Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Corrected entry: Lao Che knocks some money off a big stack of bills at the nightclub table. In the next shot, the bills are once again neatly stacked.

Lynette Carrington

Correction: This does not occur "in the next shot" it actually occurs four shots later, and in that time offscreen the bills can simply be placed back on top of the stack of money.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: During the escape scenes from the mine through to the rope bridge, Willie has bare feet, but when hanging on the broken rope bridge against the cliff face above Mola Ram and Jones she is wearing sandals.

TheScorpion

Correction: Have another look at the scenes, because Willie is wearing thong sandals, that have very thin soles and straps, the entire time during those scenes. We can see the sandals in the sacrifice scene, when she tosses herself into the mine cart, when the water rushes out of the cave while she and Shorty are standing on the ledge her shoes are soaked, nearly falling off in the closeup, and when she and Shorty are at the bridge.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: When Indy is fighting with the Thuggee guard, the Thuggee picks Indy up and is about to throw him into one of the mining trucks, you see Willie and Short Round hiding behind a pillar. When she says to Short Round "okay save him" you can see she is wearing a piece of jewellery on her forehead. About a minute later as she says her next line "what's the matter with him?" the piece of jewellery has gone. (01:29:15)

Will

Correction: After Willie tells Short Round to save Indy there are eight shots while she's offscreen, which gives Willie plenty of time to remove the head chain and toss it, much the same way Willie removes and tosses her skirt when she climbs into the mine cart.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: Why don't the pilots of the Shanghai cargo plane just shoot Indy and co while they are sleeping and push their bodies out over the mountains, rather than skydiving out themselves and leaving the plane to crash? For a start they are risking their own safety by parachuting out over the mountains. The weather could have been bad, which would have ruined that plan. Secondly they're wrecking a valuable asset unnecessarily. Thirdly, they don't know that Indy can't fly the plane - he could have pilot training and might have known how to safely ditch it. (00:17:00)

Jennyred

Correction: The pilots aren't shown to have guns, or knives, or any other weapons. Also, they know Indy can't fly the plane because they dumped the fuel before they left.

BaconIsMyBFF

Corrected entry: In the lava pit fight scene, after Chatter Lal gets pinned under the wheel used to lower and raise victims into the lava pit, subsequent shots show him on the ground by the wheel (first moving, then still). In later shots, he's gone. This can be seen best in the shot where Short Round runs over to the wheel to get the rucksack for Indiana Jones to put the stones in.

SteveQ

Correction: Chattar Lal does not vanish between shots. The mistake notes that "in later shots, he's gone", though that actually makes sense. We see Chattar Lal moving around on the floor and in a couple of following shots he's lying motionless, though that doesn't mean he's dead. So during the time where he's offscreen we can safely presume that Chattar Lal quickly realises he's been defeated, and thinks that since even Mola Ram has escaped, he decides to hurriedly scurry away like the rat that he is. There was a partially filmed deleted scene which had Chattar Lal getting up and attacking Indy, then falling onto the cage and into the lava below. Despite the obvious question viewers have about Chattar Lal's fate in the movie, there really isn't a continuity problem since he doesn't instantly disappear between shots.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: When Willie and Shortie go to watch Indy and the thuggee fighting on the conveyor belt you see Willie pick up a canteen and lean up as though she is going to give it to Indy but in the next shot the canteen is back on the rock and she has to grab it again.

Correction: This does not occur "in the next shot." In the wideshot, as Shorty's rushing toward the camera while watching the Maharaja, we see Willie in the background lifting up the canister, though she does not "lean up as though she is going to give it to Indy." Then it cuts to two shots of Shorty and the Maharaja, and it's not until the third shot where we see the canister on the ground beside Willie, while she waited for the opportune moment to hand it up to Indy. No continuity issue.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: On the trip to Pankot, they each start out on their own elephant, but during the trip, as the scenes change back and forth between shots, "Shorty" alternates between riding his own elephant and riding with Indiana Jones. (00:29:00 - 00:31:45)

Scott Howard

Correction: Not necessarily a mistake. Shorty may have just wanted to ride with Indiana occasionally. His elephant is still there.

DJKostya

Corrected entry: When the credits roll at the end, check out a Thuggee Guard named Pat Roach. He also played a Mechanic in 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' and the character 'Gestapo' in The Last Crusade. Shouldn't they get different actors/extras to play these parts in case someone notices? I sure did.

Correction: If you watch the DVD extras, Spielberg mentions that it was a running joke throughout the three films to have Pat Roach playing a baddie. As well as playing the mechanic in Raiders, he also played one of the Sherpas in Marion's bar.

Dr Muppet

Corrected entry: Indy's waiter friend gets shot and slumps over the table. He curiously disappears and reappears during the remainder of the the nightclub shootout scene. (00:08:00)

Lynette Carrington

Correction: In every shot where we actually see Lao Che's table, the body of Wu Han can indeed be seen.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: When the pilots are jumping out of the plane, snow from a blizzard is seen entering the door. Yet several minutes later when Indiana Jones, Willie and Short Round exit the plane, the clouds from the storm aren't anywhere around, there is only clear, beautiful sky.

Nondaime

Correction: I'm afraid it's not a blizzard, but feathers from chickens (which are cargo). You can see feathers in the shots showing pilots arguing before jump, and in the shot showing Willie waking up.

ziner

Corrected entry: Indiana explains to Willie that Shorty is his adopted son, orphaned by the Japanese bombing of Shanghai in 1932. "The Temple of Doom" takes place in 1935, three years afterwards, yet in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade, both of which take place after Temple of Doom, Shorty makes no appearance whatsoever. It makes sense that maybe Indy decided to call a sitter for his latter two adventures, he doesn't even agnowledge his existence once in that entire time.

Correction: Character decision, not a mistake. For all we now, Shorty could be dead or reunited with his family in the years between Temple of Doom and Raiders of the Lost Ark. In either case, it would not be something Indy would want to talk about.

Twotall

Correction: He definitely never says that Short Round is his adopted son, nor does he even imply it. He mentions the Shanghai bombing, says he caught Shorty trying to pickpocket him, and that is all the backstory we are ever given on Short Round.

jshy7979

Corrected entry: During the life raft plunge out of the plane, Willie is the only one who screams. Indy and Shorty are courageously (curiously?) silent. During the next drop off the snowy cliff, it's Indy and Shorty's turn to scream, and Willie remains silent for the entire fall. (00:17:40 - 00:18:25)

Correction: While you make a reasonable point, there is no way of knowing where and why a character would chose to scream. Perhaps Willie passed out briefly, and that's why she stops screaming. Also, Indiana could have started screaming because he thought he had it under control then they fall off the cliff.

Foinlavin

Corrected entry: After Mola Rom tears a man's heart out, the man is lowered in the molten pit. The man's chest is visible and has no hole or mark where his heart was taken.

Correction: True, but the man also is still alive after getting his heart ripped out of his chest and the heart is beating. Obviously something "supernatural" is going on.

shortdanzr

Also, we do see the hole close, and somewhat heal itself, on screen.

jshy7979

Corrected entry: When the first man is lowered into the pit he is on fire well before he hits the molten rock. When the lady is lowered in, she is wearing much more, which should catch alight but she doesn't, and she is almost touching the lava. (01:04:25 - 01:23:35)

Correction: The man who was lowered into the pit had a jet of flame shoot from the whirlpool of lava and ignite him. For whatever reasons, geothermal or spiritual, the lava wasn't as active when Willie was lowered in. My theory is that the evil force they were sacrificing to was satisfied by the first guy and just wasn't as eager to claim Willie. Indeed, the voodoo guy didn't take her heart out, so they were really just killing her, not performing the ritual again.

Corrected entry: When Willie and the other guy are lowered into the fire hole, they would die long before they hit the lava because of how hot it would be. If nothing else, they'd have some burning or at least show pain, not fear. (01:04:25 - 01:23:35)

Correction: The first guy also had his heart removed from his body and would have been dead minutes before being lowered down. It's obviously some voodoo curse or other form of magic that is protecting them for as long as the priest desires.

Corrected entry: The goddess the Thuggees were worshiping, Kali, was said to have told her followers to strangle anyone who didn't worship her, so why,in the movie, do the Thuggees take unbelievers' hearts and cook them if it's going against their religon? (01:03:00)

Correction: The people's whose hearts are ripped out aren't necessarily "non-believers" they are just sacrifices.

Corrected entry: The bats flying above Indiana and his party on the way to Pankot Palace aren't giant vampire bats, but fruitbats (which don't even eat meat, they are vegetarian and mostly eat fruits and vegetables). (00:29:30)

Budoshi

Correction: Indy was having fun at Willie's expense.

JC Fernandez

Corrected entry: When Indy and Willie are behind the gong and the insane guy is shooting at them, the bullets spark off of the gong. The only way the bullets would spark would be if he was firing tracer rounds. However, even if he was firing tracer rounds, they burn and spark orange, not blue, as seen in the movie.

Correction: Bullets hitting metal cannot make sparks unless they are tracers? Without knowing the composition of both the gong and the bullets it's impossible to make this assumption.

Corrected entry: The description of the ritual as voodoo (by past submitters) as well as the use of a voodoo doll during the ritual (at the point where Indy drinks the blood) is totally incorrect. By this point, it is established that the Thuggee cult is a sub-sect of Hinduism. Besides, the Voodoo religion is indigenous to West Africa, with a small diaspora in the southern U.S., the Caribbean, and the U.K. Unlikely it could make its way to the north India of 1935.

Correction: This is a possible mistake made by submitters to this site, not within the movie, as such, it can not be classified as a movie mistake. Additionally, Nobody in the film mentions using the doll as voodoo. Fetish puppets such as this has appeared in multiple animistic religions throughout history, who's to say this particular Thuggee cult did not find a way to use them? Particularly since most of their rituals and magic are made up for the film, and as such, artistic license is permitted.

Twotall

Corrected entry: When the assassination attempt fails, Jones rushes to the other room without taking his whip. Later, he has it on his belt in the temple scene.

Correction: Indiana uses his whip to foil the assassin, then tells Shorty to "turn off the switch" to stop the fan (00:52:00), and as Indy rushes out to Willie's room, the assassin falls to the floor with Indy's whip. When Indiana is in Willie's room and locates the hidden entrance to the underground chambers, Indy tells Shorty, "Go get our stuff," so Shorty rushes back to Indy's room (00:53:35). While Shorty is off-screen, he retrieves the whip and their other stuff. Then, it cuts to Indy entering the underground chamber with his jacket, satchel, hat, and whip (00:53:45).

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Willie spits in Indy's face it cuts to Short Round running through the mine, and just as Shorty turns his head toward the camera behind him, we can catch a glimpse of something blue which does not belong in this dark dreary environment, at the right side of the screen. There is a tall spotlight and two crew members, one is wearing a solid blue shirt and a cap, and the other a blue/white striped shirt with white pants. (01:21:25)

Super Grover

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

Suggested correction: This takes place in milliseconds and there's no way to see it unless you pause the image or play it in slo-mo. It should be under trivia.

Sacha

Right now I have it playing on Netflix, and there is no slow motion. The striped blue shirt is noticeable as it plays without any slo-mo. If something catches my eye onscreen, it is fair game to go back and rewatch what was noticed in the first place. And in order for me to confirm what I find, I do pause, and may take screenshots. By the way, I've seen this movie countless times over the years, and it was just a matter of catching that glimpse of the color blue because it popped out against the dreary surroundings. I'll leave it up to Jon whether to move it to trivia or not.

Super Grover

Fair enough :).

Sacha

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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom trivia picture

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: Why did Spielberg make Temple of Doom a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark? I read somewhere that he didn't want to make the Nazis the villains again, but that wouldn't be a problem since the Nazis never went to India or China.

MikeH

Answer: This is conjecture, but it seems the general function of setting Temple of Doom before Raiders of the Lost Ark is that it helps set audience expectations that the two movies are self-contained episodes. For instance, Karen Allen has said she wasn't disappointed about not being asked to return because she'd already been told that the next installment was being set in the past before her character is reunited with Indy. Conversely, since we're already aware Raiders makes no mention of the events of Temple of Doom, we know we shouldn't necessarily expect any further installments to continue directly from prior movies' storylines regardless if they are set forward in time.

TonyPH

Chosen answer: It was actually George Lucas who wrote the story, made it a prequel, and has stated it was because he didn't want the Nazis to be the villains again. The idea most likely seems if it wasn't a prequel, the Nazis could still be after Jones, even in China or India. But alas, there is really no other insight as to Lucas' prequel decision.

Bishop73

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