Below is  the provenance of the work Norank did on the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Norank made many things for Indy, and some of the pictures below show this. ©LucasFilms. People often assume it was all shot on location, but much of it was shot in Elstree. The famous rope bridge scenes for example were all done here.

DID YOU KNOW?

Harrison Ford went into the local video shop to rent a movie and was refused by the manager Adrian, a friend of Elstree Props. He had forgot to bring his ID! Harrison came back in the next day and offered Adrian a new career as his stand-in because of his similar looks and height! Adrian later became Pierce Brosnan’s PA! Just a little example of how a movie affects life locally!

The long bladed knife seen above, being held by the “Thugee” guard with the Black turban, is one of ours. Norank actually had three. One is steel which they made for the close-up shots, and two are safety versions made from rubber and resin. 

Harrison Ford went through lots of whips and became pretty good at cracking them! He often smashed the teasel off the end. In the shot above, the safety knife was used as it was possible the blade would get caught up in the whip and injure Harrison!

The famous rope bridge scene was shot at Elstree Studios on the back lot. Not many people realise this and assume it was all on location. That's the magic of film production!! Pretty scary stuff for the actors and stunt-men!

This picture shows one of the whips . This is the original from the Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

The late River Phoenix played Young Indy, and the scenes in the lion carriage on the circus train are where Indy first uses a whip. if you watch it again you may notice the whip hanging up, is longer than the one he attempts to 'crack'. Sheer lack of space made the eight foot whip dangerous, so a six foot one was made for these scenes!

One of the biggest jobs Norank took on was the sparking systems on the Mine trucks.

Here’s a great shot. A very old photograph showing one of the Indy minetrucks sitting in Noranks workshop. You can just make out the huge flint block used to make the sparks.

It’s nearly finished in the picture and a very nice job done too! Unfortunately they didn’t keep any as they were too big and too heavy. But they are around somewhere! 

That’s Eddie Schouten in the background. He’s the craftsman who made Luke’s original lightsaber for Star Wars -  Return of the Jedi.

Here’s another example of the strange things Norank made. These nasty looking spikes! Very similar to the ones made for Flash Gordon.

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