Raiders of the Lost Ark

Theatrical Release Poster

**Raiders of the Lost Ark** (later marketed as **Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark**) is a 1981 American action-adventure filmdirected by Steven Spielberg, written by Lawrence Kasdan from a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It was produced by Frank Marshall for Lucasfilm Ltd., with Lucas and Howard Kazanjian as executive producers. The film originated from Lucas's desire to create a modern version of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s.

The first installment in the Indiana Jonesfranchise, the film stars Harrison Ford as archaeologist Indiana Jones, who battles a group of Nazis searching for the Ark of the Covenant. It co-stars Karen Allen as Indiana's former lover, Marion Ravenwood; Paul Freemanas Indiana's rival, French archaeologist René Belloq; John Rhys-Davies as Indiana's sidekick, Sallah; Ronald Lacey as Gestapo agent Arnold Toht; and Denholm Elliott as Indiana's colleague, Marcus Brody. Production was based at Elstree Studios, England, but filming also took place in La Rochelle, France, Tunisia, Hawaii, and California from June to September 1980.

Raiders of the Lost Ark became 1981's top-grossing film and remains one of the highest-grossing films adjusted for inflation. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Picture, and won for Best Art Direction, Film Editing, Sound, and Visual Effects with a fifth Academy Award: a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing. It is often considered one of the greatest films ever made. In 1999, it was included in the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film began a franchise starting with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a prequel television series, and numerous video games.

## Plot

In 1936, American archaeologist Indiana Jonesbraves an ancient booby-trapped temple in Peru to retrieve a golden idol. He is confronted by rival archaeologist René Belloq and the indigenous Hovito people. Surrounded and outnumbered, Jones is forced to surrender the idol to Belloq and escapes aboard a waiting water plane.

Two Army Intelligence agents later interview Jones at his workplace of the University of Chicago, and inform him that the Nazis are searching for his old mentor, Abner Ravenwood. The Nazis know that Ravenwood is the leading expert on the ancient city of Tanis in Egypt, and that he possesses the headpiece of an ancient Egyptian artifact known as "the Staff of Ra". Jones deduces that the Nazis are searching for the Ark of the Covenant, believing it will grant their armies invincibility. The agents authorize Jones to recover the Ark.

He travels to Nepal to discover that Ravenwood has died and the headpiece is in the possession of Ravenwood's daughter Marion. Jones visits Marion at her tavern before a group of thugs arrive with their Nazi commander Arnold Toht, seeking the headpiece. A gunfight erupts, the bar is set ablaze and the headpiece lands in the flames. Toht severely burns his hand trying to retrieve it and flees the bar in agony. Jones and Marion escape with the headpiece, and Marion decides to accompany Jones in his search.

The pair travels to Cairo, Egypt, where they meet up with Jones' friend and skilled digger Sallah. He informs them that Belloq and the Nazis are digging for "the Well of Souls", believed to lead to the Ark's location, with a replica of the headpiece created from the scar on Toht's hand. They realize the Nazi headpiece is incomplete and that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place. After a confrontation with Belloq in a local bar, Jones and Sallah infiltrate the Nazi dig site; Jones finds Marion bound and gagged in a tent but does not set her free in fear of alerting the Nazis, and promises to come back for her later. Jones and Sallah use their staff to locate the Ark in the snake-infested Well of Souls. Belloq, Toht, and Nazi officer Colonel Dietrich arrive and seize the Ark from Jones, before imprisoning him and Marion in the crypt. The two escape to a local airstrip, where Indy gets into a fistfight with a mechanic and destroys the flying wing that was to transport the Ark to Berlin, Germany. The panicked Nazis load the ark onto a truck, but Indy manages to catch up on horseback, hijack the truck, and make arrangements to transport the ark to Londonaboard tramp steamer Bantu Wind.

The next day a Nazi U-boat intercepts the ship. Belloq, Toht, and Dietrich seize the Ark and Marion but cannot locate Jones, who stows away aboard the U-boat and travels with them to an island in the Aegean Sea. Once there, Belloq plans to test the power of the Ark before presenting it to Hitler. Jones reveals himself and threatens to destroy the Ark with an anti-tank rocket, but Belloq calls his bluff and Jones surrenders.

The Nazis take Jones and Marion to an area where the Ark will be opened and tie them to a post to observe. Belloq, dressed as an Israelitekohen gadol, performs a ceremonial opening of the Ark (invoking a standard Sabbath prayer) and finds it full of sand. As Jones warns Marion to keep her eyes shut, spirits emerge from the Ark, eventually revealing themselves to be angels of death. Suddenly, flames form above the opened Ark and bolts of energy shoot through the gathered Nazi soldiers, killing them all. Soon after, Dietrich's head shrivels up, all the skin off Toht's face melts, and Belloq's head explodes. Flames then engulf the remains of the doomed assembly, save for Jones and Marion, in a whirlwind of fire before the Ark seals itself shut. Jones and Marion find their ropes burned off and embrace.

Back in Washington, D.C., the Army Intelligence agents inform Jones and Marcus Brody that the Ark is someplace safe and will be studied and monitored by "top men". It is then shown being sealed in a wooden crate and stored in a giant government warehouse among countless other crates.

## Cast

* Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
* John Rhys-Davies as  Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir
* Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood
* Paul Freeman as René Belloq
* Denholm Elliot as Marcus Brody
* Ronald Lacy as Major Arnold Toht
* Alfred Molina as Satipo
* Wolf Kahler as Dietrich