• Wednesday, May 23, 1984

• Country:

  USA

• Language:

  English

• Runtime:

  118 min

1984

After a frightening escape from death at the hands of Chinese gangster Lao Che in Shanghai, Indiana Jones and two companions, Short Round and Willie Scott board a freight plane to escape. Over the Himalayas, the pilots dump the fuel, and Indy discovers they are in serious trouble when the plane's engines start to stall. Parachuting out of the plane in a life raft, they survive a 300-foot fall into a raging mountain river and its rapids.

They are now in India, and as their raft heads down river they are met by an Indian shaman, who leads them to his village where people are starving, crops are blighted, and there is not a single child! Indy's mastery of their language helps him learn that a sacred stone was taken by some strange men, which caused all the problems facing the villagers now. Short Round and Indy figure out that the missing stone is one of the Sankara stones, which are supposed to have a magical effect on whomever possesses them.

The shaman sends them on a mission to Pankot Palace, which once housed the Thuggee cult. After a series of near-death encounters, Indy & the others discover the Temple of Doom, where the human sacrifices to Kali - the Thuggee goddess of death - are carried out, as well as a mine that has enslaved the children of the Shaman's village. Indy must get the stone back and free the children from the Thuggees and their psychopathic high priest, Mola Ram.

Goofs

• Continuity: Positions of the sailor and the girl in the rickshaw during the chase.
• Continuity: In the first Thuggee ceremony scene, the skull in the center is alternately lit and unlit.
• Continuity: Positions of the Thuggees on the rope bridge.
• Continuity: When Willie steps out of the cave onto the edge of the rock after the water pours out of it, she has bare feet. In the next shot on the rope bridge she has sandals (flip-flops) on.
• Continuity: The river below the rope bridge appears to be nothing more then a rocky stream in some shots, but once we see people falling, the stream suddenly turns into a large river.
• Continuity: In one shot of Short Round hopping up and down on the wooden bridge he is only a few steps ahead of Willie. In the very next shot, when he falls though, he is much further down the bridge.
• Continuity: When Indy flees from the gang of Thugees after the swordfight, he is dragging his whip behind him. Yet in the next shot when he reaches the bridge, it is rolled up neatly even though he doesn't have a free hand or time to roll it up.
• Continuity: Indy, whip in right hand, disarms the Thuggee swordsman and picks up the fallen blade with his left hand. In the very next shot the sword is in his right hand and the whip in his left.

Taglines

• If adventure has a name... it must be Indiana Jones.
• The hero is back!

Trivias

• Sharon Stone was one of the top choices for the role of Willie Scott before Kate Capshaw auditioned.
• Shots of mining-car roller-coaster ride were done with models and a 35mm camera modified to hold extra film.
• The rope bridge used during the final fight scene was actually suspended up a couple of hundred feet across a gorge on location in Sri Lanka. Acrophobic Steven Spielberg would never walk over it, and had to drive a mile and a half to reach the other side. Harrison Ford on the other hand had no such fear, and would run across it at full speed.
• The club at the beginning is called "Club Obi Wan", a reference to a Star Wars (1977) character.
• An early draft of the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) had Indy traveling to Shanghai to recover a piece of the Staff of Ra. During his escape from the museum where it was housed, he sheltered from machine gun fire behind a giant rolling gong. The same script also featured Indy and Marion fleeing destruction in a mine-cart chase. Both of these scenes were cut from that script, but resurface in this movie.
• The first film to use THX's Theatre Alignment Program, which ensures that cinemas showing the film meet stringent technical and presentation standards.
• Lawrence Kasdan was unavailable as he was working on The Big Chill (1983), so George Lucas drafted in Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz who had previously penned American Graffiti (1973) for him. Lucas deliberately wanted to go with something with a darker tone as this had served him well with Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
• The film's original title was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death" which was changed because it sounded too foreboding.
• Although it's never mentioned in the film, Willie's full name is Wilhelmina.

Awards

1. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Won
   Category: Best Effects, Visual Effects
   Recipient(s): Dennis Muren
2. Saturn Award
   Event: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Actor
   Recipient(s): Harrison Ford
3. BAFTA Film Award
   Event: BAFTA Film Award
   Result: Won
   Category: Best Special Visual Effects
   Recipient(s): Dennis Muren