Movie Smarts

Raiders of the Lost Ark Quiz: Dig Up a Perfect Score

Fifteen questions, four choices each. Give your movie memory a moment to shine.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Watch the trailer.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Office Hours Are Canceled. There Are Nazis to Punch.

Indiana Jones has a perfectly good teaching job, but he keeps leaving it for places where everything wants him dead. His latest hunt puts him in a race against people who really shouldn't get their hands on ancient treasures. An old flame joins the trouble, and neither of them is very good at staying out of it. Expect dusty ruins, narrow escapes, and a man whose hat gets better treatment than he does.

Brush off the dust. Your memory has a little digging to do.

1. Who directed Raiders of the Lost Ark?
- George Lucas
- Steven Spielberg
- Robert Zemeckis
- Richard Donner
Lucas pitched the idea to Spielberg on a beach in Hawaii while they waited for the first Star Wars box office figures, after Spielberg said he wanted to make a Bond film. Stung by the overruns on 1941, Spielberg brought it in early and under budget.
2. Who plays Marion Ravenwood?
- Margot Kidder
- Carrie Fisher
- Debra Winger
- Karen Allen
Allen had broken through in Animal House and came back as Marion for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which ends with Indy marrying her. Marion is the daughter of his old mentor Abner Ravenwood, and he turns up at her bar wanting her father's medallion.
3. What is Indiana Jones's day job?
- Museum security guard
- History journalist
- Archaeology professor
- Geography teacher
He lectures at Marshall College, named for producer Frank Marshall, where a student in the front row has LOVE YOU written on her eyelids. Marcus Brody, the museum curator played by Denholm Elliott, buys his finds and brings him the Army's offer.
4. What rolls after Indy in the opening temple?
- A giant boulder
- A bronze wheel
- A stone statue
- A wooden cart
The boulder was a huge fiberglass and plaster shell, and Spielberg liked the gag so much he had Ford outrun it from several angles. Lucas borrowed the idea from an Uncle Scrooge comic, The Seven Cities of Cibola, in which a rolling boulder guards a treasure.
5. What does Indy use to replace the golden idol?
- A bag of coins
- A carved skull
- A bag of sand
- A water flask
He tries to match the idol's weight with sand, pours some out to be sure, and the pedestal sinks anyway. His guide Satipo, played by Alfred Molina in his first film, gets away with the idol only as far as the next trap, and a rival relieves Indy of it outside.
6. Which creature frightens Indy most?
- Snakes
- Rats
- Spiders
- Scorpions
The phobia is set up early, on the getaway plane out of Peru, when Indy finds the pilot's pet snake Reggie in his seat. It pays off later in a chamber floored with real snakes, where a sheet of glass, visible in a few shots, sat between Ford and the cobra.
7. Where does Indy find Marion running a bar?
- Egypt
- Greece
- Nepal
- Morocco
Her bar, the Raven, introduces her winning a drinking contest against a local for money. Toht and his men arrive right after Indy, the fight sets the place ablaze, and the medallion brands its design into Toht's palm, all the Nazis have to work from.
8. What object are the Nazis trying to find?
- The Holy Grail
- The Golden Fleece
- The Spear of Destiny
- The Ark of the Covenant
The Army men explain that the Nazis are digging in the lost city of Tanis, where the Ark, the chest built to hold the broken tablets of the Ten Commandments, is believed to be hidden. The Holy Grail is the prize in The Last Crusade, eight years later.
9. What is the name of Indy's French rival?
- Walter Donovan
- René Belloq
- Ernst Vogel
- Arnold Toht
Paul Freeman plays him, and he kept acting through the famous shot in which a fly wanders into his mouth. Belloq takes the idol off Indy in Peru and the Ark off him at Tanis; Toht is the Gestapo man, and Vogel and Donovan are villains from The Last Crusade.
10. Who plays Sallah?
- Alfred Molina
- Paul Freeman
- John Rhys-Davies
- Denholm Elliott
Spielberg cast him after seeing him in the miniseries Shogun, and he came back for The Last Crusade and, decades later, Dial of Destiny. Sallah is billed as the best digger in Egypt, and Rhys-Davies went on to play Gimli in The Lord of the Rings.
11. What is the underground chamber containing the Ark called?
- The Chamber of Secrets
- The Well of Souls
- The Temple of Light
- The Hall of Kings
Indy finds it with the Staff of Ra in the Map Room; the Nazis had only the side of the headpiece burned into Toht's hand, and missed the instruction to take back one kadam. Once they have the Ark, Belloq seals Indy and Marion inside with the snakes.
12. How does Indy deal with the swordsman in Cairo?
- He runs into a shop
- He shoots him
- He steals the sword
- He throws a crate
The script had a long whip-against-sword duel, but Ford was suffering from dysentery and suggested simply shooting the man, which Spielberg agreed to on the spot. The swordsman is stuntman Terry Richards, who had rehearsed the full fight.
13. What does Marion wear during the escape from the Well of Souls?
- A red jumpsuit
- A blue evening gown
- A white dress
- A brown uniform
Belloq gives her the dress in his tent at Tanis, where she tries to drink him under the table with his own family's wine before Toht walks in. She is thrown into the pit still wearing it, and it stays with her through the snakes and the escape.
14. Who wrote the film's score?
- Alan Silvestri
- John Williams
- Jerry Goldsmith
- James Horner
Williams wrote two possible marches for Indy and played both for Spielberg, who asked why not use the pair, so one became the main theme and the other its bridge. Alan Silvestri's own adventure march, for Back to the Future, came along four years later.
15. What weapon is part of Indy's usual outfit?
- A spear
- A crossbow
- A sword
- A bullwhip
Ford trained with the whip before shooting and does most of his own cracking. The Last Crusade shows a teenage Indy picking one up for the first time and catching himself on the chin, the series' explanation for a scar Ford actually got in a car accident.

All the answers

1. Who directed Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Steven Spielberg

Lucas pitched the idea to Spielberg on a beach in Hawaii while they waited for the first Star Wars box office figures, after Spielberg said he wanted to make a Bond film. Stung by the overruns on 1941, Spielberg brought it in early and under budget.
2. Who plays Marion Ravenwood?

Karen Allen

Allen had broken through in Animal House and came back as Marion for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which ends with Indy marrying her. Marion is the daughter of his old mentor Abner Ravenwood, and he turns up at her bar wanting her father's medallion.
3. What is Indiana Jones's day job?

Archaeology professor

He lectures at Marshall College, named for producer Frank Marshall, where a student in the front row has LOVE YOU written on her eyelids. Marcus Brody, the museum curator played by Denholm Elliott, buys his finds and brings him the Army's offer.
4. What rolls after Indy in the opening temple?

A giant boulder

The boulder was a huge fiberglass and plaster shell, and Spielberg liked the gag so much he had Ford outrun it from several angles. Lucas borrowed the idea from an Uncle Scrooge comic, The Seven Cities of Cibola, in which a rolling boulder guards a treasure.
5. What does Indy use to replace the golden idol?

A bag of sand

He tries to match the idol's weight with sand, pours some out to be sure, and the pedestal sinks anyway. His guide Satipo, played by Alfred Molina in his first film, gets away with the idol only as far as the next trap, and a rival relieves Indy of it outside.
6. Which creature frightens Indy most?

Snakes

The phobia is set up early, on the getaway plane out of Peru, when Indy finds the pilot's pet snake Reggie in his seat. It pays off later in a chamber floored with real snakes, where a sheet of glass, visible in a few shots, sat between Ford and the cobra.
7. Where does Indy find Marion running a bar?

Nepal

Her bar, the Raven, introduces her winning a drinking contest against a local for money. Toht and his men arrive right after Indy, the fight sets the place ablaze, and the medallion brands its design into Toht's palm, all the Nazis have to work from.
8. What object are the Nazis trying to find?

The Ark of the Covenant

The Army men explain that the Nazis are digging in the lost city of Tanis, where the Ark, the chest built to hold the broken tablets of the Ten Commandments, is believed to be hidden. The Holy Grail is the prize in The Last Crusade, eight years later.
9. What is the name of Indy's French rival?

René Belloq

Paul Freeman plays him, and he kept acting through the famous shot in which a fly wanders into his mouth. Belloq takes the idol off Indy in Peru and the Ark off him at Tanis; Toht is the Gestapo man, and Vogel and Donovan are villains from The Last Crusade.
10. Who plays Sallah?

John Rhys-Davies

Spielberg cast him after seeing him in the miniseries Shogun, and he came back for The Last Crusade and, decades later, Dial of Destiny. Sallah is billed as the best digger in Egypt, and Rhys-Davies went on to play Gimli in The Lord of the Rings.
11. What is the underground chamber containing the Ark called?

The Well of Souls

Indy finds it with the Staff of Ra in the Map Room; the Nazis had only the side of the headpiece burned into Toht's hand, and missed the instruction to take back one kadam. Once they have the Ark, Belloq seals Indy and Marion inside with the snakes.
12. How does Indy deal with the swordsman in Cairo?

He shoots him

The script had a long whip-against-sword duel, but Ford was suffering from dysentery and suggested simply shooting the man, which Spielberg agreed to on the spot. The swordsman is stuntman Terry Richards, who had rehearsed the full fight.
13. What does Marion wear during the escape from the Well of Souls?

A white dress

Belloq gives her the dress in his tent at Tanis, where she tries to drink him under the table with his own family's wine before Toht walks in. She is thrown into the pit still wearing it, and it stays with her through the snakes and the escape.
14. Who wrote the film's score?

John Williams

Williams wrote two possible marches for Indy and played both for Spielberg, who asked why not use the pair, so one became the main theme and the other its bridge. Alan Silvestri's own adventure march, for Back to the Future, came along four years later.
15. What weapon is part of Indy's usual outfit?

A bullwhip

Ford trained with the whip before shooting and does most of his own cracking. The Last Crusade shows a teenage Indy picking one up for the first time and catching himself on the chin, the series' explanation for a scar Ford actually got in a car accident.