Recently, the internet was blessed with a wonderful gift. A few decades ago, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan had 5, 9-hour-long chat sessions where they discussed plot ideas for a story about an archaeologist/adventurer who was handy with a bullwhip. The three spoke, sometimes in short, garbled sentences, and sometimes in wild, minute-long monologues that were positively dense with ideas. The conversations were recorded, transcripts were made and, based on those transcripts, Raiders of the Lost Ark was written.
Let me say right off the bat, (stripped of internet-mandated cynicism), that this story conference is one of the most interesting things I’ve ever read. You’ve got hours upon hours of these three guys just relentlessly spit-balling and the sheer amount of ideas that get thrown around in that room is incredible. Over the course of these 125 pages, you really see Raiders taking shape, and you also see bits and pieces of Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade popping up. They’re just sitting around brainstorming, probably with no inclination that they’re about to create a wildly successful and popular film franchise.
