Continuity mistake: The license plate's number of Indy's Tuk Tuk changes from 4717 to 1132 in a few shots during the Tuk Tuk Chase.
Continuity mistake: While Indy is fighting Colonel Weber on the roof of the train, Basil is pointing a pistol at them, and his grip on the pistol changes from a two-handed grip to a wrist-stabilizing grip as the shots change.
Continuity mistake: At the start of the film, towards the end of the steam train roof battle, as Indy jumps from the train (200+ feet into the rocky shallow looking part of a river), it's still fairly dark in the early hours of the morning. As he surfaces seconds later, it's considerably brighter. Then, as he walks up the river bank, morning is well broken into much brighter light. Assuming the scene is set around March/April 1945, sunrise in the Alps is unlikely to occur so rapidly. (02:16:01 - 02:16:35)
Other mistake: When the divers ascend from the Roman shipwreck, an odd sort of heat-seeking mini-torpedo or poison homing dart projectile is fired down from the surface. Any idea what this is supposed to be? The henchmen on the boat appear to be wielding a knife, a Luger, and a (wrong for the period) 1986 micro Uzi. (01:10:20)
Continuity mistake: Within the Roman shipwreck, Indy is grappling with his fear of snakes (eels) with his red flare; a torch light is briefly shone on his head from above. When the shot reverses to the diver at his rescue, she has no torch at all in sight. (01:11:12)
Other mistake: Whilst swimming towards the Roman shipwreck, the divers appear to be moving at a speed similar to an unrestricted diver wearing flippers. The drag resistance from the air pipe umbilical, together with the divers' lead boots, would make this an unfeasible maneuver in real life. Equally, the divers have no BCD or method of maintaining equal buoyancy and would sink to the seafloor - not swim like a fish. (01:13:14)
Factual error: Whilst Indy and friends dive the Roman shipwreck, they descend and ascend rapidly to and from the sea floor. The conventional method to dive at depth is to descend slowly - to equalise your pressure, as well as to ascend slowly - once more to equalise for the pressure differences. The 3-minute dive duration, with rapid descents and ascent, simply is not possible without the effect of causing serious trauma to the body. (01:09:30 - 01:14:50)
Other mistake: Dive boat interior, as the tablet is unboxed, there is a clear lens distortion as Indi looks round to his diver friend and the focus follows - giving a disturbing jolt to the image. (01:08:27)
Factual error: When Indy wakes up on the day of New York City's parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts, H.R. Pufnstuf is on the television. The parade was held August 13, 1969, but H.R. Pufnstuf didn't premiere until September 6, 1969.
Continuity mistake: While on the boat, Helena does her 7 spades card trick. When she gives Indy a turn, you can see the bottom card is a black 2. When she fans them out, it changes to black king of clubs. Then, in the next shot, it changes to 8 of clubs. (01:16:00 - 01:17:00)
Suggested correction: Not necessarily a mistake. She could be changing those cards by sleight of hand, while moving the 7 of spades into position for the final force. The mistake was not using the 3 of clubs for it.
Continuity mistake: Klaber handcuffs Teddy and Hauke, then moves on. He is followed by Hauke, Teddy, and Gunther. In the next shot, Voller and the two unnamed Nazis have suddenly appeared behind Klaber, and Hauke (with Teddy) and Gunther have switched places. (01:48:44)
Continuity mistake: When the soldiers bring Indy to Weber, in the background Voller and the two soldiers with the lance can be spotted already leaving. After Weber finishes interrogating Indy, Voller and the soldiers are back in their original places with the lance.
Continuity mistake: After Baxter says "It's for you, Doctor", in the next shot, the phone on his left hand disappears. Also, the illumination of the room where Voller goes in changes between shots. (00:47:12)
Factual error: The Major that salutes Colonel Weber next to the train, credited as Gestapo Officer, has the SS runes on his neck instead of a black square. (00:05:25)
Character mistake: In the plane, Mason says that Voller's associates killed three American civilians. But they only killed two: Mandy and Plimpton.
Continuity mistake: During the conversation in the Tuk-Tuk, Helena's right arm continuously goes from being down to grabbing the roof of the Tuk-Tuk between shots.
Continuity mistake: Voller and his goons are walking through the bridge. Just after Teddy and Hauke fall off, Voller says, "Leave them." Gunther has disappeared. (01:49:22)
Continuity mistake: Weber commands a soldier to open the Lance's box. In the shot of the soldier's hands, a ring has appeared on his left hand. This ring disappears again when Weber says "Doctor."
Continuity mistake: When Helena says "Guten Tag meine freunden", Klaber can be spotted in the background at the cabin already shooting with the machine gun. In a few shots later, he's just arrived at the cabin, holding the weapon, and repeats the action. (02:09:48)
Continuity mistake: Klaber speaks to Voller in German, and then turns and reaches out to grab Indy (all this between the soldiers). But in the next shot, when Klaber grabs Indy, both Americans are now in the cabin. (02:00:02)
Suggested correction: It's not a distortion. It's a visual effect produced when the camera swaps from having a blurry background to a focused one. It happens again when Indy and Helena are about to steal the car (1:40:10).
Sacha ★
Suggested correction: It just appears to be the result of the movie doing a slightly unconventional rack focus. I don't think that really qualifies as a mistake. If it does count, it opens far too big a can of worms in terms of various camera techniques being considered "mistakes."
TedStixon