George Lucas Pulled Some Good-Natured Manipulation To Keep Steven Spielberg On Indiana Jones
When Steven Speilberg's ultra-slick pulp film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was released in 1981, it was a massive success. Spielberg, following the template laid out by George Lucas a few years earlier on "Star Wars," made an old-world 1930s adventure serial with modern filmmaking techniques and storytelling tropes, transforming the simple, low-budget glories of the past into the marvels of the present. In many ways, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is a better sequel to "Star Wars" than "The Empire Strikes Back." I can imagine a world wherein "Star Wars," rather than direct sequels, spawned an anthology series wherein each chapter was a modern filmmaker doing their take on the pulp adventures of the past.
But that's not the way Hollywood works, as sequels are a more natural outcropping of a single success. As such, just as "Raiders" was raking in fistfuls of money, Lucas, the film's producer and story writer, approached Spielberg about a direct follow-up. It seems that when Spielberg agreed to direct "Raiders," he was in fact promising to eventually direct three Indiana Jones movies. Lucas said he had three story ideas. It wouldn't be until 1984 that "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" would hit theaters, so a lot of other ideas were floated at first.
It seems, Spielberg recalled, Lucas did not have three story ideas after all. He had lied to keep Spielberg on board with a sequel. In an amusing behind-the-scenes documentary, Spielberg and Lucas recalled the good-natured hoodwinking, and the creative process they actually had to go through to construct "Radiers 2." Ultimately, Spielberg reached into a drawer and dug out some old deleted scenes from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to make "Temple of Doom."
The rapids, the mine cart
Spielberg recalled that "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was originally written to be longer and to contain a lot more action. Perhaps Spielberg merely wanted to make several more chapters of an old-timey serial all at once. Spielberg said:
"'Raiders of the Lost Ark' was too super-packed with gags and stunts and set pieces. No movie could hold that much. So certain things carried over. And I always remember that the river rafting scene which we had written for 'Raiders,' I saved, kind of bookmarked for another 'Raiders' movie. That went into 'Temple of Doom.' And then we had an entire mine cart chase — like a roller-coaster ride — that was originally written for 'Raiders.'"
It was wise to save the sequences, because they ended up being the starting points for the sequel. The director continued, "Basically, I just took it out of 'Raiders' and put it in a drawer. And then, when it came time to figure out set pieces for 'Temple of Doom,' we dusted it off and stuck it at the end."
The mine cart chase was originally meant for the climax of "Raiders." After the Nazis obtained the Ark of the Covenant, Indy was to flee the ensuing Wrath of God by racing away in a mine cart ... with the Ark in tow. The river rafting sequence was originally part of the introduction of Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). To reach Marion's remote bar in Nepal, Indy took a plane that, as it so happened, was sabotaged by Nazis. Indy leaped from the plane in an inflatable raft and sailed through the Himalayas to get to Marion's place.
The excision of these sequences was wise. The pace would have been slowed considerably.
Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men
From those two action sequences, "Temple of Doom" was backward-engineered into a full movie. Perhaps the comparatively haphazard construction of "Temple of Doom" is a telltale sign of this; it's not nearly as tight or concise as "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
George Lucas may have lied about having ideas for a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" sequel back when Spielberg agreed to make the movie, but that doesn't mean he never had any ideas. Indeed, when "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was being made in 2008, Lucas shared some of his other ideas for several other Indiana Jones movies. In a behind-the-scenes documentary, Lucas recalled some of his thinking.
What ended as "Crystal Skull" began as a film called "Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men," likely a reference to the 1957 film "Invasion of the Saucer Men." Lucas also pitched a film called "Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Giant Ants," likely a riff on the classic 1954 monster movie "Them!" about giant ants. Spielberg shot back with a pitch for "Indiana Jones and the Yadda-Yadda of the Mysterians," but then recalled that the Japanese filmmaker Ishirō Honda already made a movie called "The Mysterians" in 1957.
Screenwriter David Koepp suggested "Indiana Jones and the Son of Indiana Jones," which partly came true; Indy's son is a character in "Crystal Skull" (played by Shia LaBeouf). It seems that Koepp, Lucas, and Spielberg all wrote out multiple titles on a list, and they extrapolated one off that list. Lucas wanted the word "Kingdom," and the trio agreed on "-of the Crystal Skull." The title chosen, the movie could now be written.