Plot hole: When Marion is being carried in the basket, being chased by Indy, he is hot on their heels the entire time. She's placed on the truck with the ammunition, only to explode when it topples over while trying to get away. Marion's dead. Later, he finds her in Belloq's tent very much alive. Indy concludes they must have switched baskets. When did her abductors have the opportunity to do that, and why would the Germans be in a hot hurry to get the truck out of there if the basket was empty?
Suggested correction: He concludes they switched baskets, but they didn't. He's not in hot pursuit either because he has to retreat and hide behind a wall from the machine gun once he gets to the truck. They put the basket with Marion inside the truck but simply got it out before it started driving. Indy could have never seen that and there is no basket in the truck that explodes. They wanted it out of there because it is full of explosives and possibly as a diversion for where they were really taking Marion.
Plot hole: When Indy and Sallah visit the gentleman who translates the staff headpiece for them we hear the staff should be "six cadams high." Indy replies, "About 72 inches." Then, turning the headpiece over, "Wait - take back one cadam to honor the Hebrew God whose ark this is." It's definitely referring to the staff length - Indy says afterwards "Their staff is too long." So, about five feet now, right? But, when Indy goes to the map room the staff is much taller than him. If the staff is about five feet high, Indy would be around three feet tall. (00:48:25 - 00:53:05)
Plot hole: Indy stows away on the Nazi sub on the way to the secret Nazi base somewhere near Greece. Where did he stay all that time? Inside? On a VII-Class boat, there's barely enough room for the regular crew, and hardly any places to hide. Also, everybody knows everybody, so no passing yourself off as "the new guy." Outside then maybe? Well, the boat did dive, it's in the dialog, and while on the surface, German U-boats always had a bridge watch on the tower, so no luck there either. Note that by all accounts I could find, German submarines were required to always post a bridge watch, if only because otherwise they would be running essentially blind. It's not like the helmsman's station in the tower had any windows.
Plot hole: When the sergeant takes control of the truck, Dietrich directs him to approach to crush Indy between the staff car and the truck, which takes time and allows Indy to make his famous scene. However, Dietrich could easily have shot him and arrived in Cairo with the Ark in his possession. (01:27:40)
Suggested correction: Shooting means risking hitting the truck's engine, which means finding new transport for the ark. All of which takes time off their schedule. Bad guys are always on a schedule.
True.
