Goofs

When Toht grabs the red-hot medallion, his fingers are burned. Later in the movie, the burns on are all squarely in the center of his palm, and upside down compared to the position in which he palmed the medallion.

The staff is supposed to be 60 inches tall (6 kadams = 72 inches, minus 1 kadam) meaning that a kadam is a foot. The pole that Indy inserts into the hole in the map room towers over his head, indicating (incorrectly) that Indy is less than five feet tall.

When Indy and Marion exit the Well of Souls, an unidentified man is clearly seen lying against the rock face but is missing a few moments later during a medium shot that shows the same exit.

The students in Indy's lecture hall change positions in various shots. The student with the apple, seen coming down the far aisle when the lecture ends, is clearly sitting in the middle of the front row earlier in the scene. The girl who has written on her eyelids is in the middle of the room when Indy first sees her but in the row by the windows later.

Luggage rack detaches itself from the truck when Indy collides with the water trough, but it's fixed in subsequent shots.

In the beginning of the film, the city of Tanis in Egypt is described as having been destroyed in a sandstorm and recently discovered by the Nazis. In reality, the city was probably abandoned when its water supply was silted in. Archaeological digs had been conducted at the site beginning in the 1800s, so the location of Tanis was well known within the archaeological community in 1936.

Indiana Jones states that the broken pieces of the Ten Commandments stone tablets were placed inside the Ark after Moses threw them down at the foot of the mountain and shattered them. However, a second set of tablets were made and those tablets were placed in the Ark whole.

Making their way back out of the tomb the torches go out but instead of being in darkness not only are there lights but they cast strong shadows.

When Marcus and Indy explain the history of the Ark to the Army Intelligence members, they say that the Ark was stolen by pharaoh Shishak in 980 BC. At that time, Solomon's reign hadn't started and Solomon's Temple was not yet built. Nowadays, Shishak's reign is dated 943-922 BCE by historians.

It is extremely implausible that a stowaway would remain undiscovered on a German Type VII U-boat. These submarines could only operate underwater for a few hours at very low speed before exhausting the batteries, so they typically operated on the surface under diesel power with several officers keeping watch in the conning tower, relying primarily on the craft's small silhouette to avoid detection. They would only submerge if launching an attack or evading a threat. (The "Shnorchel' system, which allowed diesel power while submerged, did not enter service until World War II.)

Between the officers keeping watch on deck, the small crew, and a cramped interior with no hiding places and everyone sharing bunks except the captain, any stranger on board would be immediately noticed.

The Golden Gate Bridge is shown which was not completed until May 1937, a year after the movie takes place. The bridge itself began construction in 1933, but not open to the driving public until April 1937, so it is easily feasible that the bridge could appear close to completion from a distance.

The flying wing doesn't have any storage space to carry the a Ark in its crate, and there isn't a way to carry it underneath it either. However, it seems like the implication is that Indy was wrong, they were never planning to transport it that way, seeing as the truck departed already loaded around when the plane was supposed to take off.

Toht would need more than the imprint in his hand to replicate an approximate of the amulet. He would need to know the dimensions and properties of the crystal, including the cuttings on the surface, otherwise it would not refract and focus a beam of sunlight on exactly the right place. Since they were digging in the wrong spot anyway, having an incorrect approximate of the amulet would further give them an incorrect location.

There are several Nazi officers seen smoking. Smoking was discouraged in Nazi Germany. However, it wasn't until 1939 that the German Wehrmacht and SS restricted officers from smoking while on duty. The film takes place in 1936, when smoking was still permitted.

If the idol is made of pure gold and is solid, Indy would not be able to carry it so easily. It would also have consumed far more of a precious resource than necessary. Indy's difficulty was estimating how hollow it was, based on his knowledge of similar artifacts but he overestimated the weight, the plinth sank, and the boulder fell down.

Immediately after the truck chase, Indy pulls into a market square and the peasants help him thwart the Nazis. In this scene, the character of Toht, sitting in the passenger seat of a Mercedes, can be seen in the wide shot played by the actor Ronald Lacey. But in close-up, it appears as if his hat is just propped up on top of his coat as though the actor was not available, and no stand-in could be found; so they just propped his costume up in the seat and hoped nobody would notice.

German soldiers fall from the truck and roll backwards, in violation of physics. When you jump from a moving vehicle you actually roll in the direction the vehicle was moving.

When Indy pushes the large heavy stone block away so he and Marion can escape from the pit, you can see the shadow of it bouncing weightlessly on the ground below.

When Marion is shooting at the German soldiers from the gunner's seat in the German plane, the bullets clearly hit the ground at the soldiers' feet, yet they react as if they have sustained hits above the waist.

When the pilot is knocked unconscious he falls into the throttles pushing them all the way forward but the propeller speeds don't increase at all.

When Jones shows up threatening to blow up the Ark if they didn't give up the girl. Belloq says to him that even he is surprised at his persistence. As he does this there's a fly that lands by his eyebrow and disappears, and then on his cheek, moves to his lip and disappears.

When Marion and Indy are attacked in the market place, Marion beats down two guys with what looks like an oil can, it is obvious that she is not actually hitting them.

When Belloq and Marion are drinking his private label in the tent, the amount of liquid changes in the bottle.

After Indy leaves Marion's bar, two Nazis and two locals walk in and confront Marion. During the ensuing fight and shooting after the two locals and one Nazi are knocked out or shot, a third local suddenly appears and fights Indy before being shot.

When Indy throws the poisoned date into the air, a brown object can be seen stuck in Sallah's palm before he catches the invisible date.

In the flying scenes, the map lists several countries by their modern names instead of their 1936 names. Siam did not become Thailand until 1939; Transjordan did not become Jordan until 1949.

There is a globe on the desk in the classroom. The globe depicts various countries of Africa that didn't exist in 1936.

The uniforms worn by the German soldiers are the tropical models, intended for use by the Deutsches Afrika Korps, not introduced until 1940.

Indy is traveling to Asia on board a Short Solent 3 flying boat, introduced in 1946. This aircraft served the British Overseas Airline Corporation and was once owned by Howard Hughes. It is now in the Oakland Aviation Museum.

Captain Katanga's hat bears the insignia of the navy of the Yugoslav People's Army, which existed from 1945 until 1991. The emblem with red star is quite visible.

In the car chase scene, when Indiana pushes a car off the road into the trees, the driver curses in German. However, his mouth forms the English form of the word.

When the German officer tells Gobler that he wants "plenty of protection" for the Ark, we hear Gobler answer "Jawohl, Herr Oberst!" but his lips don't move.

After Indy and Sallah have discovered the Ark within the Well of the Souls, they pack it in a crate and it is hauled out by the workers. As it is being lifted up, Indy says, "All right, take it up. Easy!" yet his lips don't move.

When Belloq pours a drink for himself in the tent with Marion, the sound of ice cubes chinking can be heard. There are no ice cubes visible in the bottle or glasses.

When Indy and the monkey are getting drunk after the truck carrying Marion has been blown up, a young man in a t-shirt and jeans walks past in the background on the left side of the screen (all the other people are wearing robes).

When Indy is holding onto the front of the truck with the wheel between his legs after being thrown out of the window, a shot of his back reveals the small wooden seat he is sitting on.

After Indy kills the driver of the truck in Cairo and it explodes, you can see a camera angled directly across from the burning truck.

During the shot in the plane cockpit where Marion shouts "Indy!", you can see on the right side of the window, the reflections of various crew members and their vehicles.

When Indy throws the torch down into the Well Of Souls, obvious fake snakes can be seen being pushed into the scene along with the many real snakes.

Several of the snakes used in the Well of Souls scene are Burmese pythons and reticulated pythons, neither of which are native to any part of Africa.

The tarantulas at the beginning of the movie are Mexican red-knees that are native to Mexico only.

Marcus Brody mentions that "The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it... is invincible." Nowhere in the Bible does it say the Ark itself has any power whatsoever, let alone making a human army invincible. If anything, in 1 Samuel 4, it tells how the Hebrews brought the Ark into battle with them.

The trained German soldiers hold the MP40s incorrectly, holding the magazine instead of the forward stock. Surprisingly, the untrained street thug holds the weapon correctly.

During Indy's lecture to his students on the Neolithic, Dr. Jones talks about a "cist", which is a chest-shaped burial. Dr. Jones pronounces the word "cist" wrong. Archaeologists pronounce "cist" with a hard "k" sound at the beginning, whereas Dr. Jones pronounces it like "cyst" with a soft "s" sound.

While discussing the history of the Ark, Indy refers to Mount Horeb as "Herob."