1. Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Desert Chase
“I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go.”
The penultimate set piece from Steven Spielberg’s 1981 masterpiece is, like the film itself, an exercise in iconography. From the hero on the white horse to the truck stunt, everything here is a tribute that somehow becomes a new standard.
The Republic Pictures serials of the 30′s and 40′s that inspired Raiders featured, on several occasions, a man jumping from a horse onto a moving truck. Lucas keyed in on this image and built the entire sequence around it. It makes sense that Lucas would be drawn to this motif given how much of his work derives from the natural fighting the mechanical.
Even the sequence’s signature stunt pays tribute. Stuntman Terry Leonard had previously tried to replicate Yakima Canutt’s famous Stagecoach undercarriage crawl in The Legend of the Lone Ranger. This did not end well (he almost got his head crushed), so he wanted another shot at the title. Spielberg agreed, and the crawl under the truck was born.
All the film references in the world would mean nothing if the sequence could not deliver its own flavor, and little touches do the trick. Indy looking in the rear-view mirrors to see German soldiers on either side sets just the right tone, especially with Harrison Ford’s pitch-perfect groan in reaction to what he sees.
As with Die Hard, the hero’s vulnerability plays a vital role in keeping us in the action. Even though he’s one guy taking on an entire Nazi convoy, he’s not a one-man army. This is not a Schwarzenegger-esque unstoppable killing machine vibe. He gets shot in the middle of the sequence. And it hurts.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this sequence is that it was all shot second unit! Understand, second unit usually shoots shit like the outside of a building or a close-up of a hand dialing a phone. So, for the most part, that was not Spielberg behind the camera. He only created the storyboards and watched the dailies shot by a man named Michael Moore (not that one). Needless to say, I have a new-found respect for second unit directors.
In some cases, less is more, but the score here is in your face and it works. Some of John Williams’ best work, it stands on its own as a piece of music. You can find an in-depth analysis of it here.
Watch very carefully at the end (on the DVD – the YouTube clips cuts too early). It took me forever before I realized that the sequence includes a moment of watermelon-on-dog violence.
See also: The Entire Indiana Jones Quadrilogy (yes, even the fourth one).
Wow, we made it to number one! I’ve enjoyed this list so much. Thanks for the great tutorial!