No. The implication was definitely that looking at the ghosts (Holy Spirit? Face of God? Angels?) would kill you.
Great question. I’m feeling a bit lethargic at the moment but I’ll try to find a cite later.
I assumed that too, since I saw the movie. But it always bothered me, a lot: you mean, if Indy hadn’t guessed that Marion shouldn’t look at the Ark, she’d have suffered the same fate, the same “wroth of God” as the Nazis? What an incompetant Deity…
But now I’m believing that Indy’s just protecting her, or he is indeed just guessing (perhaps wrongly).
What I’ve always wondered was how did Indy stow away on the sub. It shows him on the hull, with all the guys on the smuggler boat cheering. Indy waves at them and then looks around with a somewhat worried expression as sea water flows over the closed hatch. Then it cuts to the map of the ocean showing a long voyage with several stops. Then next thing you know the sub is docked in the island cave and Indy’s on a steel gang plank with wet clothes. How did he do it?
Note also that Indy wasn’t motivated entirely, or even primarily at the start of the movie, by keeping the Ark out of the hands of the Nazis. His primary motivation was that he wanted to bring the thing back to a museum. He certainly didn’t anticipate that it would end up languishing in some government warehouse.
Of course, God still has to be on your side. The Ark was lost in battle when the Israelites had been suffering heavy losses and the elders thought they should bring it onto the battlefield. Of course, Israel got it back because of the diseases and plagues that kept popping up wherever the Philistines took it. Honestly, I think I might rather have my face melted off rather than get divine hemorrhoids. But the Ark isn’t a guaranteed all-powerful superweapon. Hell, just touching the thing to keep it stabilized will get you instantly killed.
We’ve been through this before (not complaining–some movies are worth re-hashing!): We had some sub-savvy savants claiming that some WW2-era subs made long trips on the surface.
Hey, wait. We don’t have to be sub-savvy savants to know that at least one WW2-era sub made at least one long trip on the surface, because Indy made it!
That’s pretty much how it is in the Bible. There’s a couple of scenes in there where someone accidentally touches it, and gets blasted by God for it.
In terms of the movie, it helps to think of the Ark not as an active agent of divine will, but more like a loaded gun. God isn’t watching the whole thing, waiting for someone to open the Ark so he can blast everyone in the area. It’s more like, three thousand years ago, he put something very, very dangerous in a box and gave the Israelites instructions on how to use it safely. WWII rolls around, the Nazis get their hands on it and don’t follow the instructions, and everyone on the island who doesn’t follow basic safety measures (“Don’t look at it!”) gets whacked.
Was it really necessary to dress like the High Priest? I understand wanting to do things with style, but I’m not sure playing dress-up is going to fool God.
The Nazis were suckers for high ritual of any kind, anyway, so I don’t know that it was necessary, so much as the head nazi guy just wanted to give that get-up a little face time.
To sorta answer a question about how Indy and Marian got off the island-- at least in Kasdan’s Third Revised Draft, August 1979. The finale is a bit different than what was filmed. The ark is opened and weird noises and light comes out. As this happens, Indy stands between two guards while Marian has been tied, spread-eagled, between two upright poles. As the light explodes from the ark (can’t remember if it kills Belloq, etc., or not), Indy grabs a rifle, escapes, frees Marian and they run into a maze of mine tunnels, jump into a small mining car (starting to sound familiar), the Nazis do likewise, and we have a chase through the island.
Indy and Marian make their way to a small fishing boat or some such, near the harbor, and as the island explodes, the boat chugs out to sea with our two heroes. Cut to Washington and the final scenes.
Also, in this draft, before he went to Marian’s bar, he stopped by China (or maybe Hong Kong) to pick up something or other, and got into the “running behind the large gong and jumping out a window as gangsters sprayed machine-gun bullets at him” bit.
Never waste a set piece, I suppose.
Sir Rhosis
Oh, Indy and Marion are able to lug the ark into their mine car and take it with them.
Indy always struck me as an atheist. And he hits HARD
Drat!! I always forget the WWII era submarine super long surface voyage! If I had a nickle for every time that fact has escaped my mind, I’d have enough to buy a small corner of a Cliff Bar, which I suppose is what Indy must have had to sustain him through the said WWII era submarine super long surface voyage.
Of course if a World War II-era submarine was making a long run on the surface, they would have crewmen up on deck keeping a watch out for other ships, floating debris, fedora-wearing archaeologists clinging to the side of the boat, etc., etc., etc.
They probably found a radio and called for help from the US gov’t. The submarine stayed on the surface, they travel faster that way.
However, now that you mention it:
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Why would opening the ark kill you, yet you lived if you didn’t look at it? Let’s say you looked at it and your eyeballs melted first. That would prevent you from looking at it anymore, and then you would survive.
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Why would God keep a box of wraiths, ghosts, demons, or whatever the hell was in there?
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Once released, why would they go back into the box when it was closed?
Opening the Ark won’t kill you. God will kill you. For looking at him, among other things.
There were no ghosts. God, in His wrath, can’t have a sense of humor?
When Sodom and Gomorrah were being destroyed, why would being close enough to look back and see them be OK as long as you don’t turn around, but actually looking back over your shoulder gets you turned into a pillar of salt? Shouldn’t Lot’s wife’s eyes have turned into little salt-balls, and then the rest of her would survive?
That’s comparing salted apples and salted oranges. The Sodom and Gomorrah thing should effectively be called a curse or a stipulation. Even turning around with your eyes closed would have salted you. Besides, Lot’s wife was a total bitch and even if she ended up with eyesockets full of salt, I’m sure she would have pissed God off eventually.
The whole “don’t look!” thing is a longstanding trope in myth.
Lot and his family were prohibited from looking back at Sodom. Orpheus and Eurydice were prohibited from looking back into the underworld.
Religion, particularly the Abrahamic religions, don’t make any sense. I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with “God kills everyone who looks at him indiscriminately? That’s messed up!” Trust me, this is among the tamest stuff he does.
As for “Why can you open it but survive if you close your eyes?” Because, presumably, that’s how it’s used as a weapon to smite enemy armies. Just like even a heathen could be healed by drinking from the Holy Grail in the Indy universe, even a heathen could potentially use the Ark to kill his or her enemies.