The Tuk-tuk Chase

EVENT
The Tuk-tuk Chase
Date	August 1969
Location	Tangier, Morocco
Participants	Indiana Jones Helena Shaw Teddy Kumar Jürgen Voller

The Tuk-tuk Chase occurred in 1969 in the busy streets of Tangier, during the hunt for the Antikythera.

Event chronology

While chasing Jürgen Voller in his Mercedes, Indiana Jones raced a tuk-tuk (Tuk-tuk 1132) alongside one driven by Helena Shaw (Tuk-tuk 2390). Pursuing them was a Aziz Rahim in his green Jaguar and two motorcycle riders. While swerving to avoid oncoming traffic and pass slower vehicles, Jones and Shaw argued over whether Shaw's father would have approved of her dubious activities, with an interjection by Teddy Kumar, Shaw's passenger. The Jaguar caught up, and the front passenger readied a shotgun, while the rear passenger called out to Shaw, and knocked the shotgun upwards, forcing the shot to miss.

Continuing to bicker, Jones and Shaw rounded a corner. The green car sped up and slammed into the back of Shaw's tuk-tuk, causing her to swerve wildly and knock Jones off course. Seeing that he could not avoid smashing head-on with an oncoming truck, Jones leapt onto the back of Shaw's tuk-tuk, leaving his tuk-tuk to be crushed. Seeing Jones hanging off the back of Shaw's vehicle, the Jaguar attempted to hit him, but Jones used the hood of the car to lift his legs up, then swing around to sit properly in the tuk-tuk and avoid injury.

Voller looked back from his car to see the tuk-tuk still behind him, but Shaw's tuk-tuk and the green Jaguar turned a corner. Kumar re-adjusted his seating to better fit Jones in the back, when gun fire hit the windshield of their little car. Shaw turned to see a machine-gun wielding rider on a motorcycle bearing down on them. Telling her passengers to hold on, Shaw clipped a cart carrying bamboo poles. The cart swung around, bringing the ends of the poles directly in the path of the motorcycle, knocking the driver off the bike. The green Jaguar still pursued.

Chase participants

• Jürgen Voller's Mercedes
  • Jürgen Voller
  • Klaber
  • Hauke
  • Back Seat Passenger
• Tuk-tuk 1132 (crashed)
  • Indiana Jones (survived by jumping out from his tuk-tuk)
• Tuk-tuk 2390
  • Helena Shaw
  • Teddy Kumar
  • Indiana Jones (later on)
• Green Jaguar (stuck)
  • Aziz Rahim
  • Passenger in rear
  • Driver in sunglasses
  • Gunman
• Motorcycle (crashed)
  • Motorcyclist (crashed)
• Man with small cart carrying large bamboo poles
• Large truck
• Other cars, tuk-tuks and motorcycles

Behind the scenes

The Tuk-tuk Chase was originally scripted to take place in India but a COVID-19 outbreak made filming there untenable. The Nepalese capital of Kathmandu was briefly considered instead before the location for the story was moved to Tangier, Morocco and shot in nearby Fez.

A brief shot of the sequence first appeared in the first teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, released on December 1, 2022.

On May 11, 2023, a one-minute clip of the chase was released on the Cannes Film Festival site, and then included as part of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: A Special Look for Disney+.

Appearances

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• Disney Emoji Blitz

Sources

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: A Special Look
•  Caves, Castles, and Tuna Factories: Inside the Locations of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org)