Corrected entry: After Indy has shot dead all the Nazis who entered his father's room in the castle, he takes his father and they go out of the room to find Elsa. When they leave, the 'dead' Nazi in front of them moves his right arm slightly.
Corrected entry: Indiana's boat was destroyed by a giant propeller. However, no boat in history has a propeller that is only half submerged in water and the other half in the air.
Correction: Actually, there are a number of legitimate reasons why a ship's propeller may be only partly submerged. Several types of heavy-load ships have their propellers exposed when they carry neither load nor ballast. Almost every type of nuclear submarine has part of its propellers clear of the water when its ballast tanks are blown dry. Since the ship was moored and the propeller turning rather slowly, it was probably supposed to be deballasted for yard repairs and undergoing an engine test.
Corrected entry: Once Indy has found the grail, he goes back with Elsa to heal his father. But how was it possible for him to get back? Wouldn't he have to face the challenges again, but in reverse order?
Correction: Yes, but he knows what they are now, so he can pretty much just walk (or run) straight through them. The filmmakers just chose not to waste valuable screen-time showing it.
Correction: Furthermore, he stopped at least one from working.
Exactly this. He stopped the first one from working – the second trap, he can just walk on the exact letters he used on the way in, but backwards. And finally, the third trap: we see him throw sand on, so it is very visible.
Corrected entry: When Adolf Hitler autographs Indiana's grail diary, he does so with his right hand; in reality, Hitler was left-handed. (01:10:25)
Correction: This is simply untrue. Hitler was NOT left handed. There are too many websites to prove this, but if you Google "Hitler signs" and look for the images, you'll see all the proof you need.
Corrected entry: When Indy is in the castle and the butler says ". I am Mickey Mouse" - you can see someone walk past the crack on the right hand side of the front door, most likely someone from the crew.
Corrected entry: That knight in the temple of the grail - how does he know contemporary English after spending centuries in that cave? He's only alive because of the water - he's not imbued with mystical futuristic knowledge. A Medieval English knight (assuming he even is English, since Crusaders came from all over Europe) would be speaking either Old French or Middle English, neither of which would make any sense to the modern ear; they'd both sound like foreign languages.
Correction: Remember that he is the subject of supernatural powers, namely immortality. He has been chosen by God to guard the Holy Grail. It is not a stretch to assume that part of that entails the ability to automatically understand and converse with someone in a language he did not previously know. There are such stories in the Bible.
Corrected entry: The boat chase in Venice. Just after Indy says "don't go between them" a jet stream is visible above the two boats. Not very likely in 1938. (00:37:50)
Correction: Extremely likely in 1938. Piston engined aircraft leave vapour trails, too. Daytime bomber pilots in World War 2 considered them a curse as they gave the position of their aircraft away.
Corrected entry: When driving from Venice to the castle we see a map of the route. In it Austria is marked with its own borders and its name is indicated. But in 1938 (which is after the anschluss), Austria no longer existed. It was part of Germany.
Correction: It is true that Austria was no longer sovereign, but it still existed as a province of Germany until 1945 (it was renamed in 1942, but that's irrelevant for this issue). Marking Austria on the map serves to better inform the viewer where the events are taking place. Given that the weather looks like that of late spring, and Aschluss took place in March-April of that year, all contemporary maps would still include Austria.
Corrected entry: When Indiana Jones is escaping with his father and he sets off a boat as a decoy, there is no large crate on the dock. But a few minutes later, when the Germans show up, as they start going towards the boats, a large crate has suddenly appeared on the dock, from which Indy and his dad emerged on a motorbike.
Correction: The crate is on the dock the whole time. it is just off screen which is why Indy walks off screen while his father complains about not getting in the boat.
Corrected entry: When Marcus Brody arrives in Iskenderun, many men are seen wearing fezzes. However, wearing a fez was outlawed in Turkey in 1925.
Correction: The film is set in 1938, during which Iskenderun was part of the Republic of Hatay. Hatay did not join Turkey until the following year. Regardless, the existence of laws doesn't mean that people don't break them.
Corrected entry: When the Nazi officer is thrown out of the Zepellin by Indy, you can see the safety mat underneath the luggage.
Correction: What on earth is the point of putting a crash mat under anything? That's a bog standard tarpaulin used to protect the passengers' luggage from the damp ground.
Corrected entry: When the operators try to shoot Indy and his father as they rotate back into the burning room, the bullets flying towards and ricocheting off the rotating wall are evidently tracer bullets. Normally, tracer bullets are not normally issued for handguns; they are used more for rifles and machine guns.
Correction: The Germans in the film also carry MP38 sub-machine guns, which are chambered for the same 9mm Parabellum round as the Lugers that are being fired in the scene in question. Being sub-machine guns and therefore fully automatic, they would invariably have been issued with tracer rounds.
Corrected entry: When Indy makes a rubbing of the knights' shield in the tomb under the library, he dives underwater with it. This would ruin the paper and make it unreadable, yet we see him later with it and it's perfect. There's no way he had time to seal it in a water-tight container before he dived.
Correction: Indy used a wax crayon to make the rubbing,and he did it on wax paper. Both are waterproof.
Corrected entry: Wouldn't Indiana Jones pass out from wearing a leather jacket in a hot desert?.
Correction: As the stuntman and Harrison Ford probably spent many weeks in the jacket in the desert, the answer would have to be 'No'.
Corrected entry: When Indy and Elsa are back at the hotel after the boat accident, Elsa's room is wrecked. How did Indy not know she wrecked it herself or hear her wrecking it? He was only 2 doors down. He could hear the music playing in the bathroom but not her trashing her own room. He should have known she did it when she came out the bathroom surprised. Seriously, how can you be in the bathroom and not hear someone trashing your hotel room?
Correction: If the music was loud enough for him to hear it, it would have been loud enough to cover up the noise.
It seems a bit weak, but even a wind-up gramophone can make a lot of noise, especially in a small bathroom.
Corrected entry: Elsa states that the knights came from France at the beginning of the Crusades. The original Crusaders came from Spain. France didn't get involved until later.
Correction: The first Crusade was Frankish in origin (http://www.brighton73.freeserve.co.uk/firstcrusade/Overview/Overview.htm). The Spanish had been fighting Moslems before, but not in the way of a Crusade.
Corrected entry: On the zeppelin, after Indy knocks the Nazi out, everyone stares at him in horror and confusion. He says to them, in plain English, "He didn't have a ticket" and EVERYONE on the zeppelin responds by getting out their tickets. The problem is, it's a German zeppelin leaving Berlin. Even if there were some people on board who knew English, it's highly unlikely that everybody on board would.
Correction: Well, first of all, it's a joke. But also when Indy says "No ticket," you can see that some of them are confused. One woman keeps repeating it, trying to figure out what he said. Then one or two people who DID understand get their tickets out, so everyone figures it out.
Corrected entry: When Elsa and Jones are in the catacombs, Elsa says that the Christians would have dug their own passages and burial chambers centuries later, so the knight shouldn't be with those tombs. However, the Crusades spread Catholicism, so the knight should be with the Christians.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Indy and Elsa are under an overturned casket in the burning catacombs and Indy is swimming with his eyes open looking for an exit, wouldn't his eye be burning since it is petroleum he is swimming in? When he comes up for air he doesn't seem bothered by it.
Correction: Petroleum floats on water. If all the liquid in the catacombs was petroleum, the entire block would have exploded in a gigantic fireball when the guardians lit it a bit later. So Indy was under the layer of petrol when he opened his eyes.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Indy and Kasim are fighting on the speedboat while it is being chopped up by the propeller of a ship, the windscreen on the boat is upright, and just as Indy says to Kasim " why are you trying to kill us?" the windscreen is lying flat.
Correction: So he's a dying Nazi, not quite yet a dead Nazi. Indy didn't go through the room checking everyone's pulse and declaring them deceased.
Phixius ★