Raiders Of The Lost Ark Took A Very Expensive Risk With Its Submarine Scene
According to the Book of Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant was built by Moses during his trip to Mount Sinai as a carrier for the original stone tablet onto which he carved the original Ten Commandments as decreed by God. The Ark was carried by the Israelites on their 40-year trek through the desert and was used in multiple Jewish rites over the course of many, many years. It was a powerful vessel blessed by God and His Chosen People. There are more than 400 references to the Ark of the Covenant in the Bible. So it was more than just a movie McGuffin in Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It was a tool of divine retribution used by a Jewish filmmaker to slaughter Nazis. What a satisfying ending.
In his quest to find the Ark, the heroic Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) filches it off of a Nazi truck and puts it on a small skiff, intending to sail it back to London, away from the evil armies pursuing him. Sadly, a German U-boat locates Indy and takes the Ark back. It looks like the bad guys are going to get away, but Indy swims out to the U-boat and manages to slip inside before it submerges.
To film the U-boat scenes, Spielberg sought a submarine facsimile that had already been built, figuring it could be dismantled and moved to the United States for a few quick scenes. According to Derek Taylor's book "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark," Spielberg found the U-boat he wanted in France. The problem was, it couldn't be disassembled. Expensive plane tickets were hastily purchased, and a last-minute trip had to be arranged.
U-26
As it happens, the submarine in question was a partial vehicle constructed by director Wolfgang Petersen for his film "Das Boot," which was in production at the same time as "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Petersen had finished shooting it in a special underwater pen located in La Rochelle on France's Bay of Biscay, and agreed to loan it to Spielberg for "Raiders." The U-boat in question was a Type VIIC submarine, which was first commissioned in 1940. We will politely ignore the fact that "Raiders of the Lost Ark" takes place in 1938. We will also ignore the fact that the U-boat is emblazoned with the marker U-26, when in fact it was a replica of the U-96. Only deep-cut WWII nuts and submarine history enthusiasts might notice these sorts of discrepancies.
The "Raiders" filmmakers were happy to have found the "Das Boot" sub in La Rochelle, but knew instantly upon seeing it that they couldn't disassemble it. The crew were all flown to France in a hurry to shoot. The submarine pen was actually built by the Nazi party during World War II and was evidently too large to remove or disassemble, so the filmmakers figured they could incorporate certain elements of it into the film as well. The scene of the Nazi submarine base in "Raiders" was filmed in an actual German submarine base, complete with German writing on the walls.
Shooting in France was supposed to take a week. Spielberg had to be extremely careful with the U-boat and was only allowed to sail it into open waters if the waves were under three feet high. The engineer who built the sub for "Das Boot" was even flown in to make sure sailing conditions were just right.
Montage
Naturally, because shooting movies can never go smoothly, weather conditions weren't right for two days. Monday and Tuesday were a bust. The submarine sequences were actually slated to take place right at the start of the film's shooting schedule, so any delays would likely put the entire production behind. Luckily, when Wednesday rolled around, the weather cleared up, and Speilberg's crew hopped to work. They had a lot of footage to shoot and needed to be done by 11 p.m. on Friday.
According to the crew, the weather was pristine and easy on Wednesday. By midday Thursday, the sea started to get choppy, but they managed to get Petersen's sub back to the dock by the time the weather got too rough. On Friday, they were able to film everything they needed while the boat was tied up, including the night scenes. Two-and-a-half days later, all the submarine footage was captured. They finished at 10:45 p.m., 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
Scheduling was a concern for the makers of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as Steven Spielberg had just come from making "1941," a film that ran over budget and over-schedule. Paramount said that Spielberg needed to finish the movie in 85 days. To assure he did, Spielberg laid out a 73-day schedule. If he went over, he would be right on time. After extensive storyboarding and planning, Spielberg was able to hit his goal.
The rest is history.