Raiders of the Lost Ark/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• For the longest time I didn't get what the idea was with the Nazis going after the Ark of the Covenant. What on earth made the persecutors of the Jews think that the God of the Jews would be on their side, and why even bother?? It didn't seem satisfactory somehow just to pass it off as them seeing it in a purely talismanic way. Then I realized: of course! Hitler was always convinced that God was on his side in real life: what more fitting way would he have found as a genocide for the Hebrew people than to have them be slaughtered by their own ark? Only that's what ended up happening to them instead! -- User:Ziggy Zag
  • One could argue that most, if not all, fanatics start from the belief that (Insert Deity Here) is on their side, logic be damned.

• The staff they used was six kadans tall - which, according to Indy, is roughly 72 inches - minus one kadan, which comes out to 60 inches. When Indy uses the staff to find the location of the Ark, it towers over him, which, given Indy's height, would make it well over seven feet tall. Perhaps they realised a kadan is longer than a foot, and found a correct sized staff.

Fridge Horror

• When the Ark of the Covenant gets opened and they find nothing but dust in it (at first), people probably wondered what on earth is dust doing inside the Ark. Some think that it was the Ten Commandments Tablets, long since disintegrated over the millennia. However, the dust may actually be the remains of every poor fool who was destroyed by the Ark's terrifying power! It's not a stretch, when you consider what happened to the bad guys at the end...

Fridge Logic

• Egypt, while it was theoretically independent, was under control of the English, so it is doubtful that the Germans would have been able to actually start an excavation in the middle of Egypt.
  • Which is why they were there under the guise of a legitimate excavation with a renowned archaeologist supposedly in charge.
  • The series is implied to be an Alternate History, with Germany already at war with Britain, but is not yet at war with the US because of isolationist policies still in place. This explains how they have a large number of troops in British territory, troops who are apparently Afrika Korps (formed 1941), and have free reign with regards to excavation therein. This also exaplains how German soldiers use MP40s and P38s years before their developement and production.
    • Where are you getting alternate history from? The MP 40 was preceded by the extremely similar-looking MP 36 and MP 38, each a simplified version of its predecessor. Also, the Luger P08 looks alot like the P38. Hence no problems with the guns. The Nazis actually did send expeditions to look for artifacts in different countries. The one we see was apparently trying to disguise itself as a legitimate excavation, as said above. I guess reality is stranger than fiction.