Continuity mistake: When Indy and Willie are waiting for each other to come to their respective rooms, Indy's clock shows the time as 10.17 and yet when the Thuggee guard tries to strangle Indy, the same clock shows the time at 10.36. (00:50:10)
Continuity mistake: Willie Scott's fingernails are considerably shorter in the nightclub scene compared to when she "burns her finger and cracks a nail" in the car. (00:04:45 - 00:12:35)
Continuity mistake: When Indy is struggling on the bridge, he breaks one or two of the planks. When they are shown again, they are undamaged.
Continuity mistake: When Indy starts climbing up the cliff after the water bursts through, we see a close-up of the back of his shirt, and there's one small tear quite high up. We cut to a wide shot, and now there are several quite wide rips across the back of his shirt. (01:36:30)
Continuity mistake: When Indy is in Club Obi-Wan, he spills a drink down his front. In the next shot, he is completely dry.
Continuity mistake: After pilots jump from the plane, there is a shot showing a view from the cockpit. You can see a propeller standing still, even before the fuel runs out. (00:16:00)
Continuity mistake: When the girl falls off the elephant, she falls off head first, and during a 5 foot fall, at most, manages to do a complete flip and land on her backside. (00:31:00)
Continuity mistake: As Willie Scott frantically searches for the diamond after the ice has been spilled on the floor, the red glove on her right hand disappears. (00:09:35)
Continuity mistake: Some bad guys throw knives at Indy as the band is seated and playing "Anything Goes". Then Indy throws a cymbal at one of the bad guys and the entire band is now gone. (00:09:30)
Continuity mistake: As Indy, Willie, and Short Round are going down the river in the raft, their positions in the raft keep changing, from Indy being on one side of them, to being in the middle, then on the other side, etc. (00:18:25)
Continuity mistake: When Indy is fighting on the conveyor belt, he is about to be run over a couple of times, but in the next shot he is further away. (01:31:40)
Continuity mistake: When Indiana, Short Round, and Willie are watching the ceremony at the Temple of Doom, just after Indy says "nobody has seen this for 100 years" you can also see Indy, shirtless, down near the alter on the top left of the screen and the skull is lit up. When Mola Ram walks out, it isn't.
Continuity mistake: At Club Obi Wan, Indy reminds Lao Che that Kao Kan tried to get Nurhachi without payment, and when Kao Kan raises his hand we see the gauze wrapped around his palm with a strip from his thumb area going diagonally down to his wrist, but in the next shot the gauze strip is wrapped diagonally from the opposite direction.
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.
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.
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.
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 wide shot we see she's coming from the area that's further in the back toward the tail.
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.
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.
Continuity mistake: A large pile of cash mysteriously appears on the table in the nightclub scene when Indy asks for the diamond. The glass nearby also refills itself. (00:04:15)
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.