Origins and inspirations[edit]
Indiana Jones is modeled after the strong-jawed heroes of the matinée serials and pulp magazines that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg enjoyed in their childhoods (such as the Republic Pictures serials, and the Doc Savage series). Sir H. Rider Haggard's safari guide/big game hunter Allan Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines, who dates back to 1885, is a notable template for Jones.[41] The two friends first discussed the project in Hawaii around the time of the release of the first Star Wars film.[42] Spielberg told Lucas how he wanted his next project to be something fun, like a James Bond film (this would later be referenced when they cast Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr.). According to sources, Lucas responded to the effect that he had something "even better,"[42] or that he'd "got that beat."[43]
One of the possible bases for Indiana Jones are Professor Challenger, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912 for his novel, The Lost World. Challenger was based on Doyle's physiology professor, Sir William Rutherford, an adventuring academic, albeit a zoologist/anthropologist.[44]
The character was originally named Indiana Smith, after an Alaskan Malamute called Indiana that Lucas owned in the 1970s.[45] Spielberg disliked the name Smith, and Lucas casually suggested Jones as an alternative.[42] The Last Crusade script references the name's origin, with Jones's father revealing his son's birth name to be Henry and explaining that "we named the dog Indiana", to his son's chagrin.[46]
Lucas has said on various occasions that Sean Connery's portrayal of British secret agent James Bond was one of the primary inspirations for Jones, a reason Connery was chosen for the role of Indiana's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[47][48] Both Spielberg and Ford were Eagle and Life Scouts, respectively, in their youth, which gave them the inspiration to portray Indiana Jones as a Life Scout at age 13 in The Last Crusade, mirroring Ford's Scouting past.[49]
Costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis noted that the inspiration for the series as well as Indiana Jones' outfit was Charlton Heston's Harry Steele in Secret of the Incas (1954) and called Raiders of the Lost Ark "almost a shot for shot" remake of the Heston film, citing that Indiana Jones was "a kinder, gentler Harry Steele": "We did watch this film together as a crew several times, and I always thought it strange that the filmmakers did not credit it later as the inspiration for the series."[50]
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