The Raven

"It's a crummy dive in a Nepalese village nobody would otherwise visit, but the locals enjoy the warmth of the fire and the climbers who hike through here like the company and the booze."

―Marion Ravenwood^[src]

The Raven (or the Raven Saloon) was Marion Ravenwood's bar in Patan, Nepal.

History[edit | edit source]

Marion Ravenwood inherited The Raven following the death of her father Abner, who had bought the tavern to finance his archaeological endeavors. Mohan worked as the bar's enforcer and had been an assistant to both father and daughter.^[2]

In 1936, The Raven was burned down when Nazi agent Arnold Ernst Toht attempted to steal the headpiece to the Staff of Ra from Marion. Her saviour, Indiana Jones, and she were pressed for time and saw little reason to search the building's remains for possessions afterward. However, Marion was unaware that Abner, fearing his daughter would try to sell them, had hidden several small caches of artifacts under the building's floorboards that survived the blaze.^[2]

Jones would recall the events at the bar when he was reunited with Marion in 1957 during the Soviet attempt to return the Crystal Skull of Akator to Akator in order to win the Cold War.^[3]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

There was an extended scene at The Raven in Lawrence Kasdan's script for Raiders of the Lost Ark. During Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood's conversation, Marion explains the cause of her father's death and how difficult her life had been for her the past two years. After arranging the next day's meeting to give Indy the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra, Jones goes to leave, but Ravenwood grabs his jacket and kisses him.

The scene was cut down as director Steven Spielberg considered it too long. Elements remain in Campbell Black's novelization and in the comic book adaptation.^[4]^[5]