MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: The actor who played Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark ate a fly during a scene.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (later re-titled Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark to bring it in line with the titles of the later Indiana Jones films) is a classic George Lucas and Steven Spielberg film about a heroic archaeologist during the late 1930s, racing against the Nazis to find the Ark of the Covenant, which allegedly had devastating powers...

Since Indiana is a heroic archaeologist, the film gives him an evil opposite, Rene Belloq, played by Paul Freeman...

We first meet Belloq after Indy has heroically survived a boulder chasing after him after he removed an idol from a temple and Belloq shows up to poach Indiana's discovery (to sell it, while Indiana plans on having the idol be put into a museum)...

After a good deal of back and forth, the Nazis (who have employed Belloq as a mercenary helping them find the Ark) have both the Ark and Indiana's lover, Marion Ravenwood, when Indiana shocks them by showing up with an anti-tank grenade launcher (the weapon was technically anachronistic, as it did not exist in 1936, which is when the film was set) and threatening to blow up the Ark to keep it out of Nazi hands...

In a brilliant sequence, Belloq essentially calls Indy's bluff, as he knows a man like Indiana Jones would never destroy such an important historical object. While Indiana decides whether to actually go through with it, some Nazi soldiers get the drop on him and he surrenders.

However, in the scene, a funny thing happens, a fly lands on Belloq's mouth during his speech!

And we never see it fly away, so it appears as though he just swallowed the fly without skipping a beat!

Is that really what happened?

Freeman explained otherwise to The Indy Experience, noting:

Indy Experience: This is a bit of a dicey question so don’t get too upset. (Laughs) A movie’s always got bloopers in it, some have a lot, and some only have three or four. And the most remarkable blooper was right before the opening of the Ark scene. In that scene, Belloq had some great dialogue, but because of some animal, the scene became humorous to the people viewing the film. Can you tell us something about that, and working with the most famous fly in the world?

Freeman: Ah, yes. I don’t think anybody noticed it during the shoot, there wasn’t any hilarity at that point in the film, and I think if you look at it carefully, if you freeze the frame around that point, you’ll see that actually some frames are missing.

Indy Experience:Yeah, I think I noticed that, just a little too jerky.

Freeman: Yeah, I think they just took out a couple of frames when the fly flew off, just to make the joke. I got a very nice review from Pauline Kael who noted what a devoted actor I was to go through it, with eating the fly and all.

Indy Experience: Yeah, we were thinking that, how professional, he just stood there and ate it. (Laughs)

Freeman: So that was their trick.

So Spielberg just removed the frame where the fly flew away to make it look like Freeman ate the fly. Funny stuff!

The legend is...

STATUS: False

Thanks to The Indy Experience and Paul Freeman for the information!

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