History Film / RaidersOfTheLostArk

** Indy's owning of a bullwhip is explained by the fact that he was fascinated by the whip act in a travelling circus he saw when he was seven; he subsequently obtained one himself and spent many hours perfecting the art of how to use it. Marion recalls him practising with "that ratty old whip" every day. This, of course, would later be [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] by the opening scene of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' (although the retcon does also involve a travelling circus).

** The rivalry between Indy and Belloq goes all the way back to graduate school where Belloq stole Indy's research while Indy was conducting his extracurricular activities with his tutor's daughter. This also explains why Marion and Belloq are on a first name basis, as -- being a student of the same subject at the same institution as Indy -- he'd've known the Ravenwoods too.

** Marion also has something of a DarkAndTroubledPast with regards to the bar she runs in Nepal; rather than it being left to her by her father (as is implied in the film), it's mentioned in the novel that she actually started working there in order to make ends meet after Abner died, and that she "wasn't exactly the bartender"; she took over the place after the previous owner "went crazy".

** According to the script, Abner Ravenwood was killed in an avalanche.

* {{Novelization}}: The film was novelised by Campbell Black. The book actually came out before the film. [[https://indianajones.fandom.com/wiki/Raiders_of_the_Lost_Ark_(novel) More details here]].

** The film is set in 1936, before World War II broke out and when Germany was still insecure in its military, yet the Germans have a secret submarine base in Greece and can freely mount archaeological expeditions in British-occupied Egypt backed by plenty of soldiers who are openly wearing German uniforms and parading the Swastika. Had anything like the events of this film actually happened at this time, the British and likely the French would probably have declared war on Germany immediately.

* SelfPlagiarism: The gag of a torture device that turns out to be a coat hanger was taken from a deleted scene from Spielberg's previous film, ''Film/NineteenFortyOne1979''.

-->'''Satipo:''' The Hovitos are near. ''(tastes the dart, then spits)'' The poison is still fresh. Three days. They're following us.

* GreaterScopeVillain: Hitler never appears, but his Nazis' plot to find the Ark is all part of his plan for world domination.
** In the novelization Belloq gets to meet Hitler for a short briefing before setting out to find the Ark for him. However this is described as OffscreenVillainy as it is just narrated through Belloq's memories of the meeting a few moments before.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The Nazis were nowhere near as interested in the occult as the film portrays. Hitler especially thought it was nonsense and insisted that National Socialism was rational and scientific, contrary to what the film claims about him. Individual Nazis who were occult fans like Heinrich Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg had zero interest in recovering Jewish artefacts like the Ark of the Covenant, but instead wanted to validate their Neo-Pagan Nordic beliefs as well as to fund expeditions to Tibet (partly due to their being interested in Asian mysticism). Even these expeditions were led by a rationalist scientist named Ernst Schaefer who was more interested in collecting animal and plant samples for study than in validating any of Himmler's pseudoscientific theories. That said, the Nazis ''were'' interested in any ancient religious artefacts that they could get their hands on, but purely for their propaganda value -- as evidenced by the UsefulNotes/HolyLance.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Like all reptiles, snakes are ectothermic animals, meaning they're ''attracted'' to sources of outside heat, not warded off by it. WordOfGod didn't realize this, so a "making of special" shows Creator/StevenSpielberg humorously scolding a snake for messing up a scene. There's also the fact that most of the snakes are [[TerrifyingPetStoreRat harmless non-Egyptian species]] including a European Glass Lizard, which isn't even a snake.

* PinballProtagonist: Indy saves Marion from Toht early on, and then has little impact on the rest of the story after that. [[spoiler: He ends up spending the entire climax tied up to a pole while Belloq gets his entire party killed by the wrath of God, something that would have happened anyways had Indy spent the whole movie back at his university.]]

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "Top. Men." It's used to make it clear that ''who'' the top men are won't be revealed--because, of course, [[BlatantLies there aren't any]]; as the end credits roll, we can clearly see that the Ark has been boxed up and stored in a huge warehouse.

* ReasoningWithGod: Belloq tells Indy that the Ark is a "transmitter" and a "radio for speaking to God"; presumably his intense desire to open it before it reaches Hitler is so he can have his own personal tete-a-tete with the Almighty. He never considered the fact that God might not be so interested in hearing what's on his mind ... though he probably did [[DeadlyEuphemism get his conversation with God]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor in the end.]]

** Satipo (Creator/AlfredMolina), Indy's South American traitorous guide at the beginning. He forgets about the trap Indy discovered moments earlier and blunders right into it.
** The Nazis make sure not to touch the Ark. Belloq even wears the correct high priest outfit and speaks a Hebrew prayer before they open it. Apparently they missed the passages these precautions come from that explicitly say that if you look into the Ark you will die. Then they forget the passages that say not to touch the Ark when they ''touch the Ark by removing the lid to open it''. This is all on top of the fact that they apparently forget that they're trying to harness the power of an artefact owned by a God whose chosen people they're actively trying to wipe off the face of the earth.

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Indiana Jones has nothing to do with the defeat of the Nazis at the end of the movie. He and Marion just shut their eyes and the Nazis are destroyed by the sight of the power of God when they open the Ark. It is one of the most literal examples of Deus ex Machina since the middle ages, and a completely justified one.

* NeverTrustATrailer: An early [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkkzKHCx154 trailer]] shows one of the booby traps protecting the Golden Idol, but makes it seem that this is in fact protecting the Ark itself.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Belloq's {{Mook}}s are about to gun down Indiana in the bar, Sallah saves him by having his children come rushing in and declaring that "Uncle Indy" must come home with them immediately. Many of the minions (still holding their rifles and guns) can't help but laugh and smile at the ploy, and even Belloq seems amused by the situation.

* PunchClockVillain: Belloq similarly wants the Ark for his own reasons, believing it's a vehicle for communicating with God.

* AppropriatedTitle: The movie was released as just ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', while subsequent installments would establish the CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase convention for the series. Home media releases changed the display title for this film to match, resulting in the rather OverlyLongTitle ''Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark'' ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and wasn't Indy among the titular "raiders"?]]). The original title is still retained onscreen in the movie itself, however.

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is the first film in the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' series. After the release of its sequels, it has also been retroactively called ''Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark''. It is directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg, with the screenplay written by Creator/LawrenceKasdan and the story written by the film's executive producer Creator/GeorgeLucas and Philip Kaufman.

A few years before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when UsefulNotes/NaziGermany was searching for supernatural artifacts. In this case, they were searching for TheArkOfTheCovenant, which held the remains of the tablets of [[Literature/TheBible the Ten Commandments]]. After getting word of this, Dr. Indiana Jones (Creator/HarrisonFord in his second iconic role) is sent to recover it, due to him knowing some people that had clues to where the Ark is held.

It takes place a few years before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when UsefulNotes/NaziGermany was searching for supernatural artifacts. In this case, they were searching for TheArkOfTheCovenant, which held the remains of the tablets of [[Literature/TheBible the Ten Commandments]]. After getting word of this, Dr. Indiana Jones (Creator/HarrisonFord in his second iconic role) is sent to recover it, due to him knowing some people that had clues to where the Ark is held.

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is the first film in the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' series. After the release of its sequels, it has also been retroactively called ''Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark''. It is directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg, with the screenplay written by Creator/LawrenceKasdan and the story written by Creator/GeorgeLucas and Creator/PhilipKaufman.

!!Tropes, why did it have to be Tropes:

!!'' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' contains examples of:

** We don't really see outright supernatural stuff in the film, until the Ark is on the cargo ship, and the box containing it suddenly gets partly burned, blackening out the swastika. Considering what happens later, the swastika got off easy.

** It's the only entry in the series to have been originally released with a title not beginning ''Indiana Jones and the...''. Subsequent rereleases, however, have added those words to the title for consistency with the later films.

** The Nazis have a vast base complete with soldiers and airplanes in Egypt, which had a strong British military presence at the time. Ditto for the hidden U-Boat base in the Aegean -- Germany didn't occupy Greece until 1941 (but their close friend and fellow fascist country, Italy, was in possession of Rhodes and the Dodecanese at the time; whether they would have allowed the construction of a German U-Boat base on one of the smaller islands is another question).