Raiders of the Lost Ark

Continuity mistake: Indy climbs on a plane's wing and a German officer arrives and asks him what's he doing, raising his left arm ordering him to approach. A frame later the arm is down.

Sacha

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy and Brody meet at the University with the two government officials, a group of rolled maps or plans are placed on a podium horizontally. Halfway through the scene, they are all laying vertically.

Lynette Carrington

Continuity mistake: After the plane takes off in the beginning, Indy sees the snake. His hands are grabbing at it, but a second later his hands are on the rim of his cockpit.

Continuity mistake: When Indy is driving the truck with the ark, a German tries to get in on the right side. Indy kicks the door open twice, and after the second time the top hinge of the door gives easily. The guy is half way dragging on the ground, holding onto the now askew door. Then in the next closeup, the door is hung correctly with the guy on it, and Indy kicks it again. The guy goes dragging again, and then he and the door fall off.

Movie Nut

Continuity mistake: There is a shot during the truck chase scene where a Nazi falls out from the back of the truck and goes through the windshield of the car behind it. During the shot from inside the truck, we see two Nazis to the left. The one closer to the camera pushes the other one down. However, in the very next shot, we see that pushed-down Nazi immediately sitting up straight.

MooCow

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the temple collapses, Satipo is crouching looking at the chaos. Indy starts to run and there's a wide angle of the passage ahead but Satipo is nowhere around. He couldn't have managed to run that distance in half a second.

Sacha

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

Suggested correction: He had a couple of seconds to run away from that spot.

It's a straight passage so he should be seen somewhere along it and he isn't.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: From the outside, the sides of the hole to access the map room are in shadows, from the angle inside they are sunny.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: During the truck chase scene, the radiator bars Indy hangs onto keep swapping back and forth from bent outwards to slightly bent with no continuity at all.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Indy stands inside the Map Room, looking at the model of the city, the rays of the sun are to his left, and they move right and down as the sun rises. But since the entry hole is behind him, that would mean that the sun would be to the right when standing outside - but it was to his left when he entered the hole.

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When the temple collapses, Indy is holding the idol with his right hand against his chest, and the left hand free and arm extended. A frame later, both arms are extended and holding the idol.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Toht frees Marion, Dietrich enters the tent, and a few seconds later, Gobler does the same. In the next shot, Gobler enters first, and Dietrich second. (01:07:52)

Continuity mistake: When Belloq and the Germans are at the Well of the Souls, a top-down view shot when Indy yells, "Why don't you come on down here and I'll show you!" shows Belloq and a German soldier kneeling down to the left of him, also looking down into the hole. But, the side view shots show only Belloq standing near the opening.

Continuity mistake: When Indy is listening to the one Army agent he is in the process of putting his right hand into his pocket. In the next shot the hand is back on the leather case. (00:16:46)

billfarr

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.

jbrbbt

Continuity mistake: During the truck chase, as Indy is fighting with the German driver, they knock over some scaffolding and a man drops down in front of the windshield. None of the workers on the scaffolding landed on the truck, much less the front of it. So, he shouldn't have been there.

Continuity mistake: In Indy's class at the beginning, the girl that lowers her eye lids to show the phrase "Love you", is looking in a totally different direction than the people behind her. They're all supposed to be looking at him, but the girls behind her are looking to their right while she is looking straight. They can't be daydreaming because they're all smiling and look infatuated. (00:13:58)

Zorz

Continuity mistake: When Marcus enters the classroom he leans up against a wall and there are 2 girls in the front row next to him. When the bell rings, the girls are the first two students to leave the classroom. Seconds later when Indy looks over to Marcus the same two girls are just getting up from their desks.

TD9898

Continuity mistake: Indy and a Nazi soldier are fighting in the cab of the truck when they come to a place where a stone building is being built. As the truck is driving into the scaffolding, several rocks come down and hit the truck and remove the rack from the top. Moments later the rack is back in place. (02:50:00 - 03:01:00)

TD9898

Continuity mistake: As the big German engages Indy in the fight, Marion is removing the chocks from one of the wheels. In the wide shot you don't see her at all, even climbing the plane to knock out of the pilot.

Movie Nut

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the movie where Indiana is running away from the tribe of South American Indians after Belloq robs Indiana of the gold statue, in one shot you can see that the Indians are only a few meters behind Indiana, but in the next shot, they are at least 50 meters behind. (00:11:20)

More mistakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark

Marion: You're not the man I knew ten years ago.
Indiana: It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.

More quotes from Raiders of the Lost Ark

Trivia: When a Nazi falls from the back of the truck carrying the Ark, a "Wilhelm scream" can be heard.

More trivia for Raiders of the Lost Ark

Question: Considering how powerful and dangerous the Ark is, why would Indy hand it over to the United States government, instead of putting it back where it was found and to ensure it's never located, lie to them and say him or the Nazis never found it?

Answer: Indy and Marcus Brody believed that the Ark needed to be studied. They certainly didn't want to put it back where it was found. They believed that the U.S. government would find the best archaeologists, researchers, and scientists in the world to study the Ark. They are both upset that instead, the government has decided to simply lock the Ark away. This is why Indy says, "Fools. They don't know what they've got there," as he is leaving the building.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: To add to the previous answer, there is no way that the ark could have been secretly returned to where it was found and then conveniently forgotten. Too many people already knew of its existence and location. It would only be a matter of time before someone more sinister would retrieve it.

raywest

More questions & answers from Raiders of the Lost Ark

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.