I find it interesting that the Nazis thought it necessary to open the Ark at all; while the image shown early on in the film showing the Ark smiting its foes with lightning/fire/the wrath of God suggests this may be the proper use, there’s also the implication that merely possessing the Ark makes one’s army invincible – hence Hitler’s desire to capture it.
The fact that we get to see the Ark wheeled into some giant government warehouse at the end implied to me that Indy’s securing the Ark for America was what allowed the Allies to triumph over the Nazis in WWII.
Well, for some of the alleged plot holes raised thus far:
Marianne Ravenwood was in Nepal after following her father there (and being orphaned when he died). I get the impression she kept the amulet as a memento and neither she nor Abner had any real idea of its significance, nor was Abner in Nepal to research it.
It might’ve been nice if they hadn’t performed the opening ceremony on the secret Nazi island base (patent pending) and the Ark had been opened in the presence of Der Fuhrer himself. Melt, you fascist bastard!
And while it’s pretty silly to believe Indy rode the top of a German U-Boat all the way to the island, it’s unclear how the U-Boat caught up with the freighter in the first place, since submerged U-Boats were quite slow, far slower than any reasonably well-maintained powered surface vessel (especially since the relatively zippy U-boat models weren’t commissioned until the war started, some three years after the events in the movie). There’d have to be a pretty impressive chain of events involved:
[ul][li]German agents in Cairo figure out where Indy et. al disappeared to after the truck chase[/li][li]They discover which boat he took and find it using aerial reconnaissance and, conveniently, the freighter is a course near on of our secret Nazi island bases[/li][li]Belok, Toht and Dietrich fly to the base, board the submarine kept there and intercept the freighter[/ul][/li]So the Germans had a secret island base in the Mediterranian? I suppose if the freighter was headed west from Cairo toward Gibralter (or even, ambitiously and expensively, all the way to Britain or the U.S.) and passed near Italian territorial waters… anyway, the whole thing’s a goofy fantasy and enjoyable for what it was.
I just wanted to say that in more than twenty years, that has never occurred to me. I don’t know if I agree, but I never even considered the possibility.
He lost the idol, too. And he gave up the diary to the Nazis. Never mind that he got it back; his dad should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers.
He did get the antidote…but he lost the diamonds in the process.
Suddenly, I don’t feel quite so bad about my lack of accomplishment. Me and Indy…and Philip Marlowe.
This reminds me of an alledged statement that Harrison Ford made to Mark Hamill when he complained, in the scene in Star Wars chronologically following the one where they’re stuck in the trash compactor, that nobody was wet (as they should have been after swimming through the trash juice).
“Kid, it ain’t that kind of movie.”
Stranger
(And what the heck did they need a trash compactor in a space station when they could just void it all out into space. And where the heck did the vermin come from? Did they stick it in there just to keep off-duty stormtroopers from dumpster diving?)
Neither did I, and, now that I have, I have to say, I disagree.
The final scenes always struck me as entirely less…optimistic.
The Ark was being lost. No historian, religious scholar, or anything of the like would see it again - at least not until some random clerk looks at it and melts in 50, 60 years time.
Leading to a mediocre episode of some X-Files clone.
Personally, I suspect they sold it off to Charles Fos…I mean William Randolph Hearst to help pay for the war effort, and it was stored for years in a giant wearhouse along with his other possessions, then was tossed in the stove as an obvious, cheaply made knock-off, along with a bunch of Rodin fakes and a crappy old Red Rider sled.
“We’ve got top men working on it…TOP…MEN.”
Besides, what would we have done with it? Alternatively, the Pope used his influence to have it suppressed lest it undermine his authority as the ultimate arbitor of Gaw’s Will with the masses.
IIRC – in the movie at least --, 007’s seduction of Pussy Galore leads her to switch the canisters of nerve gas (under the wings of her Flying Circus planes) for a dummy gas, hence allowing the Fort Knox troops to “play dead” rather than “be dead”. The troops are then able to re-take the bullion depository from Goldfinger’s goons, so the bomb-defusing guy can step in and stop the countdown at the last moment (which 007 has failed to do).
That’s how I remember it too, Antonius. So the only useful thing James does is to rape PG (and if you think the description of the event is harsh, watch it again) – the powers of his Magic Dingus not only convert her from her lesbian ways, but also swing her over to fighting for the forces of Good.
I watched Raiders last week, because of this thread. When Indy’s hanging onto the sub, just after all the pirates spot him and cheer and stuff, the Germans inside start yelling and there’s a sireny sound and all that–I don’t understand German, but it sure sounded to me like they were about to dive.
On the other hand, a sub is going to make much better time on the surface than underneath, and they were in a hurry.
