The Big Picture
- Steven Spielberg’s films have many funny scenes, with iconic moments that make audiences laugh.
- The introduction of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark perfectly sets the tone for the film as a fun, thrilling adventure.
- The famous sword versus gun scene was originally unplanned, resulting from Harrison Ford’s illness, making it even funnier in retrospect.
Steven Spielberg has been working in Hollywood for 50+ years and is still going strong. Spielberg’s films have made a whopping $10.7 billion worldwide. From Jaws to Jurassic Park to Schindler’s List, and the more recent The Fablemans, Spielberg succeeds by making his audiences feel deeply. He can scare us with sharks and dinosaurs and alien invasions. He can make us cry with a story about a lost little alien or a heroic man during the Holocaust. And no matter how serious the movie, he always finds a way to make us laugh. Steven Spielberg’s funniest movie moment, however, wasn’t even planned. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, a bad day for Harrison Ford resulted in the classic sword versus gun scene. If you thought it was funny on its own, wait until you discover its backstory.
Steven Spielberg’s Films Have Many Funny Scenes
Ask someone what their favorite funny moment from a Steven Spielberg movie is and you’re going to get a variety of answers. There are just too many classic films to choose from. One popular choice would be the scene where E.T. in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial puts on a flannel shirt and gets wasted on beer while Elliott (Henry Thomas) is at school, only for Elliott to feel that drunkenness from miles away. A short legged alien stumbling around like a pathetic human is absurdly hilarious. Jurassic Park keeps us on the edge of our seats, but Jeff Goldblum‘s Dr. Ian Malcolm is always there with a one-liner for a moment of levity that doesn’t diminish the fear, but rather gives us a chance to breathe and release the tension.
A more recent funny moment for Spielberg came during 2018’s Ready Player One. Among a chaotic fight scene, where our minds are being overwhelmed by the immense nostalgia of characters from our youth appearing on-screen, in comes Chucky from the Child’s Play films. As he flies through the air, knife in hand, a victim can only yell, “It’s fucking Chucky.” For the most consistent laughs though, it’s the Indiana Jones films, specifically the original trilogy, where the chuckles fly fast, as Indy’s smart-ass, cocky charisma is the perfect counter for any horrible situation he finds himself in. One funny moment, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, has the tables turned, as he’s unable to impress his father (Sean Connery), but Spielberg’s best and most iconic funny moment comes at the beginning of the franchise, in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.
This ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ Scene Perfectly Introduced Indiana Jones
In 1981, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford were two of the kings of Hollywood. Spielberg had ruled the 70s, thanks to the original summer blockbuster, Jaws, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Meanwhile, Harrison Ford had spent the last few years playing some guy named Han Solo in a couple of Stars Wars films. To put these two together, with a story written by George Lucas, was a perfect grouping at the perfect time.
In 1981, however, no one knew who Indiana Jones was. That first film doesn’t even have his name in the title. While it looked like an old-school, fun serial film, that didn’t mean it was. It could have been dark and serious as far as any unsuspecting audience knew (Temple of Doom would go a bit dark, bringing in the PG-13 era). It took one scene to tell us so much in only a few seconds. In it, we learned who Indiana Jones was, and what the tone of this original film was going to be.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is set in 1936, with Indiana Jones as an American archeologist in Egypt trying to beat the Nazis in finding the Ark of the Covenant. One early scene has Indy and Marion (Karen Allen) on the run from dozens of bad guys in the city. It’s a thrilling scene, with Indiana Jones throwing punches and breaking out his trusted whip as he helps Marion escape to safety. He manages to hold off several men until he gets to a crowded street, where suddenly the people part. Standing in Indy’s path is a tall, menacing man dressed all in black. In his hand, he holds a giant sword. The man laughs and tosses the sword from hand to hand. He’s ready for battle and so are we. Indy stands with his whip at his side, but it’s he who looks whipped. His face is sweaty, showing his exhaustion. He grimaces, and then… he pulls out his gun and shoots the swordsman dead. After that, he simply turns away. It’s the funniest moment because it’s so unexpected. Spielberg has set us up, giving us an expectation of an epic fight, then turning it on its head. The moment tells us so much. Indiana Jones is a brave man, but he’s also no idiot. He’ll take the easiest and smartest way out when he can. It also tells us that while Raiders of the Lost Ark is going to be thrilling, we shouldn’t take it too seriously. It’s meant to be a fun time over anything else.
Why Was the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ Scene Changed?
Before you shower Steven Spielberg or George Lucas with praise for coming up with such a telling and funny scene, you should know it was never meant to happen. The sword versus gun scene wasn’t in the script, and it’s not something Spielberg decided later. It happened because Harrison Ford was sick. That look on Indy’s face, where he looks so tired and sweaty, is not just an adventurer exhausted by the battle, it’s an actor trying not to shit his pants.
The intense fight scene might only last a few minutes, but with so much going on, it was going to take a few days to film. On the very first day, Harrison Ford got seriously ill. He pushed through it, but his energy, and his ability to literally hold everything in, was wearing down. Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed in Tunisia. During this time, many members of the cast and crew came down with dysentery. Even the big movie star lead wasn’t immune. In a 2000 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Ford talked about how Spielberg had searched the world for the best swordsman in what was meant to be this huge fight of whip against blade. “A lot of planning had gone into this fight,” he added. But Ford was struggling, so in a moment of compromise, the actor approached the director. “So I went up to Steven as soon as I arrived and I said, ‘Steven, why don’t we just shoot this son of a bitch?’, and Steven said, ‘My God, I was thinking that too.'”
Hence, one of the funniest moments in movie history was born. That Raiders of the Lost Ark scene is already funny on its own, but to then add in the fact that it was created because the star was sick from crapping himself so much, and it takes it to a whole new level of hilarity. It’s proof that the best comedy is not planned, but created from spontaneous moments, even the most disgusting ones.
