One of the more iconic moments of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is undoubtedly when Indiana Jones proves that a gun can outduel a sword any day. However, Indy was originally supposed to use another one of his trademark weapons in this bout. During an AMA session on Reddit, Harrison Ford talked about how this scene changed due to him being sick on the day of the filming. “It was meant to be the ultimate duel between sword and whip,” said Ford, “I was suffering from dysentery [and], really, found it inconvenient to be out of my trailer for more than 10 minutes at a time.”
With the proposed fight likely taking multiple days to shoot, Ford suggested to director Steven Spielberg that he just shoot the swordsman, and the rest is history. “He flourished his sword, I pulled out my gun and shot him, and then we went back to England,” said Ford. While the original idea of Indy using his whip to take out not just one, but a bunch of blade-wielding baddies sounds awesome, what we got is much more fitting to Indy’s style. More importantly, the slick gunshot from Indy grew to become an iconic piece of his legacy and defines why he’s such a beloved figure in cinema.
