Indy's Establishing Character Moment where a treacherous guide tries to shoot him and Indy disarms him with his whip.
The entire sequence where Indy dodges through all the traps in the temple to steal the Idol and makes his daring escape which includes outrunning a large boulder.
The bar fight in Nepal. Rather than dramatic orchestral scores, it's a lot of rough and bloody fighting loaded with flames covering every surface of the building, props getting smashed, and a Giant Mook responding to having his arm set on fire by trying to punch Indy with it. In addition to Indy casually calling for whiskey while he was barred down by the Giant Mook and smashes the bottle towards his face.
And one for the guy playing the shootee, considering he was hired for his sword-fighting prowess, and not his ability to do a convincing backwards pratfall.
One for Sallah for noticing the dates were poisoned and managing to catch one mid-air just as Indy was about to let it fall in his mouth.
Sallah: Bad dates.
The entire movie making even the most mundane parts of Archeology look cool with the right music and tone. Special mention goes to the map room scene and using the Surveying tool to pin point where the Ark is. Lastly Indy, Sallah and a group of diggers loyal to him start digging the Ark site right under the Nazis' nose.
Marion, subverting the Damsel in Distress cliche at every opportunity. She never once waits for Indy to save her.
Marion drinking Belloq under the table. Sure, Toht showing up renders it moot, but it's still awesome.
Indy keeping cool under incredible pressure and using his wits to improvise a way to escape the Well of Souls with Marion.
The awesome fist fight with a guy twice Indy’s size in front of a rotating plane. And Marion gunning down Nazis from inside it.
The Nazis are running around with chaos, Belloq just standing there as a tower explodes behind him. Rather than freaking out, he just lets out a sad sigh as he realizes there's only one possible reason all this is happening.
We must elaborate, Indy is literally thrown under a bus! No, seriously. And they STILL can't stop him!!!
A villainous example during the chase scene: after his men are easily knocked off the sides of the truck by Indy, the German senior NCO curses, nuts up, and climbs over the top of the truck to surprise Indy, almost managing to fling him to his death through the windshield. The Rifftrax crew even dubbed this surprisingly vicious mook "Düsseldorf Strauss".
Captain Katanga is tough, though he doesn't get to do much. Sallah pays him to escort Marion, Indy and the Ark to England. When Nazis board their ship, Katanga gets Indy to a hiding spot and calmly lies that he killed Jones because he wants to sell Marion for a good price and doesn't like competition, while shrugging off the valuable Ark as cargo that he was going to sell as well. It doesn't work, but props to the guy for improvising when threatened at gunpoint.
The villains are getting away in a submarine! What now? Swim to the sub and climb aboard, obviously. Blatant use of the Rule of Cool, of course, because the hatch was already closed (so Indy can't get inside without being noticed), there's no room to hide inside a U-boat anywaynote Although there was a deleted scene that showed him holding on to the periscope as the boat submerges., and he obviously can't just cling to the hull all the way through the Mediterranean. Still really, really awesome. Made even better when Captain Katanga tells one of his men to locate Indy after the Nazis reclaim the Ark and Marion. The crewman immediately points him out: stowing away on the sub. The whole crew of the ship cheers him on, accompanied by an epic reprise of the Raider's Theme and Katanga's joyous salute to a drenched but undefeated Indy seals the awesome package.
Question: What do you do when you try to steal a Nazi uniform but it's the wrong size? Answer: You knock out the Nazi guard berating you for being drunk with one punch and take his uniform.
Actually...it was two punches....but Indy's "I do not have time for this shit" expression, plus knocking the guard's cap off and catching it in midair makes the moment work.
Another villainous example in what may be Belloq's finest moment: he calls out Indy's bluff about intending to destroy the Ark, while also forcing the Nazis guarding it back with a stolen gun, while giving a particularly impressive speech that forces the hero to back down.
Belloq:(Gesturing to the soldiers) Okay, stand back. All of you, stand back. Get back. Okay, Jones. You win. Blow it up. (The soldiers attempt to protect the Ark, but Bellouq takes one of their sub-machine guns and forces them away.) Yes, blow it up! Blow it back to God. All your life has been spent in pursuit of archaeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it open as well as I. Indiana... we are simply passing through history. This... This is history. Do as you will.
(Indy slowly lowers his Panzerfaust, as German soldiers appear behind him.)
Keeping in mind the Nazis' preferred method for disposing of their victims, there's also a layer of Karmic Death to it.
And not just frying the Nazi soldiers and disposing of the leaders in unique and painful ways when they open the Ark, either. Earlier there's the scene with the Ark in a box with the Nazi swastika on it. The Nazi emblem (not to be confused with the original Hindu-Buddhist swastika) gets burned off from inside the box. God's personalized Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin to the Third Reich.
Don't forget the fantastic score playing during this scene, particularly the shift from the Ark's mysterious and ethereal theme into something much more frightening when one of the spirits reveals its Game Face to Toht, and God makes it clear to those who've just tampered with His Ark that things are about to get much uglier.
Someone has related the scene to God's prophecy handed down to Ezekiel, made popular (albeit in paraphrased form) by another movie.
"I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in My wrath. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I take vengeance on them." - Ezekiel 25:17
The fact that after spending his entire screen time being as creepy and intimidating as possible, Ronald Lacey made the conscious choice to send out Toht Screaming Like A Little Girl.
Indy saving himself and Marion from the wrath of the Almighty simply by telling Marion to keep her eyes shut, no doubt remembering stories of men blinded or survives by seeing God's full glory. Indy wins simply by showing the most respect he can to the power within the Ark.
And, of course, John Williams presents one of the finest scores of one of the finest film composers' careers.
where Indy dodges through all the traps in the temple to steal the Idol and makes his daring escape which includes outrunning a large boulder.