Raiders of the Lost Ark

Corrected entry: When Indy has the bazooka like weapon pointed at the Arc of the Covenant, Beloq and Indy are talking. At one point when Beloq is talking, a fly enters his mouth and he seems to have absolutely no reaction at all.

Correction: How is this a movie mistake? I wouldn't even call this a character mistake; that sounds exactly like Beloq. Too dignified to spit, sputter, or even momentarily falter in his speech.

Phixius

Corrected entry: Indy's pilot (Jock) has a distinct Australian accent when he states, "That's just mah pet snoek, Reggie." In his next sentence, he's become completely 'Americanized'. The accent has vanished.

Nicki

Correction: The pilot could have just been immitating an Australian accent at first.

XIII

Correction: Listen closer, Indy is yelling "Marion".

Corrected entry: When Indiana and the other guy are removing the stone cover where the Ark is kept, they are struggling, yet they can lift the Ark out with relative ease. The Ark is made of solid gold and the lid itself is said to need two men to lift, plus it should contain the two stone tablets with the ten commandments on. It should have weighed just as much if not more than the stone covering.

Correction: I think the lid was made of solid gold.

Correction: The Ark was not made of solid gold, but of acacia wood covered with gold leaf (See Exodus 37:1-2).

Correction: There is not one clear shot to support this, at no time is it possible to see what Marion was wearing underneath the dress that Belloq gave to her, nor can this be determined when she was hanging on to the statue just after Toth threw her into the well of souls.

Will

Corrected entry: When the seaplane leaves San Francisco it flies west over the complete Golden Gate bridge. The movie is set in 1936, the Golden Gate bridge wasn't completed until 1937.

Correction: The bridge's structure would have most likely been completed by then, with only the roadway still under construction.

Corrected entry: U-boats were more than four times as fast on the surface (running on diesel engines) than when submerged (running on batteries). Since Germany was not at war at this time they would have run the boat on the surface almost exclusively. Since the boats were so hard for other surface vessels to see, the Captain would have maintained a constant look out on deck. There is no way Indy could have stayed hidden for the entire voyage.

Correction: While it is true that the German U-boat was 3x-4x faster on the surface, it is equally true that in the treaty or Versailles, Germany was banned from possessing U-boats. (The U.K. was still upset about costs exacted in WWI). A German U-boat approaching any ally or neutral ship would have to submerge, even before the war had started.

The original mistake is valid and the correction's reasoning is wrong. While the Nazis did build U-boats in violation of the Versailles Treaty right away after they took power and tried to hide it initially, this practice was an open secret pretty soon and eventually legitimized by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935, well before the movie takes place. They would not have to hide a U-boat from anyone at that time.

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the movie where Indiana is running away from the tribe of South American Indians after Belloq robs Indiana of the gold statue, in one shot you can see that the Indians are only a few meters behind Indiana, but in the next shot, they are at least 50 meters behind. (00:11:20)

More mistakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark

Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Indiana: Give me your torch. [He drops it in and sees why.] Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.

More quotes from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark trivia picture

Trivia: There's a Star Wars reference to Obi-Wan and C-3PO on the plane rescuing Indy at the start - it has the registration OB-CPO.

More trivia for Raiders of the Lost Ark

Question: Considering how powerful and dangerous the Ark is, why would Indy hand it over to the United States government, instead of putting it back where it was found and to ensure it's never located, lie to them and say him or the Nazis never found it?

Answer: Indy and Marcus Brody believed that the Ark needed to be studied. They certainly didn't want to put it back where it was found. They believed that the U.S. government would find the best archaeologists, researchers, and scientists in the world to study the Ark. They are both upset that instead, the government has decided to simply lock the Ark away. This is why Indy says, "Fools. They don't know what they've got there," as he is leaving the building.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: To add to the previous answer, there is no way that the ark could have been secretly returned to where it was found and then conveniently forgotten. Too many people already knew of its existence and location. It would only be a matter of time before someone more sinister would retrieve it.

raywest

More questions & answers from Raiders of the Lost Ark

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