That’s a seperate argument and I don’t think it makes any sense either. They already were doing a test opening and recording it with cameras in the base. No way in hell they wouldn’t open it up the moment it reaches Germany just to make sure Indy didn’t sneak a bomb aboard it. I suspect any Nazi worth his salt would do a testing openly precisely in case they opened the ark in Hitler’s presence and it was a giant load of nothing like they intially thought.
This has nothing to do with Indy “not” doing anything, but…
Was there missing dialog explaining how Indy expected to survive the German sub diving? Or evading the lookouts that would be on top when it was on the surface?
Or how they got that GIANT crate through those teeny tiny hatches?
IIRC, in the comic book adaptation, he uses his bullwhip to lash himself to the periscope, the top of which stays above the water line for the whole trip. Which isn’t really how that would work, but…
To be fair, the sub would just run on the surface, and probably never submerge. It was peacetime, after all. And it’s faster that way. They could even lash the ark crate to the deck. Still, those pesky lookouts…
I picture the lookouts watching the horizon, and then one sees this blur in his binocs. He refocuses, and just like Max the dog when the Grinch looks backwards on the sled, Indy gives this little Chuck Jones shrug and waves sheepishly.
That is less ‘not how it would work’ than you’d think - early WW2 submarines couldn’t operate at a decent speed while submerged, even in combat patrol they’d spend roughly 90% of their time on the surface. To actually cruise from Egypt to Greece fully submerged was beyond their capability, the subs Germany had in 1936 could only go around 30-40 nautical miles submerged (vs a functional surface range of around 4000 nm) at half the cruising speed they had on the surface. They wouldn’t be sailing submerged if no one was trying to sink them. It wasn’t until 1943 and later that the newest u-boats started to have the capability to operate mostly underwater like we picture modern subs doing, so while riding on top of one would definitely not be all that realistic, it’s also not as out of the question as you might think.
Of course, the Nazi bases in Egypt and Greece in 1936 have their own realism issues…
There is an episode of the Flintstones in which Fred flies an airplane.
I just watched an episode (seriously… 
) that had Bedrock in panic of an alien invasion. So these stone age people are aware of space and the possibility of other worlds and space travel. Oh, and they were all alerted to the impending invasion by the radio stations. (I guess you weren’t supposed to think too hard about this stuff…)
I figure, the stone age airlines (on the backs of flying pterodactyls, no less) all avoid the area where the Jetsons’ space age tower buildings are located.
Wow, ignorance fought. I had thought them an Israeli analogue to the US FBI. Now I wonder if the FBI is the anomalous one, in that they combine domestic counterintelligence with law enforcement?
@Pantastic, it was pretty much the very end of WW2, and only a few vessels, where the submarine was truly submerged and operated without anything on the surface. Post 1943, they did add snorkels to the fleet, but speed was slow (6 knots, IIRC, was pushing it. Compare with the 12-14 a surfaced U-Boat could do, cruising on diesel power.), and endurance on battery power alone was garbage. WW2 submarines were pretty much slow torpedo boats that could briefly hide under the water for a day, two at the outside. I think endurance was something like 80 nautical miles max, at max charge, and cruising at max endurance speed for the entire way. The snorkel meant they could continually creep at periscope depth, albeit with this trash can sized hunk of metal sticking out of the water the whole way.
I always head canoned it that Indy hit behind the conning tower while the U-Boat cruised on the surface to the Ritual Island.
EDIT, and I realize now, fully rereading your post, that you’re pretty much saying the same thing. Uboat.net is a great resource for the history and technical details of the Ubootwaffe.
The Wayouts are coming!
My fav fan theory is that Jar-Jar Binks was a sith, and his foolish, clumsy way of narrowly avoiding death, and of killing enemies, was a ‘drunken-master’ type of jedi combat. One day I may have to rewatch 1, 2, & 3 with the theory in mind.
Other alien invasion episode quote:
Yabba. Dabba. Do. Yabba. Dabba. Do.
I like your Jar Jar theory,.