Revealing mistake: In the catacombs of the library, Indy and Elsa are waist deep in petroleum. Indy has a torch, and if you look carefully, you will see burning pieces of the torch fall and hit the petroleum. Wouldn't this start a fire as Kazim later on sets the cavern alight with a single match? (00:34:05)
Continuity mistake: When Indy and Elsa are wading in the petroleum looking for the knight's tomb, Elsa unbuttons and opens her jacket and starts to take it off. In the next shot she opens her jacket and takes it off again. (00:34:15)
Other mistake: When they go under the coffin you see the flame of the torch in the background. How could the flame go under the petroleum with them without either setting light to the petroleum or being extinguished itself? (00:35:55)
Revealing mistake: When Indy is being chased on the motorboard the guy behind tries to shoot him with a machine gun. If you watch the machine gun carefully it you will see it starts to disintegrate in the guy's hands and the barrel drops off. (00:38:45)
Continuity mistake: During the boat chase/fight in Venice, the rear of Indy's boat gets shot up and starts smoking and spouting flames and the engine starts chopping. He leaps onto the pursuing boat, fights until that boat is destroyed in the rotors, then leaps with the Grail protector back onto his original boat with Elsa. The boat is now running perfectly. (00:38:50 - 00:39:55)
Visible crew/equipment: When Indiana and the Protector of the Grail are fighting in the boat that is about to be chewed up by the giant screw/propeller, when the angle changes to the top point of view, you can see the rope pulling the front of the boat around to position the rear for destruction... (00:39:10)
Revealing mistake: When Indy kicks Kazim's partner out of the speedboat, the man grabbing Indy's body from behind is not Kevork Malikyan. (00:39:15)
Continuity mistake: When Indy and the protector of the Grail are in the boat about to be destroyed by the rotors, there are panels on the top of the boat that pop up and are destroyed when the boat is moving backwards into the rotors. In the next shot, they are intact, then in the next shot, they are destroyed again. (00:39:20)
Visible crew/equipment: After the Venice boat chase scene, in the shot which takes place on the boat while it is being chopped up by the propeller, look at the top of the boat (opposite where Indy is holding Kazim.) You can see a series of round-shaped set lights reflecting in the boat. (00:39:30)
Continuity mistake: In the speedboat scene where Dr Schneider rescues Indy and Kazim from the boat that is chopped up by the propeller of a ship, she driving the speedboat with the steering wheel on the right-hand side. Seconds later as she drives the speedboat away, the steering wheel is on the left-hand side, obviously a flipped shot. When the speedboat slows down to allow Kazim to alight at the jetty, Indy is at the wheel which is now back on the right-hand side. (00:39:55)
Continuity mistake: After Indiana and the Protector of the Grail escape the boat being chewed up, and the Protector reveals who he is to Indiana, watch his chest area... When Indiana asks "Who are you?" he is looking down at his chest (looking at the tattoo), and when we cut to Kazim you can tell he is holding his shirt open showing Indy the tattoo. Then when we cut to Indy and back to Kazim, his shirt is closed and he then opens it to show Indy the tattoo. (00:40:15)
Continuity mistake: While Indy and Marcus are in the apartment in Venice, after Marcus says, "He knew everything, except the name of the city", he slams the diary shut. Then it's shown open, and he closes it a second time. When Indy takes it, it's once again open. (00:42:15)
Other mistake: When Indiana Jones first enters the castle and speaks with the Nazi officer he is mouthing the Nazi's dialogue as the Nazi is speaking. (00:45:55)
Audio problem: When Indy confronts the butler at the castle, we hear the butler say, "If you are a Scottish lord then I am Mickey Mouse." But his lips say something else. He actually said "then I am Jesse Owens." This line was changed because they thought that a lot of the audience wouldn't know who Jesse Owens (the black athlete who won at the Berlin Olympics) was. (00:46:00)
Continuity mistake: When Indy is rescuing his father from Brunwald castle, he uses his bullwhip to smash through the window of the room his father is kept in...but in the time it took to jump into the room and get smashed over the head by his father, the bullwhip he used would have lost lots of its momentum and it wouldn't be waiting for him to grab it and use it later on the movie. (00:47:40)
Factual error: All through the film, SS-Standartenführer Vogel (Michael Byrne) is seen wearing the Iron Cross in second place beside his SA Military Sports Badge. This is totally wrong. As the Iron Cross is a Military Award, it would be worn over or to the right of any other badge on the pocket. Also presuming this is a 1914-18 Iron Cross, he should then be wearing a ribbon bar over his left pocket displaying his WW1 Honor Cross Ribbon along with long service ribbons, etc. American Law specifically allows the accurate wear of uniforms in movies (see http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t09t12+443+8++%28%29%20%20AN (subsection f)) and there is no reason to believe (without evidence) that German Law forbids the accurate portrayal of uniforms. (00:53:20)
Factual error: In this film, and in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the German vehicles are marked with the DAK (Deutsches Afrikakorps) symbol (a swastika over a palm tree.) The DAK and its symbol were not created until 1941 when Hitler tried to rescue his Italian allies in North Africa. (00:56:15)
Continuity mistake: When Sean Connery drops his lighter while trying to burn the ropes, the lid is flipped to the right. When he blows on it the lid then changes position slightly relative to the pattern on the rug, then when the rug catches fire the lid's suddenly flipped completely to the left. (00:56:40)
Factual error: The evil SS officer is addressed as "Herr Oberst" (Colonel) throughout the movie. In the SS, however, this rank was called "Standartenfuehrer". (00:56:40)
Suggested correction: In fact, Oberst is the literal translation of the word "Colonel" into German. It would not be unusual for Germans to call a colonel by his rank in his native language (even if he is an SS colonel).
This correction doesn't address the mistake, which is the rank on his uniform isn't what he's addressed as. It has nothing to do with what the word translates into (which the mistake even points out).
Continuity mistake: When Nicola Scott and her soldiers enter the room where Indy and Henry were tied, the window next to the fireplace is on fire. In the next shot, there's no fire there. (01:01:42)
