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Raiders of the Lost Ark - U-Boat: No Room to Hide
I saw this film when it first came out and was greatly puzzled by a scene where Indiana Jones is on a U-Boat and trying to evade the Germans. The scene abruptly changes and over what must have been a long voyage he has managed to evade being discovered. Huh? There is nowhere to hide on a U-Boat. The whole deck is visible to the crew and you can only get inside during dives by climbing through the conning tower, where you would be immediately spotted by the crew there. There is always someone on duty there as it is the nerve centre of the boat. The boats were notorious for their cramped conditions and you simply could not hide on one, even with assistance of a crewman. (Although something like this was not even hinted at in the film). If I'm wrong about this I would certainly like to hear the explanation of what went on. I just saw the film once in the year it came out, so maybe my memory of it is inaccurate.
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Rated 5.7/10 (39 ratings) Your opinion?
Special Requirements: A copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark
Contributed By: on 04-10-2000 and Reviewed By: Webmaster
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Comments:
nofear writes:
This would have been posable, all though unlikly. The movie was set in 1936, Germany wasn't at war, the u-boat would have ran on the surface more higher speed and would only have one lookout on the bridge.
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Black Cloud writes:
Have you ever been to sea? U-Boats have very little freeboard and in any kind of sea the waves would break over them, washing off anyone on the deck, friend or foe. As far as lookouts go, they are not known for being blind, which they would have to be to avoid seeing a non-crewmember on the boat.
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matt writes:
The voyage, as shown on the map, also looked to be a long one. Even if a he was not washed away, which was the most possible, or spotted by a lookout, he would have died of thirst or starvation quickly as he did not appear to have any provisions with him. I think that the writer(s) of this movie knew this entire scene was a bit far-fetched, but they had written themselves into a corner so they let it go anyway.
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Black Cloud writes:
I have seen the video again, just as awful this time around. Anyway, this scene is about 1:40 into the film. Indiana Jones swims out to the U-Boat from the freighter after they had been stopped and boarded. As he swings up onto the bandstand at the back of the conning tower no one spots him because they're all below decks. Why? Because they're about to dive. As the scene ends the dive klaxon actually sounds, which means there are about 10 seconds before they're underwater. The track of the voyage is then shown on the screen. It crosses part of the Mediterranean to the south of Greece, bypasses Crete and stops at some unnamed island to the east of Crete. Because we are not shown where the freighter (a modern looking ship by the way) was stopped it is impossible to tell how long the voyage was, but it must be further than 100 miles. Indy couldn't have swum that far. The very next scene shows him hiding in a U-Boat pen, his hat still on his head. No explanation of how he made it. Someone claimed that the movie was set in 1936 (i.e., peacetime). It only STARTS in peacetime. The German army would not be in North Africa until well into the war and they certainly wouldn't have had U-Boats stopping shipping during peacetime. In addition the Schmeisser machine pistol is prominently featured in several scenes. I think it dates from 1938 or 1940.
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Pingpo writes:
There was actually a scene that was cut out of the final cut that showed Indy hanging on to the periscope of the sub. This is the only explanation I could find of how he survived. Also, he wasn't wearing his hat. He doesn't wear it for the rest of the film after this.
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Black Cloud writes:
Periscopes are used only sparingly in wartime as they give away the position of the U-Boat. Most of the time they are travelling by dead reckoning and only come up occasionally to get a fix. The periscope would be underwater for most of the trip.
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bubby218 writes:
This used to bother me too, but then I discovered that German uboats ran on diesel motors and batteries. They would only use the batteries when they wanted to "run silent' such as when they were in battle. The rest of the time they would run on the diesel engines. When the engines were running, they had to get rid of the poisonous exhaust gases or they would all suffocate. The subs had a device called a "snorkel" thatwas basically a tube that carried the gases out and fresh air in. The snorkel was always up when the engines were on. Indy simply tied himself to the snorkel with his handy whip. As far as surviving the trip with no food or water, that's another neat trick, but, oh well, that's hollywierd for you
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes
T2 writes:
OK OK so he hid out on the conning tower for about 4 days on a submerged boat! He also flew planes over vast areas with no fuel stops, ran into eons old traps that still worked, and EVERYBODY speaks english. To clear up a few items on here though the movie was in 38 Germany was still not at war, the control room in a U boat was in the hull below the conning the tower itself just held a passage way to the deck,(this could have been where he hid actually), much of the waterways shown on the map are not manuverable in a submerged sub of any kind, the schnorkl was not invented or used prior to 1943 (when the Germans were losing boats way to fast)
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User37 writes:
Raiders Of The Lost Ark was set in 1936. In the beginning of the movie it says so. Last Crusade was set in 1938.
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Chris writes:
Bubby128 is quite correct in saying that U-Boats needed air to run their diesel engines. To start one underwater would suck up all oxygen in a couple of seconds, and replace it with exhaust gases. But U-Boats did not aquire snorkles before the end of the second world war. But this does not matter at all, because the U-Boat in Indiana Jones never submerged. A submerged diesel submarine can only travel at a fraction of the speed a sufaced one can. This has to do with that the diesel engine is so much more powerful than a battery engine. During WWII submarines always traveled on the surface except when in hostile waters or in the presense of the enemy. And since this movie takes place in 1936, several yars before the war, the nazis had no resason to submerge.
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GreenThing writes:
The U-boat going faster on the surface is not a matter of the engine. Modern subs have different props and they go faster under the water. But, modern boats have nuclear engines...
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TexasJones writes:
In the novelization Indy secures himself to the periscope with his whip. He also loses his hat, which he regards as "a longtime friend."
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes

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