Continuity mistake: When Indy comes face-to-face with Hitler he hands over Henry's diary with its black elastic around the back cover, but in the closeup as the signature is being signed the elastic is around the front cover, then it's around the back cover again when Indy takes the diary back.
Continuity mistake: When Sallah rides up to the tank to rescue Henry we see Indy toss the whip over the side of the tank, but after the tank falls over the cliff, when Indy climbs back up then walks over to stand between Henry and Sallah the whip is coiled and back in its place, hanging from his belt. Even Indy can't do that. (01:36:00 - 01:37:40)
Continuity mistake: The sky colour/condition changes between the shots of Indy and his father in line to get on board the Zeppelin and the scene just before. In one, it is cloudy, and in the other it is a clear blue.
Continuity mistake: When young Indy (River Phoenix) is advised by the fedora-topped henchman at the end of the chase, the cut he received while using the bullwhip in a previous scene changes angles. This is a flipped shot, note Indy's backwards shirt. (00:08:25 - 00:11:45)
Continuity mistake: At the very end there is a large near circular blood stain on the left sleeve of Sean Connery's shirt. When they ride off, the stain has disappeared completely.
Continuity mistake: When the military caravan with Brody is driving through the canyon towards the Joneses and Sallah, the sun is behind Brody (discernable by the shade). But when Indy is looking down on them - from the front - the sun is also behind him.
Continuity mistake: When Indy takes four horses before battling with the tank, three are black and one is bay (brown with black legs, mane and tail). Sallah is riding a chestnut. When they ride to the Grail Temple, there are two black horses and two chestnuts. Where did the second chestnut come from? (01:28:00 - 01:39:25)
Audio problem: When Indiana is fighting one of the bad guys on top of the rhino's car on the train, the rhino sticks his horn straight between Indy's legs. Indy says, "Holy smokes" but if you look, he actually says something else. (00:07:35)
Factual error: The evil SS officer is addressed as "Herr Oberst" (Colonel) throughout the movie. In the SS, however, this rank was called "Standartenfuehrer". (00:56:40)
Continuity mistake: In the temple in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon: After Harrison Ford cures Sean Connery by pouring water from the grail over him, Sean stands up with the grail in his hand. In the next shot, however, Alison Doody picks the grail up off the floor. (01:55:50)
Revealing mistake: The biplane sequence is obviously filmed in a studio close up. Despite the fact that they are miles high and swooping around at high speeds, neither Indy's hat, nor his Father's, blow off or even flap in the wind. (01:16:55)
Revealing mistake: When Indy is being chased on the motorboard the guy behind tries to shoot him with a machine gun. If you watch the machine gun carefully it you will see it starts to disintegrate in the guy's hands and the barrel drops off. (00:38:45)
Revealing mistake: When fire sweeps through the catacombs under the church, you can see that the "rats" are completely fake. At the far left of the screen (widescreen) you can see several fake rats just hanging on the wall and not moving at all. In the "special features" section on the DVD, Steven Spielberg admitted that the rats were fake - he couldn't bring himself to roast live ones so he could not make this scene appear realistic.
Factual error: There are no catacombs in Venice! There are also no natural petroleum sources - but that seems secondary to the fact that the entire city is just below sea level - there are no sewers, no subways - nothing underground.
Factual error: In various scenes, Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) is wearing the M43 (Mountain Cap). That cap was introduced in 1943.
Factual error: When Indy is wearing the uniform of a German Artillery Officer, he is wearing the ribbon of the 1939 Iron Cross 2nd class in his buttonhole. The movie takes place in 1938. (01:09:05)
Continuity mistake: When Old Dr. Jones is holding Young Dr. Jones while he is reaching for the grail, watch Indy's left hand. In the shot from above, it is by his side, in the shot from below, he is holding the rock. It keeps switching from his side to the rock.
Continuity mistake: Indy falls off the side of the tank and gets his shoulder strap caught on the gun - this should not be possible because his shoulder strap is underneath his jacket, as can be seen when he gets back up onto the tank.
Continuity mistake: When the Nazi is strangling Indy with the chain, Indy looks down into the porthole of the tank and yells, "Dad!" Before he throws the gun down into the tank Indy's hat comes loose, but when the next shot is back on Indy, and he yells, "Dad! Dad, get out!" now his hat is back to normal.
Answer: The implication is that disaster would follow them outside of the cave as well. It wouldn't make much sense if you could simply outrun the disaster.
BaconIsMyBFF
"Followed by disaster" is a kind of curse, a thing not common in Christianity. It doesn't make much sense anyhow. A seal is just a dot - OK, so let's at least grant that the seal represents a circle that the grail has to stay in. Who decided where those borders are? The grail was taken there during the first crusade. That was closer to 1938 than it was to 33 AD. The three knights could move the grail about then. Why not afterwards? The knights could have built the traps. But the borders could only have been set by god, in an unusually late and completely atypical miracle.
Spiny Norman
There are several examples of curses in the Christian Bible: Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at Sodom, the plagues visited upon Egypt, Adam and Eve are cursed for eating fruit from the tree of knowledge, etc. The knights did not move the grail around after finding it, they stayed in the temple for 150 years and then two left leaving the third behind. The great seal and it's restriction was already in place when the knights got there.
BaconIsMyBFF
Where in the movie is that stated? I interpreted the knight's story as them having made that place. Looks like it isn't actually specified. But if God made it, then I submit that he would have used Greek, not Latin, for the stepping stones. (All of those curses are from the old testament. The book where god kills firstborn children as long as they're Egyptian. Grail is by definition new testament where you turn the other cheek. There simply are no curses in the gospel, that's just not how Jesus rolled).
Spiny Norman
The tests were made by the knights, but the seal had God's power in it. Just like the cup.
lionhead
It's still a bit dodgy. What if you take a shovel and dig yourself a back door? Basically this film really excels at stuff that makes no sense but helps the storytelling, or to be precise, creates dramatic effects.
Spiny Norman
Every fictional story is like that in some way. That's why it's called fictional. It's just a story.
lionhead
Not a particularly convincing argument, "stuff happens for no reason all the time", if I may say so. Why is this website even here then? The fact is that some stories are more coherent than others. (♫ "In olden days, a hole in the plot, would seem to matter, quite a lot. Now heaven knows, anything goes..." ♫);).
Spiny Norman
It's the difference in what story they want told. Is it a fairy tale or based on actual events? A huge difference in plausibility between the two. The site is there to look at mistakes, not how believable the story is.
lionhead
It is not set in another universe so plausibility isn't somehow suspended. Maybe take a look at the categories recognised by this website. Plot holes, factual errors, even stupidity. (They? Who are they?).
Spiny Norman
It is set in a fictional universe because it's not a true story. With "they" I mean the writers/director. Mistakes in a plot (plot holes) have nothing to do with how believable the story is. As long as it's plausible, it's not a mistake.
lionhead
Pretty sure it's the same universe, just with some added characters/events. What about the total lack of spaceships or orcs or talking animals for example? The seal business is not a mistake YET, but it's very dodgy because no-one knows how it works or why. Like all Indys "trapped" secret places, it's (among other things) unclear who resets the traps for the next visitor. We can't brush it ALL off as "the hand of god" every time.
Spiny Norman
Huge amounts of stuff in films isn't exhaustively explained. Doesn't mean there isn't an explanation that's perfectly believable. There's zero evidence either way to say how "followed by disaster" would manifest, and just because there's not a thorough explanation doesn't mean that it's "dodgy", and it's not worth bickering about either, because there's no concrete answer either way.
Jon Sandys ★
OK but I would like to note that not everyone who offers creative explanations has recently seen the movie; some people just invent their own. E.g. "followed by disaster" is not an actual explanation from the movie, it was just one of the suggestions made here and only here. Or the ones on my own question below. All I'm saying is, it's very hard to tell what the "rules" / "logic" of this place are supposed to be, so I understand what the OP was driving at.
Spiny Norman