Original artwork, not a still
Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
— Raiders of the Lost Ark • 1981
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It is the series' running joke about its hero: a man who fights Nazis and swings across pits cannot face a floor of snakes. The line says that Indiana Jones is a scholar who ends up in a mess, not an invincible action hero, and fans love him for that. The same fear returns in later films and rat scenes, and the line is shorthand for any dread that you must walk through anyway.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Raiders of the Lost ArkShow the scene
In Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and his Egyptian friend Sallah have found the Well of Souls at Tanis, the buried chamber where the Ark of the Covenant has rested for millennia. Sallah notices the floor of the chamber seems to move, so Indy drops a torch into the dark and the light reveals a floor writhing with snakes. His groan is the line. Sallah answers that they are asps, very dangerous, and tells him to go first. It pays off the opening gag in which Indy shouts to pilot Jock that he hates snakes. Production sourced between 6,000 and 10,000 snakes from handlers across Europe, many of them harmless.
Sources (3)
- Wikiquote: Raiders of the Lost ArkWell of Souls exchange between Sallah and Jones, and the plane exchange with JockReference checked
- Wikipedia: Raiders of the Lost ArkProduction section on the Well of Souls filmingReference checked
- Indiana Jones Wiki: Well of SoulsDiscovery sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
