Raiders of the Lost Ark

1981

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas set out to make a throwback adventure serial and produced one of the most efficient movies ever assembled. Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones, an archaeology professor sent by Army intelligence to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis reach it first. Karen Allen plays Marion Ravenwood, who is nobody's damsel, with Paul Freeman as the rival archaeologist and John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott filling out Indy's world.