Joey clinkscales raiders of the lost ark

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Spielberg loved the exploding heads scene

The final sequence of the film sees the Ark opened, unleashing malevolent spirits that dispatch Belloq and the Nazis in a series of increasingly ludicrous (and brilliant) moments: crushed heads, melting faces and exploding brains.

The makeup effects supervisor on the film was called Chris Walas and he conceived of the whole idea.

He really hates snakes. It took Marshall several hours, but eventually he found Mount Shubet. Watch it with someone you know fairly well. This footage was played back and sped up, so 10 minutes becomes about 3 seconds that we see on-screen.

The moment where the Nazi, Dietrich’s, head is crushed was done by creating a hollow mold of the actor’s head then sucking the air out if it very quickly.

Spielberg called the melting head, “the most impressive effect I’d ever seen.” And afterwards, Chris Walas was flooded with calls from other effects supervisors asking how he did it so they could copy it.

And there you have it – our 15 fascinating facts on the making of Spielberg’s classic.

Indy was almost 007

Both members of the movie brats, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were good pals and, to get away from the stresses and strains of Hollywood, would often vacation together when they had a new movie out. Lucas was not pleased.

15. This scene caused problems.

The monkey had been trained to make the move but, when in camera, refused to play ball.

Indy doesn’t like snakes – and neither did Karen Allen

Also during the Well Of Souls sequence, the snake handler – called Steven Edge – served as the double for Marion’s legs.

No bicycles.

For heroes, it has Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his former and future girlfriend, Marion (Karen Allen). Spielberg told them to release the female spider and, when they did, the males went crazy. Indy’s mission: Beat the Nazis to the prize. The operation was overseen as a second unit by George Lucas and took over 50 takes to get right.

Spielberg ran out of snakes

“Why did it have to be snakes?”

The famous scene where Indy has to confront his biggest fear in The Well Of Souls – thousands of hissing, venomous snakes – was a logistical nightmare to arrange.

Originally, Spielberg had the idea of using mechanical snakes, but it was decided that they looked too fake, so Spielberg opted for real snakes instead.

He wanted 7000-10,000 snakes for the scene so, shooting at Elstree Studios, he had producers scouring every pet shop in London for every snake they could lay their hands on.

On top of this, almost 200 members of the crew were struck down by food poisoning. There will be times during the film when it will be necessary to grab somebody.