Raiders of the Lost Ark questions

[OttoDaFe]

@Miller

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.

Hmmm . . . building on this concept may take care of one of my nagging questions (namely, “what happened in the freighter’s hold that charred the packing case?”). Perhaps that was the Ark being “cocked.”

(Another musing: what would have happened if the Ark had been brought to somewhere like Nuremberg and opened before a mass rally [perhaps with Himmler, the High Priest of the SS, officiating]? Minor impact on history, no?)

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

@AClockworkMelon

The whole “don’t look!” thing is a longstanding trope in myth.

Back when RAIDERS was first released, there was a picture book (story and stills from the movie) that our son had. The story made it clear that Indy was warned “not to look” – I’m sort of remembering that it was part of the message on the reverse of the headpiece. We assumed they cut that out of the movie, but it was part of the original script.

[carnivorousplant]

@Miller

I think taking the lid off the Ark is what makes the army unstoppable. Presumably, the army marches up to the enemy, all the soldiers cover their eyes while the priests lift the lid off, and the ghosts inside melt the faces off their enemies.

How do the Good Guys know when to put the lid back on and open their eyes?

[AClockworkMelon]

@carnivorousplant

How do the Good Guys know when to put the lid back on and open their eyes?

First of all, people worthy of God don’t have to close their eyes. I’m assuming it would be priests who do the opening and closing. They don’t have to close their eyes, they just warn their armies to do so.

In the movie I think the lid goes back on by itself so it hardly matters. When the scary noises go away you’re safe.

[The_Controvert]

Once people figured out the “closed-eyes means you’re perfectly safe” trick, do you think they started having fun with the ark? Like activating it when no enemies were around because it was cool?

Eventually, they would use it for mundane things like cracking walnuts with the self-closing lid. Or would God eventually get pissed, like what happens when you taunt the happy fun ball?

[Mekhazzio]

@digs

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.

Early WW2 subs were on the surface all the time that they were not actually being attacked or in the late stages of executing their own attack. Submerged travel was very slow and limited in range, and in the days before radar, subs were so low to the waterline that they’d almost certainly spot anything before it spotted them. IIRC, Raiders takes place before the war so there’s no worry about a random patrol forcing a dive.

It’s still insane, though. Clinging to the side of a warship without having any idea of how long you’d be there? It could’ve been (and was likely to be) weeks before a stop.