Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy goes to save Marion in the tent he removes the handkerchief gag. But when he decides to leave her there, he puts the gag back on and some of her hair gets caught underneath the gag on one close up shot from the left. But when the camera goes to the back of Indy, her hair is no longer caught underneath the gag. (00:56:00)

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)

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Before the shoot-out in Marion's bar, before the Nazis enter and ask her for the amulet, she's sitting alone at the table. She pulls the amulet out of her shirt, the chain still around her neck, and stares at it in the candlelight. The next moment the chain is not around her neck and she hangs the necklace onto the table centrepiece. (00:28:20)

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy is distracted by the young girl and her eyelid message, the girl changes from a window seat to another row when the bell rings to end class.

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the Himalayan bar scene when the sherpas leave, Marion starts to pick up the shot glasses and puts them on a tray - there's a large group left at one end of the table, one in the middle, and two by a bowl at the other end. When she returns for the rest, the two by the bowl have vanished. (00:26:20)

Continuity mistake: When the village crowd separates and reveals a standoff between Indy and the black-robed swordsman, the rear shot of Indy shows his hip-bag to the rear of him, the frontal shot of Indy shows his hip-bag on the forward part of his hip.

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Belloq is talking to Indy and Marion in the Well of Souls, he's shown holding his hat with his right hand. But in the only over-the-shoulder shot (looking into the Well of Souls) the hat is laying on the ground and Belloq tosses a stone down with his right hand. Then the hat is back. (01:10:35)

Continuity mistake: Marion's bar in Nepal is built with thick stone walls, but after the fire, all you see is the burned-out shell of a wood-frame building.

raywest

Continuity mistake: When Indy and the Indian are entering the cave and clearing the cobwebs, you can see at least one spider on Indy's back. The next shot shows a clear, long shot of Indy's back with light reflecting on his jacket and no spiders. The next shot, the Indian notices the spiders. (00:04:20)

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, Indiana Jones uses his whip to disarm a man with a handgun. The scene showing this action includes several quick shots, but as a result of the use of these multiple shots it can be seen that the whip descends twice. (Slow motion helps, but isn't required.)

Continuity mistake: In the beginning, Indy's partner takes the idol, throws down the whip, and leaves him hanging on a ledge with the ceiling closing down to the ground. While he is hanging the you can see that the ceiling barely has enough room for Indy to fit. Indy struggles to get up which during this time he would have no room to get under, yet when he finally gets up the ceiling has risen giving him plenty of room to get under. (00:08:45)

ShooterMcGavin34

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Indy is telling about the Staff of Ra, the background color of the blackboard changes between shots. It looks like there are some chalk residues (after the blackboard has been washed) in one of the shots, but not in the other.

Jacob La Cour

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The stone block Indy pushes out to create an opening which allows him and Marion to escape the Well Of Souls apparently rolls down the hill outside. We see it, in a following scene, laying about 15 feet away from the Well. But when Indy is fighting the big German guard near the airplane, one scene clearly shows the Well in the background and the dislodged stone is now laying on the hill only a few feet from the opening. (01:15:45 - 01:18:10)

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the government comes to see Indy at the University he is teaching, they enter the large room, I think it's a gymnasium. He puts the huge book on the table and one of the buckles comes undone. But when he goes to open the book to show the g-men a picture of the Ark he undoes both buckles. (00:15:30 - 00:19:30)

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy is being lowered into the map room, the exterior shot of the opening does not match the interior. From the outside, the wall around the opening is a lot thicker. The angle is also different. (00:50:55)

Continuity mistake: When Indy and the German driver crash through the villager's construction ladders the truck is missing the Mercedes-Benz hood ornament that appears in every other shot.

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy is trying to stop the truck that is supposedly carrying Marion in a basket, Indy shoots the driver as the truck heads towards a "dead end". The driver's foot hits the accelerator and the next shot opens up to a big open space where the truck tips over and explodes. The "dead end" has disappeared. (00:40:10)

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

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)

Continuity mistake: When Sallah lowers Indy into the Map Room, from the outside Sallah is standing near the bottom of the hole, but from the inside the rope hangs from near the top. (00:50:55)

Phoenix

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Just after Indiana (barely) escapes the tumbling boulder at the beginning of the movie, he leaps through a veil of spider webs, only to be held up by the native hunters and Belloq, who takes the idol from Indiana. Watch carefully - there is a thick strand of webs attached to the idol as Indy hands it to Belloq, but they disappear in the next shot as Belloq hefts the idol and holds it up in the air.

redbaron2000

Raiders of the Lost Ark mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy goes to save Marion in the tent he removes the handkerchief gag. But when he decides to leave her there, he puts the gag back on and some of her hair gets caught underneath the gag on one close up shot from the left. But when the camera goes to the back of Indy, her hair is no longer caught underneath the gag. (00:56:00)

More mistakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark

Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Indiana: Give me your torch. [He drops it in and sees why.] Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.

More quotes from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark trivia picture

Trivia: There's a Star Wars reference to Obi-Wan and C-3PO on the plane rescuing Indy at the start - it has the registration OB-CPO.

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

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