Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, one 1981 fast-paced, adventurous, and visually striking action film set the standard for the modern blockbuster.
In the early 1970s, George Lucas was inspired by the adventure serials of the 1930s and ’40s, and envisioned a modern tribute to those episodic cliffhangers – now featuring an adventurous archaeologist in the lead role.
He developed the idea further with screenwriter Philip Kaufman, who suggested the Ark of the Covenant – a legendary biblical artifact – as the central object of the story.
Lucas paused work on the project to focus on his groundbreaking 1977 classic Star Wars. After Star Wars became a worldwide success, he revisited the previous concept and pitched it to Steven Spielberg, who was interested in making a film in the style of a James Bond adventure.
Then, in 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced the world to Indiana Jones – the fedora-wearing archaeologist who became one of cinema’s most remarkable characters – with the help of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and actor Harrison Ford, who had previously played Han Solo in Star Wars.
Set in 1936, Raiders of the Lost Ark follows Dr. Indiana Jones, who is recruited by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the hands of the Nazis.
The film opens in the jungles of South America, where Jones retrieves a golden idol from a heavily booby-trapped temple, only to be betrayed by a guide and outwitted by his rival, French archaeologist René Belloq.
Back in the U.S., he is briefed by Army intelligence officials who inform him that the Nazis are searching for the lost city of Tanis in Egypt, believed to contain the Ark – a sacred chest said to house the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments.
To find the Ark, Jones must track down an artifact known as the headpiece to the Staff of Ra, which is in the possession of Marion Ravenwood, the daughter of his former mentor – and his former lover.
The middle of the film is packed with action scenes, including fights, chases, shootouts, and a memorable sequence involving a pit of snakes in the Well of Souls, the burial place of the Ark.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was an immediate commercial and critical success upon its release in June 1981, and became the highest-grossing film of the year, earning more than $300 million worldwide.
It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won five, including Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing.
It was also audiences’ introduction to the franchise that would follow, which includes The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989), The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Dial of Destiny (2023), as well as books, video games, and merchandise.
The first Indiana Jones movie has been consistently ranked among the greatest films of all time by critics, filmmakers, and audiences alike. In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and its influence can be seen in action-adventure films for decades afterward, and it helped shape the format for many Hollywood blockbusters that followed.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is now available to stream on Netflix.