Marion Ravenwood

Marion Ravenwood is a fictional character from the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Played by Karen Allen, she enters the story when Indiana Jones visits her in Nepal, needing her help--specifically, an artifact obtained by her father, Abner--to find the Ark of the Covenent.

Marion is a self-reliant, tough-as-nails woman. She is a heavy drinker and smoker, and isn't afraid to slug Indy across the face. Her father had been an archeology professor and mentor to the young Indiana Jones. Abner's hobby was researching the possible whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant. Both Marion and Indiana apparently helped him in his search. During this time, Abner came to believe that the Ark may have been located in Tanis, Egypt. He also came into possession of the headpiece to the Staff of Ra, which would help one locate the Ark if used in a special room in Tanis which contained a model of the city.

Though the exact details are left ambiguous, their friendship came to an end over Jones's relationship with Marion, around the year 1926. Jones broke off contact with them both, and returned to America to focus on his career as an archeology professor, and relic hunter. Marion and her father settled in Nepal and started running a local tavern. After Abner's death, Marion found herself back in contact with Jones in 1936 when he asked her for the headpiece. Reluctant at first, she was forced to cooperate when Toht arrived to demand the piece himself, and he and his henchman ended up destroying the tavern.

In Tanis, she and Indy made contact with his friend Sallash. Marion, however, quickly attracted the attention of Jones's rival, Rene Belloq, who staged an elaborate kidnapping which convinced Jones that she had been killed. He later discovered her alive, but left her in the Nazis' captivity so as not to blow his cover. Belloq attempted to both grill her for information and seduce her. When this was unsuccessful, Toht made an attempt, which also failed to work. The Nazis discovered the location of the Ark anyway when they spied Jones's allies pulling it out of the Well of Souls. Against Belloq's wishes, Marion was thrown into the Well with Jones to die.

Jones and Ravenwood escaped from the pit, and Jones was ultimately able to recover the Ark from the Nazis. The two of them set sail for England onboard a cargo ship owned by a friend of Sallah. They were quickly intercepted by a Nazi U-Boat, however. The Nazis took the Ark and Marion. Indy stowed aboard the boat as it departed for a Greek island, where Belloq planned to open the Ark, with Marion as a witness. Indy attempted to rescue her from the ceremony, but Belloq called his bluff: Indy recognized the historical value of the Ark too much to destroy it. Instead, he was captured along with Marion, placing him in a position to impart essential advice to her: keep her eyes closed during the ceremony. When the Ark was subsequently opened, spirits inside destroyed Belloq and the Nazis. Only Indy and Marion survived.

Back in Washington, D.C., Indy is frustrated by the government agents' reneging on their promise to place the Ark in a museum, opting instead to keep it in whereabouts unknown (actually a large warehouse) to be studied by "top men." Marion comforts him by taking him out for a drink. The two of them appear to have put their past conflict behind them, and resumed their relationship. By 1938, however, this relationship appears to have ended, as she does not appear in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. What happened to her is never explained, though perhaps they parted amicably this time. Steven Spielberg has hinted, however, that if a fourth film is ever made, Marion and Willie Scott would both make an appearance.