The Indiana Jones films, as well as the titular archaeologist, copied many elements from the James Bond films and its gentleman spy. Created by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is one of the most beloved movie heroes ever, and his globetrotting adventures have thrilled audiences since Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered in 1981. But while Indy is a largely original creation, his origins are intrinsically tied to 007.

The story of how Indiana Jones came to be is famous in Hollywood circles: Fresh off their triumphs with Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the late 1970s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (who are best friends in real life) were vacationing together in Hawaii. Pondering his next move, Spielberg confessed that he dreamed of directing a James Bond film but he felt it was unlikely. Lucas told him to forget 007 because he had "something better", and he told Spielberg about his concept of an archaeologist/adventurer who plundered lost treasures and miraculously escaped any number of ancient death traps, which was inspired by the serial matinees Lucas loved as a child. Spielberg also adored those pulpy serials but he suggested a name change for Lucas' fedora-wearing hero, thus "Indiana Smith" became "Indiana Jones".

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Lucas, as the producer who concocted the films' stories, Spielberg as director, and Harrison Ford starring as Indy, all collaborated on the original Indiana Jones trilogy: 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 2008 came the long-awaited fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A fifth Indiana Jones film has been in development for over a decade and is tentatively planned to release in 2022 with James Mangold attached to direct. But while the Indiana Jones movie franchise is nowhere near as prolific as James Bond, the daring archaeologist bears lots of clear inspiration from the dashing secret agent.

The Serial Nature Of Indiana Jones Movies Comes From James Bond

Indiana Jones Movies

The Indiana Jones films' similarities to the James Bond franchise includes the continuous, serialized adventures of the archaeologist. Like 007, Indy's films are chapters in a macro-story of the archaeologist's life. The original James Bond timeline from Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan saw a much looser chronology of events, but there are enough elements threading through the films to indicate that all of those films were the adventures of the same spy. Meanwhile, it's considerably easier to chart Indy's tales since there are only four and the same actor plays Dr. Jones throughout. Indiana Jones also adopted Bond's globetrotting and signature death traps, although Lucas and Spielberg filtered them through the lens of old Saturday morning adventure serials as opposed to the Ian Fleming spy novels 007 sprang from.

Like Bond, Indy is the constant everything revolves around and he has a reliable supporting cast who pops up in his films, including Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies). Similarly, James Bond checks in with his minders at MI6, M, Miss Moneypenny, and Q, before he goes off on his next mission. However, Indy has a rotating cast of love interests, like Bond, who pioneered the concept of the "Bond Girl" he has to protect, save, and sometimes fight alongside. The same applies to Indy and his female foils, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Willie Scott (Kate Caplan), and Dr. Elsa Schneider (Allison Doody).

By the 1957 timeframe of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy's enemies switched from Nazis to Russians. Bond is a creation of the Cold War and many of Roger Moore's 007 films saw him taking on (and sometimes bedding) agents from the Soviet Union. Of course, the theme music for Indiana Jones, composed by John Williams, and James Bond's by Monty Norman and John Barry, is iconic and unforgettable.

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The Indiana Jones Character Takes After James Bond

The Venice boat chase in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indy, like Bond, is a macho male archetype from the bygone 20th century. While they are each highly intelligent, Indy and Bond are essentially men of action who solve problems with their fists and will kill remorselessly when they have to. Indeed, Indy takes any opportunity to escape the classroom of Marshall College, where he's a popular archaeology professor, while 007 loathes spending any time in his office at MI6. Indy and Bond will gladly leap into action and crave their next adventure in a far-flung exotic locale. While Dr. Jones' driving passion is finding rare artifacts and securing them for museums, and thus keeping them away from sinister collectors or Nazis, Indy has also worked as a spy, like Bond.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jones was recruited by government agents to find the Ark of the Covenant and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull revealed that Indy worked as an intelligence agent during World War II and afterward, which places him on equal footing with 007. Indeed, both heroes have saved the world from doomsday scenarios, like Hitler trying to use the Ark of the Covenant's Biblical power to subjugate the planet or Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) seeking immortality from the Holy Grail. Both Indy and Bond are also known for their accouterments and Dr. Jones' signature fedora and bullwhip are as world-famous as 007's Walther PPK and Aston Martin.

Both Indy and Bond are known womanizers; 007's sexual conquests are legendary but Dr. Jones has also had his share of lovers, and he even seduced Marion Ravenwood at a very young age before he left her without a word for several years. Bond and Indy have even shared a Bond Girl since Allison Doody starred in 1985's A View to a Kill before she joined Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Of course, several actors have played James Bond, and while movie audiences only know Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, many actors have portrayed Indy at various points in his life thanks to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series. In fact, Daniel Craig, the current 007, even appeared in an episode of Young Indy.

Temple of Doom's Opening Scene Is A Reference To Goldfinger

Indiana Jones borrowed the James Bond trope of starting each film with Indy finishing up a previous adventure that the audience is dropped in on, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom takes it all the way by homaging the opening scenes of Goldfinger. In Sean Connery's 1964 outing, which fully crystallized all of the elements of what a James Bond film should be, 007 arrives in a seedy nightclub in Latin America to perform an assassination. Bond famously climbs out of a wetsuit elegantly clad in a white dinner jacket with a red flower lapel before he successfully executes his mission.

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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom begins in a similar fashion: Instead of wearing his trademark fedora and earth-toned garb, Dr. Jones enters Shanghai's posh Club Obi-Wan wearing a white dinner jacket and red flower label identical to how Connery was dressed in Goldfinger. Dr. Jones came to trade the ashes of a Chinese emperor for a rare diamond, but like 007's encounter in Goldfinger, the deal quickly goes sideways and erupts in violence, with Indy barely escaping alongside Willie Scott and his young sidekick, Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan).

Sean Connery Was Cast As Indiana Jones' Dad Because He Was James Bond

Steven Spielberg's love of Sean Connery's James Bond films fully manifested in the director casting the screen legend as Indy's father, Professor Henry Jones Sr., in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Spielberg couldn't see anyone else for the role, and he felt that Sean Connery was already, in a sense, Indiana Jones' father, since the Indy films were borne out of Lucas and Spielberg's desire to outdo the James Bond movies.

Further, in the 1980s, Roger Moore's final few James Bond movies had become cartoonishly outlandish, and the 007 franchise tried to go back to basics with a more 'realistic' Bond in Timothy Dalton. Meanwhile, the Indiana Jones movies were delivering the kind of crowd-pleasing, globe-trotting, edge-of-your-seat, blockbuster adventures that harkened back to Connery's best Bond films in the 1960s.

Originally, Connery turned down the role because he was only 12 years older than Harrison Ford. However, as a lover of history himself, Connery saw the opportunity to play what he saw as a version of Sir Richard Burton and to have fun with his spin on the "gruff, Victorian, Scottish father". Of course, the pairing of Indiana Jones and the original James Bond playing his father worked like gangbusters, and Ford and Connery's chemistry delighted audiences while cementing the bond between the two action heroes.

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