Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Corrected entry: The second time the lady is lowered into the pit, she is saved because the chief baddie falls in such a way that he jams the lowering mechanism. When she is pulled up and reaches the top, the baddie's body has disappeared.

R W Hlavac

Correction: Chattar Lal's body hasn't "disappeared". You can see him nearby, rolling on the ground and clutching at his chest in a frantic attempt to breathe.

Phil C.

Corrected entry: When Willie goes to save Shorty and Indy when they are trapped in the room with the spikes, she is wearing her silk pj's. However, when she is captured by the worshippers, she is wearing the outfit she wore at the dinner they had that night.

Correction: In the actual scene, only Indy and Short Round are captured, Willie is seen disappearing through a hole in the cave wall, at this point we can see that she is wearing the silk pyjamas. Even though the film does not actually show Willie being captured, it's obvious that she is also taken by the Thuggees, and while Indy and Short Round are being held captive in a cage, Willie is being prepared as a sacrifice, and she is in fact given a new dress, specifically for the sacrifice. Its not the same one as the dress used in the dinner, as you can see that there is not a separate skirt, the headdress is different, and much more.

Will

Corrected entry: When Indy, Willie and Shorty are in the palace having the banquet, one of the waiters bring in the "Snake Surprise". After he cuts open the boa and the smaller snakes come out, the British Captain, who is seated quite close to Indy, brushes away a snake in disgust, while Indy does nothing despite his great fear of snakes.

Correction: He is not afraid of baby snakes, just as many arachnophobes are not afraid of spiders with thin legs for example. Phobias are irrational, that is their meaning. Also, Indy does not want to offend his host, or lose face with the people at the table.

SoylentPurple

That dish was not served in front of Indy. He is in a conversation with the evil host and doesn't notice it.

Corrected entry: During the dance routine at the beginning you see the girls pull out the red handkerchiefs and they are separated but when Willie runs through and grabs them they have joined into one large sheet.

Correction: This is a classic magicians trick, my mother is an belly-dancer and even she knows this trick; so this was probably just one Willies acts, and remember she mentioned earlier that her father was a magician "with a rabbit in his pocket and pigeons up his sleve" so that is where she probably learned it.

Similar things with handkerchief sized items that can be palmed are a classic trick. Turning several long strips of fabric into a giant sheet while in full view of a supposed audience the entire time is not. (Also, if you are implying they actually used any magic techniques for the shot, it's obvious they did not. They easily swapped out of the individual lengths for a single sheet and edited the two shots together in order.) Either way, even this is irrelevant as most of the dance number is a fantasy sequence that wouldn't have been visible to the nightclub crowd if it had actually occurred since it all takes place in another room behind the lion's mouth door Willie goes into.

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

More mistakes in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Willie: There are two dead people down here!
Indy: There's gonna be two dead people in here!

More quotes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
More trivia for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

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

More questions & answers from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

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