4. The Submarine Conundrum - Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Plot Hole: "How did Indiana Jones manage to hang onto that submarine for the entire length of that trip to the island, despite the fact that it was moving
underwater and there was no way he could have boarded?"
The Deleted Scene: Here's a moment that has continued to baffle Indiana Jones fans for years. The scene takes place after the Nazis commandeer a ship that Indy and love interest Marion are hiding on. The Nazis take the Ark of the Covenant and Marion,and put them both on board a submarine. Out of nowhere, we see Indy has swam across from the boat and is now aboard the submarine. The Raiders March swells. But now what? How is Indy going to survive this situation when the submarine goes underwater? The movie simply evokes
not to answer this question. But there is an answer out there, in the form of a rather crucial deleted scene that seems somewhat essential to the movie. According to Lawrence's Kasdan's original script, the submarine only goes beneath the water far enough so that its periscope is still sticking out of water. Indy clings to this, and then uses his whip to tie himself to as it drags him through the water. Seriously. He even notices sharks swimming around him during one moment. It sounds ludicrous, but perhaps less so when you consider that - according to Wikipedia, anyway - "U-boats were required to spend most of their time surfaced running on diesel engines, diving only when attacked or for rare daytime torpedo strikes. The most common U-boat attack during the early years of the war was conducted on the surface and at night." So there's actually some logical to this occurrence? Tie me up and call me Sallah! There's no existing footage of this scene by the way, but there are some production photos available which at least prove that some of it was shot at one point - if you look at the picture above, you can see a tiny little Indy clinging to the top of a periscope on the submarine model. The scene was likely removed because it seems kind of silly when you think about it, but it's nice to finally realise that Indy isn't secretly the descendant of a fishman.