Forty years after its release, Raiders of the Lost Ark remains a two-hour-long masterclass in how to stage an action sequence. However, even in a movie full of punishing fist fights, thrilling shoot-outs, and daring escapes, in that location's nevertheless one scene that stands in a higher place the rest: the truck chase. A perfect blend of stunt work, editing, performances, and music, the truck hunt set up a bar that every Indiana Jones sequel – heck, that every action moving-picture show, period – has been trying to reach ever since.

Information technology begins 82 minutes into the movie with Indy (Harrison Ford) delivering one of the pic's most famous lines. The Nazis have taken the Ark of the Covenant, and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) informs Indy that it'south been loaded onto a truck fix for Cairo. The truck is guarded by a well-armed convoy, but Indy knows he has no choice but to get afterwards it. "How?" Sallah asks. "I don't know," Indy replies matter-of-factly. "I'yard making this up equally I go."

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Image via Lucasfilm

Smash cutting to Indy on horseback galloping later the convoy and we're off. The side by side seven minutes is about equally flawless as cinema can get, as Indy boards the truck, dispatches the rider and driver, and then fends off the rest of the convoy as it attacks from all sides. The scene reaches its noon when a Nazi soldier (played by stuntman Sergio Mioni) manages to board the truck and throw Indy through the front windshield, only for Indy to drib below the truck and climb manus-over-hand to the rear while it'south even so in motion! He emerges at the dorsum of the truck, dangling at the end of his whip as he gets dragged forth the road, before carefully working his way back to the cab and giving his aggressor the same windshield-tossing treatment, all without getting run over. Cue John Williams' Raiders theme. Congratulations, you've just watched the best thing y'all've always seen in your life.

According to J.W. Rinzler's The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, director Steven Spielberg and stuntman Terry Leonard designed the truck hunt – and specifically the underneath-the-truck flake -- equally an homage to the iconic stunt work of Yakima Canutt, who pulled off similar stunts using horses and a stagecoach in both 1939's Stagecoach and the 12-part serial Zorro'southward Fighting Legion . Leonard, who almost died trying to recreate the Canutt stunts for 1981'south The Legend of the Lone Ranger , played the truck's original driver and doubled for Ford when Indy is underneath and behind the truck, while stunt coordinator Glenn Randall, Jr. drove the vehicle. The truck itself was especially designed to accommodate the stunt, but, according to Rinzler, there still wasn't plenty clearance for Leonard to safely movement underneath information technology. So a trench was carved into the route to provide actress room. (If y'all await closely on your next rewatch, y'all can spot the trench.) The entire sequence was an "all easily on deck" matter, with several of the film'due south other main stuntmen, including Vic Armstrong and Martin Grace, playing Nazi goons who get knocked off the side of the truck. Ford himself was dragged backside the truck for some of the shots, resulting in some hobbling ribs.

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Image via Lucasfilm

The truck chase sequence serves not simply as an exemplary slice of action cinema but also as a mission statement for both the movie and the entire Indiana Jones franchise. Indy is a character who never stops moving forward, relentless in his pursuit of whatever fortune and glory he'south chasing in that item installment. During the truck hunt solitary, he's punched, kicked, shot in the arm and thrown out of a moving truck, but not once does retreat appear to exist an option. Ford's face up runs the gamut of emotions during the sequence. He's desperate at starting time and then shocked when the truck veers into the scaffolding property the Arab workers. In one case he has control of the vehicle, he's visibly angry when the Nazis are advancing but can be caught smiling whenever he rams them off the road, satisfied with his footling moments of revenge. Toward the end, later he'south been shot, Ford makes certain to convey Indy's burgeoning pain, but he mixes it with an ongoing await of unrelenting conclusion. And that's Indy in a nutshell – hurting like hell but not about to give upwards.

There are a few other small just essential pieces of filmmaking during the truck hunt – little cinematic flourishes – that help drag the sequence to an all-time classic of any genre. I love that when Indy knocks the one Nazi jeep off the cliff, we see bodies beingness ejected from the vehicle as it plummets. That's just good B-movie fun right there, paying homage to the flick's roots in adventure serials. I'1000 ever virtually nervous when Indy is hanging in front of the truck and grabs at the hood decoration for leverage. The ornamentation breaks, forcing him to snatch at the bars of the truck's grille, which also tin't agree his weight. Spielberg, a master of creating games within the scene to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, expertly ramps up the tension there. Another thing Spielberg does well in this sequence is utilizing side-view mirrors to convey the geography of the action. The bad guys spot Indy approaching the lead auto through their side mirror, and then later Indy uses his side mirrors to go along an heart on the Nazis budgeted from behind. There's a great flake where Indy checks both of his mirrors to see Nazis accept boarded the truck and are advancing toward the cab on each side, and Ford gives a worried trivial grunt that helps continue the activity tense simply fun. Finally, let's requite one more than shout-out to Williams' score, which is big, brassy, and only as intense as the visuals it's accompanying, even if the iconic Raiders march itself -- better known as the Indiana Jones theme -- is used sparingly. (Though it is deployed for maximum result.)

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Paradigm via Lucasfilm

Indy may have been making it upward as he goes, but Spielberg and his team certainly were not, meticulously planning and executing a sequence that still belongs on whatever list of cinema's very best action set pieces. Spielberg would later attempt to top the truck chase in the sequels with the mine-cart escape in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the tank assault in Indiana Jones and the Final Crusade , only xl years on, it's the original that remains the purest expression of Indy'due south thrill-a-minute, action-run a risk aesthetic.

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