The Indiana Jones franchise, based on the adventures of the eponymous fictional archaeologist, began in 1981 with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. A prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, followed in 1984 and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. In 1992, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles began airing on television.

A fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was released on May 22, 2008. The series was created by George Lucas; the films star Harrison Ford and were directed by Steven Spielberg. In addition, Marvel Comics began publishing The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones in 1983, and Dark Horse Comics earned the comic book rights to the character in 1991.

Novelizations of the films have been published, in addition to a series of German novels by Wolfgang Hohlbein, and twelve novels set before the films published by Bantam Books. Numerous video games about Indiana Jones have been released since 1982, with another set to be released. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is set in 1936.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is assigned by government agents to locate the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do, to make them invincible like the Israelites in the Old Testament, who revered it as the dwelling place of God. The Nazis are being helped by Indiana's nemesis René Belloq (Paul Freeman). With the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), Indiana manages to recover the Ark in Egypt.

The Nazis manage to steal the Ark and capture Indiana and Marion. Belloq and the Nazis perform a ceremony to open the Ark, but when they do so, they are all killed gruesomely by the Ark's wrath. Indiana and Marion, who survived by closing their eyes, manage to get the Ark back to America, where it is stored in a secretive government warehouse.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) is set in 1935, a year before Raiders. Indiana escapes Chinese gangsters with the help of singer/actress Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and eleven-year-old taxi driver Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan). The trio crash-land in India where they come across a village whose children have been kidnapped.

A destructive cult led by Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) have also taken the holy Sankara Stones, which they will use to take over the world. Indiana manages to overcome Mola Ram's evil power, and rescues the children and returns the stones to their rightful place, overcoming his own mercenary nature.

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