Raiders of the Lost Ark Page #16

INDY:

Stay here!

MARION:

(grabbing him)

Where are you going?

INDY:

I’ll be back in a minute. We’re

going through this wall.

Marion looks at the wall, which looks like all the rest to

her. She thinks he’s crazy.

INDY:

Just keep your eyes open and get

ready to run. No matter what

happens to me.

MARION:

(panicked)

What do you mean?

Too late. Indy runs back through the path of flames to the

center of the room. Snakes strike at his flying heels. Indy

reaches the base of the pillar which he touched briefly on

his original descent. He uses the torch to clear away the

scattered snakes climbing on it, then pulls out his whip. He

draws it back, then wraps it solidly around the pillar 15

feet up. With the torch in his mouth, he beings climbing the

pillar. It moves ominously under his weight.

The last two torches still burning on the floor go out. Now

the only light in the chamber is provided by the torches held

by Indy and Marion and the dwindling oil flames. Snakes move

in and surrond the base of Indy’s pillar. The path between

Marion and the center of the room is overrun. The circle of

flame around Marion is dying down.

71.

She looks beyond it with terror-widened eyes, then up through

the increasing smoke at the distant Indy.

Near the top of the pillar, Indy’s hands strain along his

taut whip, which he has moved higher. A snake slithers into

view there, inches from Indy’s straining face. Indy turns his

head so the torch in his mouth can burn it. The snake falls

from the pillar. Indy’s torch is dwindling. Indy works his

body around so that he’s in on the side of the pillar away

from Marion. The pillar moves, showering dust. Indy looks at

the chamber wall five feet away, takes a breath and swings

his legs up against it. He is now braced between the pillar

and wall.

.

MARION (O.S.)

(screaming)

Where are you?!

Snakes are moving in force up the pillar toward Indy’s

dwindling torch. Indy grasps the pillar for dear life,

grimaces with exertion and pushes against the wall with all

he’s got. The pillar begins to break loose of the ceiling,

then stops. Indy’s eyes are on the torch. It is just a spot

of flame now. Snakes are sliding up toward his hands. Indy

again pushes against the wall and torch falls out of his

mouth.

The pillar goes! In the dim light, we see it fall like a tree

directly at Marion. Indy rides it down. The top hits the wall

three feet from a cringing Marion and smashes through to a

black chamber beyond. Indy flies off into the darkness. Gone.

Marion clutches her torch at the black hole.

MARION:

Indy! Where are you?! Please Lord!

There is a moment that seems an eternity, then Indy appears

like an apparition out of the void.

INDY:

Come on!

He grabs her and helps her over the remains of the wall into -

108 INT. THE CATACOMBS 108

The winding string of connected chambers is revealed to them

only a few feet at a time as their torch lights the way.

MARION:

The snakes... are they here?

72.

INDY:

I guess not. I think I’d be dead.

MARION:

Do you know where you’re going?

INDY:

Absolutely.

MARION:

Thank god. Where?

INDY:

Out.

They round a corner and flush a covey of bats. Marion

screams.

INDY:

Don’t do that. It scares me.

Marion gives him a look. They round a corner and begin a walk

through a maze of chambers that present for their inspection:

moldering mummies and stacked saracophagi; a room decorated

with a thousand human skulls; a wall crawling with huge

scarabaeid beetles. Marion is quite naturally a nervous

wreck; she jumps when Indy grabs her suddenly and points.

.

INDY:

Look!

WHAT THEY SEE. There, coming through the crack in the corner

of the next chamber, is white blessed sunlight.

109 EXT. THE TANIS DIGS - NEAR AIRSTRIP - DAY 109

Indy and Marion peek out into the light from the shadows of

an abandoned excavation. Before them is the improvised

airstrip serving the digs: a crude runway, a tent supply

depot, two fuel tank trucks. Down by the fuel trucks a German

Mechanic is looking skyward. Now Indy and Marion look there

too, drawn by the roaring sound of -

A Flying Wing, which is circling over the digs in preparation

to landing.

Now a new figure approaches the German Mechanic. It is

Gobler; he yells to the mechanic, indicating the plane.

GOBLER:

Get it gassed immediately! It has

an important cargo to take out!

73.

In the distance, the Flying Wing lands and rolls toward the

men. Gobler spins and heads back toward the main camp, which

is hidden from view by a rise. Indy and Marion watch him go.

INDY:

When the Ark gets loaded, we’re

already going to be on that plane.

The Flying Wing rolls up into the space near the fuel trucks.

The German Mechanic puts blue blocks in front of the tires as

the engines continue to roar.

Indy and Marion run in a crouch to a hiding spot closer to

the plane, near the supply tent. Suddenly, a Second German

Mechanic appears behind them. He is as surprised as they are,

but recovers quickly and swings a monkey wrench at Indy. Indy

grabs the swinging arm and the two men tumble out into the

open, wrestling. Marion remains hidden, moving fast among the

crates.

The first German mechanic, who is just pulling the fuel hose

from the tank truck to the plane, sees the combatants and

runs to help his countryman. He is almost upon them when Indy

puts the Second German away with a devastating left -- right

-left combination. He turns to find the first German

Mechanic flying at him. The roll toward the rear of the

Flying Wing and its lethally spinning reversed propellers.

.

In the cockpit of the Flying Wing, the Pilot has been

fiddling with his gauges just prior to shutting off his

engines. Now he notices the fight going on outside.

The fistfight between Indy and the German Mechanic has taken

on a new stomach-tightening dimension. The men are fighting

and flailing in and out between the spinning props at the

back of the plane’s wings. Each man comes within inches of

the becoming instant mincement.

The Pilot slides away the top of his cockpit and stands up.

He pulls a Lugar from his side and points it, waiting for a

clear shot at Indy. The German Mechanic kicks Indy away from

him and the Pilot aims his pistol. Suddenly, Marion appears

behind the Pilot, standing on the opposite wing, and bashes

him over the head with one of the blue blocks that was

holding the tires. The Pilot drops down into the cockpit, his

body falling on the throttle. The engines roar louder,

revving up. The plane begins to roll, rotating around its one

still-blocked set of tires. Marion grabs onto the cockpit to

keep from slipping into the props. She bends into the

cockpit, trying to pull the Pilot’s body off the throttle. No

luck. She grimaces and climbs inside. Her shoulder bumps the

top of the cockpit; it slides tightly shut above her.

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