Measure, Sabotage, Escape

Indy deliberately snaps the wooden Staff of Ra in two, destroying the assembled instrument so Belloq and the Nazis cannot use it to project the beam — an act of sacrificial sabotage to deny the enemy their advantage.

Indy removes the Staff of Ra headpiece from the erected staff and immediately conceals it within his robes — a protective theft that secures the single key component the Nazis need to focus sunlight and reveal the Well.

The miniature stone model functions as the evidentiary map: Indy kneels at its surface, uses the tape measure across its streets and mosaics, and thereby demonstrates Belloq's error — the model is the physical locus of the intellectual victory.

The skylight functions as the only egress: after sabotaging the staff and hiding the headpiece, Indy moves beneath it and calls up for help; it is the aperture through which the makeshift rope is lowered and the route by which he reclaims agency.

Indy deploys his compact, special tape measure across the miniature city to quantify the distance between Belloq's incorrect mark and his own correct mark, turning an argument into an incontrovertible, physical proof.

A mound of loose rubble becomes a hiding place: Indy hurls the shattered staff pieces behind this pile so the sabotage isn't immediately obvious, using the debris to conceal evidence and buy time.

The bright Nazi flag forms the topmost section of the improvised rope of clothing and is the first visual cue Indy sees; symbolically ironic, it becomes the physical lifeline enabling his escape.

Indy tucks the removed headpiece into the folds of his robes, using his disguise as covert storage to conceal the artifact from patrolling Nazis while he prepares escape.