20 Things You Somehow Missed In Raiders Of The Lost Ark
16. The Star Wars Connection
The first four Indiana Jones films may all have been directed by Steven Spielberg, but the character is the brainchild of George Lucas, who also created Star Wars.
Perhaps as an affectionate nod to Lucas's role in luring him onto the project, Spielberg filled Raiders of the Lost Ark with subtle references to Lucas's other famous onscreen creation.
For example, C-3PO and R2-D2 appear as hieroglyphics in the Well of the Souls sequence; the sound of Jock Lindsey's plane engine starting up in Peru is the same as the noise that the Millennium Falcon makes when its hyperdrive is giving out, and Lindsey's plane is also registered as "OB-CPO" - a reference both to Obi-Wan Kenobi and to C-3PO.
Most striking of all, perhaps, is the canyon on the Nazis' secret island base in the Aegean Sea where Indy threatens to destroy the Ark of the Covenant with a Panzerfaust, which had also featured in scenes set on Tatooine in which R2-D2 was attacked by Jawas. It is Sidi Bouhlel, just outside Tozeur in Tunisia.