Indy avoids various traps, the betrayal of his two guides, Barranca and Satipo, and a giant rolling boulder that chases him out of the temple, only to find his nemesis, French archaeologist René Belloq, waiting for him outside with a small army of Hovitos natives.

Indy is teaching Archaeology 101 at Marshall College when Major Eaton and Colonel Musgrove enlist his help in tracking down the whereabouts of Abner Ravenwood in order to prevent the Nazis from finding the Ark of the Covenant, which, according to legend, could render Adolf Hitler's army invincible.

According to the Bible, the Ark--a gold-covered wooden chest--contains the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jones has many female admirers attending his lectures. One expresses her infatuation by writing "Love you" on her eyelids.

The scene where Indy is confronted by a scimitar-wielding swordsman was written as an epic whip vs. sword duel which would have taken days to shoot. On the day of filming, Harrison Ford had dysentery and thought it would be funny, and much easier on his stomach, if he just shot the swordsman. This was approved by Speilberg and Lucas and became one of the most iconic scenes of the film.

The name "Indiana" came from Lucas' dog, an Alaskan malamute named Indiana. The character was originally named Indiana Smith, but Spielberg argued it was too close to the Steve McQueen western called Nevada Smith and the last name should be equally nondescript, so Indiana Smith became Indiana Jones.

In the film, Willie, Indy and Short Round ride an elephant and when they stop to make camp, Willie hangs her dress up to dry. The elephant then began eating the dress and tore off the entire back. The costume designer had to restore the dress and in the insurance claim stated that the garment was "eaten by elephant".

After the headpiece is burned into his hand, the Nazi commander Toht has a copy made from the inscription scarred into his skin. Since they only had instructions from the one side of the headpiece, they don't recreate the Staff of Ra correctly, as they missed the information on the other side, and they dig for the Well of Souls in the wrong location.

The older Dr. Jones continually refers to Indy as "Junior", telling Sallah that his full name is Henry Jones, Junior. Sallah says he thought his name was "Indiana", and Henry responds "The dog's name was Indiana". Indy counters with "I have a lot of fond memories of that dog!"

When Indy, Willie and Short Round are guests at the palace, they are "treated" to a feast of live eels stuffed inside a snake, giant beetles, and chilled monkey brains, still inside the monkey's head. For these stereotypes and many others, the Indian government refused to allow the movie to be filmed in the country (many scenes set in India were shot in Sri Lanka instead) and the movie was banned in India for some time.