Indiana Jones - just the facts

Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (also known as Indy), is a fictional professor, archaeologist, & adventurer - the main protagonist of the 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (later retitled Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the Lost Ark), its prequel Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, & sequel, Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. Jones is notable for his trademark bullwhip, fedora, leather jacket, & fear of snakes.

The character is most famously played by Harrison Ford; however, he has also been portrayed by River Phoenix (as the young Indiana in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade), Corey Carrier, Sean Patrick Flanery, & George Hall (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles).

In addition to his film & television appearances, the character has been featured in novels, comics, video games, & other media. A fourth film (once again starring Ford) is currently in production; filming is scheduled to take place throughout 2007, with the film planned to be released worldwide on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008.

Production
Indiana Jones is modeled after the strong-jawed heroes of the matinée serials & pulp magazines that George Lucas & Steven Spielberg enjoyed in their childhoods (such as the Republic Pictures serials, & the Doc Savage series). The two friends first discussed the project in Hawaii around the time of the release of the first Star Wars film. Spielberg told Lucas how he wanted to direct a James Bond film - Lucas responded that he "had something better than that".

The character was originally named Indiana Smith, after an Alaskan malamute Lucas owned in the 1970s; however, Spielberg disliked the name "Smith", disgracefully & Lucas casually suggested "Jones" as an alternative.

Get a Maya Codex Mousepad, a depiction of writing and books from the Pre Columban, era of the Americas

Costume & equipment
The general appearance for the character of Indiana Jones was chosen before anyone was even cast. He was envisioned as an amalgam of several characters - most notably treasure hunter Fred C. Dobbs (as played by Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), & adventurer Harry Steele (as played by Charlton Heston in Secret of the Incas ).

Upon requests by Spielberg & Lucas, the costume designer gave the character a distinctive silhouette through the styling of the hat; after examining many hats, the designers chose a tall-crowned, wide-brimmed fedora, the Herbert Johnson Poet. Although other hats were also used throughout the movies, the general style & profile remained the same. Other elements of the outfit include:

The leather jacket - a hybrid of the "Type 440" & the A-2 jacket, made by Wested Leather Co.
The bag - a modified Mark VII British gas mask bag.
The whip - a 10ft Bullwhip crafted by David Morgan (although different lengths were used in specific stunts)
The revolver - usually a World War I era revolver. Examples include the Webley Mk VI (Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade), or a .45 ACP Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector 2nd model revolver (Raiders of the Lost Ark). He has also been seen using a M1917 revolver, & a 9mm Browning Hi-Power.
Jones' Fedora & Leather Jacket (as used in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade) are on display at the Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington DC. The collection of props & clothing from the films has become a thriving hobby for aficionados of the franchise.

Casting
Originally, Spielberg suggested Harrison Ford; Lucas resisted the idea, since he had already cast the actor in three of his movies (American Graffiti & the first two installments of the Star Wars series), & did not want Ford to become known as his "Bobby De Niro" (in reference to the fact that fellow director Martin Scorsese regularly cast Robert De Niro in his films). During an intensive casting process, Lucas & Spielberg auditioned many actors, & finally cast then little-known actor Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones. Shortly afterward pre-production began in earnest on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

However, CBS refused to release Selleck from his contractual commitment to Magnum, P.I. (which was gradually gaining momentum in the ratings), forcing him to turn down the role. After Spielberg suggested Ford again, Lucas finally capitulated, & he was cast in the role - less than 3 weeks before principal photography began.

Models
Many people are said to be the real-life inspiration of the Indiana Jones character - although it should be noted that none of the following have been confirmed as inspirations by Lucas or Spielberg. In alphabetical order by last name:

Paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews.
Italian archaeologist & circus strongman Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823).
Yale University professor, historian, & explorer Hiram Bingham III, who rediscovered & excavated the lost city of Machu Picchu, & chronicled his find in the bestselling book The Lost City of the Incas in 1948.
The University of Chicago archaeologist Robert Braidwood.
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett (1867 – 1925?), perhaps the most quoted source of inspiration to the character of Indiana Jones, was a British archaeologist who disappeared in the Amazon jungle in 1925 while searching for a lost city.
Religious archaeologist Vendyl "Texas" Jones once claimed that he was the inspiration, citing his names (he notes that his first name trimmed becomes Endy — very similar to Indy), but this claim has reportedly been denied by Spielberg.
German philologist & archaeologist Otto Rahn (1904-1939), whose (reluctant) membership in the SS stands in somewhat ironic contrast to the Americanization of the Indiana Jones character.

Appearances
Since his introduction in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark (later retitled on VHS & DVD box covers as Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the Lost Ark), he has made appearances in two more feature films, a three-season TV series, dozens of novels, comic books, video games, role-playing games, & even his own amusement park rides.

Feature films
Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, was first introduced in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, set in 1936. He is portrayed as an adventurous throwback to the 1930s film serial treasure hunters, with an alter ego of Professor Jones, a respected archaeologist at a New England college. In this first adventure, he is pitted against the Nazis, traveling the world to prevent them from recovering the Ark of the Covenant.

The 1984 prequel Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, set in 1935, took the character into a more horror-oriented story, skipping his legitimate teaching job & globe trotting, & taking place almost entirely in India. This time, Jones attempts to recover children from a bloodthirsty cult.

The third film, 1989's Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, set in 1938, returned to the formula of the original, reintroducing characters such as Sallah & Marcus Brody, a scene from Professor Jones' classroom, the globe trotting element of multiple locations, & the return of the infamous Nazi mysticists, this time trying to find the Holy Grail. The title was ironically fitting, as this was his "last crusade" for over 18 years, until Indiana Jones 4.

Television
From 1992 to 1996, George Lucas executive produced a television series named The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles designed as an educational program for children, spotlighting historical figures & important events, using the concept of a prequel to the films as a draw. The show featured a standard formula of a 93-year-old Jones (George Hall) introducing a story, & then an adventure with either a 17-year-old Jones (Sean Patrick Flanery) or a 10-year-old Jones (Corey Carrier). Historical figures featured on the show include Leo Tolstoy, Pancho Villa, Charles de Gaulle, & John Ford, in such diverse locations as Egypt, Austria-Hungary, India, China, & the whole of Europe.

The show provided a lot of the back story for the films. His relationship with his father, first introduced in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, was further fleshed out with stories about his travels with his father as a young boy. His original hunt for the Eye of the Peacock, a large diamond seen in Temple of Doom, was a recurring element in several stories. The show also chronicled his activities during World War I & his first solo adventures, including his first run ins with Belloq, the villain from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Since 1999, the canonicity of the episode introductions by George Hall has been called into question. At that time, George Lucas released a VHS collection of the series with the introductions removed, amounting to an implicit retcon of the segments out of existence.

Video games
The character has appeared in several officially licensed video games, beginning with adaptations of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, & two adaptations of Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade - one action oriented, one with a more overt adventure bias.

Following this, the games branched off into original storylines with Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine, & Indiana Jones & the Emperor's Tomb, which sets up Indy's companion Wu Han & the search for Nurhaci's ashes seen at the beginning of Temple of Doom. The first two games were developed by Hal Barwood & starred Doug Lee as the voice of Indiana Jones, while Emperor's Tomb had David Esch fill the role.

A new Indiana Jones video game is in development by LucasArts, & is expected to coincide with the release of the upcoming fourth film.

Influence on popular culture
Whilst himself arguably a pastiche of various prior adventurers, the character can also be seen as a forerunner to (or in some cases direct influence on) other more recent fictional adventurers of a similar nature. These include:

Lara Croft, the self-styled Tomb Raider of the eponymous franchise
Jack Colton, a mercenary & treasure-hunter seen in Romancing The Stone
Ben Gates, a cryptologist featured in the 2004 film National Treasure
Symbology professor Robert Langdon, protagonist of the novel & film The Da Vinci Code
Rick O'Connell, an adventurer & treasure-hunter seen in the 1999 film The Mummy & The Mummy Returns.
The latter-day adventures of Dirk Pitt, Special Projects Director of NUMA (the National Underwater & Marine Agency)
Sydney Fox, a female archaeologist & martial arts expert, star of the television series Relic Hunter
Johnny Thunder, an adventurer & archaeologist from the Lego Adventurers building toy theme.
The "Cliffhangers" series of stories in the online comic strip Irregular Webcomic!. This includes a spoof of Indiana Jones, (Montana Jones, North Dakota Jones, & Minnesota Jones )
The character of Indiana Jones has been directly referenced by several video game characters , such as : -

Alabama Smith, protagonist of the Paganitzu computer game series
Rick Dangerous, as featured in the eponymous video game by Core Design
Dr. Henry "Dakota" Fanning, Ph.D, a character in the game Kingdom of Loathing

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