An Old Injury Made Indiana Jones' Whip A Bad Fit For Harrison Ford
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Indiana Jones really only needs three things to truly be Indiana Jones. The first is obvious. He needs to be played by Harrison Ford. With his work over the course of five movies made across 42 years, few actors have paired with a character so beautifully to create a true cinematic character for the ages. The second is the fedora. No Indiana Jones silhouette is complete without that hat on his head. Not only does it just look good, but it is crucial to placing Jones within his early 20th century time period.
The third and final element that makes Indiana Jones who he is? The trusty bullwhip he has hitched to his waist. While so many adventure heroes have a knife, sword, or pistol at the ready, Indiana Jones' whip makes him stand completely apart from his ilk, and because it is such an unusual choice, anyone else who tries to give a whip to their character will just be standing in the shadow of Indiana Jones.
What's odd about the prevalence of the whip is that in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," he rarely uses it outside of the film's opening sequence, which of course features the whip-for-idol exchange with Alfred Molina's character. Other than that, his weapon of choice is usually a gun or simply just his fists. Whips are not the most practical instruments when it comes to being a weapon or just a tool. What they are able to do is very specific, and as it turns out, they are not the easiest things to handle. That was especially true for Ford, who quickly realized an old injury of his made cracking that bullwhip a little more difficult than he'd anticipated.
The injury of a carpenter
Before Harrison Ford became one of the biggest movie stars ever (or got consistent work as an actor), he had to have a normal job to live off of. In his case, he was a carpenter. As is typical for a profession like that, you open yourself up to opportunities for injury. In the book "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark," Ford recounted one such injury, saying, "I busted my wrist when I was a carpenter [...] I fell off a ladder at Valerie Harper's house." Falling off a ladder certainly doesn't sound like a fun time, especially when it results in a lingering injury. As it happens, that injury would rear its head when it came time to make "Raiders of the Lost Ark." As Ford explained, "My wrist has never quite come back [...] When I started bullwhipping I realized how important a wrist is."
What didn't help matters is that preparing for his scenes of using the whip were somewhat minimal, which makes sense considering how rarely he actually does use the whip in the film. Ford recalled:
"I had very little instruction [...] There's not a lot you can do. Glenn Randall, the stunt coordinator, showed me how not to whip the hell out of myself. But half an hour after he started training me he finished because it's really something you have to do for yourself."
Obviously, Ford was able to make it work, and having the magic of film editing and Steven Spielberg camera blocking probably made his whip usage look as great as it could. After all, there's a reason you can't think of Indiana Jones now without that bullwhip. Ford was able to pull it off, even with an injured wrist.