Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

George Lucas (story)
Willard Huyck (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 May 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

If adventure has a name... it must be Indiana Jones.

Plot:

After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees, and stumbles upon a secret cult plotting a terrible plan in the catacombs of an ancient palace.

Plot Keywords:

Mine Car | Heart | Plane Crash | Person On Fire | British Empire

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 17 nominations

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Indiana Jones
Kate Capshaw	...	Wilhelmina 'Willie' Scott
Jonathan Ke Quan	...	Short Round (as Ke Huy Quan)
Amrish Puri	...	Mola Ram
Roshan Seth	...	Chattar Lal
Philip Stone	...	Captain Phillip Blumburtt
Roy Chiao	...	Lao Che
David Yip	...	Wu Han
Ric Young	...	Kao Kan
Chua Kah Joo	...	Chen
Rex Ngui	...	Maitre d'
Philip Tan	...	Chief Henchman (as Philip Tann)
Dan Aykroyd	...	Earl Weber
Dr. Akio Mitamura	...	Chinese Pilot (as Akio Mitamura)
Michael Yama	...	Chinese Co-Pilot

Also Known As:

Raiders 2 (USA) (working title)
The Temple of Doom (USA) (working title)
Indiana Jones et le temple maudit (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
хМДХЮМЮ дФНМЯ Х уПЮЛ яСДЭАШ (Soviet Union: Russian title) [ru]
Indiana Jones (Poland) [pl]
Indiana Jones és a végzet temploma (Hungary) [hu]
Indiana Jones V'Ha-Mikdash Ha-Aroor (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Indiana Jones a Chrám zkázy (Czechoslovakia) [cs]
Indiana Jones e il tempio maledetto (Italy) [it]
Indiana Jones e o Templo Perdido (Portugal) [pt]
Indiana Jones e o Templo da Perdição (Brazil) [pt]
Indiana Jones en de tempel der vervloeking (Netherlands) (informal literal title) [nl]
Indiana Jones en de tempel des doods (Netherlands) (literal title) [nl]
Indiana Jones i el temple maleït (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Indiana Jones ja tuomion temppeli (Finland) [fi]
Indiana Jones kai o naos tou hamenou thisavrou, O (Greece) [el]
Indiana Jones och de fördömdas tempel (Sweden) [sv]
Indiana Jones og templets forbandelse (Denmark) [da]
Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes (West Germany) [de]
Indiana Jones y el templo de la perdición (Argentina) [es]
Indiana Jones y el templo maldito (Spain) [es]
Indijana Dzouns i ukleti hram (Yugoslavia: Serbian title) [sr]
Kamçili adam (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Sinhala | Shanghainese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Spain:13 | Portugal:M/6 (cut) | Italy:T | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Brazil:Livre | Iceland:10 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M (re-rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) (original rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) (re-rating) (2003) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-14 | France:U | Ireland:PG (cut) | Israel:PG | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (cut) | USA:PG | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

American River, Placerville, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The production was highly fortunate in their main location in the town of Kandy in Sri Lanka as nearby a British engineering company was building a dam. When it came time for the film crew to shoot on a suspension bridge over a gorge, the British engineers were able to design and build one for them very quickly.

Goofs:

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.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Wu Han: [to Indy] Be careful.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Double Dare (2004)

Soundtrack:

Anything Goes

An entertaining experience, but unable to match the sheer brilliance of the original.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the second of the Indy films from director Steven Spielberg, though chronologically it is actually the first. This prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark tries to out-do its predecessor for breakneck spills and gross-out moments, but the sparkle isn't quite there. It's an entertaining film for sure, but not as good as the original, partially because the plotting this time round is a little awkward and partially because Kate Capshaw as the main female character is an almighty irritation.

The film opens in a Shanghai restaurant, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) causes a riot in pursuit of a diamond. Fleeing the scene with American singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and teenaged pick-pocket Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), he escapes to the airport. However, Indy and his companions unwittingly board an airplane owned by one of Indy's enemies, from which they have to make an audacious mid-air escape when the real pilots bail out mid-flight! Soon, the intrepid trio find themselves in India, where they come across a village in the grip of starvation. The village children have been kidnapped by local cultists to work in a mine, digging for the sacred Sankara Stones, and Indy is persuaded by the distraught villagers to rescue their youngsters. His quest takes him to the opulent Pankot Palace and, beneath it and beyond a maze of tunnels, the Temple of Doom.

Ford is great as Jones, bringing genuine charisma to a role that he was born to play (can you imagine how things would have turned out if Tom Selleck had got the part, as originally planned?) There are some great moments along the way too, including the intentionally subversive opening sequence in Shanghai, a particularly funny and exciting runaway mine-train sequence, and an unforgettable banquet at Pankot Palace in which the food served up is enough to churn any stomach. But Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom still can't live up to the standard set by Raiders of the Lost Ark. As mentioned, Capshaw is a real pain on the senses as the always-squealing heroine, and the plot seems to over-stretch in an effort to link to the next development or set piece. The hunt-for-the-missing-children plot device allows Spielberg to dip into the kind of cloying sentimentality that occasionally mars his films too. This is certainly an entertaining and professionally assembled film, but in no way a rival or an equal to the excellence of its predecessor.