Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg is known for his adventurous endeavours when it comes to his movies. Whether it’s dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, deadly sharks in Jaws, or snakes and scorpions in Indiana Jones, Spielberg loves his lethal creatures.
When Indiana Jones Director Brought 9000 Cobras On Set
Spielberg’s 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark has been touted as the sequel to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles by many. The iconic scene of the movie features Harrison Ford‘s Indiana Jones in the Well of Souls with Marion Ravenwood looking for the Ark of the Covenant. When the two enter the underground chamber, they find themselves surrounded by thousands of snakes and deadly cobras. Jones is known to suffer from ophidiophobia and is faced with the challenge to retrieve the ark while crossing the snakes.
When Jones is successful in stealing the Ark, it is stolen by a rival archaeologist and Jones and Ravenwood are trapped underground with the snakes. As the two try to find their way out of the chamber, they torch a few snakes to make way which further agitates venomous snakes in the chamber. While the movie ended on a cliffhanger, the bigger question people were left wondering about was why were the snakes not hiding in crevices as they normally do.
In 2003, there was a documentary released titled “Indiana Jones: Making The Trilogy“, which discussed the making of the film. While talking about the underground chamber scene, producer Frank Marshall revealed that a lot of real cobra and snakes were brought to the set. It was a combination of real snakes and rubber snakes, but the cobras really frightened the crew.
“The day that the cobras arrived, everything changed. Everybody was very serious about the cobras being there. We had antivenom serum, we had a lot of protection for the handlers. And even the actors were very respectful of these snakes. Because they were deadly.”
The on-set footage from 1979 also shows Spielberg demanding more snakes on set. There were 2,000 snakes already present on the set and Spielberg demanded 7,000 more of them. While the snakes weren’t poisonous, the cobras were and that is what caused the crew to keep the antivenom serums handy.
“You’re Ruining My Movie”: Steven Spielberg
In the scene where we see Ford comes face to face with the hooded cobra, the two were separated by a glass pane for safety reasons. The American actor was not afraid of snakes at all, however, his character was dead scared of them. And Jones was right to be scared of the venomous cobra by all means. In the documentary, producer Kathleen Kennedy was on set to witness a frightening moment when the cobra sprayed venom during the shoot. She recalled how the cobra had whipped his head to the side and sprayed the entire glass, that was separating Ford and the reptile, with venom.
On a lighter note, director Spielberg was getting frustrated with the snakes who instead of running away from fire, were snuggling up next to warm fire torches. In a scene where Indiana Jones is supposed to torch the snakes to scare them away, the snakes were coming towards the fire for warmth. A hilarious footage from the documentary shows Spielberg interacting with snakes asking them to stop ruining his movie.
“You don’t like fire, or you do like fire? … You love fire? In the script, you’re supposed to hate fire! Why do you like fire?! You’re ruining my movie!”
It seemed like the stern talk helped as the snakes obliged obediently and the director was able to finish shooting the chamber scene after all.
