Everything good comes in threes.
The original Indy trilogy, the Musketeers, “Beetlejuice!”, the Hanson Brothers, and the number of Star Trek celebrities who appear at every comic-con.
So when sound designer Ben Burtt and the rest of the crew went to work on Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was only natural that their work would result in three outstanding sound effects that you’ve probably tried to recreate with your action figures more times than is healthy.
Of course, almost all of the sound effects in Raiders make you want to put on a fedora and run across a rickety bridge in the middle of Sri Lanka, but the holy trinity still remain: the revolver, the whip, and the Indy punch.
What makes these sounds so unique is just that—they’re unique. Ben Burtt has stated many times that he avoided using previously recorded sounds for Raiders, wanting the audible world of Dr. Jones to be wholly original.
“These [sounds] had been in movies many times before, and they were good recordings, but what I wanted to do was not do that, but to build our own, new, customized Indiana Jones library, which would have its own signature.“
So, wielding their equipment with more dexterity than Marion Ravenwood with a swivel mirror, here is how the sound team captured the three most iconic sound effects from Indiana Jones (this wail of pain is a close fourth).
1. Gunshot
Indy uses a variety of different firearms during his quest for the Ark, but they all have a common denominator: a gunshot sound effect that makes your home speakers boom like the wrath of God.
The actual sound for the gunshot is the sound of a .30-30 Winchester rifle being fired, recorded by Ben Burtt. According to Burtt, the recording wasn’t tinkered with or layered with other noises and is almost exactly how the Winchester sounded live.
One key to the successful sound effect may be Burtt’s approach to sound design, as he states:
“A good gunshot is multiple syllables, kind of a slap, repeats….Give it character. The best gunshots always have two syllables, I think. That’s one of the big mistakes people make today. They use one syllable gunshots.“
Well said, Ben, well said.
2. Whip
Zorro and Catwoman could give a flea a beard trim using just their whip skills, but Dr. Jones and his bullwhip take the golden idol for best sound effect.
Sound designer Gary Summers was part of the Raiders sound crew, and, during a break in filming, Harrison Ford took him aside and showed him how to crack the whip.
The surrounding environment proved too noisy to record, so Ben Burtt later recorded Summers cracking the whip in a quieter location.
The actual sound effect is of a David Morgan 450 series bullwhip. Burtt and Summers recorded the whip in different environments including in the trees and the middle of a field, which gave them a variety of lashings to draw from.
3. Punch
This sound effect pretty much made everyone want to punch someone just to see if it sounded the same in real life. If you’ve ever had the unfortunate chance, you’ll know it sounds nothing like a real punch.
But in the movies, everything sounds more awesome, dammit.
The sound effect of the Indiana Jones punch consists mostly of baseball bats smacking a pile of leather jackets and baseball gloves. Burtt mentioned in one interview you can get a good sound by throwing one of the gloves into the air and then whacking it with the bat, as well.
Burtt has also revealed another source for the Raiders punches that involves sports equipment and a pumpkin:
“…if you took a croquet ball and you put it in a sock, so you had a nunchuck sort of a weapon, and you beat the pumpkin to death, every so often one of this [sic] hits, out of the five or so, is really good.“
The punches throughout the film appear to be a mixture of the beatings. Now you know where the sound effect came from and that sound design is probably one of the most awesome jobs ever.
However, there also appears to be a “secret ingredient” to the punch effect. When asked in a 2012 interview how the punch sounds were created, Burtt said:
“Well, there’s one part I’m not going to tell you, because I have to protect a few things so I have future work.“
Revealing this secret would be akin to opening the Ark and unleashing its contents. If you’re not a sound designer, the results would be devastating.
Watch your movies. Wear your movies.
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