Harrison Ford Recalls Weird Way Steven Spielberg Avoided Getting Dysentery Filming Raiders of the Lost Ark

With the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny late last month, many fans are taking the opportunity to revisit the franchise’s previous films. The first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, has quite a lot of lore surrounding it — and now, franchise star Harrison Ford is reminding fans of the behind-the-scenes mythos surrounding one. In a recent interview with CNN, Ford recounted his bout with dysentery while filming Raiders of the Lost Ark, which famously led to a lengthy action sequence being trimmed down to Indiana Jones shooting a foe. According to Ford, while he and multiple members of Raiders of the Lost Ark‘s crew contracted dysentery, director Steven Spielberg had a unique strategy for avoiding it. 

“We were to have filmed a four-day whip and scimitar fight in a marketplace. And I was suffering from dysentery. And so were many members of the crew. Not Steven, because every time he went in the shower, he put gaffer tape over his mouth, and he traveled with a trunk full of Spaghetti-O’s.”

Will Harrison Ford Return as Indiana Jones?

As Ford has confirmed multiple times over, Dial of Destiny is his final portrayal of Indiana Jones — a decision that the film’s director, James Mangold, was more than willing to bring to life.

“Honestly, I enjoy that people were so atwitter about it, because to me, there really is no attraction to just getting thousands of people in a theater and hitting them in a head with a hammer… Death is not an ending. The reason death worked in Logan is because of the beautiful irony of his death, which is that he lived such a painful life, that it was only in the last 30 seconds of his life that he actually got to experience love. And that to me was what was so moving about that ending,” Mangold said, adding: “And [Jackman’s] off making another one right now [with Marvel Studios’ Deadpool 3]. So you could see the finality of that.”

The director continued: “But for Indiana Jones, it isn’t about him dying. It had to be about him coming to terms with this period of his life and this period of the world. And in a way, coming to terms with whether Indiana Jones has relevance to ours.”

What Is Indiana Jones 5 About?

The iconic Harrison Ford returned for one last adventure as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm’s latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is Ford’s final appearance as the iconic archeologist.