From establishing Indy’s characterization and his rivalry with Belloq in the gripping opening set piece to wrapping up the quest for the Ark of the Covenant in a neat bow with the grisly climax, Lawrence Kasdan’s screenplay for Raiders is airtig
Harking back to the pulpy adventure serials they grew up on, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas brought a delightfully old-school vision to action cinema in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark PvP Guide Ark . Ice-cool adventurer Indiana Jones is the quintessential Harrison Ford character and he got an unforgettable introduction in Raide
An action movie is perfectly passable if it has a couple of fistfights and explosions and a wisecracking hero, but the very best movies that the genre has to offer go above and beyond with visceral camerawork, breathtaking stunts, and sharp storytelling driven by action. Directors like John Woo and James Cameron have brought an artfulness to action cinema that legitimized the ge
The entire premise of Raiders and the Ark of the Covenant is just one facet of the Indiana Jones franchise that makes no sense . Many Bible scholars and average Christians were left scratching their heads in the first act when Marcus Brody talks about the powers contained in the Ark. According to Marcus, the Ark is capable of making its wielders invincible, leveling mountains, and decimating entire regi
Raiders is no exception to the famous director's love for powerful imagery. Though the story features some logical leaps, they're accepted in order to appreciate the magic happening in the story. For example, the incredible image of the snakes in the Well of the Souls is profound but raises questions of how they survived for so long with little oxygen or food. Other examples include the (supposed) 5 ft tall staff of Ra towering over Ford's 6'1 frame in the map room or Indy and Marion's unexplained escape from the Nazis' remote island at
The "Raiders March" is unique, rousing, and instantly recognizable by nearly any movie-goer today, while "Marion's Theme" invokes feelings of love. Perhaps his best work, though, is found in the mystical themes surrounding the movie's famous MacGuffin: the Ark of the Covena
That particular snake is a Monocled Cobra and is not native to Africa, where a large part of Raiders takes place. The Monocled tends to hang out in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. It would have been more fitting if the film had featured an Egyptian Cobra, which not only is more geographically correct but also features a more distinctive hood patt
It occurs after Indy avoids getting shot by the pilot. He's forced to turn back into his opponent, who decks him so hard that he spins out from underneath the plane. The next punch is a backhanded fist that should send Indy spinning to his left, but he instead spins to his right. The force and direction of the punch make this an obvious g
After Indy barely escapes death in the ancient temple, he returns to his job teaching college students about archaeology. He's in the middle of a lesson when he references an ancient chest-shaped burial known as a "cist." Depending on the source, his pronunciation might be wr
One of my favorite scenes in all of movie history is the scene in the valley where he's about to destroy it, and you get that amazing speech about the ark and humanity passing through history. I just want to dive into that: how it was written, how you approached it on set, what direction you were given. I'd love to just learn a bit more about that sc
One of the most renowned and influential works of world cinema, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is notable for its delightfully unrealistic fight choreography. The movie’s gloriously cinematic fight scenes have martial artists floating through trees with the lightness of a baller
Akira Kurosawa practically set the template for the modern Hollywood action movie with his 1954 masterpiece Seven Samurai . This three-hour epic sees some quaint villagers being threatened by a gang of bandits and a samurai assembling a team to protect t
It has everything a Bond fan could hope for : globetrotting action sequences, quippy one-liners, crazy gadgets, a megalomaniacal villain with a ridiculous plan, and a distinctive quirk — Goldfinger is the quintessential James Bond mo
From high-octane car chases to visceral shootouts, there are a bunch of different ways to thrill audiences in an action movie. One of the most fun aspects of the genre is fight choreography. If it’s staged, shot, and edited just right, brutal hand-to-hand combat can make for some intense action sequen
Finally, a lone man pushes the crate through an enormous warehouse, disappearing among the thousands of similar-looking crates, creating one of the greatest and most mysterious ending shots of all t
Ever since Harrison Ford strode onto the silver screen with a fedora on his head, a bullwhip at his side, and a satchel slung over his shoulder, Indy has been one of cinema’s most beloved and recognizable ico