Continuity mistake: After the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword members begin shooting, in the wide shot of the canyon gunfight (with Indy, Henry and Sallah in the right corner of the screen), Vogel is standing behind the tank, shooting at the Brotherhood with his Luger. In the next shot, he's suddenly running with two soldiers. (01:25:47)
Continuity mistake: When the white robed men ambush the Nazis just after they blow up Salah's car, there's a shot over a Nazi's shoulder as he fires at one of the white robed guys running up a hill. The Nazi's machine gun is held straight out and doesn't move but the dust that flies from the squibs suggest that he fired as he moved the gun right to left which he did not do. The odd thing is that AFTER the squibs go off, the Nazi turns his gun to the left. (01:25:55)
Revealing mistake: When Kazim dies, his shirt is all bloody, but there are no holes in it. The bloodstains looks painted on. (01:26:30)
Continuity mistake: When Indy takes four horses before battling with the tank, three are black and one is bay (brown with black legs, mane and tail). Sallah is riding a chestnut. When they ride to the Grail Temple, there are two black horses and two chestnuts. Where did the second chestnut come from? (01:28:00 - 01:39:25)
Continuity mistake: While Henry and Marcus are being held inside the tank, Indiana rides in circles and baits the tank to ram into one of the cars. In a following shot when we see Vogel walking toward the window inside the tank it's a flipped shot, note everything is backwards. Then two shots later, when Vogel shouts "quick" in German it's another flipped shot, and about five shots after that again flipped. (01:29:30)
Continuity mistake: During the big chase scene leading up to the three challenges, Indy uses his gun and begins to takes the high road on his horse. Harrison Ford couldn't seem to find the holster for his gun, so you can see his holding the gun by his side until the scene changes. (01:31:15)
Continuity mistake: As Sallah pulls Dr. Jones senior off the tread of the tank, Indy lets go of his whip and turns towards the German colonel and they continue fighting face-to-face. You can see that Indy punches the colonel so that he loses his balance and stumbles backwards. A split second later, the colonel is standing behind Jones with his arm around Indy's neck. They did not have nearly enough time to so radically change positions. (01:32:15)
Continuity mistake: When Indiana is fighting on top of the tank, he kicks the periscope. It spins counter-clockwise, but the handles inside spin clockwise. (01:32:45)
Other mistake: At one point, Indy rolls off of the side of a tank, and somehow gets a strap around one of the guns pointing out from the sides. The end of the barrel has already been blown open by the rock he shoved in earlier. How did the strap get around that big cluster of metal, and then back again so he could climb back on the tank? (01:34:15 - 01:35:05)
Continuity mistake: WHen Indy is hanging off the side of the tank, his face becomes completely caked with dirt. After he gets back up on to the tank, his face is relatively clean. (01:34:40)
Revealing mistake: When Sallah rides up to the tank to help, just as Indy shouts, "Get Dad!" in the closeup and wideshot of Henry we can see that he's actually lying on protective support, and not lying directly on the moving tank treads. (01:35:40)
Continuity mistake: When Sallah rides up to the tank to rescue Henry we see Indy toss the whip over the side of the tank, but after the tank falls over the cliff, when Indy climbs back up then walks over to stand between Henry and Sallah the whip is coiled and back in its place, hanging from his belt. Even Indy can't do that. (01:36:00 - 01:37:40)
Revealing mistake: Just a small detail. Watch the tank roll over the hill with the German officer holding onto the top. When the tank hits the ground, the turret pops off. The German soldier (a clear prop dummy) maintains its grasp on the turret and is pulled off with it. The sheer force of the crash would have easily blown a human body off the tank. (01:36:30)
Continuity mistake: When the tank goes over the cliff, the turret detaches upon impact. But in a subsequent shot, the tank is shown rolling over with the turret still attached. (01:36:35)
Continuity mistake: Inside the Grail's Temple, all the characters have the decapitated bodies of two Hatay soldiers and the two lion statues in front of them. However, when Indy's team is discovered and the shot changes, it can be seen from the position of the bodies and the statues in relation to the characters that they have all changed places, with the bodies now being to one side of the characters (to the left of Donovan and to the right of Indy). (01:41:55)
Plot hole: When Indy is stepping on the letters at the end, trying to spell out God's name, he steps on J, incorrectly, causing it to collapse. When he falls through, however, he grabs onto another letter so as not to fall down. The letters he grabs onto and pulls himself up are an L and a Y, which are not in the word Iehova, so should have collapsed too. (01:46:20)
Factual error: Jehovah is spelled Iehovah in Latin. However medieval languages (Latin or vernacular) had neither official rules nor the letter 'J'. It was not until the sixteenth century that the French humanist Pierre de la Ramée proposed to use the 'J' as a separate letter distinct from the 'I'. The 'J' could therefore not have been a trap at the time the test was constructed. (01:46:20)
Suggested correction: The concept of what looks like a "J" was sometimes used when writing numbers in Roman numerals, originating sometime in the Middle Ages. While "J" did not exist as a letter at that time, what visually looked like a "J" did exist at the time the Trial was made. The purpose is to weed out those who can't spell the word of God...there's nothing implying that whoever created it meant for all the tiles to be understood as just letters.
Revealing mistake: When Indy is looking out at the gorge in front of him after spelling out God's name, there's a shot where he looks at the lion's head above him. You can see him from down the corridor, and you can notice as he touches the wall, it moves, showing it is a fake wall. (01:47:15)
Revealing mistake: At the end a shadow appears on the cliff under Indy's shoe when he steps to the edge. This would not have happened if a solid but camouflaged bridge were there. (01:47:30)
Continuity mistake: When we first see the knight guarding the Grail, his cloak is tied off with a braided rope, which hangs down on his right side. It stays this way until he says "You have chosen wisely," where the rope has somehow shifted to his left side. The rope goes back to normal when the knight waves goodbye at the end of the movie. (01:49:10 - 01:54:05)
