13. The Old Man Tells Indy Not To Look At The Ark - Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Remember the scene in which Indy visits the old wise man in order to get him to translate the inscription on the headpiece to the Staff of Ra? Well, there was supposed to be a lot more exposition. Had Spielberg ultimately opted to include it, there would have been fewer cries of "How did Indy know not to look at the Ark of the Covenant at the end of the film?" In the extended version of the scene, Imam (or Amir in some versions) - the old man - warns Indy to never look at the Ark once it's opened, or he'll plainly die. It's not known whether this was removed to save time, or Spielberg ultimately decided to take it out because he wanted the revelation of the Ark to be more mysterious and unexpected. Unfortunately, no known footage of these extended dialogue cues exists. What we do have, however, is a moment in the third draft screenplay that sees Indy warning Sallah not to touch the Ark when they hi-jack it from deep within the Well of the Souls, presumably based on warnings that came courtesy of the old man:
Sallah is mesmerised by the sight. His hand starts to reach out and touch one of the angels, but Indy grabs it.INDYDon't touch it! Never touch it!
These dialogue snippets between Indy and Sallah also failed to make it into the final cut of the movie, probably in an attempt to keep the film's runtime down.