Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
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| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom |
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|---|---|
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| Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
| Produced by | Robert Watts |
| Written by | George Lucas (story) Willard Huyck Gloria Katz |
| Starring | Harrison Ford Kate Capshaw Ke Huy Quan Amrish Puri |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 23, 1984 |
| Running time | 118 min. |
| Language | English Chinese Sinhala |
| Budget | $28,000,000 |
| Preceded by | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| Followed by | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is an Academy Award winning 1984 action/adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. First released on May 23, 1984, it is a prequel to the hugely successful action movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. This film is the second released, though the twenty-third, chronologically, in a series of film and TV productions about the adventures of the heroic fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones.
Like the first, it starred Harrison Ford as Jones, was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on an original story by George Lucas. Many members of the original crew returned, including cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, editor Michael Kahn and composer John Williams. Actress Kate Capshaw, who is not in the first film, is added as the female lead in this movie. This film is darker in tone than its predecessor. The film was always intended to be a horror movie as well as a remake of elements of Gunga Din (1939). The original title was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death."
Indiana Jones is named after George Lucas' dog. In this film, all three leads are named after dogs. Willie was the name of Spielberg's dog, and Short Round was the name of the dog belonging to scriptwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.
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[edit] Synopsis
Set in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film opens with Indiana Jones in a Shanghai nightclub attempting to trade the remains of Nurhaci for a large diamond (possibly "The Peacock's Eye"[1]) with a gangster named Lao Che. When the deal goes bad and Indy's friend Wu Han is killed in the ensuing violence, Indy and the club's singer, Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott, escape the pursuing criminals in a car driven by a young boy named Short Round, an ally of Indy. They board a cargo plane, not knowing that it is owned by Lao Che.
As Indy, Willie, and Short Round nap during the flight, the pilots dump the fuel and parachutes out of the plane. Indy and the others use an inflatable emergency raft to safely descend from the plane's altitude. After a dangerous ride down the Himalaya mountains and a raging river, the trio eventually come to a desolate village in India. The poor villagers there enlist their help in retrieving a sacred stone, the Sankara Stone or the Siva linga, as well as the community's kidnapped children, from the evil forces of nearby Pankot Palace.
Initially, Pankot Palace seems normal enough; the royal tenants are insulted by his questions about the village's claims. Later that night, Indy is attacked in his room by a would-be assassin, which leads him to find a secret door in Willie's room. They make their way through the secret passage and discover a vast underground temple beneath the palace, where the village rock and two more are held by the Thuggee. An evil cult who worship the goddess Kali with human sacrifice, the Thuggee have enslaved the village's children to dig for two remaining Sankara stones that are lost within the mines of the palace. Led by the villainous Mola Ram (Amrish Puri), he and the rest of the Thuggee hope to use the power of the five united Sankara stones to rule the world. Mola Ram performs a supernatural ritual of removing a man's heart while the man is kept alive by the power of the Sankara Stones. The man is then lowered into a pit of lava, his heart bursting into flames in Mola Ram's hand.
Indy, Willie, and Short Round are captured by the Thuggee and separated. Indy sides with the Thuggee after being forced to drink the "blood of Kali Ma", a mind-control potion which puts the drinker into the "black sleep of Kali." Willie is kept as a human sacrifice, and Short Round is put in the mines alongside the village children as a slave laborer. However, Short Round breaks his bonds and escapes back into the temple, where Willie is being lowered into the lava pit. He helps Indy return to his normal self by using a torch to wake him from his trance. Although Mola Ram escapes through a trap door, Indy and Short Round manage to save Willie, take the three Sankara Stones, and free the village children.
In the fight to escape the palace, the three jump into a mine car, and Indy accidentally takes the wrong tunnel. They are closely pursued by two Thuggee-filled cars. Indy knocks the first car off the tracks with a board, but the second comes upon them at high speed. In the struggle, Short Round nearly falls into lava and a Thuggee jumps onto the back of their car. Willie delivers an unexpected punch that knocks the Thuggee back onto the track, and the other car crashes into his body and derails.
Meanwhile, Mola Ram and others break the supports of a giant water reservoir, pouring the contents down the tunnels in an attempt to drown the three heroes. After Indy stops their mine car, they avoid the rushing water by running outside - only to find themselves stuck at the top of a sheer canyon. They try to cross a rope bridge but are trapped with the Thuggee on both sides. Taking a desperate gamble, Indy utters a warning in Chinese to his friends to brace themselves. He then uses his sword to cut the bridge in half, sending many of the Thuggee plummeting into the crocodile-infested river below. Mola Ram and a few of his minions manage to cling to the heroes' side. Mola Ram fights with Indy for the stones, but Indy invokes their magic and causes Mola Ram and all but one of the stones to fall into the river, where the nefarious priest is ripped apart and devoured by crocodiles. At that moment, British troops appear to subdue the remaining Thuggee.
The heroes triumphantly return to the village with their sacred stone and their children. The film closes with Indy and Willie in a passionate embrace.
[edit] Production notes
Besides Ford, the actors included Kate Capshaw (Spielberg's second wife, whom he first met while casting this film), Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roy Chiao as Lao Che, and a cameo by Dan Aykroyd. Indiana Jones artist Drew Struzan created the film's distinctive artwork.
Most of the filming was done on location in Sri Lanka and at Borehamwood Studios in Hertfordshire, England. Even though the film is set in the Himalayas, the locals are speaking Sinhala. The "crocodiles" are actually American Alligators from Gatorland in Florida.[2]
When Indy is about to cross the rope bridge, he is stopped by a sabre-wielding Thuggee. He attempts to draw his gun a la Raiders of the Lost Ark but finds that he has lost his gun. A musical cue from Raiders is played. However, the opening of Temple of Doom establishes that the film occurs one year before the events of Raiders. Also, the scene in which Indy cuts the rope bridge greatly resembles a sequence from the pirate adventure film Nate and Hayes. In this scene the lead character, played by Tommy Lee Jones, cuts an almost identical rope bridge and scrambles up the adjacent cliff in order to escape hostile natives. Nate and Hayes, also known as Savage Islands, was made a year earlier in 1983.
A specially modified Nikon F3 35mm camera was used to film POV shots during the mine-car sequence.[citation needed]
[edit] Reaction
Temple of Doom made $179,870,271 ($30 million less than Raiders) when it was released theatrically in the United States in 1984, making it the third biggest hit of 1984 (next to Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop).[3] When adjusted to 2006 ticket prices, this comes to a domestic total of $342,610,040.[citation needed] The movie received mixed reviews from critics such as Leonard Maltin who claimed the film was "headache inducing" and Roger Ebert who believed the film was "... one of the greatest Bruised Forearm Movies ever made."[4]
Some fairly gruesome scenes in Temple of Doom, as well as, to a lesser extent, other PG-rated films of the time such as Gremlins caused a significant public outcry. Spielberg spoke to the MPAA about creating a new rating that would cover the middle ground between a clear PG and a clear R that his films often found themselves on. This led to the creation of a new rating category: PG-13.[5] (See: History of the MPAA film rating system)
The movie was also banned in India which cited its "racist portrayal of Indians and overt imperialistic tendencies".[6]
On IMDb it has a rating of 7.3/10 (as of 2007)[7], but on Rotten Tomatoes it has a rating of 93%[8], the second highest-rated Indiana Jones movie.
The film won an Academy Award for Visual Effects. Indeed, both Lucas and Spielberg have stated that Temple of Doom was focused on effects to a higher degree than either Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
[edit] Trivia
- At the end of the Shanghai club scene, the name of the club appears as "Obi Wan"; referenced to George Lucas' other trilogy, Star Wars.
- It was proven on Mythbusters, that if one was to attempt the stunt when Jones falls off a building and through the awnings in real life, they would survive.
[edit] Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role(s) |
|---|---|
| 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 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 |
| D.R. Nanayakkara | Shaman |
| Dharmadasa Kuruppu | Chieftain |
| Stany De Silva | Sajnu |
Stunt actor Pat Roach — who appeared in two roles as large, muscular henchmen who fights Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark — also appeared thrice in this film: first as the man banging the gong in Club Obi Wan, then the assassin in Jones's room and again as the slavemaster in the mines. Besides Ford, he is the only cast member to return for the second film. (He also had a cameo appearance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)
[edit] Soundtrack
| Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||
| Soundtrack by John Williams | ||
| Length | 40:13 | |
| Label | Polydor | |
The soundtrack album is currently out of print and is no longer available. Due to the short nature of the soundtrack (approximately 40 minutes), numerous cues from the film were cut. After the production of the extended Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack, there was some hope that the future might hold a more complete release of the Temple of Doom score. As of 2007, this has not come to fruition.
- "Anything Goes"
- "Fast Streets Of Shanghai"
- "Nocturnal Activities"
- "Short Round's Theme"
- "Children In Chains"
- "Slalom On Mt. Humol"
- "The Temple Of Doom"
- "Bug Tunnel And Death Trap"
- "Slave Children's Crusade"
- "The Mine Car Chase"
- "Finale And End Credits"
[edit] DVD release
The film was released on VHS several times in the 1980s and 90s and then on DVD in October 2003. It was packaged with the previous and later films in the series. However, the Region 2 version of the film was heavily censored. The BBFC says that this was because they didn't get Spielberg's permission to restore the edited footage, which includes more violence and gore.
[edit] Games
[edit] References
- ^ Treasure Map from Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. Retrieved on 2006-06-27.
- ^ Gatorland Location Filming. Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
- ^ 1984 Yearly Box Office Results. BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1984). Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (review). Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^ Breznican, Anthony (2004-08-24). PG-13 remade Hollywood ratings system. Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- ^ Trivia for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. IMDb. Retrieved on 2006-09-13.
- ^ User Ratings for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. IMDb (2007-03-11).
- ^ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Rotten Tomatoes (2007-03-11).
[edit] External links
- Temple of Doom at IndianaJones.com
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at the Internet Movie Database
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at Rotten Tomatoes
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at Box Office Mojo
- Temple of Doom at The Indiana Jones Wiki
- www.indianajones.de — one of the biggest fan sites. There you'll find everything you want to know about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
| The Indiana Jones series | |
|---|---|
| Films | Raiders of the Lost Ark • The Temple of Doom • The Last Crusade • Indiana Jones 4 |
| Television | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles |
| Characters | Indiana Jones • Willie Scott • Marion Ravenwood • Elsa Schneider Marcus Brody • Sallah • Short Round • Henry Jones, Sr. • Walter Donovan • Rene Belloq • Colonel Dietrich • Arnold Toht • Colonel Vogel • Mola Ram • Club Obi-Wan Triad |
| Cast | Harrison Ford • Sean Connery • Corey Carrier • Sean Patrick Flanery George Hall • River Phoenix • John Rhys-Davies • Denholm Elliott • Julian Glover • Wolf Kahler • Ronald Lacey • Paul Freeman • Amrish Puri • Michael Byrne |
| Crew | George Lucas • Steven Spielberg • Frank Marshall • John Williams |
Duel • The Sugarland Express • Jaws • Close Encounters of the Third Kind • 1941 • Raiders of the Lost Ark • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom • The Color Purple • Empire of the Sun • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade • Always • Hook • Jurassic Park • Schindler's List • The Lost World: Jurassic Park • Amistad • Saving Private Ryan • Artificial Intelligence: AI • Minority Report • Catch Me if You Can • The Terminal • War of the Worlds • Munich • Indiana Jones 4 • Lincoln • Interstellar
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced quotes | Articles to be split | Albums without cover art | 1984 films | English-language films | Indiana Jones films | Shanghainese-language films | Sinhala-language films | Treasure hunt films
