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?
lionhead
14th Dec 2025
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
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.
14th May 2003
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Corrected entry: While they are in the German camp around the well of souls, Sallah is trying to blend in with the other native workers. As he passes a long table of Germans eating, a few call out in German for water (Wasser) yet he replies in English "I'll go and get you some water" a number of times. Not very undercover.
Correction: The scene is set in Egypt, and Sallah is Egyptian, so when the German soldiers want water, he is not going to reply to them in German. He would reply to them in Arabic, but for the sake of expediency with the dialogue, Sallah is speaking in English. Since he is also native to the area, he is also dressed accordingly.
It would not be conspicuous for an Egyptian digger to speak a few words in another language (here English), as they would have worked with foreign archaeologists in the past.
Or the fact that Egypt was then still a British protectorate, so natives learning that language was probably not uncommon.
21st Oct 2025
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Continuity mistake: Just before they swing over the chasm to retrieve the statue, the man accompanying Indiana Jones (Satipo) is holding a flame torch. When they swing over the chasm, Satipo is no longer holding the torch.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: That's because he simply discarded the torch. He probably dropped it when he saw the corpse come out of the wall or did it later as they were walking further. It's also not "just before they swing"; there is a long time passing between him holding the torch and seeing him without it.
13th Dec 2024
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
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)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
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.
9th Jun 2024
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Other mistake: The Angel of Death attacks the altar and Toht and Dietrich scream because of its revelation, but Belloq, for some reason, doesn't seem to see it. Just before the fire column rises, he's still calm. (01:47:10)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: If you don't know the reason, perhaps you should ask a question instead of assuming it is a mistake. Belloq studied the ark and probably better predicted what might come out of the ark. He is also looking directly into the ark and is mesmerized by what he is seeing, until eventually he does scream before his head explodes. The other two are terrified at seeing the apparitions.
Actually, it's pretty impossible that Belloq studied the Ark. If he knew what would come out of it, he literally committed suicide by opening and watching the Ark open, which doesn't make sense. He believed during the whole movie that the Ark contained the Ten Commandments tablets, not some kind of ghastly things.
He didn't know what would come out, but it doesn't mean that he, like Indy, expected just 2 stone tablets. He expected power, for him mostly.
4th Apr 2019
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Corrected entry: In the cave in the beginning Indy tells his partner to stay out of the light, then his competitor comes shooting out of the wall attached to spears. After the competitor is killed, how did the trap reset? I doubt one of the natives came in and did it.
Correction: This is a question, not a mistake. The fact that the mechanism is unknown doesn't make it a mistake.
Correction: It automatically retracts. It's unknown how it works though.
20th Nov 2015
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Corrected entry: In the tank chase scene they use a replica of the VIII tank, or the "international tank." It was a replica and not the real deal but the turret they put on it wasn't from that model tank, or a replica of the original. It was a turret that was used on the Matilda type tank.
Correction: Firstly I think you have the wrong movie. The Tank chase scene you mean is from The Last Crusade. Secondly, the tank is supposedly given by the Sultan of Egypt and some sort of Egyptian variant of the Cruiser VII chassis and the Matilda turret, which was a brand new design in 1938. They mixed turrets and chassis all the time.