20 Things You Somehow Missed In Raiders Of The Lost Ark
2. Vic Tablian Also Has Two Roles
In a true nod to the golden era of movie making, when audiences were less inclined to pick films apart looking for mistakes or Easter eggs, Raiders of the Lost Ark sees several actors filling different roles.
In the film's opening, a young Alfred Molina's Satipo is accompanied by a fellow bandit named Barranca, played by Vic Tablian. Barranca famously betrays his true intentions earlier than Satipo does, introducing audiences to Indy's famous use of his trusty bullwhip. Alike Satipo, however, he meets with a sticky end, getting dozens of poison-tipped arrows from the blowpipes of the Hovitos lodged in his back after he has led them to Indy's location.
Nevertheless, Tablian later returns in the Cairo-set scenes of the film as an entirely different character, credited as "Monkey Man" because, naturally, he owns a monkey. Indeed, his monkey is slightly more memorable than he is because it is highly adept at the infamous Nazi salute. However, the monkey's eyepatch-wearing, motorbike-riding handler shadows Indy and Marion for a time, before attempting to feed Indy some poisoned dates. When this fails, he simply vanishes (perhaps because the Nazis do not tolerate failure).
Tablian would later reappear in the Indiana Jones universe in 1992 and 2000 when he featured in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: My First Adventure.