The Raiders of the Lost Ark novel, an adaptation of the film of the same name, was written by Campbell Black.
Released in April 1981 by Ballantine Books, two months before the film itself in June, the book has the distinction of being the first Indiana Jones product ever released.
The book, along with the novelizations of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was republished in 2008 by Del Rey, and retitled Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Publisher's summary[]
The holiest artifact on earth is filled with dazzling, incredible power. Indiana Jones has to get it before the Nazis do.
Indiana Jones, archeology professor and swashbuckling adventurer, has unearthed many an ancient treasure. But now the very future of the world depends on his finding one special relic.
With a bullwhip in his hand and a beautiful lady at his side, Jones journeys from Nepal and Cairo to the Mediterranean, dodging poisons, traps and snakes, battling rivals old and new, all in pursuit of an ancient artifact said to give invincible power to its possessor.
It's a battle to a startling finish, a finish dictated by the magic, the light—and the power—of the Lost Ark.
Plot summary[]
Differences from the film[]
- At the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors, during the temple's collapse, Indy threatens to drop the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol into the pit if Satipo doesn't throw his Bullwhip back.
- The fertility idol is small enough to be carried in Satipo's pocket.
- Jock Lindsey is Scottish, instead of American like in the film.
- Indy at one point recalls some of his previous encounters with René Belloq, such as at graduate school, when Belloq plagiarized Indy's essay on stratigraphy, and as a result was awarded the Archaeological Society Prize Later, in the summer of 1934 Indy found that Belloq already had excavated a spot in the Rub al Khali Desert of Saudi Arabia, a place which Indy had spent months planning to dig.
- Herman Dietrich is introduced immediately after Indy and Jock escape from the Hovitos, in Berlin being given his marching orders by an SS officer named Eidel.
- Belloq, upon being hired by Dietrich, is brought to Adolf Hitler's countryside retreat for an audience with him. They are made to wait, and Belloq expresses annoyance and disdain for Hitler because of this.
- Although in the film it is a nameless Nazi agent who gets aboard the plane with Indy as he leaves for Nepal, the novel combines this character with Arnold Ernst Toht.
- Indy recalls the last time he spoke with Abner Ravenwood, discussing Indy's relationship with Marion.
- Upon arriving in Nepal, Indy acquires both a car and directions to the Raven bar from a contact named Lin-Su.
- After Indy leaves the bar, he sits in his car and stews over what he should do, and doesn't notice Toht and his cronies walking past on their way to the Raven.
- Otto wears an eyepatch and is even identified by the nickname "Eyepatch."
- When Indy rescues Marion, Marion remembers how Indy every day used to practice with his bullwhip. Indy then recalls how he developed his fascination for the bullwhip, seeing a whip-act in a traveling circus when he was seven years old.
- The Arab Swordsman is absent entirely, so Indy never shoots him dead.
- An added extra scene at Tanis wherein Belloq is overseeing the dig, and Belloq recalls how Toht arrived with the markings of the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra burned into his palm, and how he made a duplicate Headpiece from this by taking a mold of Toht's hand.
- The first mechanic is described as a younger man with tattoos, and unlike the film Indy pushes him into the Flying Wing's propeller, as opposed to him overpowering Indy and then realizing too late that the propeller was right behind him.
- The truck chase happens differently. Firstly, Toht rides in the same car as Gobler, and thus dies when the car flies off of a cliff. Also, the Nazi gunner in the back of the car is flipped out when Indy sideswipes Gobler with the truck, and he falls down a cliff. The Tough Sergeant never appears; instead two soldiers try to climb over the top of the truck, but are killed when Indy slams the brakes and sends them flying against the side of a mountain.
- Following the truck chase, there is an added scene of Belloq and Dietrich at the German consulate in Cairo, where they smoke cigarettes and wonder what they should do, be being given news of the departing Bantu Wind.
- Indy uses his whip to lash onto the periscope of the Wurrfler, but loses his fedora in the water and his whip tied to the periscope.
- Indy interrupts the Ark-opening ceremony after Belloq has changed into his ceremonial robes. When he is subdued by Captain Mohler, Dietrich attempts to execute him, but Belloq stops him, telling him to tie Indy up and kill him after they open the Ark, so Indy can die knowing he (Belloq) defeated him one final time.
- Belloq's death is different than the movie. His eyes burn out of his sockets, his skin decays, and he turns to dust. Also the deaths of the Nazis (particularly Dietrich) are not explicitly described.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
- Abu
- Barranca
- Bureaucrat
- René Emile Belloq
- Marcus Brody
- Capuchin monkey
- Carnarvon (Mentioned only)
- Howard Carter (Mentioned only)
- Jean-François Champollion (Mentioned only)
- Confucius (Mentioned only)
- Herman Dietrich
- Eaton
- Eidel
- Jasmine el-Kahir
- Moshti el-Kahir
- Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir
- Fayah
- Forrestal (Remains)
- German Mechanic
- Giant Sherpa
- Gobler
- Gunner
- Adolf Hitler (Flashback)
- Imam
- Indiana Jones
- Anna Mary Jones (Mentioned only)
- Simon Katanga
- Jock Lindsey
- Lin-Su (First appearance)
- Mean Mongolian
- Mohler
- Monkey Man
- Musgrove
- Noah (Mentioned only)
- Omar
- Otto (As "Eyepatch")
- William Flinders Petrie (Mentioned only)
- Pilot (individual)
- Ratty Nepalese
- Abner Ravenwood (Mentioned only)
- Marion Ravenwood
- Rita (First mentioned)
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Mentioned only)
- Susan Ryan
- Satipo
- Second German Mechanic
- Schliemann (Mentioned only)
- Shishak (Mentioned only)
- Arnold Ernst Toht
- Tutankhamun (Mentioned only)
- Woolley (Mentioned only)
Artifacts[]
- Ark of the Covenant
- Headpiece to the Staff of Ra
- Chachapoyan Fertility Idol
- Chachapoyan Fertility Idol replica
- Noah's Ark (Mentioned only)
- Rosetta Stone (Mentioned only)
Creatures[]
Cultures[]
- Arab
- Chachapoyan (Mentioned only)
- Hovitos
Events[]
- Battle of Jericho (Mentioned only)
- The Desert Chase
Locations[]
- Egypt
- Cairo
- Omar's Garage
- Square of Snakes
- Tanis
- Tomb of Tutankhamun (Mentioned only)
- Cairo
- England (Mentioned only)
- France
- Geheimhaven
- Germany
- Berchtesgaden
- Berlin
- Eidel's office
- Wilhelmstrasse
- Hong Kong (Mentioned only)
- Iraq (Mentioned only)
- Ur (Mentioned only)
- Jericho (Mentioned only)
- Nagada (Mentioned only)
- Nepal
- Peru
- Saudi Arabia (Mentioned only)
- Rub al Khali Desert (Mentioned only)
- Shanghai (Mentioned only)
- Troy (Mentioned only)
- United States of America
- Marshall College
- Schenectady (Mentioned only)
- Washington DC
Organizations and titles[]
- Boy Scouts of America (Mentioned only)
- International Archaeological Society (Mentioned only)
- Nazi
- Third Reich Special Antiquities Collection (Mentioned only)
Vehicles and vessels[]
Weapons and equipment[]
Miscellanea[]
- Archaeological Society Prize (Mentioned only)
- Forty Thieves (Mentioned only)
- Koran (Mentioned only)
- Maxwell House (Ad only)
- New Deal (Mentioned only)
- Quechua
Behind the scenes[]
While living in Arizona, United States of America,[2] Campbell Black was suggested by his publisher to Lucasfilm Ltd. to novelize their then-forthcoming film Raiders of the Lost Ark, a task Black agreed to accept despite having never adapted a film script, much less an action screenplay. He was given six weeks to provide the manuscript by Lucasfilm after reading the script a number of times. With limited access to information from the production, Black had to expand upon details from the film that weren't clear himself, such as how Indiana Jones mastered the bullwhip, how he travels to Nepal or how he gets the car that takes him to The Raven. Despite the deadline, Black deferred work until the last possible moment, ultimately getting the book written and edited in four days, relying on his wife's assistance to edit it.[3]
One of the decisions Black took while writing the novelization was depicting Indiana Jones the way he saw him: an adventurer with a slightly melancholic side. Though aware that the company didn't particularly approve of such an idea, Black felt that he couldn't write the book if he had to explicitly base it on the protagonist from the script, which for him read like a comic book. Seeing the script's Jones as too shallow and shadowy, always acting without thinking, he opted to flesh out the internal process that Jones took. Black later reflected that Jones' personality would become a caricature and comic action hero in its sequels that wasn't as interesting as he was in the first film but more as a "hollow Hollywood figure" that Black dismissed as being an action figure at the expense of character development and personal relationships.[3]
To write the broken romance between Jones and Marion Ravenwood, Black was told that Marion was merely in love with Indy through a crush that would be considered taboo back then, only for Jones to tell her that she was too young, making a romance between the two impossible. Though he felt any sexual undertones to their pairing was downplayed, the author nevertheless perceived that they were indeed lovers before Jones broke the relationship off, hurting Ravenwood and himself in the process, an idea Black found interesting because it gave character depth on who of the two had pain and a past. He was similarly given permission to expand upon Indy's past experiences with René Emile Belloq, as the script allowed for gaps that he had to fill in terms of character development and background, not receiving any dictates for said backstories.[3]
In Black's original manuscript, the protagonist was simply referred to as Jones throughout the story, but one editorial change requested that he replace "Jones" with "Indy", a decision Black saw as the filmmakers thinking of the character as "an approachable and more chummy" one that contrasted with his own "darker" Jones. Although he felt that the character would feel "reduced" by being called as that, Black ultimately concluded that the creative team was right due to being marketed-oriented, unlike him or at least not to that extent.[3]
Cover gallery[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Bantha Tracks 11
- ↑ Author Campbell Armstrong - About Campbell Armstrong at CampbellArmstrong (Web archive)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Campbell Black interview at TheRaider.net