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Summary

  • Indiana Jones swimming alongside a submarine without drowning in Raiders of the Lost Ark has puzzled fans for decades.
  • Steven Spielberg was determined not to go over-budget when filming Raiders of the Lost Ark on time, which meant he couldn't always reshoot scenes that weren't working.
  • Consequently, the deleted scene that explained how Indy survived the submarine trick was cut due to the budget constraints.

Despite its blockbuster status and stellar reputation, director Steven Spielberg's 1981 action-adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark had its share of controversies and even a few continuity errors. One of them has baffled fans of Indiana Jones since the film's premiere: Indy's astounding ability to travel alongside a submarine without drowning. It arrives late in the film, after the Nazis have seized both Marion and the Ark. Indy makes a desperate move to stay with them by swimming to their U-Boat and hitching a ride. It's less a straight continuity error than a lack of detail surrounding his actions. However, the mere existence of the Lost Ark submarine controversy speaks volumes about Spielberg's challenge in making the movie.

Like many great directors, Spielberg is a perfectionist, which can cause his films to run over schedule and over budget. Both Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind encountered unexpected delays and similar challenges during production, which bloated their budgets enormously. Both of them became colossal hits, and helped cement the era of movie blockbusters in the process, so their excess costs were overlooked. However, Spielberg's next film, 1941, was an expensive bomb (still regarded as one of the low points in the director's career) which suddenly made his perfectionism a concern. As Spielberg explained to American Cinematographer, he had gained some infamy for a perceived lack of financial discipline. For Raiders, he didn't receive the same leeway he had with previous movies and needed to change his approach. He shot the film in the style of the Republic Pictures serials it emulated: fast, energetic and with an occasional continuity error that rarely crops up elsewhere in the director's other work. Raiders turned into another big hit for him, and the fast-and-loose approach to shooting didn't matter at all to the public. It might even have contributed to its affectionate nostalgia for the Republic serials. However, it also created a cut scene that triggered one of the movie's great mysteries.

Updated on January 23, 2024 by Robert Vaux: Indy's submarine trick remains one of the more head-scratching moments in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The intended explanation always lacked plausibility, which is borne out by raw footage from the production itself. The article has been expanded to discuss the reasons for cutting the key sequence, and stylistic updates have been made to conform to CBR's current guidelines.

What Is Raiders of the Lost Ark's Submarine Controversy?

Indiana Jones boards a submarine in Raiders of the Lost Ark

Title

Budget

Box Office

Tomatometer Rating

Metacritic Metascore

Raiders of the Lost Ark

$18,000,000

$389,925,971

93%

86

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The controversy is simple. Late in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Nazis intercept the ship Bantu Wind and abduct both Marion Ravenwood and the Ark of the Covenant. Indy evades capture by hiding in the ship's hold, but he now faces the prospect of watching the Germans sail off with his partner and his prize.

Indiana Jones responds with an act of desperate heroism. However, it's different from the feats he's demonstrated throughout the entire film. Indy jumps overboard and swims the distance between the two vessels. The scene ends with the ship's captain, Katanga, urging his first mate to find Indiana Jones before the submarine leaves, only to witness the archaeologist pull himself atop the U-boat. The crew of the Bantu Wind cheers, and John Williams' iconic score soars as Indy once again perseveres in the face of impossible odds.

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There's just one problem. A cargo ship like the Bantu Wind has plenty of places to evade detection, especially for someone as adept at survival as Indy. However, U-boats hold no such luxuries, and even if he were to find his way inside, the crew would be on him instantly. In order to stay with the vessel, he needs to stay on the exterior and hope no one pops up to take a look.

With a submarine, that presents an obvious problem. Raiders of the Lost Ark declines to address it directly. Instead, it cuts to the U-boat crew navigating their way to the Nazis' hidden island base, superimposed over the franchise's iconic map, showing their path across the sea. It ends with the submarine docked, followed by a shot of Indy soaked to the bone and hiding behind a parcel of crates.

Did a Deleted Scene Put an End to the Submarine Plot Hole?

A black and white photo of the deleted submarine scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark

Historic details confirm that Indiana Jones' feat wasn't as far-fetched as it seemed. Submarines and U-boats wouldn't need to dive very often in 1936 when the world was at peace and there was little risk of being fired upon. While the Nazis' mission to secure the Ark is presumably a secret, speed may have easily outweighed secrecy when securing their prize. The ship's engines performed more efficiently on the surface, since air pressure requires much less power to cut through than water pressure. Even if it sank, the periscope only allowed the crew to view the surface if the vessel itself remained just a few feet below the surface. In other words, the U-boat was likely to either remain on the surface, or sink just a few feet beneath — giving Indy a chance at staying onboard without drowning. Raiders quietly hints at this when the U-boat arrives at the base, still above the water and not attempting to hide itself. It's not unreasonable to assume it conducted the whole voyage that way, especially if it wanted to reach the base as quickly as possible.

Some of the film's ancillary supporting materials bear that out: depicting the journey to the island and revealing how Indy avoided drowning. The novelization by Campbell Black reveals that, as the vessel sinks, Indy uses his whip to secure himself to the periscope, then holds on for dear life. The U-boat stays at periscope depth: leaving him wet and miserable, but above the water the whole time. The Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie (Walter Simonson, John Buscema, Klaus Jansen, Michele Wolfman, and Rick Parker) contains a variation of the same scene. Both depictions carry important symbolism to balance out the admittedly far-fetched notion that Indy could survive it all: he loses his hat during the swim and abandons his whip when the submarine reaches the island, costing him his two most important possessions in order to save Marion. Those details don't cross over into the films, where Indy keeps both hat and whip for the duration of his on-screen adventures.

However, a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark depicts Indy holding onto the periscope as the ship travels through the water, presumably intended to clarify how he survives. The behind-the-scenes features on the Blu-ray show the outtakes, along with a soaking wet Ford explaining the context in the plot. He's joined by an equally wet Spielberg, who laments shooting on the water again after the infamous travails on the Jaws set. Their concerns are well-founded: the shots of Ford clinging to the periscope look strange and unconvincing, turning an already far-fetched gimmick into something utterly ridiculous.

Raiders' Submarine Plot Hole Was a Casualty of the Budget

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Another project with a bigger budget might have found a solution to the issue, but in this case, Spielberg lacked the resources to address it. The clock was ticking, and — as the Blu-ray outtakes show — the director was in no mood to get back in the water to make the footage work. Instead, the scene got cut, leaving the particulars of Indy's submarine trick unaddressed and unanswered. It leaves behind an odd moment, emulating the cheap throwaway serials that served as Indy's inspiration a bit more closely than his creators would have preferred. But it was necessary considering the challenges Spielberg faced, and it kept with his stated purpose of hemming in the costs and finishing the film on time.

At the end of the day, it was almost certainly the right call and didn't hurt Raiders of the Lost Ark's reputation. The submarine sequence already required an audience leap of faith. Getting down into the details might have destroyed plausibility entirely, especially considering the unconvincing raw footage that was filmed. Instead, it leaves a plot hole unanswered, but the film is in better shape. So long as Indy reaches the island, viewers could shrug at the specifics, or write it off as another breathtaking escape from certain death of the kind that the character was known for. The unanswered specifics are an issue, to be sure, but they feel on point for Indiana Jones, who always knew when to let the mystery be.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Poster
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.