor.

Son of a bitch.

That unknown quantity

would not be unknown for long.

You're about to become a permanent addition

to this archaeological find.

Following Raiders' release that June...

And I remember the numbers came in.

...within three days,

all those questions were answered.

We were astounded on Friday

and even more amazed on Saturday

and very happy on Sunday.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

netted nearly 390 million worldwide

from its meager $20 million budget.

Adjusted for inflation would be over

a billion dollars today.

And despite Universal's concerns.

It won't do well in Germany.

The crowds in Deutschland had no quarrels.

You Americans, you are all the same.

And for Deborah,

it had been a long road of doubt and second guessing.

This is our hero?

But when she saw the final product,

all the pieces suddenly made sense.

Steve wanted to be Indiana Jones.

George Lucas wants to be Indiana Jones.

They all wanted to be Indiana Jones.

Why, every man on the planet wants to be Indiana Jones.

And every woman wants to be with Indiana Jones.

But only one guy was Indiana Jones.

- He's vulnerable. - It hurts.

- He's competent. - Stay out of the light.

He's trustworthy.

I am already missing you.

He's kind.

Man of many talents.

And most importantly,

for audiences around the world.

They really fell in love with Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford had arrived.

This is now Harrison as the absolute.

This is his movie, top to bottom.

And yet his next picture

would be a sudden departure

into even more uncertain territory.

Ridley's a little bit of a, what's the word?

An artist.

He and Harrison have a lot of conflicts.

I think I went to Ridley

and I said, "What the fuck is he doing?"

And suddenly, Blade Runner was in deep trouble.

Absolutely a bomb.