20 Things You Didn't Know About Raiders Of The Lost Ark
9. A Lot Of Effort Was Put Into Indy's Whip
To make Indy stand out, Steven Spielberg wanted him to have a distinctive weapon. In his first discussion about the film's story, Spielberg told George Lucas he envisaged the archeologist with a bullwhip. Despite being a completely impractical tool in combat, Spielberg thought it would look cool on a poster.
The whip may seem like a very simple weapon but a ton of work was put into it. David Morgan forged the whip out of kip hide as it was resilient but flexible. Many sources erroneously state the whip was made from kangaroo hide but this applies to every Indy film except this one.
Harrison Ford practiced with the whip so often, it regularly teared, meaning Morgan had to make an abundance of spares. Throughout production, Morgan crafted 30 whips in total.
Depending on the scene or stunt, different types of whips were needed. Indy usually has an 8ft-long whip but used a 6ft-long one for certain scenes. For scenes where he had to swing around, the whip would be up to 18ft long. The whip which he mainly used for the first film was sold at an auction for an impressive $43,000.