Audio problem: When Marion and Belloq are getting ready to have a drink, as Belloq pours the wine you can hear the sound of the wine hitting ice, making a crackling sound, but there is no ice in the glasses. (01:04:40)
Factual error: Look to the right of the table lamp, there is a bottle of Myers Rum that has the modern plastic (silver/clear) cap and plastic pour spout. Not 1940s era. (01:33:10)
Factual error: When Marion is thrown into the pit of snakes and grabs the statue to prevent her fall, underneath her skirt she is wearing black spandex shorts. Shorts such as these did not exist in the 1930s time period of the film.
Revealing mistake: When the German staff car comes into the market place to find no truck, watch as Dietrich hurls the melon - the Gestapo guy in the front is obviously a dummy for this one shot. (01:29:40)
Continuity mistake: Several times during the fight in and around the truck the bars around the top of the cab come off and are miraculously back on again. (01:24:05)
Revealing mistake: When Indy and Marion are being sealed up in the Well of Souls, You can plainly see Marion counting down (she is mouthing the numbers) to the cue for her to scream as the Well is sealed. (01:12:20)
Factual error: When Indy flies to Nepal, there is a scene of the sea plane taking off with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. The movie is set in 1936, and the bridge wasn't completed until 1937, with pictures from December 1936 showing large gaps still in the deck that do not appear in the movie. (00:23:00)
Factual error: The truck that turns over and blows up after Indy shoots the driver is a Mercedes Benz L701. It began production in 1944, and this movie is set in 1936, so the truck is not period correct. Also, the alleys are too narrow to allow this truck to turn a corner.
Revealing mistake: When Indy fights the driver of the Nazi truck, the windshield is smashed when Indy is thrown through it, but there is no wind. Look at the driver's hair, not one stirs from a breeze while driving a fast moving truck with no windshield? (01:27:30)
Revealing mistake: When Indy is running through the cave and finds the spy that took the artifact with spikes through him, he brushes up against the dummy and it shakes like rubber and the light bounces off it like rubber. (00:09:10)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, When Indy uses the whip to take the guides gun away, Satipo makes a weird face and starts to move away in amazement. The very next frame, in a wider shot, he is not finishing his movements, but on the contrary he is standing still, with a normal gesture, until a second later he starts to repeat the movement and looks from before.
Continuity mistake: When Indy is fighting the Nazis on the truck, one Nazi is thrown from the truck and is rolling the opposite direction of the truck. (01:23:30)
Factual error: During the travel to Nepal, "Thailand" is written on the map. The country has had this name only since 1939. This film takes place in 1936, when Thailand was called Siam. (00:23:20)
Revealing mistake: When Belloq's head explodes, the actor has been visibly replaced by a dummy.
Continuity mistake: After Satipo runs with the idol, Indy grabs a root to help him climb up the ledge. Half a second later, from a different angle, the root is meters away and he is grabbing it again, repeating the whole scene.
Continuity mistake: Just before the car carrying Marion in the wicker basket explodes in the alley, Indiana shoots a man twice in the chest. The man has blood stains on his shirt before he is shot.
Continuity mistake: Indy looks at the Wurffler through the binoculars. In the next shot, when he takes them off and looks at Katanga, the submarine has moved to the left and astern. (01:34:58)
Continuity mistake: As Indy and Marion are starting to run from the plane, you can see the yellow wheel chocks are back in place under the plane's tires.
Continuity mistake: After Indy steals the idol, while he is hanging in the well, in the front angle his left leg is bent and already outside, in a quite comfortable and secure position; yet in the angles from behind both legs are inside, hanging loose.
Continuity mistake: After hitting one thug, Indy jumps out of the way of one trying to spear him, leading to the one behind Indy getting run through. As the guy gets run through, he is in front of a hanging string of fruit, with the stacked fruit to his right. After a cut scene to Indy and Marion running away, the run through thug is now facing the fruit stand, setting up the sight gag of the blade sticking out with two fruits stuck on 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.
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