As Indy says when talking to the G-Men earlier in the move, “Real wrath of God stuff.”
I thought they had crumbled in the past few days being driven around in car chases and snake pit fights and whatnot.
Martini Enfield does make a good point though. How exactly would one “weaponize” the Ark of the Covenent?
Stick a note on it that says “Do not open” and send it to the enemy camp?
I think the version of the Bible I used to have said “golden tumors”. I can’t decide which is worse…
In the movie, Indy said that any army that carries the ark before it is invincible. (And after mentioning this, he asked the government agents, “Didn’t either of you go to Sunday School?”)
As a death ray. It kills anyone that looks at it, so put it somewhere that shields the back from view and add an automatic door opener. Press button, arc opens, everyone within the front 90 degrees of your vehicle gets smited.
Which is an ok idea when you are dealing with infantry, but I don’t think it would be very effective against aerial bombs or artillery.
This is one of those movies where the protagonist’s efforts were, in the end, completely irrelevant, right? Indy could have stayed at home and finished teaching his class, and the Nazis would have just burned themselves up in their test ceremony anyway. You could argue that maybe he was needed to secure it afterwards, I suppose.
I’ve always thought that, too, but I guess there is the odd chance that someone back at home base would remember their Bible verses and say ‘idiots, don’t open it - let’s put it inside a transport or something and do a little field test.’
There’s that part about the army which carries the Ark before it, and Indy shows the picture. Who knows how many times they did that. The Ark had been jostled around for maybe hundreds of years. The tablets could have been pounded to sand long before the Ark was even put in the Well of Souls.
I stand corrected. You are absolutely right, Sir.
Tripler
I, in fact, did not go to Sunday School.
“I’m making this up as I go along!”
Well, that’s his story. However, that is a lot of carving to prepare new tablets for a bunch of ingrates who were probably illiterate anyway. He probably just filled up a bag with sand, brought it back down, and dumped it in the Ark, and then cracked anyone over the head who attempted to look in it. Over the years the story was embellished until it became “God will smite all who look inside the Ark.” Then, God caught wind of this and said to Himself, “Hmmm…that’s an interesting idea.” And the rest is history as portrayed in the documentary, Raiders of the Lost Ark (some reinactments performed for scenes not captured by original footage).
To be fair, many of the supposed superweapons, such as the A4/V-2 rocket, were of limited effectiveness that was not commiserate with their cost or effort to develop and use. The Army Intelligence guy at the beginning of the film does say that, “Hitler’s nuts on the subject [the occult]”.
Yes, exactly. In fact, Indy led the Belloq and Toht directly to the Ark; without following him to Marion Ravenwood’s bar, and then later opening up the Well of Souls in the middle of a giant German Army dig (which was curiously in the middle of de facto British-controlled Egypt) they would have likely never found the Ark at all.
Now, let’s talk about Goldfinger…
Stranger
Indy’s job was to save the ark and the girl. She would have probably died were he not there to warn her to look away. Mission accomplished!
I seriously doubt they would never have found the Ark. They were already digging in the right place, and the possessed an accurate map of what the city looked like before it was buried by the sandstorm. They’d have found it eventually - the dig site was within sight of the chief architect’s tent, after all. If anything, Indy’s actions slowed them down: by letting Toht get away with only half of the inscription on the amulet, he got the Nazis to focus their attention in the wrong part of the ruins.
As for letting the Ark get to Germany, it might have killed Hitler, but Hitler wasn’t the only racist warmonger in the German government. He’d already built his fascist war machine and established his cult of personality, taking him out of the picture at the end of the '30s probably wouldn’t prevent WWII. It might, however, keep the Nazis from doing something suicidal, like attacking Russia. Probably could have prevented the Holocaust, which is no small thing, but I still wouldn’t envy the life of a German Jew in those circumstances, particularly after “Beloved Fuhrer Killed by Jewish Sorcery” hits the headline.
I’ve heard rumors{cionfirmation needed] that the construction of the Ark was similar to that of a battery or a capacitor or some such, and touching it wthout protection could give you a nasty shock.
Mythbusters, anyone?
My last post was in response to Revtim! That’s what I get for leaving windows open forever.
I think I’ll have to watch that movie again.
Exodus, Chapter 33:
The Ark contains the embodiment of God (imprisoned?). Anyone with the hubris to think he should be able to look in it would be killed.
StG
By averting their eyes and not looking at the Ark, Indy and Marian were demonstrating humility. Like in so many stories, what did the Nazis in was hubris, and since the heroes avoided the hubris, they avoided the gristly fate that went with it.