Don Fellows Quotes - Best Lines & Interviews

Memorable Quotes from Don Fellows

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Raiders of the Lost Ark

Expertise and Comfort in Conversation

Maj. Eaton Dr. Jones, we've heard a great deal about you.

Jones Have you?

Maj. Eaton Professor of Archaeology, expert on the occult and, how does one say it...obtainer of rare antiquities?

Jones That's one way of saying it. Why don't you sit down? You'll be more comfortable.

Col. Musgrove Thank you. Yes, you're a man of many talents. Now, you studied under Professor Ravenwood at the University of Chicago?

Jones Yes, I did.

Maj. Eaton And you have no idea of his present whereabouts?

Jones Uh, just rumours, really. Somewhere in Asia, I think. I haven't spoken to him for ten years. We were friends, but we...had a bit of a falling out, I'm afraid.

Col. Musgrove Now, Dr. Jones, you must understand this is all...strictly confidential.

Jones I understand.

Col. Musgrove Yesterday afternoon, our European section intercepted a German communiqué that was sent from Cairo to Berlin. Now-

Maj. Eaton You see, over the last two years, the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all kinds of religious artifacts. Hitler's a nut on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult, and right now, apparently, there's some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside of Cairo.

Col. Musgrove Now we've got some information here, but we can't make anything out of it, and maybe you can. ] development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, Staff of Ra, Abner Ravenwood, U.S.

[reads the communiqué; [w:Tanis|Tanis]

Jones The Nazis have discovered Tanis.

Maj. Eaton Just what does that mean to you, uh, "Tanis"?

Brody Well it-

Jones The city of Tanis is one of the possible resting places of the Lost Ark.

[interrupts him]

Col. Musgrove The Lost Ark?

Jones Yeah, the ]. The chest the Hebrews used to carry around the ].

[[w:Ark of the Covenant|Ark of the Covenant; [Ten Commandments]

Maj. Eaton What do you mean, the commandments? You're talking about the Ten Commandments?

Jones Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets ] brought down from ] and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. Didn't either of you guys ever go to Sunday school?

[[Moses; [w:Mount Horeb|Mount Horeb]

Col. Musgrove Well, uh, I-

Jones Look, the Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark, and when they settled in ], they put the Ark in a place called the ].

[[w:Canaan|Canaan; [w:Temple of Solomon|Temple of Solomon]

Brody In ].

[[w:Jerusalem|Jerusalem]

Jones Where it stayed for many years. Until, all of a sudden, whoosh, it's gone.

Maj. Eaton Where?

Jones Well nobody knows where, or when.

Brody However, an Egyptian pharaoh...

Jones ].

[[w:Shishak|Shishak]

Brody Yes...invaded the city of Jerusalem around about 980 B.C. and he may have taken the Ark back to the city of Tanis and hidden it in a secret chamber called the ].

[[w:Well of Souls|Well of Souls]

Maj. Eaton Secret chamber?

Brody However, about a year after the pharaoh had returned to Egypt, the city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm that lasted a whole year. Wiped clean by the wrath of God.

Col. Musgrove Well, obviously we've come to the right men. Now, you seem to know all about this Tanis.

Jones No, no, not really. Ravenwood's the real expert. Abner did the first serious work on Tanis. Collected some of its relics. It was his obsession, but he never found the city.

Maj. Eaton Frankly, we're somewhat suspicious of Mr. Ravenwood. An American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable.

Brody Oh, rubbish. Ravenwood's no Nazi.

Col. Musgrove Well what do the Nazis want him for, then?

Jones Well obviously the Nazis are looking for the headpiece to the Staff of Ra and they think Abner's got it.

Maj. Eaton What exactly is the headpiece to the Staff of Ra?

Jones Well the staff is just a stick, I don't know, about this big, nobody really knows for sure how high. And it's... it's capped with an elaborate headpiece in the shape of the sun with a crystal in the center. And what you did was you took the staff to a special room in Tanis, a map room with a miniature of the city all laid out on the floor, and if you put the staff in a certain place, at a certain time of day, the sun shone through here and made a beam that came down on the floor here... and gave you the exact location of the Well of the Souls.

[gestures with his hands to convey the length of the staff; draws a diagram on a blackboard; contemplates the enormity of such a potential discovery]

Col. Musgrove Where the Ark of the Covenant was kept?

Jones That's exactly what the Nazis are looking for!

Maj. Eaton Well what does this Ark look like?

Jones Uh, there's a...picture of it right here. That's it.

[opens an old leatherback Bible to an illustration showing the Israelites holding the Ark above them, with great beams of light emanating from the Ark, piercing the ranks of the opposing army surrounding them, with the soldiers in various states of agony and death]

Maj. Eaton Good God!

Brody Yes, that's just what the Hebrews thought.

Col. Musgrove Uh, now, what's that supposed to be coming out of there?

[pointing to the firebolts]

Jones Lightning...fire...the power of God or something.

Maj. Eaton I'm beginning to understand Hitler's interest in this.

Brody Oh yes. The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it...is invincible.

[he exchanges a grim look with Indy]

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