Raiders of the Lost Ark/Trivia

• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The swordman chase scene originally involved Indy disarming the man with his whip, but Ford was sick with dysentery at the time, and he asked if he could just shoot the man, which the final cut had him doing.
• Star-Making Role: For Harrison Ford. Star Wars was a huge success and his Lovable Rogue became an Ensemble Darkhorse, but it was after Raiders of the Lost Ark that he stopped being "the guy from Star Wars" and became Harrison Ford. Tellingly, despite his ties to George Lucas, Ford only got the role when first pick Tom Selleck couldn't get time off from Magnum, P.I., considering Lucas was against using him to avoid having him be his Robert De Niro answer to Martin Scorsese using him in several of his early films.
• What Could Have Been: Michael Sheard was the runner-up to play Toht before ultimately being cast as the U-boat captain. He would play Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
  • Klaus Kinski was offered to appear in the film, but he chose to do a killer snake film Venom instead.
  • Tom Selleck was one of the choices to play Indiana Jones, but he couldn't make it due to his commitment to Magnum, P.I.
  • Early storyboard sketches show Toht originally having a light in one of his eyes and a cannon for an arm that could transform into a flamethrower! No, this was Spielberg's idea shot down by Lucas for being far-fetched, why do you ask?