Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark

In the final scenes of Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) the evil Nazi’s finally open the Lost Ark of the Covenant and reveal its unearthly contents to an apprehensive gathering of characters and an eager cinema audience. After initially being wowed by the elegance and beauty of the emerging “angels” the mood gets dark as spectres become demonic. The destruction of all evil present then takes place as our heroes Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) close their eyes and avoid the wrath of God.

The ghostly element of this incredible special effect was created by the use of 12 inch long puppet phantoms which were dropped into an 8 foot square, 5foot deep water tank. The scene was filmed from the outside of the tank looking in and the creatures were controlled via rods coming from their heads and swept around the tank giving the puppets spontaneous life and a mysterious floating movement.

The main body of this ghost is made from shredded silk with the head made from a more rigid plastic. The arms are weighed with small lead balls to add to the overall illusion. Repeat shots were required and multiple passes of the ghosts filmed to give a more spiritual look. The scene took 4 weeks to complete and was one of the shots that helped earn an Academy Award for visual effects in 1981.