George Lucas Pulled Some Good-Natured Manipulation To Keep Steven Spielberg On Indiana Jones

Spielberg recalled that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was originally written to be longer and to contain a lot more action. Perhaps Spielberg merely wanted to make several more chapters of an old-timey serial all at once. Spielberg said:

“‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was too super-packed with gags and stunts and set pieces. No movie could hold that much. So certain things carried over. And I always remember that the river rafting scene which we had written for ‘Raiders,’ I saved, kind of bookmarked for another ‘Raiders’ movie. That went into ‘Temple of Doom.’ And then we had an entire mine cart chase — like a roller-coaster ride — that was originally written for ‘Raiders.'”

It was wise to save the sequences, because they ended up being the starting points for the sequel. The director continued, “Basically, I just took it out of ‘Raiders’ and put it in a drawer. And then, when it came time to figure out set pieces for ‘Temple of Doom,’ we dusted it off and stuck it at the end.”

The mine cart chase was originally meant for the climax of “Raiders.” After the Nazis obtained the Ark of the Covenant, Indy was to flee the ensuing Wrath of God by racing away in a mine cart … with the Ark in tow. The river rafting sequence was originally part of the introduction of Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). To reach Marion’s remote bar in Nepal, Indy took a plane that, as it so happened, was sabotaged by Nazis. Indy leaped from the plane in an inflatable raft and sailed through the Himalayas to get to Marion’s place. 

The excision of these sequences was wise. The pace would have been slowed considerably.

SOURCE