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Raiders of the Lost Ark

1981 film by Steven Spielberg

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 film about archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones, who is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do.

The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it... is invincible.
Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.
I'm making this up as I go.
It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage.
I HATE SNAKES!
Why did it have to be snakes?
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.
The Return of the Great Adventure! Taglines

Indiana Jones

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  • [as the Nazis are opening the Ark] Marion, don't look at it. Shut your eyes, Marion. Don't look at it, no matter what happens!
  • Don't look, Marion! Keep your eyes shut!

Marion Ravenwood

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  • God damn it, Indy, where doesn't it hurt?
  • You can't do this to me! I'm an American!
  • We never seem to get a break, do we?
  • Indy?

René Belloq

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  • [to Colonel Dietrich] Let me ask you this: Would you feel more comfortable opening the Ark in Berlin for your Führer? Finding out, only then, if the sacred pieces of the Covenant are inside? Knowing only then whether you have accomplished your mission, and obtained the one, true Ark?

Dialogue

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[Indy triggers a hidden booby trap, which fires a poisoned dart into a stick]
Jones: [hands Satipo the stick] Stay here.
Satipo: [shrugs] If you insist, señor.
[Indy needs his bullwhip to swing across a chasm]
Jones: Give me the whip.
Satipo: Throw me the idol. [they both see a stone door closing] No time to argue! Throw me the idol, I'll throw you the whip!
Jones: [throws the idol] Give me the whip!
Satipo: [drops the whip] Adiós, señor. [leaves]
Belloq: Dr. Jones. Again, we see there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away. And you thought I'd given up. [Indy reaches for his gun, only to hand it over when the warriors draw back their weapons] You chose the wrong friends. This time it will cost you.
Jones: It's too bad the Hovitos...don't know you the way I do, Belloq. [hands over the prized idol]
Belloq: Yes, too bad. You could warn them...if only you spoke Hovitos!
Jones: THERE'S A BIG SNAKE IN THE PLANE, JOCK!
Jock: Oh that's just my pet snake Reggie!
Jones: I HATE SNAKES, JOCK! I HATE 'EM!
Jock: Come on, show a little backbone, will ya?
Maj. Eaton: Dr. Jones, we've heard a great deal about you.
Jones: Have you?
Maj. Eaton: Professor of Archaeology, expert on the occult and, how does one say it...obtainer of rare antiquities?
Jones: That's one way of saying it. Why don't you sit down? You'll be more comfortable.
Col. Musgrove: Thank you. Yes, you're a man of many talents. Now, you studied under Professor Ravenwood at the University of Chicago?
Jones: Yes I did.
Maj. Eaton: And you have no idea of his present whereabouts?
[Indy and Marcus exchange a look]
Jones: Uh, just rumours, really. Somewhere in Asia, I think. I haven't spoken to him for ten years. We were friends, but we...had a bit of a falling out, I'm afraid.
Col. Musgrove: Now, Dr. Jones, you must understand this is all...strictly confidential. Yesterday afternoon, our European section intercepted a German communiqué that was sent from Cairo to Berlin. Now-
Maj. Eaton: You see, over the last two years, the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all kinds of religious artifacts. Hitler's a nut on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult, and right now, apparently, there's some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside of Cairo.
Col. Musgrove: Now we've got some information here, but we can't make anything out of it, and maybe you can. [reads the communiqué] Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, Staff of Ra, Abner Ravenwood, U.S.
Jones: The Nazis have discovered Tanis.
Maj. Eaton: Just what does that mean to you, uh, "Tanis"?
Brody: Well it-
Jones: [interrupts him] The city of Tanis is one of the possible resting places of the Lost Ark.
Col. Musgrove: The Lost Ark?
Jones: Yeah, the Ark of the Covenant. The chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments.
Maj. Eaton: What do you mean, the commandments? You're talking about the Ten Commandments?
Jones: Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets Moses brought down from Mount Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. Didn't either of you guys ever go to Sunday school?
Col. Musgrove: Well, uh, I-
Jones: Look, the Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark, and when they settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of Solomon.
Brody: In Jerusalem.
Jones: Where it stayed for many years. Until, all of a sudden, whoosh, it's gone.
Maj. Eaton: Where?
Jones: Well nobody knows where, or when.
Brody: However, an Egyptian pharaoh...
Jones: Shishak.
Brody: Yes...invaded the city of Jerusalem around about 980 B.C. and he may have taken the Ark back to the city of Tanis and hidden it in a secret chamber called the Well of Souls.
Maj. Eaton: Secret chamber?
Brody: However, about a year after the pharaoh had returned to Egypt, the city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm that lasted a whole year. Wiped clean by the wrath of God.
[The agents exchange looks]
Col. Musgrove: Well, obviously we've come to the right men. Now, you seem to know all about this Tanis.
Jones: No, no, not really. Ravenwood's the real expert. Abner did the first serious work on Tanis. Collected some of its relics. It was his obsession, but he never found the city.
Maj. Eaton: Frankly, we're somewhat suspicious of Mr. Ravenwood. An American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable.
Brody: Oh, rubbish. Ravenwood's no Nazi.
Col. Musgrove: Well what do the Nazis want him for, then?
Jones: Well obviously the Nazis are looking for the headpiece to the Staff of Ra and they think Abner's got it.
Maj. Eaton: What exactly is the headpiece to the Staff of Ra?
Jones: Well the staff is just a stick, [gestures with his hands to convey the length of the staff] I don't know, about this big, nobody really knows for sure how high. And it's... [draws a diagram on a blackboard] it's capped with an elaborate headpiece in the shape of the sun with a crystal in the center. And what you did was you took the staff to a special room in Tanis, a map room with a miniature of the city all laid out on the floor, and if you put the staff in a certain place, at a certain time of day, the sun shone through here and made a beam that came down on the floor here... [contemplates the enormity of such a potential discovery] and gave you the exact location of the Well of the Souls.
Col. Musgrove: Where the Ark of the Covenant was kept?
Jones: That's exactly what the Nazis are looking for!
Maj. Eaton: Well what does this Ark look like?
Jones: Uh, there's a...picture of it right here. [opens an old leatherback Bible to an illustration showing the Israelites holding the Ark above them, with great beams of light emanating from the Ark, piercing the ranks of the opposing army surrounding them, with the soldiers in various states of agony and death] That's it.
Maj. Eaton: Good God!
Brody: Yes, that's just what the Hebrews thought.
Col. Musgrove: [pointing to the firebolts] Uh, now, what's that supposed to be coming out of there?
Jones: Lightning...fire...the power of God or something.
Maj. Eaton: I'm beginning to understand Hitler's interest in this.
Brody: Oh yes. The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it...is invincible.
Brody: Marion's the least of your worries right now, believe me, Indy. I mean, for nearly three thousand years, man has been searching for the Lost Ark. It's not something to be taken lightly. No one knows its secrets. It's like...nothing you've ever gone after before.
Jones: Oh, Marcus! What are you trying to do, scare me? You sound like my mother! We've known each other for a long time. I don't believe in magic, a load of superstitious hocus-pocus. I'm going after a find of incredible historical significance. You're talking about the boogeyman! Besides, you know what a...cautious fellow I am. [unwraps his gun and throws it into his packed belongings, just in case]
Jones: Hello, Marion.
Marion: Ha! Indiana Jones! Always knew someday you'd come walkin' back through my door. I never doubted that. Something made it inevitable. So what are you doing here in Nepal?
Jones: I need one of the pieces your father collected. [turns away]
Marion: [packs a solid right hook to his jaw] I learned to hate you in the last ten years!
Jones: [holding his jaw] I never meant to hurt you.
Marion: I was a child! I was in love! It was wrong and you knew it!
Jones: You knew what you were doing.
Marion: Now I do. This is my place. Get out!
Jones: Belloq.
Belloq: Good afternoon, Dr. Jones.
Jones: I ought to kill you right now.
Belloq: Not a very private place for a murder.
Jones: Well, these Arabs don't care if we kill each other. They're not going to interfere in our business.
Belloq: It was not I who brought the girl into all this. Please, sit down before you fall down. We can at least behave like civilized people. :[Indy then sits down as the monkey crawls off his shoulder and scampers away] I see your taste in friends remains consistent. How odd that it should end this way for us, after so many...stimulating encounters. I almost regret it. Where shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level?
Jones: Try the local sewer.
Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archaeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light.
Jones: Now you're gettin' nasty.
Belloq: You know it's true. How nice. Look at this. [holds out a pocket watch] It's worthless. Ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless! Like the Ark! Men will kill for it. Men like you and me.
Jones: What about your boss, der Führer? I thought he was waiting to take possession.
Belloq: All in good time. When I am finished with it. Jones, do you realize what the Ark is? It's a transmitter! It's a radio for speaking to God, and it's within my reach!
Jones: You wanna talk to God? Let's go see Him together. I've got nothing better to do. [prepares to shoot Belloq]
[The Arabs pull guns on Indy and a crowd of children hurry in to escort him away]
Belloq: Next time, Dr. Jones, it will take more than children to save you!
[Indy and Sallah are peering down upon opening the Well of Souls]
Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Jones: Give me your torch. [drops the torch into the chamber, revealing hundreds of snakes covering the floor of the Well] Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.
Belloq: [looking down at Indy in the Well of Souls] Hello! Hello! Why, Dr. Jones, whatever are you doing in such a nasty place?
Jones: Why don't you come on down here? I'll show ya!
Belloq: Thank you, my friend, but I think we are all very comfortable up here. Yes, that's right, isn't it? Yes, we are all very comfortable up here. So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine. What a fitting end to your life's pursuits. You're about to become a permanent addition to this archaeological find. Who knows? In a thousand years, even you may be worth something!
Jones: [laughs; mutters] Son of a bitch...
Dietrich: I'm afraid we must be going now, Dr. Jones. Our prize is awaited in Berlin. But we do not wish to leave you down in that awful place...all alone.
Jones: I'm going after that truck.
Sallah: How?
Jones: I don't know. I'm making this up as I go.
Marion: You're not the man I knew ten years ago.
Jones: It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage.
Jones: Hello! [aiming a grenade launcher at the Ark from a ridge above]
Belloq: [cannot believe it] Jones? JONES?!
Jones: I'm gonna blow up the Ark, René!
Belloq: Your persistence surprises even me! You're going to give mercenaries a bad name.
Col. Dietrich: Dr. Jones? Surely you don't think you can escape from this island?
Jones: That depends on how reasonable we're all willing to be. All I want is the girl.
Col. Dietrich: If we refuse?
Jones: Then your Führer has no prize.
Belloq: [ordering the soldiers] Okay, stand back. All of you, stand back. Get back. [to Jones] Okay, Jones. You win. Blow it up. [soldiers move to encircle the Ark, but Belloq takes a machine gun and forces them back] Yes, blow it up! Blow it back to God. All your life has been spent in pursuit of archaeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it open as well as I. Indiana...we are simply passing through history. This... [gestures to the Ark] This is history. [Marion, Toht, Dietrich and the soldiers exchange pensive looks] Do as you will.
[Indy begrudgingly lowers the grenade launcher and soldiers appear behind him]
Brody: Where is the Ark?
Maj. Eaton: I thought we'd settled that. The Ark is somewhere very safe.
Jones: From whom?
Brody: The Ark is a source of unspeakable power and it has to be researched!
Maj. Eaton: And it will be, I assure you, Doctor Brody, Doctor Jones. We have top men working on it right now.
Jones: Who?
Maj. Eaton: Top...men...
[Last lines]
Marion: Hey! What happened? You don't look very happy.
Jones: Fools. Bureaucratic fools.
Marion: What'd they say?
Jones: They don't know what they've got there.
Marion: Well I know what I've got here. Come on, I'll buy you a drink. You know, a drink?

( ominous theme playing )

( William's "The Raiders March" playing )

( tender theme playing )

( dramatic theme playing )

Taglines

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  • The Return of the Great Adventure!
  • If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones!

Cast

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See also

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About

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  • Lucas: A bounty hunter of antiquities.
  • Spielberg: I like that. The doctor with the bullwhip.
  • Lucas: He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.
Kasdan: And he was forty-two.
Lucas: He hasn’t seen her in twelve years. Now she’s twenty-two. It’s a real strange relationship.
Spielberg: She had better be older.
  • Lucas: It has to be unique. It's a character. Very Americana. Square. He was born in Indiana.
Kasdan: What does she call him? Indy?
Lucas: That’s what I was thinking. Or just Jones.
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark Brainstorming Session [1]
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