Solo, A Star Wars Story opens this weekend,
but since IGN beat us to the punch on the Things You Didn't Know About Han Solo.
And it's the tenth anniversary of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
We're setting our sights on that other handsome smuggler played by Harrison Ford.
>> But don't get your Wookie in a twist,
there's still plenty of Star Wars things in this episode, too.
Here are nine things you didn't know about Indiana Jones.
Probably. (Music)
The Indiana Jones franchise is a hallmark of the action adventure genre.
And Harrison Ford in the titular role is one of the most iconic movie
heroes of all time.
So it really boggles the mind that the part almost went to Tom Selleck.
>> You might already know he was
actually a lock.
And the only thing that kept him from signing on was an obligation to start
production on his new show, Magnum PI. >> He chose
poorly. >> What you may not know is
Danny DeVito was their top choice for Sallah.
And the reason he wasn't able to join the cast was his contract with Taxi.
And if you ever want a taste of the twisted alternate universe where Selleck
and Devito are in the Indiana Jones movies.
Just watch Romancing The Stone and
the Magnum PI Raiders of the Lost Ark parody episode.
Our childhoods really dodged a bullet.
(Sound) >> The dog?
(Laugh) You are named after the dog?
(Laugh) >> Yep, he actually was, George Lucas
named one of the greatest characters in movie history after his Alaskan Malamute,
Indiana.
It was also the same dog that gave Lucas the inspiration for Chewbacca, which is,
boom, a bonus Star Wars thing, as promised.
But Indy wasn't the only character to get the canine treatment.
>> Hard to believe, isn't it?
>> Short Round was also named after
the dog of the screenwriters for Temple of Doom.
And Kate Capshaw's character, Willie Scott,
was named after Steven Spielberg's dog. >> Willie is my professional name,
Indiana. >> Capshaw and
Spielberg were later married, and for the sake of household harmony,
I can only hope the dog was cool with it.
And of course, there's Shia LeBeouf's character, Mutt,
which is basically a freebie. >> Got a lot of fond memories of that dog.
(Sound) >> The Indiana Jones series is
set against an array of exotic backdrops.
And since CGI wasn't really an option for the series before Crystal Skull,
the bulk of them were actually shot on location.
Though I'm sure the experience greatly influenced their later projects.
To incorporate the use of an air conditioned blue screened soundstage.
(Sound) >> For instance,
while shooting Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia,
they needed to remove dozens of TV antennas from rooftops.
In order to make this wide shot accurate for the time period.
The temperature was also triple digits for every day of shooting, and
almost everyone got food poisoning. >> Bad dates.
(Music)
>> Spielberg was the only one who didn't get sick because he ate every meal from
canned foods flown in from the UK.
The sword versus gun scene was originally going to be a long sword fight sequence.
But after Harrison Ford got sick, they improvised this classic moment.
Also producer Frank Marshall stepped in to play this pilot after the stuntman
took ill.
But worst of all was John Rhys Davies, who had a 105 degree fever, and
while shooting a now thankfully deleted scene.
He bent down and straight up (Bleep) his pants in front of the whole crew.
>> (Music) A British Tar is a soaring soul!
(Sound) That's free as a mountain bird.
(Sound) >> There was also a fair share of external
physical injuries on set.
Like when Short Round broke a stick over this guy's head and
the other piece went flying and gave Kate Capshaw a black eye.
Or when Shia LeBeouf pulled a rotator cuff in his pelvis
while doing swordplay with Cate Blanchett.
And, now that I read that out loud, I'm realizing how dirty that sounds.
>> You fight like a young man.
Eager to begin, quick to finish. >> Oof!
>> Also, legendary stuntman Pat Roach
was knocked out cold while on fire when this break away chair just didn't break.
But the scales were balanced when Harrison Ford herniated his back,
flipping Pat over his head- (Sound) >> And
needed to make an emergency flight back to LA for an experimental back surgery.
(Sound) >> Jeez,
more like Injury-ana Jones, am I right?
(Laugh) >> Come on, show a little back bone,
will you? >> Thankfully,
Ford had gotten into great shape in preparation for his shirtless scenes.
And he credits this physicality for getting him back on set good as new.
Though during the six weeks that he was out,
Ford's stunt double stepped in to do most of the Indy shots in the mines.
Vic Armstrong, besides having the coolest name in history, doubled for
Harrison Ford in the first three movies.
And his wife, Wendy Leech, doubled for all the women.
But this wasn't the first action franchise they teamed up on, which is, boom,
a bonus segue!
(Sound) Before Spielberg started to work on Raiders of the Lost Ark,
he really wanted to do a Bond picture.
Though Lucas was able to convince him to work on Indy instead,
you can still find plenty of 007.
Like this opening scene in Temple of Doom, I mean, who are you kidding?
>> Shocking.
>> Nothing shocks me.
>> Short Round's subtle Bond style
introduction. >> This is Mr. Round.
>> Short Round.
>> Former bond girl Alison Doody,
now an Indy girl.
And of course, casting the original Bond, Sean Connery, as Henry Jones Senior.
Then having him shot by former Bond villian using Bond's signature
weapon a Walther PPK.
Not to mention good old Vic Armstrong, who has doubled for
four James Bonds in his day.
Along with his wife, Wendy Leech,
on the Bond girl stunt team. >> And
Wendy Leech also did stunt double work for C-3P0, which is a boom!
(Sound) >> Bonus Start Wars thing, and
another instance of the Lucasfilm snake eating its own tail.
Did someone say snakes?
(Sound)! >> What would
an Indiana Jones movie be without a hefty dose of real live creepy crawlies?
Well, probably a much easier movie to make since they inevitably decided to use CGI.
In lieu of dealing with thousands of gross living creatures.
For Raiders, they constructed the set for
the Well of the Souls at the legendary sound stage at Elstree Studios in London.
Where The Shining was filmed, and
filled it with approximately 9,000 snakes from three different breeders.
It was originally 2,000, but
Spielberg requested more when that didn't cover enough for a wide shot.
Also, most of them weren't even snakes.
The bulk of them were glass snakes, which are actually lizards with no legs.
You can spot them if you see any blinking since snakes don't blink.
They also shot the bug scene for Temple of Doom in Elstree and
used something in the neighborhood of 50,000 bugs.
Though there was only a quarter of that number left at the end of the shoot since
they kept escaping onto the streets of London.
And while Harrison Ford is actually totally cool with snakes in real life.
Kate Capshaw needed to be medically sedated to cope
with this scene. >> The rats in The Last Crusade were
apparently pretty easy to deal with, since rats can be trained.
But the monkey in Raiders was not so easy to direct.
George Lucas actually did some second unit directing on this monkey sig heil scene
and it apparently took 50 takes to finally get it.
No! >> Also the monkey sounds were done by
voice actor Frank Welker, who did the voice of Megatron in Transformers and
Abu in Aladdin.
Which is pretty fitting, since that evil monkey is basically like a mix of Abu and
Megatron. >> (Sound) The first three movies,
and to a larger extent than you might think, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Rely heavily on real vehicles, sets, and practical effects.
Like this scene with actual dudes getting blasted by actual debris, or
this miniature town that was built for the nuclear bomb test scene.
Also, the studio really wanted Ford to have his whip digitally added later for
safety reasons.
Thankfully, he whipped those execs into shape.
But one of my favorite shots is this shot of an aquatic plane which used
to belong to Howard Hughes.
Was actually filmed on land, then the water and
a matte painting were added later.
In the traveling map shops, a model was used, and
I still can't tell the difference.
And while they made this plane completely from the ground up.
The submarine was a loaner from the movie Das Boot while it was still in production.
Also, this shot in the warehouse at the end of Raiders is a matte painting that
took months to complete.
And who could call themselves a child of the 80s if they weren't traumatized
by this scene.
This face melting was achieved by using multiple layers of wax and
filming a time lapse of it melting under heat lamps.
And if you think of this shot of Belloc's head exploding is a bit too much for
a PG rating, the MPAA ratings board has a segue for you.
(Sound) >> The Indiana Jones movies
were instrumental in creating the PG-13 rating.
(Bleep). >> Raiders of the Lost Ark was originally
going to get an R rating based on this head exploding shot.
But they compromised down to a PG by obscuring the shot with flames.
Temple of Doom," which has a grisly scene of mutilation and
human sacrifice somehow squeezed by with a PG.
But raised serious questions about movies that fall somewhere in the middle of
a PG and R rating.
Spielberg eventually proposed the PG-13 rating to NPAA President Jack Valenti,
and the rest is history.
Then the subsequent two movies received a PG-13 rating,
even though they are arguably the tamest in the series.
Actually now that you mention it,
Crystal Skull was pretty gruesome to watch in its own way.
(Sound) Hey, I kid, I kid.
(Sound) Okay,
time to make good on those Star Wars things because there's still a bunch.
And one is even featured in the opening of every episode of Things You Didn't Know.
These hieroglyphs of R2-D2 and
C-3PO are one of the earliest examples of a movie easter egg.
They also made an homage to it in Crystal Skull,
where some of the tiles have images of the droids as well as ET.
Since, you know,
there's aliens in this one. >> Aah!
>> Also this plane has its registration
number replaced with CPO for C-3PO. >> And the engine starting
sounds strikingly similar to the Millennium Falcon's engines failing.
>> It's not my fault.
>> Also, when Willie is getting sacrificed
into a pit of lava, the doors opening sounds just like a lightsaber.
(Sound) And the club at the beginning of Temple of Doom is called Club Obi Wan.
Also, aside from the obvious, plenty of Star Wars actors have been recycled.
>> I've got a bad feeling about this.
>> Porkins from A New Hope was clearly
re-cast because they needed top men. >> Top men.
>> And General Veers and Admiral Ozzel
from Empire Strikes Back show up as Walter Donovan and Adolph Hitler.
Which really lends a lot of weight to the fan theory.
That the Indiana Jones movies are just Hans Solo's dreams while
he's frozen in carbonite. >> I don't know where you get your
delusions, laser brain. >> But
that's a whole different show altogether.
(Sound) >> Laugh it up, fuzzball.
>> Well, that's going to do it for us,
hit the thumbs-up if you're seeing Solo this weekend.
And let us know in the comments if you'd like a part two.
Because after all these years, there's still plenty of Indy things.
>> It's not the years, honey,
it's the mileage. >> Thanks for
watching and subscribe to Cinefix for more true-ish things about movies and
sometimes John Reese Davies (Bleep) his pants.
Right here on Things You Didn’t Know.
(Sound)