Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Willard Huyck (screenplay) &
Gloria Katz (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:

Village | Children | Palace | Thuggee | Gangster

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 17 nominations

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Indiana Jones
Kate Capshaw	...	Willie Scott
Jonathan Ke Quan	...	Short Round (as Ke Huy Quan)
Amrish Puri	...	Mola Ram
Roshan Seth	...	Chattar Lal (as Rushan Seth)
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	...	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)

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:

Portugal:M/12 | Portugal:M/6 (cut) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Iceland:10 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Italy:T | Spain:13 | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Brazil:Livre | 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 (PCA #27401) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

American River, Placerville, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

In military parlance a "short round" is an artillery shell that falls short of the target.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the Chinese pilot activates the fuel dump, we can see a gauge in the cockpit with the front shape of a bimotor plane, and 3 red lights to show if the undercarriage is up or down. The Ford Tri-Motor is not tricycle, as shown in the gauge, but a taildragger. Also, her undercarriage is fixed, not retractable.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006) (TV)

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.