Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones franchise is one of the most celebrated and popular movie franchises in the history of cinema. It has been a true adventure as Jones defies the deadly challenges to reach his goals in almost every movie.
But Ford has experienced the taste of danger and inhaled the fume of terror while on set filming a particular scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even the director Steven Spielberg was remorseful of Ford’s encounter with the unfathomable horror.
Smell the Danger, Jones
Snakes have been an integral part of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The primary character, Indiana Jones has a fear of these crawling reptiles, and the script needed to exploit that to further intensify the essence of the thrill in the narrative. Also, Harrison Ford was partly engaged in the stunts along with the team of stunt coordinators. So, in the classic scene of the serpents in the movie, Ford and the team hat to encounter real venomous and non-venomous snakes including cobras and pythons.
No, CGI was out of the question as it was filmed in and around 1981. Director Steven Spielberg also sensed the danger of the situation that Jones was in. Appearing on The Dick Cavett Show, Spielberg once revealed the gravity of the danger Jones was smelling.
“A lot of them were garter snakes but a lot of them were deadly snakes. The Cobras we got from India and we got the Boa Constrictors I’m not sure from where, and the pythons came in. We had many snake Wranglers in the film, we had four of them. They were always being bitten by everything but Cobras, of course, because that’s deadly. But the pythons were going after everybody.”
Playing with fierce snakes was not a fun adventure rather the smell of danger is embedded in the very act of it. Thankfully, the actor and the team pulled it off satisfying the very need of the director. Certainly, it was one of the most thrilling scenes to behold in the $389 million classic.
Steven Spielberg’s Horrible Way to Make Karen Allen Scream
Not just Ford, but other cast and crew were the victims of Spielberg’s directorial vision of that particular scene. It was all real, the scare, the beating heart, staring into the eyes of the snake, and whatnot. The director made sure to keep it as close as it can be to reality. Spielberg recalled,
“When something bites and snaps and grabs hold of the character that’s a Python and those are real teeth and that’s a real actor going, ‘Why am I here and why did I make this movie?'”
Further, the director went on to explain that he was not getting a satisfactory scream out of Karen Allen who played Marion Ravenwood in the movie. So, the director dropped a real snake on her to accentuate the authentic loud scary scream. Thankfully, she was not bitten while filming the movie. But assistant director, David Tomlin met the wrath of a python.
“Our assistant director had a very severe bite on his hand by a Python and it wouldn’t let go. They had to actually walk over and give it a little flick on the snake’s tail and the shock wave went up to the snake’s head and then he decided to let go.”
However, Tomlin had a good grasp on his nerves as he remained calm and “just walked around the stage saying ‘Uh help, please.’” Thankfully, all the cast and crew came out of harm’s way eventually. But there is no denying that filming the movie has a more intense thrill than the actual film on the screen. Still, the movie remained a classic and a pleasure for fans who love adventure movies.
Source: Slashfilm
