94.
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INT. COMMAND CENTER
Shliemann, the Tall Captain, Indy and the two Nazis holding him emerge from the Tabernacle. Shliemann points to a nearby wall and the group starts that way with Shliemann and the Tall Captain slightly ahead.
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INT. THE TABERNACLE
Belloq has the ivory rod inserted in the notch under the lid of the Ark. He utters a short phrase in Hebrew and begins to press down on his end of the rod. The lid of the Ark begins to lift. It’s difficult work. Belloq puts his whole weight into one big press on his end and the lid opens two feet. Inside the Ark of the Covenant is a preview of the end of the world. A light so bright, a power so fearsome, a charge so jolting, that there is nothing in our world to compare to it. It’s as though this magnificent golden box has been gathering electric energy for three thousand years, waiting for just this crack of the lid to release it all in one fast, cleansing explosion of pure force. Blinding arcs of light shoot out across the Tabernacle instantly killing all the Nazis inside and turning the white silk to flame. But it is Belloq in his obsession who takes the full blast. His whole body seems lit by a million volt current and, for a moment, his complete form is white, then blue, then maybe green, but it is hard to tell because our eyes are blinded now too. Two aspects of this ghastly, beautiful display are somehow communicated in the chaos, although the communication is subliminal. First, that Belloq, in the instant of his destruction, has experienced some kind of sublime, transcendental knowledge. If a death’s-head can smile and look satisfied, that is how Belloq’s incandescent face would be described. Secondly, this event is accomplished by a sound like no other. A sound so intense and so odd and so haunting that the suggestible among us might imagine it were the whisper of God.
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INT. COMMAND CENTER
Chaos. Shliemann and the Tall Captain have been temporarily blinded by the light from the Tabernacle. Indy makes short work of his two escorts. He bashes their heads together. When only one goes down at this, Indy uses the handle of his bullwhip, which has appeared instantly in his hand, to put the second one down.
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