21/34 Raiders of the Lost Ark was originally given an R-rating because of the exploding head at the end of the film. Producers didn’t want the rating so they added layers of fire to the actor’s face in post-production to make the scene less graphic.
22/34 For the rat scene in The Last Crusade the producers asked their insurance company whether they were insured if the animals were unable to perform due to illness or accident, as one lost day of filming could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the end the insurance company wrote the world’s first insurance policy with a 1000 rate deductible, though 1000 mechanical rats were also used in the scene.
23/34 Indiana Jones was voted the second greatest hero of all time by the American Film Institute. The first is Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird.
24/34 During the runaway mine cart sequence of Temple of Doom Kate Capshaw got a black eye. The next day on set everyone else showed up with a black smudge under their eye.
25/34 Indiana never loses his hat in Raiders of the Lost Ark as an homage to classic serials of the 1940s where heroes’ hats stay on their heads no matter what happens. This was done because it was considered poor taste for a gentlemen to be hatless, even in a movie.
26/34 In 2014 director Steven Soderbergh published an experimental black-and-white version of Raiders of the Lost Ark with the soundtrack and dialogue replaced by an electronic soundtrack. His intention was to encourage audiences to focus on Steven Spielberg’s extraordinary staging and editing.
27/34 Indy’s jacket and fedora are both on display at the Smithsonian Institute.
28/34 The dress Kate Capshaw wears in the Shanghai club scene of Temple of Doom was made out of original beads from the 1920s and 1930s and was a one-of-a-kind so everyone was very cautious around the piece. In one scene the dress was drying out out on a tree but an elephant on set noticed the beads and accidentally ate the back of the dress. Emergency repairs had to be made before filming the club scene and costume designer Anthony Powell had to indicate on the insurance forms that the dress was “eaten by elephant”.
29/34 The scene where Indiana shoots a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark was not originally in the script. Indy was supposed to use his whip to take the sword out of the swordsman’s hands but when Ford and the rest of the cast got food poisoning he wasn’t able to perform the cast. After several unsuccessful attempts at the stunt Ford gave up and asked to just “shoot the sucker”.
30/34 The four horses used in the final scene of The Last Crusade were loaned to the film by King Hussein of Jordan.
31/34 In a deleted scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark Sallah is confronted by a soldier. John Rhys Davies, who was suffering from cholera at the time, had to bend over in the scene and he promptly relieved himself.
32/34 The python used in Temple of Doom was brought to Sri Lanka for filming by animal handler Michael Culling but the animals weren’t welcome in the country so he booked them their own hotel room under the names Mr. and Mrs. Longfellow.
33/34 During filming for Raiders of the Lost Ark Harrison Ford’s wife at the time, Melissa Mathison, came to visit him on set. Spielberg pulled her aside to talk over a story idea he had and the two wrote the script for E.T. the Extra Terrestrial during breaks on set.
34/34 For the scene at the rally in The Last Crusade Spielberg asked all the extras who did the salute to put their other arm behind their back and cross their fingers.
via Knowlable