10 Behind-The-Scenes Screw-Ups That Created Iconic Movie Moments
6. Raiders Of The Lost Ark Indy Shoots The Swordsman Because Harrison Ford Had Dysentery
The Indiana Jones franchise did so well because it offered up the kind of entertainment Spielberg and Lucas used to watch in serials when they were kids. Full of action, bombast and whizz-bangery for all the family, the films lit the blue touch-paper of success until it ran headfirst into a Crystal Skull-shaped brick wall.
Key to this success was the fight scenes. Needless to say, as befitting his status as an action hero, Dr. Jones got involved in all sorts of elaborate scrapes, involving whips, fisticuffs and ginormous fights with Nazis.
Knowing they were on to a good thing in the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the duo resolved to make Indy duel a master swordsman in the sort of awe-inspiring mega-fight that only two insanely hard men could muster. It was only going to be awesome, and nothing could possibly go wrong.
Well, it turns out something did. On the day of filming Harrison Ford came down with dysentery meaning he couldnt move too quickly for fear of violently soiling himself giving the creative duo a headache. To resolve this, Ford just asked why Indy a well-known marksman couldnt just shoot the guy. They both loved it, and we got an awesome character moment for a screen icon to boot.