Raiders Of The Lost Ark's Snake Handler Made A Surprise Cameo In The Movie
Run-ins with creepy crawlies are an obligatory element of every Indiana Jones movie. "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is loaded with centipedes, millipedes, and cockroaches; "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" plunges our hero into the rat-infested catacombs of Venice; "Indiana and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has those not-very-terrifying CGI Siafu ants; and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" brings back the centipedes and other disgusting insects for the penultimate set piece at Archimedes' tomb.
But when you think of Indiana Jones and slithery, scurrying things, you automatically think of snakes — although Indy wishes you didn't.
As we learn at the outset of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," our favorite globetrotting archaeologist hates snakes. Personally, I think they're beautiful creatures, but that doesn't mean I'd like to fall into a pit loaded with the sometimes lethal reptiles. This, of course, occurs during the Well of Souls sequence, where the loathsome Belloq traps Indy and Marion (Karen Allen) in a snake-ridden chamber from which there is seemingly no escape. This was the pre-CGI era, so everything is real, which means the film's stunt people (and, in certain cases, the actors) are interacting with very real cobras, asps, and pythons.
Understandably, Allen's stunt double balked at diving in with the fanged beasts, which forced director Steven Spielberg to improvise. Who on set was brave enough to risk a bite or two for the sake of movie magic? How about the man who brought the lovelies to set?
Get you a man who doesn't mind getting bit by snakes (over and over again)
In an interview with the New York Daily News, snake handler Steve Edge recalled Spielberg asking him to shave his legs, throw on a dress, and be Marion for every take that required close interaction with the reptiles. It's a good thing he did, too. Per Edge:
"I got bitten quite a lot on my legs, because I was wearing the dress and I stood calf-deep among the creatures. Pythons have anti-coagulants in their saliva that stops the blood from coagulating. So if they can't crush their prey, they'll strike and it'll get away. But the snake will follow until the prey is exhausted and run out of blood and then they eat you. Those bites are pretty painful, so when I got bitten several times on my feet and legs when I was in that shot there was a lot of bruising."
Stunt people get knocked around plenty for the love of their craft, but sustaining multiple snake bites is where many of them likely draw the line. As for the cobra that comes face-to-face with Indy (clearly through a glass partition in non-digitally enhanced cuts), Edge claims it was still venomous. "There was anti-venom serum on hand in case one of them got bit," he said. That's ... reassuring.
Amusingly, while Indy abhors snakes, Harrison Ford doesn't mind them. "He was actually braver than Indiana Jones," said Edge. "Harrison wasn't fazed by it whatsoever."
Which raises the question: how does Ford look with shaved legs?