Raiders of the Lost Ark

Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan
Story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman

Screenplay
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan
Story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
Peru -- 1936

11     EXT.  FRONT OF THE TEMPLE - DAY                         11

       Indy lies on the ground, gasping for air.  A shadow falls
       across him and he looks up.

       WHAT HE SEES.  looming above him are three figures.  Two
       are HOVITOS WARRIORS in full battle paint and loin cloths.
       They carry long blow guns.  But the man in the center draws
       Indy's attention.  He is a tall, impressive white man,
       dressed in full safari outfit including pith helmet.  His
       name is EMILE BELLOQ.  His face is thin, powerful; his eyes
       hypnotic; his smile charming, yet lethal.  His heavily
       French-accented speech is deep, mellifluous, wonderful.
       Back beyond Belloq and his two escorts, thirty more Hovitos
       Warriors hover at the edge of the trees.

                                   BELLOQ
                     Dr. Jones, you choose the wrong
                     friends.  This time it will cost you.

       Belloq extends his hand.  Indy looks at it, then pro-
       duces the idol and hands it to Belloq.  Belloq extends
       his other hand, smiling.  Indy hands over his gun.  Belloq
       sticks it in his jacket.

                                   BELLOQ
                     And you thought I'd given up.

                                   INDY
                            (eyeing the Hovitos)
                     Too bad they don't know you like
                     I do, Belloq.

                                   BELLOQ
                                   (smiles)
                     Yes, too bad.  You could warn
                     them...if only you spoke Hovitos.

       With that, Belloq turns dramatically and holds the idol
       high for all the Hovitos to see and says something in
       Hovitos.  There is a murmur of recognition and all the
       Indians, including Belloq's escorts, prostrate themselves
       upon the ground, heads down.

       Indy is immediately up and running toward the edge of the
       clearing.

                                   BELLOQ
                                (in Hovitos)
                     Kill him!

       AT THE EDGE OF THE CLEARING, Indy disappears into the
       foliage.  An instant later, the leaves are peppered with
       a rain of poison darts and spears.

Tie-In Book
Raiders of the Lost Ark
A novel of high adventure by Campbell Black.
Adapted from the screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan.
Based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.
Peru --1936

The shadow startled him into a sitting position. Squinting, he looked up. There were two Hovitos warriors looking down at him, their faces painted in ferocious colors of battle, their long bamboo blowguns held erect as spears. But it wasn't the presence of the Indians that worried Indy now; it was the sight of the white man who stood between them in a safari outfit and pith helmet. For a long time Indy said nothing, letting the full sense of recognition dawn on him. The man in the pith helmet smiled, and the smile was frost, lethal.

"Belloq," Indy said

Of all the people in the world, Belloq

Indy looked away from the Frenchman's face for a moment, glanced down at the idol in his hand, then stared beyond Belloq to the edge of the trees, where there were about thirty more Hovitos warriors standing in a line. And next to the Indians stood Barranca. Barrance, staring past Indy with a stupid, greedy smile on his face. A smile that turned slowly to a look of bewilderment and then, more rapidly, to a cold, facant expression, which Indy recognized as signaling death.

The Indians on either side of the traitorous Peruvian released his arms, and Barranca toppled forward. His back was riddled with darts.

"My dear Dr. Jones," Belloq said. "You have a knack of choosing quite the wrong friends."

Indy said nothing. He watched Belloq reach down and pick the idol from his hand. Belloq savored the relic for a time, turning it this way and that, his expression one of deep appreciation.

Belloq nodded his head slightly, a curt gesture that suggested an incongruous politeness, a sense of civility.

"You may have though I'd given up. But again we see there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away."

Indy looked in the direction of the warriors, "And the Hovitos expect you to hand the idol over to them?"

"Quite," Belloq said.

Indy laughed, "Naive of them."

"As you say," Belloq remarked. "If only you spoke their language, you could advise them otherwise, of course."

"Of course," Indy said.

He watched as Belloq turned toward the grouped warriors and lifted the idol in the air; and then. in a remarkable display of unified movement that might have been choreographed, rehearsed, the warriors laid themselves face down on the ground. A moment of sudden stillness, of primitive religious awe. In other circumstances, Indy thought, I might be impressed enough to hang around and watch.

In other circumstances, but not now.

He raised himself slowly to his knees, looked at the back of Belloq, glanced quickly once more at the prostrate warriors--and then he was off, moving fast, running toward the trees, waiting for that moment when the Indians would raise themselves up and air would be dense with darts fromt he blowguns.

He plunged into the trees when he heard Belloq shout from behind, screaming in a language that was presumably that of the Hovitos, and then he was sprinting through the foliage, back to the river and the amphibian plane. Run. Run when you don't have a goddamn scrap of energy left. Find something in reserve.

Just run.

An then he heard the darts.

Page 22-23. Raiders of the Lost Ark. A novel of high adventure by Campbell Black. Adapted from the screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan. New York: Ballantine Books. 1981.