Forty years after its release, Raiders of the Lost Ark remains a two-hour-long masterclass in how to stage an action sequence. However, even in a movie full of punishing fistfights, thrilling shoot-outs, and daring escapes, there’s still one scene that stands above the rest: the truck chase. A perfect blend of stunt work, editing, performances, and music, the truck chase set a bar that every Indiana Jones sequel – heck, that every action movie, period – has been trying to reach ever since.

It begins 82 minutes into the movie with Indy (Harrison Ford) delivering one of the film’s most famous lines. The Nazis have taken the Ark of the Covenant, and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) informs Indy that it’s been loaded onto a truck set for Cairo. The truck is guarded by a well-armed convoy, but Indy knows he has no choice but to go after it. “How?” Sallah asks. “I don’t know,” Indy replies matter-of-factly. “I’m making this up as I go.”

'Raiders' Truck Chase Is the Pinnacle of Indy Action

Smash cut to Indy on horseback galloping after the convoy and we’re off. The next seven minutes are about as flawless as cinema can get, as Indy boards the truck, dispatches the passenger and driver, and then fends off the rest of the convoy as it attacks from all sides. The scene reaches its apex when a Nazi soldier (played by stuntman Sergio Mioni) manages to board the truck and throw Indy through the front windshield, only for Indy to drop beneath the truck and climb hand-over-hand to the rear while it’s still in motion! He emerges at the back of the truck, dangling at the end of his whip as he gets dragged along the road, before carefully working his way back to the cab and giving his assailant the same windshield-tossing treatment, all without getting run over. Cue John Williams’ Raiders theme. Congratulations, you’ve just watched the best thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

According to J.W. Rinzler’s The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, director Steven Spielberg and stuntman Terry Leonard designed the truck chase – and specifically the underneath-the-truck bit -- as an homage to the iconic stunt work of Yakima Canutt, who pulled off similar stunts using horses and a stagecoach in both 1939’s Stagecoach and the 12-part serial Zorro’s Fighting Legion. Leonard, who almost died trying to recreate the Canutt stunts for 1981’s The Legend of the Lone Ranger, played the truck’s original driver and doubled for Ford when Indy is underneath and behind the truck, while stunt coordinator Glenn Randall, Jr. drove the vehicle. The truck itself was specially designed to accommodate the stunt, but, according to Rinzler, there still wasn’t enough clearance for Leonard to safely move underneath it. So a trench was carved into the road to provide extra room. (If you look closely on your next rewatch, you can spot the trench.) The entire sequence was an “all hands on deck” affair, with several of the film’s other primary stuntmen, including Vic Armstrong and Martin Grace, playing Nazi goons who get knocked off the side of the truck. Ford himself was dragged behind the truck for some of the shots, resulting in some bruised ribs.

The Chase Is Emblematic of What the Indiana Jones Series Does Best

The truck chase sequence serves not just as an exemplary slice of action cinema but also as a mission statement for both the movie and the entire Indiana Jones franchise. Indy is a character who never stops moving forward, relentless in his pursuit of whatever fortune and glory he’s chasing in that particular installment. During the truck chase alone, he’s punched, kicked, shot in the arm and thrown out of a moving truck, but not once does retreat appear to be an option. Ford’s face runs the gamut of emotions during the sequence. He’s desperate at first and then shocked when the truck veers into the scaffolding holding the Arab workers. Once he has control of the vehicle, he’s visibly angry when the Nazis are advancing but can be caught smiling whenever he rams them off the road, satisfied with his little moments of revenge. Toward the end, after he’s been shot, Ford makes sure to convey Indy’s burgeoning pain, but he mixes it with an ongoing look of unrelenting determination. And that’s Indy in a nutshell – hurting like hell but not about to give up.

There are a few other small but essential pieces of filmmaking during the truck chase – little cinematic flourishes – that help elevate the sequence to an all-time classic of any genre. I love that when Indy knocks the one Nazi jeep off the cliff, we see bodies being ejected from the vehicle as it plummets. That’s just good B-movie fun right there, paying homage to the film's roots in adventure serials. I’m always most nervous when Indy is hanging in front of the truck and grabs at the hood ornament for leverage. The ornament breaks, forcing him to snatch at the bars of the truck's grille, which also can’t hold his weight. Spielberg, a master of creating games within the scene to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, expertly ramps up the tension there. Another thing Spielberg does well in this sequence is utilizing side-view mirrors to convey the geography of the action. The bad guys spot Indy approaching the lead car through their side mirror, and then later Indy uses his side mirrors to keep an eye on the Nazis approaching from behind. There’s a great bit where Indy checks both of his mirrors to see Nazis have boarded the truck and are advancing toward the cab on each side, and Ford gives a worried little grunt that helps keep the action tense but fun. Finally, let’s give one more shout-out to Williams’ score, which is big, brassy, and just as intense as the visuals it’s accompanying, even if the iconic Raiders march itself -- better known as the Indiana Jones theme -- is used sparingly. (Though it is deployed for maximum effect.)

Indy may have been making it up as he goes, but Spielberg and his team certainly were not, meticulously planning and executing a sequence that still belongs on any list of cinema’s very best action set pieces. Spielberg would later attempt to top the truck chase in the sequels with the mine-cart escape in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the tank assault in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but 40 years on, it’s the original that remains the purest expression of Indy’s thrill-a-minute, action-adventure aesthetic.