Lost ending to Raiders of the Lost Ark (ark burns US govt crate)

[DynamicMenace]

well so am i. but i only saw it once there.
but if my memory serves me well. i want to say that it did happen.
but man. that was many moons ago. hard to remember that far back.

[joefixit2]

Originally Posted by DynamicMenace

well there you have it.
thanks TNovak

"In the theatrical version of Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indiana Jones, an additional scene takes place immediately after the credits roll. The camera cuts back to Ark of the Covenant in the wooden crate inside the government warehouse where we last left it. In this scene, the Army intelligence stencil on the crate is slowly burned away by the power of the Ark. This scene was cut from the DVD release of the film."

i saw it in the theater when it first came out and i swear i remember that happening.

[Underdog07]

Originally Posted by joefixit2

i saw it in the theater when it first came out and i swear i remember that happening.

Me too.

And at the time my thought was the ark did it sort could stay hidden not bc it isn't affiliated with a country

[CessnaDriver]

Movie Legends Revealed: Alternate Ending For Raiders of the Lost Ark?

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.co...-the-lost-ark/

"....It is a great ending, but many fans believe it was not the original. Reader Hector G. specifically asked about a common urban legend regarding an “Australian version” of the film’s ending that shows the U.S. Army logo being burned off, just like the German Army emblem was.

However, first off, as noted above, the crate has the above stenciled on it, but besides a stamp, that is it. There is no U.S. logo to burn off of the crate.

Secondly, and much more importantly, the scene does not exist. It is not in the film’s final continuity guide, and it is not in the film’s final dialogue script. It appears in no versions of the script. And, obviously, the most important aspect of it all, no one has ever actually shown it to exist. The legend has been repeated for years now (including “It is on the Region 4 DVD version of the film!”) without anyone ever showing a screen cap or a clip of the scene. As noted in the beginning, we live in an era where it is relatively simple to share information, and if such a clip actually existed, someone would have shared it by now.

It is certainly true that occasionally movies are slightly altered for release outside of the United States, but this is not one of those occasions.

The legend is…

STATUS: False

Thanks to the amazing Indiana Jones website, TheRaider.net, for valuable help in debunking this legend. If you have even the slightest interest in Indiana Jones, you’ll love their wonderful web site. Also, thanks to Hector for suggesting this legend!"

[TNovak]

Sorry Cesna but I saw that spinoff article you are quoting and what they use as a source is Raider.net which is itself just a fanboard discussion like this one and like this one and many others there are dozens of people that remember and those that don't and the people who run the board say they don't remember it and therefore it is "false".

They have no connection with the film either.

To me another thing that points to it existing is the fact that ALL of us that remember it remember it in the theatre ONLY. Not one "false" memory thinks they saw it on home video or DVD. IF it ever did exist it would ONLY be on the actual reel to reel first prints of the film and NEVER on a home version and since that was 1981 and that's why there is no version to show on video such as youtube or from a recording of any kind.

[CessnaDriver]

I'll re-iterate that since it was an FX shot, that would have to be planned in advance, and I have never once seen anything as the article said, in 32 years anything in scripts, storyboards, magazines about FX, I was a big purchaser of film mags that focused on special FX like Cinefex and American Cinematographer back in the day, still have my old copies. Nothing. No interviews with FX artists involved with the film making the claim. Nothing. Ever.

There is no examinable evidence and that is the point of the article that anything ever was shot by the studio or written by the writers of that scene. And he consulted with people that have obsessed on the film for decades.

That leaves two possibilities...

Faulty memory, you hear the story and think.. oh yeah I remember that. Because of the similar scene in the ship. They do call it power of suggestion for a reason.

OR

Someone cut their own shot into the film unauthorized.
Highly unlikely but those prints could still exist if so in some dusty place.
Again it comes down to some kind of supporting evidences that it was more
than misremembering. Human brains are very poor recording devices.
Film is pretty good though, so I would say, where are the prints?

[joefixit2]

anyone have any old VHS tapes of Raiders cause I swear I know my memory is bad but not that bad.

[Darth Madden]

I know I saw it as a kid in the theater because when I finally saw it a little later on VHS I said "They didn't show the last part with the crate burning again." Who knows.

[ratchet]

Originally Posted by CessnaDriver

I'll re-iterate that since it was an FX shot, that would have to be planned in advance, and I have never once seen anything as the article said, in 32 years anything in scripts, storyboards, magazines about FX, I was a big purchaser of film mags that focused on special FX like Cinefex and American Cinematographer back in the day, still have my old copies. Nothing. No interviews with FX artists involved with the film making the claim. Nothing. Ever.

There is no examinable evidence and that is the point of the article that anything ever was shot by the studio or written by the writers of that scene. And he consulted with people that have obsessed on the film for decades.

That leaves two possibilities...

Faulty memory, you hear the story and think.. oh yeah I remember that. Because of the similar scene in the ship. They do call it power of suggestion for a reason.

OR

Someone cut their own shot into the film unauthorized.
Highly unlikely but those prints could still exist if so in some dusty place.
Again it comes down to some kind of supporting evidences that it was more
than misremembering. Human brains are very poor recording devices.
Film is pretty good though, so I would say, where are the prints?

I think you hit the nail on the head with this right here - I think people are remembering something that didn't actually happen

[CessnaDriver]

Originally Posted by Darth Madden

I know I saw it as a kid in the theater because when I finally saw it a little later on VHS I said "They didn't show the last part with the crate burning again." Who knows.

How little a kid were you?
I was fifteen and already quite an observant film nut. Star Wars had kind of trained us to obsess on every little thing since we went to see them over and over. Small kids are not going to remember things accurately generally.