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Action-packed and adventure-filled, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is director Steven Spielberg's loving homage to the Saturday matinee cliffhanger serials of his childhood. When the Allies discover the Nazis are planning to use the Lost Ark of the Covenant as a weapon, the U.S. government enlists archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) to locate the biblical treasure chest where the remains of the broken tablets of the Ten Commandments were placed. En route, Jones and his feisty ex-girlfriend, Marion (Karen Allen), must escape the clutches of evil Nazis, duplicitous "natives," and a nest of venomous snakes--not to mention the wrath of God. The groundbreaking special effects and furious, never-ending pace make for a stylish whirlwind of a movie, topped off with a fabulous sense of humour. This bare-knuckled, barnstorming, pot-boiling, eye-popping bucket of Technicolor popcorn became Paramount's highest-grossing film, and deservedly so--RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is quite simple one of the most enjoyable movies ever made.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: Here dashing, whip-wielding archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones is joined by comely chanteuse Willie (Kate Capshaw) and a 12-year-old sidekick named Short Round (Ke Huy Quan). Together they search for a mystical stone stolen from an Indian community and stumble upon a dangerous Thuggee cult. Exotic locales, wild chases, death-defying cliffhangers, last-minute rescues, screaming damsels, and tribal sacrifices are the order of the day as the threesome attempt to acquire the stolen stone. A few scenes originally planned for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK showed up in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM--most notably the mine chase sequence, which was part of the 80 percent of TEMPLE OF DOOM shot on a soundstage. Spielberg cast actress Kate Capshaw, who would later become his real-life wife, for the film.
INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE: Spielberg's third action-packed entry in the Indiana Jones trilogy evokes the cliffhanger Saturday matinee serials of yesteryear. It's 1938 and Indy receives word that his archaeologist dad, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery), has disappeared while on a quest for the Holy Grail. Indy embarks on a search for both his dad and the much-coveted artifact. THE LAST CRUSADE has a unique twist to the series' traditional opening-sequence cliffhanger. Actor River Phoenix plays an adolescent Indy who, while on a field trip with his Boy Scout troop, finds adventure on a circus train. Spielberg wanted to make the film about a father-and-son relationship, and Connery was his first choice to play Indy's dad. The selection was perfect, considering Spielberg and producer George Lucas first came up with the idea of the series as a rival to the James Bond movies in which Connery had starred. Before shooting THE LAST CRUSADE, Spielberg was planning on directing RAIN MAN with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise but gave up the project to fulfill his contractual obligation with Lucas to mak
