Harrison Ford’s Iconic Unscripted ‘Indiana Jones’ Scene Most Divisive

Boasting elaborate setpieces and sweeping action scenes, the Indiana Jones franchise needs careful consideration for every scene. But some problems have been met with unique, sometimes remarkable solutions. 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark has one of the most referenced scenes in the franchise and was, famously, not in the script. But screenplay writer Lawrence Kasdan wished it had stayed that way.

Raiders of the Lost Ark sees Harrison Ford in his very first appearance as the adventurous Indiana Jones as his character races against Nazis in search of the Ark of the Covenant, said to make any army invincible. Hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, Raiders solidified the globe-trotting adventure genre for years to come and has one of the most iconic scenes in the franchise that’s earned polarized reactions from within its very production crew.

How ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ got its most famous unscripted scene with Harrison Ford

As audiences got their first good look at Indy and what he’s about, they watched the archeologist searching for his missing partner, Marion. On the streets of Cairo, he’s interrupted by a master swordsman who is determined to have a duel. While Indy can usually – eventually – get out of most sticky situations, this is a master of his craft and the intrepid adventurer is running out of time. Even if he did win, it would take time he can’t afford to waste.

On top of all that, director Steven Spielberg really wanted to hurry the production schedule along, a desire matched by Ford, who was grievously ill at the time.

“I was sick, and besides, up to that point, I kept worrying about the fact that I had been wearing this gun that I had never drawn,” shared Ford. “So, I said to Steven, ‘Why don’t we just shoot the sumb—h?’ He said, ‘Okay.’ He was ready to get out of there too. That’s how we got that scene.”

The improvised ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ scene might have been too much for some people

So, in the final version of the film, while the sword master shows off devotedly-cultivated skill, Indy puts an infamously blunt end to that display with a gunshot. Ford and Spielberg greatly approved of the final product and the juxtaposition going on in the clip has become enduringly famous.

Kasdan is not a fan, though.

“It was very popular, but it disturbed me,” he admitted. “I thought that was brutal in a way the rest of the movie wasn’t. I’m never happy about making jokes out of killing people. Steven is more in touch with popular tastes than I am.”

Now, because the scene was unscripted, it was not accounted for when crafting the character of Indiana Jones in the rest of the film. Is it inconsistent with his character? Yes and no. His record is far from squeaky clean, both with the context of self-defense and without. Plus. Bill Bria with Slash Film notes, there’s the question of Indy and Marion’s age difference when they met, with Marion being 15 or 16 when they crossed paths and Indy a decade older.

No matter what, the improvised scene certainly adds a complex layer to the iconic character.