preguntas frecuentes for
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDbs Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087469/parentalguide.

Yes. The events in the movie are set about a year before those in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the Indiana Jones trilogy. A title at the beginning of the movie reads "Shanghai, 1935".

A question that is often asked - why doesn't Indy believe in magic in Raiders of the Lost Ark if this is a prequel? It is questionable. Indy saw clear magic and witnessed very mystical events during his journey in this movie, but he is still not very optimistic about the Ark in the next chapter chronologically. The real answer isn't clear, but it can be guessed that Indy had either written off the events that occured in this movie with scientific theories or he had chosen to actually forget what had happened and decided that - as a scientist - whatever he saw had a "logical" explanation. Of course, this question is generally noted as an error on the behalf of the filmmakers.

I always thought that with each new adventure he take the assumption at the beginning that it won't be supernatural (treats each adventure as a seperate case) due the fact that most of his digs probably dont involve supernatural.

Well he was drugged, and other than a few glowing rocks (which could have a logical explaination) never witnessed anything close up that was magical, and certainly nothing which couldn't be explained with a feasible hypothesis.

Mostly, no. George Lucas - who wrote the story for the movie - combined elements of an original Hindu myth with ideas of a fantastical nature. Nearly all of the details are fictional, however.

Like a lot of questions regarding events in this film, things do not play out logically at all times and a certain amount of suspended disbelief is required to accept whatever is happening. The most logical explanation is that he is kept alive with "black magic" - something that creeps up a lot in the movie and can be used to explain a lot of the "unexplainable" occurances.

Alternatively, it could be a question of mass suggestion or mass hypnosis. Mola Ram would not actually be ripping anybody's heart from anybody's body, but only making those watching *think* that it is happening. As I interpret it, during the first sacrifice we are shown what those present think they are seeing. During the second (attempted) sacrifice of Willie, we see what actually happens: Mola Ram doing as if he is holding a beating heart aloft, when if fact he is empty-handed. In the end, when Mola Ram and Indy are fighting in the collapsed rope bridge, it could be that Mola Ram is trying to use suggestion on Indy to give him a heart attack or something similar (the characters, meanwhile, all *think* that this evil man has awesome powers that allow him to rip hearts from chests, because they have "seen" him do so).

It's an interesting question because there really is no definite answer. Chattar Lal attempts to stab Indy with a small knife as he attempts to rescue Willie from the pit, but is hurled onto the chain-pulling device and is crushed beneath it. Moments later, Chattar is crawling around on the floor in pain and then, suddenly, in the next shot, he is gone. More of an editing error than anything, Chattar is gone and is never seen again in the entire film. The most logical answer lies in that notion that the British - accompanied by Captain Blumburtt - returned to secure and empty the Temple of Doom and arrested Chattar Lal in the process.

Correction: Actually, there is evidence of a cut scene here. After Chattar Lal is seen crawling away, we see a few cuts in scenes and then he has disappeared. What has actually happened is a scene where, upon rescuing Willie from the cage, Chattar Lal returns to continue the fight. The fight leads out onto the top of the metal cage where Indy holds on to the two chains at the bottom of the cage, jumps up, and kicks Chattar Lal off the dipping side of the off-balanced cage. The only picture I've yet to see of this scene is contained on an old school notebook folder for the film, which contains many random movie stills on the cover and back. I believe it was also hinted at in the script, novelization, and comic book versions.

You can view a picture of this deleted scene here: http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg35/punkjumpu/deleted_scene_2.jpg

Indy and Mola Ram battle it out on the remains of the hanging rope bridge, and two of the Sankara stones are lost at the bottom of the ravine. Mola Ram falls to his death and is eaten by alligators and Captain Blumburtt and his men arrive to arrest the remaining thuggee warriors. At the top of the ravine, Willie and Shorty stand and look for Indy, who, with a Sankara stone in hand, clambers back up to them grinning. They return to the village where life has already returned. The village children come running in behind Indy, Shorty and Willie and the stone is returned to the village shaman. "I know you are coming back... when life returned to our village," the shaman smiles. Indy nods and agrees that he now understands the magic of the stones. The film ends with Indy whipping Willie around the waist and pulling her towards him, embracing her in a kiss as the village children cheer and laugh and Shorty's elephant sprays them with water.

He immigrates to the United States with Jones following his adventure. The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones, published in 2008, detailed Short Round became an archaeologist and tracked down the Peacock's Eye (the diamond from Doom's opening sequence) to Niihau.

Yes. Harrison Ford seriously hurt his back during the filming of Temple of Doom and had to leave the production for a number of weeks while stuntman (and longtime Ford double) Vic Armstrong took his place for many of the action sequences. Fortunately, at that time, Armstrong was a close look-alike to Harrison Ford, so the switch went quite unnoticed for these scenes. Ford himself was added in later for close-ups and anything else that was needed. That isn't to say Harrison didn't do any filming, but a small section of the movie was filmed with somebody else playing Indy when he was having surgery performed on his back.

The original release was cut in 1984 to obtain a PG rating, when it came to the region 2 dvd release Paramount requested to release the original cut however the BBFC required the consent of the director, this was not forthcoming, thus the 1984 cut was released.

He is the british guy who gets a plane for Indy, Willie and Short Round near the beginning of the film. He only has a couple of lines and that is his only appearance.

No