The Warehouse

The Warehouse

The warehouse only shows up in two shots—the last two shots of the movie, as luck would have it. It's a vast storage facility stacked to the rafters with crates. There's nothing at all to differentiate one crate from another except a bunch of serial numbers, making it the ideal place to stash a spare Ark of the Covenant.

Besides making for a stunning closing shot (Best ever? We're gonna say "yes"), it helps emphasize one of the film's central concepts: that the Ark is just as lost at the end as it was at the beginning. This is God's Ark after all, and if he doesn't want it found, then chances are we ain't gonna find it. By showing us that via burying the Ark in an entirely different sort of desert, Spielberg stresses that nothing happens here without the Almighty's say-so.

It also helps draw Indy's newfound friendship with Marion into sharp relief. "He went through all of that for nothing?!" we'd say, followed quickly by an "oh wait, that girl he deflowered isn't angry with him anymore. That's something." The warehouse makes a neat little coda to drive that point home, not to mention letting Spielberg show off his unquestioned mastery of the matte painting.