Indiana Jones 5 is in cinemas since June 28 and marks Harrison Ford’s last appearance as a famous archaeologist. Is the character inspired by a real adventurer?
In 1981, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the whole world discovered an archaeologist like no other: one Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford)! Created by George Lucas, father of Star Wars, the character comes to life in four feature films directed by Steven Spielberg and a fifth installment directed by James Mangold: The Dial of Destiny.
Inspired by the great adventure movies of the ’40s and ’50s, George Lucas created “Indiana Jones” from scratch and gave it his dog’s first name at the time. Didn’t the author draw inspiration from other famous explorers when designing his character?
Spielberg and Lucas never confirmed or denied these hypotheses, but Indy could be a sum of several well-known adventurers like Hiram Bingham, Roy Chapman Andrews or Percy Fawcett.
The first, Bingham, is an American explorer who discovered Machu Picchu, an ancient 15th-century Inca city in Peru, in 1911. The second, Andrews, is a paleontologist and naturalist, also American. He was born in 1884 and died in 1960. James Gray dedicated a film to the third film, Fawcett, in 2016: The Lost City of Z.
Percival Harrison Fawcett, born in England in 1867, has been presumed dead since 1925. A British cartographer, archaeologist and explorer, he disappeared into the Brazilian jungle in search of a lost city. Her body was never found and her disappearance sparked many theories and rumours. It remains a mystery to this day.
Note that Indiana Jones’ look is inspired by that of Harry Steele, played by Charlton Heston in ‘The Incas’ directed by Jerry Hopper in 1954. This work is considered the matrix of the Indy saga.
DR Charlton Heston is Harry Steele
We follow Harry Steele, a former fighter pilot. The latter is on the trail of an Inca jewel in Peru. To reach his destination, he boards a diplomatic plane with a mysterious Romanian refugee. There he meets Dr. Moorehead, who is already conducting archaeological work at the Machu Picchu site.