Raiders of the Lost Ark — Stealing the Golden Idol

A Masterclass in Reaction Shots

It has been one hell of a Fall. Professionally things are great, Personally, it’s been some rough sledding for the entire family. So I have welcomed the escape of playing Bethesda’s latest game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The game starts with a recreation of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. This serves as the tutorial intro. Which is an interesting choice, because what someone goes to this game for is to be Indiana Jones. And this scene is a quintessential Indy moment that doesn’t disappoint… except… they left off the most important part of the whole sequence: Where Indy loses. Specifically, where he loses the idol to Belloc.

This makes no difference to the game, because the core game loop is so strong. But in the context of films, it’s very different and very interesting.

The Scene in the Context of Action/Adventure Movies

Indiana Jones movies are curious things. On the one hand, they are quest stories. But, with their supernatural elements, they are also something like an overcoming the monster story. Nazis are, after all, monsters.

For me, the classic film versions of the Overcoming the Monster stories are the James Bond movies. Some of them, like Goldfinger and Dr. No are directly named for the monster. They always start off with a mini-film where Bond is awesomely unstoppable in his sheer badasseddeness. He blows up the facility, gets the girl, survives an assassination attempt and is cool enough to have a great line at the end.

It’s the version of the hero story where nothing goes wrong. Which, no matter how spectacularly executed, we can only put up with for about 10 minutes before we get bored. Then, of course, things go wrong, the hero is put through a number of trials and tribulations, including being caught and held at the mercy of the villain while he explains his evil plan. “No Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.”

How Indy is different

Indy hits all those beats thrilling action/adventure beats. He’s captured by the bad guy, he has thrilling escapes from death… but right from the beginning, there’s something different.

He loses.

In the opening scene Indy does some pretty badass things, but he loses the idol, is at the mercy of Belloc, barely escapes with his life, and reveals himself to be terrified of snakes.

There’s something very important about losing that makes Indy likable. He’s not omni-competent, not even a little. He’s decent, tenacious and willing to sacrifice for what he believes in. James Bond, in many iterations, never gets a hair out of place. Indy gets the absolute hell beat out of him and keeps going. Even when he loses. Even when all seems lost. And that’s why we like him.

Indiana Jones is the man who does not give up.

He manages to simultaneously be a badass and an underdog. Some of this is due to Harrison Ford’s unique charm as an actor. Something of Han Solo sticks to him no matter what role he is in, but this quality is certainly baked into the script.

The Importance of Reaction Beats

To me, it seems like movies have become a technical arms race; between stunts and special effects, the crew and technicians who make movies keep trying to one-up each other to further their careers.

Unless there is a character you care about involved, you can only be entertained by a special effect once. And, unless you are involved in that technical arms race, you probably won’t be all that entertained. A planet blowing up doesn’t mean anything to you unless somebody you care about is on it. But when you know what something means to a character you care about, that creates emotion within in you.

The usual order is Action → Reaction. Like this sequence from The Avengers.

ACTION: Horrible dragon thing comes flying around the corner.

REACTION: The Avenger’s faces culminating in a classic Joss Whedon button - “I don’t see how that’s a party.”

ACTION: Banner starts walking towards the Horrible dragon thing

REACTION: What is he doing. Cap - “Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”

ACTION: The Avengers Kill the Horrible Dragon thing

REACTION 1: The alien soldiers are upset.

REACTION 2: Music surge, Hulk roar, defiant spinning Avengers hero shot.

REACTION 3: Loki - “Send the Rest”

And on and on the movie goes. Action → Reaction. As much as you may think you like special effects, without the reaction shots creating feeling in you, you wouldn’t care and would quickly grow bored.

How Raiders is Different

For many of the key beats in the golden idol scene the Action → Reaction order we expect is reversed. We don’t see the idol first. We see Indy’s reaction to the idol as he steps into the golden glow.

Indy gets to the idol, but we don’t get a close-up of the idol. We see Indy’s face as he wants it.

Close-up still delayed, we see Satipo, coveting gold.

Then we finally get our close-up the fertility goddess as the sand runs through Indy’s fingers. The idol’s non-reaction conveys the cold indifference of death at the exact same time she is an object of men’s desire. I mean look closely at that thing and the small person being born (or crushed) between her legs. That thing is terrifying. But it’s terrifying made out of solid gold.

One of the most iconic shots in all of cinema. Then an action-reaction beat of taking the idol, trap being sprung.

My favorite negotiation scene of all time.

Which is sold beautifully by Alfred Molina’s reaction to betraying Indy. And to understand how important his acting is to this moment, imagine what this scene would be like if he just did the realistic thing and turned his back and ran away without a second thought.

Indy pursues. But this isn’t a faceless CGI action sequence. Not only is the door closing to create suspense. but Indy goes through a whole gamut of human emotions.

Culminating in this out-of-frame shot which creates additional distress in the viewer.

Indy’s reaction when he finds Satipo in the spike trap is also important. He doesn’t gloat. He’s not angry. He even sounds kind of sad when he says, “Adios, Satipo.”

Then, in another dramatic action-reaction inversion. Indy sees the boulder before we do. We know it’s scary — before we ever see it — because he shows us he’s scared of it.

And then there’s not a single shot of the boulder without Indy in danger of being crushed. None of these shots try to be epic, every one of them is personal, motivated and emotional.

Appendix: A Note About Lawrence Kasdan, Copywriter

Everybody knows that Spielberg is a badass. But Kasdan wrote Raiders, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Bodyguard, Body Heat, and wrote and directed Silverado and the The Big Chill among others. If you want to know why the original Star Wars films have great dialog and the prequel trilogy doesn’t. It’s Lawrence Kasdan.

Also, Kasdan started off as a copywriter. From his Wikipedia entry:

Unable to find a teaching position, Kasdan took a job as an advertising copywriter at the W.B. Doner agency in Detroit—a profession he didn't enjoy but found success in, earning a Clio Award for his first TV commercial, as well as an award from The One Show. His supervisor, Jim Dale, remembered Kasdan "always said he was better at writing for TV than for print, and that was certainly prophetic."[^[13]] Kasdan called his five years in advertising "hellacious", and persisted in writing screenplays at night.[^[6]]

I’m certainly no Lawrence Kasdan, but I do have more One Show Awards than he does. It doesn’t mean a whole lot, but I’ve always been able to make rent.