Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Other mistake: When the three enter the palace there are many guards protecting it. When the miner kids exit the palace, all the guards are gone, which allows for a happy scene, but still it's quite odd that the Imperial Palace suddenly has no protection at all.

Sacha

Other mistake: When Indie and Short Round stop and get off the elephant before they walk up to the palace in India, the tusks have obviously been extended by props to make the elephant look more impressive.

Other mistake: During the Tri-Motor crash sequence, the crew dumps the fuel from the aircraft and bails out. In the shot of the red fuel pouring out, the fuel is shown streaming out of the exhaust pipe for the center engine, which would be hot enough to cause the fuel to ignite and either set the aircraft on fire or cause it to explode.

Other mistake: In the "tunnel of bugs" you may reasonably expect there to be such creatures as cockroaches, spiders or giant centipedes, but the majority of the insects are locusts which are herbivorous and would not be found in an underground tunnel. Other out-of-placers are giant stick insects (also herbivorous) as well as a South American harlequin beetle (this part of the film is set in India). You can also see, in the scene where Willie turns her hand over to reveal one of the giant stick insects, that she is cupping it to hold the insect in place.

Other mistake: When the Thuggee throws the sledge hammer over his shoulder, notice that the man whose head the hammer lands on closes his eyes and leans his head slightly forward before the hammer hits him, as though he was already expecting the hammer to land on his head. (01:28:40)

Will

Other mistake: When fighting the sword wielding guards before getting on the bridge, Indy uses his bullwhip to disarm one of them. As the sword flies out of his hand it kind of hangs in the air as it falls. It is obviously a prop made of a very light material. (01:42:35)

Other mistake: When the airplane Indy and company are flying in runs out of gas, there is a close up of the instrument panel. The hands of the altimeter start spinning as the plane descends. However, so does the altimeter setting at the side. The altimeter setting is changed by the knob at the bottom. It does not change with altitude.

Other mistake: In the spike room, you see Shorty step on the switch that seals the two doorways. During that part, you see the stone extend from the wall, which he leans against to start the lowering ceiling. However, when Willie enters, without stepping on the switch, she pushes the stone to both seal the doors, start the ceiling lowering again, and extend the spikes. Why did it come out without anyone stepping on the switch beforehand like it did previously?

Other mistake: When Willie is given the pot of soup, she puts her spoon in and the eyes float up to the surface. Why are all of the eyes looking straight upward? Unless they're anchored in some way, not all of the pupils, if any, should be on top.

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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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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