Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

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)

Continuity mistake: When Indy arrives in Tangier at Hotel Le Atlantique, it is evening. A party is going on in the hotel while the auction is being held. A discussion starts, and a fight breaks out. They go outside, and all of a sudden, it is daytime.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: When Indy arrives, there's a mild light on the horizon, which becomes brighter in perfect continuity throughout the scene, giving away he arrived moments before dawn and that the sun rises while he's inside. When he exits, it's finally daylight.

Sacha

Factual error: The German SS soldiers salute superior officers with "Sieg Heil!", which means, "Hail Victory." The proper salute would have been "Heil Hitler!", which was required for all branches of the German armed forces after the July 20th, 1944 bomb plot against Hitler.

Scott215

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)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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

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.

davebwood

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mistake picture

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)

gazza2009

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

Mistake is correct. The change happens immediately; it's not part of the magic trick.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When Hauke breaks the neck of one of the American soldiers in the plane, it is very obvious that he only rests his hands on the soldier's head without twisting his neck. (01:10:14)

Big Game

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)

Big Game

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, the three Germans are back in their original places with the lance.

Big Game

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)

Big Game

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)

Big Game

Character mistake: In the plane, Mason says that Voller's associates killed three American civilians. But they only killed two: Mandy and Plimpton.

Big Game

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.

Big Game

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)

Big Game

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mistake picture

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."

Big Game

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)

Big Game

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)

Big Game

Continuity mistake: As the Nazi captain gives orders to the soldiers to grab the sides of the train, the roof of the train is empty. When the captain himself grabs the side of the train, four soldiers appear on the roof. (00:15:40)

Big Game

Continuity mistake: In the airfield, while Helena and Teddy are hiding behind some barrels, there's a man dressed in brown clothes (clearly not Indy as he's still on the ground) in the background standing behind Voller. This man disappears in the next shot. (01:59:00)

Big Game

Indiana Jones: I've believed in magic a few times in my life. I've seen things... things I can't explain. I've come to believe it's not so much what you believe... it's how hard you believe it.

More quotes from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Trivia: This is the first movie in the Indiana Jones series not directed by Steven Spielberg, nor with a story written by George Lucas.

More trivia for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Question: Maybe I missed some dialogue, but why exactly did Voller think the fissure they were flying towards would take him to his desired date in 1939? I get that the dial detects fissures in time, but why would he think that particular fissure was the one he needed to travel through?

Phaneron

Answer: There is a bit of dialogue en route to the airport when Voller sets the instrument that says, "the first hand sets the destination," as in the time you want to travel back to. This would make the device completely absurd in principle if true (that's why I wanted to mark it as a plot hole/stupidity). Since it's supposed not to open portals but just detect them, it can't be that there are infinite portals for every moment in time you can choose to go back to (and they even close). The sky, while vast, is not infinite. We then find out that it is a trick since it is set to actually bring you to just one destination, but they don't know it yet.

Sammo

Answer: We're supposed to accept that the dials are pointing to the rift in the sky, which is what makes this plot decision so ridiculous. There's no common reference point (magnetism wouldn't be discovered until and used in compasses for another 2,000 years), and the dial is 2-dimensional. Thus, you could turn your body 90 degrees and aim it down, and there's no indication from the movie that the dial would in any way turn to face the previous rift.

I think, technically, the fact that there's no common reference point is addressed when Voller mentions that the coordinates given are 'Alexandrine coordinates'... which I think might be another anachronism since all I can think it means is the ones used by Ptolemy in his Geography, which was hundreds of years after Archimedes' time. The dial is 2-dimensional, but there are 3 hands. It can be argued that when all 3 align, it does show that the direction you are headed is definitely correct, including the height you are pointing at. I definitely think it's entirely implausible, but the way the unknown mechanism works, attuned to something that does not exist such as time rifts, is kind of a lesser problem. Even if it is supposed to work by some mathematical principle, and then acts as some dowser rod.

Sammo

Not true. The Chinese were using compasses around 200 BC, and Vikings are believed to have had them as well.

Answer: As they approach the rift, all three of the dial's hands are suddenly pointing towards it. If that is no clear indicator, then what is?

Daniel4646

The dial pointing towards it only indicates that they are heading towards the fissure. How does that give Voller any certainty that this is the exact fissure he needs to travel through in order to reach his desired destination, especially considering it ended up not being the one he needed? Were there coordinates in Basil's diary that indicated where the exact fissure would open? I only recall the date of August 20 (?), 1939 being written down.

Phaneron

Only the time is written in the diary (the date you mention is next to August 20, 1969, which would be then supposedly when the finale of the movie takes place). For the coordinates, you need to have the device, which, apparently, allows you also to input with firsthand your desired destination. Voller couldn't know that to concoct his plan, though, since he did not have the diaries at the beginning of the movie.

Sammo

More questions & answers from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.