Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Short Round snaps Indy out of his trance, when the Thuggee continues to lower Willie we see in her closeup that the flowers in her hair and the flower garland around her neck are already shriveled and blackened, but in her next closeup the flowers are back to being vibrant and fresh.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At Club Obi Wan, Indy places Nurhachi on the table in the closeup with his left hand, but when Indy puts the diamond on the table with his left hand it's not actually Indy's hand that we see in this shot.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the melee at Club Obi Wan, Lao Che's goons toss Indy onto the dish cart which has a horizontal metal bar between two of its legs over the wheels, but in the closeup as Indy tries to grab the antidote vial, the metal bar has vanished, but it reappears when it crashes into the bandstand.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the pilots jump from the airplane we see Willie asleep directly under the rolled up tapestries, but when she wakes up and starts to make her way to the cockpit as she coughs, in the wideshot we see she's coming from the area further back toward the tail.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: At the bar, Indy punches the cigarette seller and packs fly all over the place. Half a second later the floor is spotless.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Willie saves Short from the hole in the bridge, the river is filled with water. Seconds later, when Indy is about to cut the bridge, there's a wide angle where there's barely any water, with rocks coming out. Then he cuts the bridge and it's filled with water again.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Near the end when Kate Capshaw, Harrison Ford, and the kid are on the bridge, Harrison cuts the bridge with a large sword. Several men fall into the water below. The bad guy grabs hold and hangs on to some of the henchmen. The number of henchmen changes between shots. Close-up 3, wide shot 2, close-up no men, then back to 2 and so on. The bad guy throws some off as he climbs up the bridge but the number changes in the wrong order.

Randy DeShong

Continuity mistake: When Willie and Shorty get to the rope bridge they start walking out and Shorty starts jumping on it, then in the next shot the sunburn on Willie's back is significantly worse and her hair differs. In the second shot it's presumably her stand-in.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While hanging onto the fallen bridge, both Mola Ram and Indy are pulling Indy's bag with the Shankara Stones, and note that this bag has three drain holes underneath instead of just two drain holes, which it normally has.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Indy threatens Willie with a fork on her ribs, in the wide angles her arm is down, but in the close-ups it's up to allow for the fork to be seen. This keeps swapping back and forth, with no continuity at all.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The jet of water comes out through a squared hole on the rocks, and seconds later comes through many other places, making the first hole much bigger, and making pieces of rock fall off. However, when Indy cries, "Let's meet up at the bridge!" there's an aerial shot of him climbing and the mountain has the very same perfect structure as before the jet of water burst.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: In the village, Willie grabs food with her hand and puts it inside her mouth. From the angle behind, the arm and hand are not raised and close to the mouth.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: During the mine cart scene, Indy hits the second lever with the shovel to change the course. The Thuggees in the cart behind him shoot the same lever and it flies back just as Indy hits it, and changes the course again.

Continuity mistake: In the angle from below where Short falls through the hole on the bridge, there are no ropes hanging off the sides. In all subsequent shots there are many ropes.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: During the palace dinner scene, the "snake surprise" is laid down at Willie's left side. A few shots later it's on her right.

Continuity mistake: While Indy and the Thuggee Chief Guard are battling it out, after the shot of the Maharaja gleefully stabbing the Indy doll, in Willie's next closeup she's wearing the veil as she throws rocks at the Chief Guard, but in the next wideshot the veil is gone, but it's back on her head in following shots.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Mola Ram wears a wristband on each wrist and only one armband on his right upper arm, but when he falls off the hanging bridge into the water, in the overhead shot he's suddenly wearing armbands on both upper arms.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Willie's rescue, when she tells Indiana they should get out of there, in the next closeup just as Indy says, "Right, all of us," this is a flipped shot, note Indy's Fedora, chin scar and red strap.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: During the mine cart chase, when Indy grabs the shovel to scrape the underside of the overhead metal bin, Indy's right hand is suddenly missing the cloth which is wrapped around his knuckles in previous and following shots.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Indy tries to grab the antidote vial from the table, in the closeup just as the vial falls off the table the camera follows the vial as it lands in the empty area to the left of Lao Che's chair where Kao Kan's chair should be, but it's not, and the rug's edge with wood floor beside Lao Che's chair though it shouldn't be. Then Indy hits Kao Kan who is again seated closely to Lao Che's left, as he should be, and when Kao Kan falls backward we see the rug edge is nowhere near Lao Che's chair, also as it should be. (00:08:20)

Super Grover

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Actually it appears the vial falls to the left of Kao Ken's chair, not Lao Che's. It appears after Indy pierces the other guy with the shishkebab, Kao Ken, off camera, takes the vial and puts on his left side. Indy jumps on the table and after missing the vial he slides further and then elbows Kao Ken who is on the right side now. The vial is still on the left side of Kao Ken's chair when it's kicked onto the wooden floor.

lionhead

You're very much mistaken. Lao Che is wearing an embroidered dinner jacket and has a pinky ring on his left pinky, and Kao Kan's left hand is bandaged in gauze. After Indy skewers Chen, in the closeup of Indy's hand just as it knocks the vial off the table, it's Lao Che's hand (note the pinky ring, etc) that we see on the table next to Nurhachi's urn, the stack of money, and the vial. That is not Kao Kan's hand/arm, remember his left hand is bandaged. And as this closeup continues to pan down it follows the vial as it lands on the floor in the empty space where Kao Kan's chair should be, but it isn't.

Super Grover

Yep, you're right I see it. There are 2 shots of Indy trying to grab the vial off the table and the second one is followed through with the vial falling off it and that one is wrong. Alright.

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Trivia: After the fight in the nightclub, when Indy and Willie make their escape, the name of the club is visible as they drive away - Club Obi Wan - a reference to Star Wars, also by George Lucas.

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Question: When the man was hanged on the fan, what exactly happened? It seems like he was cut by the fan, but then there's no blood or anything. How exactly did he die? And why did the fan suddenly stop when he hit it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: His neck was snapped by the whip getting caught in the fan. There isn't always blood with a hanging. Since the fan wasn't designed to hold a man's weight, the motor in it would have stopped or given out.

Captain Defenestrator

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