# Raiders Of The Lost Ark Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2015, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464 "2015-01-21T07:44:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/21 "2015-01-21T15:40:14Z")
BTW. when the ark was on the tramp steamer, it burned off the Nazi stencil on the wooden crate. But it didn’t do so when it was packed in the US Army crate at the end of the film. So is the conclusion that the ark itself or the Jewish God was cool with the ark being in the custody of the US Army but not the Nazis? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/22 "2015-01-21T15:40:39Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > My impression ever since first seeing it as a little kid, was that God turned the contents to sand because those opening the ark were not worthy. > > Hence all the deadly spirits after. This is what I thought, too. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/23 "2015-01-21T15:45:46Z")
Another explanation for the sand: Sometime in the past, the Moses-tablets were removed, and replaced with sand. (Either by a thief, or by priests smuggling holy artifacts out of a city being sacked.) IMO, the Ark is impressive, but it should be the tablets that really matter to the priests (and God). ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/24 "2015-01-21T16:34:48Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > To me, Belloq looks more befuddled or confused by the sand than angry. And then he never really has time to digest what has just happened. It is Colonel Dietrich who immediately tosses the sand away in anger or disgust. He’s the one who looks pissed. Then they look a little explodey and melty, respectively. > > Of course, Belloq called the Ark “a transmitter, a radio for speaking to God,” so maybe the tablet he expected to find was an iPhone 6 Plus. In which case, the contents turned to sand because Belloq was obviously holding it wrong. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/25 "2015-01-21T16:37:41Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > BTW. when the ark was on the tramp steamer, it burned off the Nazi stencil on the wooden crate. But it didn’t do so when it was packed in the US Army crate at the end of the film. So is the conclusion that the ark itself or the Jewish God was cool with the ark being in the custody of the US Army but not the Nazis? The Nazis were evil. The U.S. is not. The U.S. is the Good Guys. Don’t you ever forget it, Mister! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/26 "2015-01-21T17:02:06Z")
If you look at that scene, there’s far more than a handful of sand pouring from Belloq’s and the Nazi’s hands ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/27 "2015-01-21T17:15:41Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > My impression ever since first seeing it as a little kid, was that God turned the contents to sand because those opening the ark were not worthy. > > Hence all the deadly spirits after. Me as well. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/28 "2015-01-21T18:21:10Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > (snips) > > The ark was genuine otherwise there would have been no spirits, no “wrath of God” and there wouldn’t have been a\*\* huge storm showing the contents of the ark being raised back to the skies\*\*, followed by the top being slammed shut. > > Watch it again and I’m sure your confusion will become clear: > > [Opening of the Ark](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0APF3SO9tqE) (bolding added) At 3:55 in the clip there is clearly the figure of a human, apparently male, with intact head, included in the stuff being shot up into the sky. With an intact head, I don’t think it can be any of the original three bad guys on the dais\*. Who was this and why was he there? \*Belloq had exploded and the other two had their heads melted, at least that’s the way it looked to me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/29 "2015-01-21T19:06:59Z")
Just one of the dead Nazi mooks, I thought. Some were incinerated, some were melted, and some were more-or-less intact before the lid came crashing down. What is Belloq saying before the lid is removed, BTW? It’s in Ancient Hebrew, I assume. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/30 "2015-01-21T19:16:08Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > (bolding added) > > At 3:55 in the clip there is clearly the figure of a human, apparently male, with intact head, included in the stuff being shot up into the sky. With an intact head, I don’t think it can be any of the original three bad guys on the dais\*. Who was this and why was he there? > > \*Belloq had exploded and the other two had their heads melted, at least that’s the way it looked to me. I kinda wished that damned pet snake Reggie was sucked up, too. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/31 "2015-01-21T19:22:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > BTW. when the ark was on the tramp steamer, it burned off the Nazi stencil on the wooden crate. But it didn’t do so when it was packed in the US Army crate at the end of the film. So is the conclusion that the ark itself or the Jewish God was cool with the ark being in the custody of the US Army but not the Nazis? What it means is that Stephen Spielberg is Jewish. Or as [Roger Ebert wrote](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-1981): > [@](#): > > \*The Saturday serial aspects of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” have been much commented on, and relished. But I haven’t seen much discussion of the movie’s other driving theme, Spielberg’s feelings about the Nazis. “Impersonal,” critic Pauline Kael called the film, and indeed it is primarily a technical exercise, with personalities so shallow they’re like a dew that has settled on the characters. But Spielberg is not trying here for human insights and emotional complexity; he finds those in other films, but in “Raiders” he wants to do two things: make a great entertainment, and stick it to the Nazis. > > We know how deeply he feels about the Holocaust. We have seen “Schindler’s List” and we know about his Shoah Project. Those are works of a thoughtful adult. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is the work of Spielberg’s recaptured adolescence, I think; it contains the kind of stuff teenage boys like, and it also perhaps contains the daydreams of a young Jewish kid who imagines blowing up Nazis real good. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by Philip Kaufman, George Lucas and an uncredited Spielberg, whose movie is great fun on the surface – one of the classic entertainments – and then has a buried level. > > Consider. The plot hinges on Hitler’s desire to recapture the long-lost ark. “Hitler’s a nut on the subject,” Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is told by a government recruiter. “Crazy. He’s obsessed with the occult.” But not just anything occult. The ark, if found, would be the most precious Jewish artifact imaginable – the chest that held the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on the mountain top. “An army which carries the ark before it is invincible,” Indy says; Hitler wants to steal the heritage of the Jews and use it for his own victory. > > Throughout the film, there is a parade of anti-Nazi symbolism and sly religious satire, as when a desperate Indy grabs the hood ornament of a Mercedes truck, and it snaps off. And when a Nazi torturer grabs a sacred relic and it burns a stigmata into his hand. When the ark is being transported in the hold of a Nazi ship, inside a stout lumber crate, the swastika and other Nazi markings spontaneously catch fire and are obliterated. A Nazi officer, uneasy about opening the ark, says: “I am uncomfortable with the thought of this Jewish ritual.” And of course when the spirit of the ark manifests itself, it’s as a writhing column of fire that skewers the Nazis. \* ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/32 "2015-01-21T21:04:03Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > BTW. when the ark was on the tramp steamer, it burned off the Nazi stencil on the wooden crate. But it didn’t do so when it was packed in the US Army crate at the end of the film. So is the conclusion that the ark itself or the Jewish God was cool with the ark being in the custody of the US Army but not the Nazis? I thought it did burn them off in the American warehouse…but maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/33 "2015-01-21T21:07:07Z")
I didn’t understand why he was wearing the priestly garments and breastplate. The ark was one of the crankiest artifacts in all scripture and only the high priest could get near it when it was in a mood, but there was more to being a high priest than dressing like one. Being Hebrew was probably kind of a deal breaker in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/34 "2015-01-22T00:05:53Z")
The tablets turned to sand because he forgot to give the “I swear by my life and my love of it…” speech. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/35 "2015-01-22T00:17:08Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > My impression ever since first seeing it as a little kid, was that God turned the contents to sand because those opening the ark were not worthy. > > Hence all the deadly spirits after. This. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/36 "2015-01-22T00:26:58Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > My impression ever since first seeing it as a little kid, was that God turned the contents to sand because those opening the ark were not worthy. > > Hence all the deadly spirits after. Sounds the most plausible to me. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/37 "2015-01-22T00:34:45Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > To me, Belloq looks more befuddled or confused by the sand than angry. And then he never really has time to digest what has just happened. It is Colonel Dietrich who immediately tosses the sand away in anger or disgust. He’s the one who looks pissed. Then they look a little explodey and melty, respectively. > > Of course, Belloq called the Ark “a transmitter, a radio for speaking to God,” so maybe the tablet he expected to find was an iPhone 6 Plus. No, that’s from another part of the bible. The iPhone appears in the book of Jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Tuxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Tuxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuxie)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/38 "2015-01-22T00:56:01Z")
Frodo should’ve thrown the one ring in there. Good luck getting to it without getting your face melted. Why didn’t the us military just fly a bomber carrying it open over Berlin? They could put on blindfolds so the crew don’t get zapped. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/39 "2015-01-22T00:58:33Z")
> [@The\_Winkler](#): > > Pardon my ignorance and my apologies if this has been asked before. I have never really understood the ending of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. So they open the ark and it contains nothing but sand. Belloq is obviously angry. So is that to imply that it isn’t the real ark? Why would the real ark be full of sand? And since Belloq is so pissed then the ark must be a fake. We have top men working on it right now. Top. Men. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464/40 "2015-01-22T01:22:33Z")
> [@Archeonomist](#): > > No, that’s from another part of the bible. The iPhone appears in the book of Jobs. I see what you did there. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-question/710464.md?page=3)