Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

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: While the second mine cart with Thuggee goons is in hot pursuit of Indy, note the brake pole at the front of Indy's mine cart keeps vanishing and reappearing in following shots, before it actually breaks off.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Indy's fight with the Chief Guard on the conveyor belt, when Indy attempts to save him from the rock crusher Indy ends up hoisting himself up in mid-air, and when he reaches the platform Indy's shoes are completely flat, unlike Indy's ankle boots which have heels.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Lao Che's goons toss Indy onto the cart at Club Obi Wan, note the soles of Indy's shoes are entirely tan with black heels, but when the cart crashes into the bandstand we see the arches of Indy's soles are black and the heels are tan.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Indy and Willie have jumped out the window at Club Obi Wan, when they land on the lower awnings and roll off we can see Willie's high-heels have become flats.

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Revealing mistake: After Indy escapes from the conveyor belt, he runs on some suspended planks while being shot at. Watch the planks: There's black masking tape where the explosives are (which disappear in later shots). Furthermore, right before he takes out his whip, he grabs a railing where the bullet has just hit, and you can see that the black tape is dangling loose after the spark.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Right when Indy cuts the bridge and it dangles loose towards the rocky wall, notice that Willie is above Shorty, both in an X position (very likely replaced with dolls). In the close-up of the real actors, both are very close parallel to each other.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The side of the mountain with the bridge is irregular with rough edges when seen in the wide angles, but smooth in the close-ups.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: During the mine race, the cart behind Indy's flips over and is launched far away from the tracks, yet a frame later it's laying down right on the track for a second cart to crash against it.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The beginning of the bridge scene is really chaotic: Short walks several meters ahead, the wide angle shows he's alone, then a frame later he's several meters back plus with Willie next to him, then it cuts to him and again he's alone.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: While hanging from the bridge, when the Thuggee flies down, Indy is sometimes in a higher or lower place, depending on the shot.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When the plane lands against the snowy mountain, no parts fly all over and no snow shatters at all, revealing the composite trick.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Indy is in agony surrounded by candles, the three next to his feet change positions between shots.

Sacha

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Trivia: When Indiana Jones is confronted with the two swordsmen and goes to draw his gun to repeat his easy kill from the first Indy movie, listen to the music. It's the same music that was played in Raiders of the Lost Ark in the marketplace shortly before he pulled his gun on the big twirling swordsman.

Lynette Carrington

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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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