“Obviously One of Their Heads Can Explode” - The Wrath of God in Raiders of the Lost Ark

In his script for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lawrence Kasdan describes the opening of the Ark of the Covenant as “a preview of the end of the world.“ What came to be known as the Wrath of God scene, however, is as visually iconic and gruesomely memorable an ending as you can ask for. So how did the special effects team take a few vague but powerful lines and turn it into an Oscar winning, face melting sequence for the ages? To find out, we talked to the artists that made it happen, Joe Johnston, Richard Edlund, Karen Allen and Paul Freeman. This is Art of the Scene. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the rare films that continues to get better as it goes. While Indiana Jones spends the films entire run time dodging boulders, avoiding snakes and single handedly hijacking truck caravans, the script by Lawrence Kasdan takes great pains to set up the danger that the Ark of the Covenant represents. Steven Spielberg and co knew they had to stick the landing when Rene Belloq cracks it open, so the te