I Was Thinking About…The Real-Life Inspirations Behind Indiana Jones
By Andy Lee
This summer, Harrison Ford cracked his iconic whip once more as Indiana Jones
returned to the big screen after a 13-year absence. Now in his 80s, Ford seems
determined to keep playing the world’s most famous fictional archaeologist as
long as humanly possible!
But as fans gear up for Indy’s latest globe-trotting exploits, I found
myself pondering – where did the idea for this daring character come from in
the first place? Yes, I know George Lucas dreamed him up and Steven Spielberg
brought him to life. But surely some genuine real-life explorer served as
inspiration, even indirectly.
My curiosity took me digging through history sites hunting for possible
candidates. And I uncovered three swashbuckling candidates who could have sparked
Indy’s inception – Percy Fawcett, Roy Chapman Andrews, and Hiram Bingham III.
Though the Indy crew denies basing him specifically on any one person, the
similarities are too compelling to ignore.
First is Fawcett – the British mapmaker totally obsessed with discovering a
mythical lost city he called “Z” in the Amazon jungle during the
1920s. Does that sound like the stubborn pursuit of a sacred relic hidden in a
treacherous remote land? Fawcett sure seemed to live that storyline meeting
hostile tribes and disappearing forever on his final quest.
Then there’s Roy Chapman Andrews – an American naturalist who travelled the
world collecting exotic specimens for the American Museum of Natural History
while facing all kinds of death-defying situations with pirates, bandits, and
poisonous snakes. Seriously – the guy practically had “Unforgettable
Adventures” tattooed on his forehead.
And we can’t forget Hiram Bingham III, the real Yale professor who uncovered
Machu Picchu in Peru while sporting a familiar weathered leather jacket and
fedora. The opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark appears filmed not far from the
actual ruins. Plus, Bingham’s fedora-clad movie doppelganger Harry Steele in
1954’s Secret of the Incas surely inspired Indy’s costume.
While Lucas and Spielberg openly admit they pillaged old adventure serials
and Hollywood classics to cook up their hero, they deny borrowing from any
genuine explorer’s biography. But the echoes of these daring men who pushed
into the unknown, unearthed lost worlds, and repeatedly escaped mortal peril
certainly reverberate in Indy’s fictional escapades.
Without pioneering adventurers and their often embellished legends, would
our culture have created legendary fantasy ones like Indiana Jones? Maybe not.
As much as the Indy crew copied from movie magic, those pop culture treasures
drew heavily from figures embedded in the real world and history.
Of course, actual archaeology requires less bullwhips and fistfights than
Indy encounters. But breaking ground and unearthing new knowledge does involve
struggle and risk. With today’s technology, most excavation work is less
perilous yet still captivating.
Perhaps Indy endures four decades on because something core to the human
spirit yearns to uncover the wonders of the past. We send probes piercing Mars’
ancient mysteries and tunnels burrowing beneath Stonehenge seeking relics from
bygone eras that reveal who we were and how we became. This innate curiosity
binds us across generations.
For some, adventure stirred their hunger to explore the unknown recesses of
land, culture, and time – battled dangers be damned! Driven by grit and
romantic ideals, they launched into frontier wilderness or remote civilizations
half-mapped, never knowing what beauty or calamity awaited around the next
bend. Their living became uncovering the world’s buried stories.
We rightfully examine colonialism’s legacy in modern context. But the spark
firing explorers’ hungering quests often lurked deeper – an insatiable
wanderlust, relentless wonder, and courage to chase legends despite clear
peril. Today’s archaeologists pursue those same passions, but with greater
care, consent, and stewardship.
So, while Indy’s origins remain enigmatic, his embodiment of curiosity and
daring still inspires. Because in the end, the yearning to unravel new
mysteries and take fearless leaps seeking epic adventures defies both fiction
and era. It dwells innate inside us all, awaiting its awakening. For today, I
was just thinking about the real-life figures behind Indy’s fantasy fame, whose
exploits will forever prod that restless instinct to explore.
Stay curious, keep exploring! 😊
I was thinking about... 