Raiders Reference in Back to the Future

One of my favorite movies is Back to the Future! I think I have found a Raiders of the Lost Ark reference at the end of Back to the Future.
Remember the scene where Doc Brown has to go up in the clock tower to repair the lightning bolt cable? Doc goes out on the ledge during the thunderstorm and he is startled when the lightning illuminates the big cat sculpture next to the clock. It's reminiscent of the scene where Sallah is startled by the statue in the Well of the Souls! Maybe I'm not the first to notice this.

You haven't watched too many old movies, then?

Somebody having an obviously humorous freak out thanks to a statue or some other inanimate object is an old gag that's been recycled in films since the silent film era.




What is it anyway with some people thinking that any repeating element is a reference? A "reference" is something that clearly requires some knowledge of the source material to get the joke. Doc and Sallah have similar reactions, yes, but one definitely does not have to have seen Raiders to laugh at the gag in BTTF.

And even if the Doc scare was inspired by Sallah's reaction, it's still not a reference, simply because Sallah freaked out by the statue is not an original gag either. It's simply a recycled element - in other words, a trope.

I think the two scenes are similar enough that it was an intentional homage to Raiders maybe because Spielberg produced Back to the Future.

Maybe not so much a homage but the reuse of a type of gag across several movies using the same director/producer.

Mickiana said:

Maybe not so much a homage but the reuse of a type of gag across several movies using the same director/producer.

Click to expand...

Right on. That's more likely.