Continuity mistake: In the Well of Souls, Indy and Sallah place the Ark in the box. Indy closes the box with a wooden lid and looks up. In the next shot, a torch has appeared in Indy's hand, a rope has appeared, tied to the four sides of the box, and Sallah has appeared next to Indy's left shoulder. In addition, the box is already several metres above Indy and Sallah in the second shot. (01:09:43)
Big Game
9th Feb 2025
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
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Suggested correction: There is an obvious time jump between the shots. They simply decided not to spend ten minutes showing all the details of sealing the box and tying the rope around it.
I wouldn't say this was a deliberate time jump, as they show Indy carefully and slowly placing the Ark in the box, then sealing it. In addition, when he looks up, he immediately says, "All right... take it up! Easy!" so it's clear this is a continuity mistake.
He says, "All right. Take it up" after the cut. Yes, he does look up before the cut, but since everything else is different, we are supposed to interpret it as a jump in time.
In fact, almost nothing changes between these two scenes, except for these small but clear details.
There's a deliberate jump in time between these two shots, and this transition is done creatively. First, we're below with Indiana as he places the lid on the crate and looks up toward the top entrance; it then cuts to the entrance POV, and now we're looking down as the tied-up crate is being lifted. The jump in time between these two shots is transitioned using a type of match cut. Absolutely no mistakes regarding these two consecutive shots.
27th Oct 2010
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Continuity mistake: The position of the Top Secret sign and the whole text is put on the ark's box across vertically laid planks, with a wood crossbar on the right, which only the side panels have. A shot later the sign appears slanted across horizontally laid planks. Though it could be argued that there could be a second sign on the opposite side with horizontal planks, when the warehouse guy turns left to store the crate, we get a glimpse of the left side and it's not painted.
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Suggested correction: The other text and the different plank design could be on the base of the box or on the front wall (the wall opposite the man pushing the box), two walls we never see when the box is being pushed. In fact, at one point the camera passes next to a box that has two texts, one on a short wall and one on a long wall.
11th Jan 2025
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Corrected entry: When the Nazi soldier is killed by the airplane blades, some of his blood splatters on the pilot cabin glass where Marion is, but in the next shot, the blood has totally disappeared from it. (01:20:24)
Correction: This is incorrect. First, the blood splatters on the gunner's turret cabin glass, not the pilot cabin one. Second, Marion crawls from the gunner's turret cabin to the pilot cabin, where there is no blood. Also, this last point is not shown exactly in the next shot, as this mistake suggests.
27th Oct 2021
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Continuity mistake: When Indy sits down in the seat of the plane look behind him, there is nobody holding a Life magazine or fitting the description of the man later shown watching him from the other seat.
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Suggested correction: This is not true. Dennis Muren enters just before Indy and sits down. The camera focuses on Indy, giving Muren enough time to grab the magazine and cover his face.
8th May 2019
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Continuity mistake: Arnold holds a hot stick of metal to Marion's face in her bar, threatening her. In the opposite angle, the metal is nowhere to be seen when it should be right next to her face. Cut back to the other angle and we see it again.
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Suggested correction: This entry is incorrect; the poker is always on screen, it never disappears.
9th Jun 2024
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Other mistake: The Angel of Death attacks the altar and Toht and Dietrich scream because of its revelation, but Belloq, for some reason, doesn't seem to see it. Just before the fire column rises, he's still calm. (01:47:10)
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Suggested correction: If you don't know the reason, perhaps you should ask a question instead of assuming it is a mistake. Belloq studied the ark and probably better predicted what might come out of the ark. He is also looking directly into the ark and is mesmerized by what he is seeing, until eventually he does scream before his head explodes. The other two are terrified at seeing the apparitions.
Actually, it's pretty impossible that Belloq studied the Ark. If he knew what would come out of it, he literally committed suicide by opening and watching the Ark open, which doesn't make sense. He believed during the whole movie that the Ark contained the Ten Commandments tablets, not some kind of ghastly things.
He didn't know what would come out, but it doesn't mean that he, like Indy, expected just 2 stone tablets. He expected power, for him mostly.
27th Aug 2001
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Continuity mistake: Sallah and Indy are peering into the well of souls. Sallah is to the right of Indy. Indy then drops the torch into the well, and when the camera comes back up, Sallah is on the left of Indy. (01:00:00 - 01:00:45)
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Suggested correction: Indy and Sallah spent several seconds off-camera, enough to move around the hole and switch places.
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