Continuity mistake: When Indy is at the banquet, he has a large silver platter in front of him with a smaller plate of food on top of it. When the maharajah speaks, his smaller plate of food has mysteriously disappeared.
Continuity mistake: The scene in the Obi Wan nightclub when Indiana runs out of the window with Willie Scott. Indiana is running behind the gong and we see him collect Willie. In the next shot seen from behind the gong Indiana has yet to reach Willie before they jump out of the window.
Continuity mistake: When Indy is struggling on the bridge, he breaks one or two of the planks. When they are shown again, they are undamaged.
Continuity mistake: When Indy is in Club Obi-Wan, he spills a drink down his front. In the next shot, he is completely dry.
Continuity mistake: When Indiana, Short Round, and Willie are watching the ceremony at the Temple of Doom, just after Indy says "nobody has seen this for 100 years" you can also see Indy, shirtless, down near the alter on the top left of the screen and the skull is lit up. When Mola Ram walks out, it isn't.
Continuity mistake: At Club Obi Wan, Indy reminds Lao Che that Kao Kan tried to get Nurhachi without payment, and when Kao Kan raises his hand we see the gauze wrapped around his palm with a strip from his thumb area going diagonally down to his wrist, but in the next shot the gauze strip is wrapped diagonally from the opposite direction.
Continuity mistake: After Short Round snaps Indy out of his trance, when the Thuggee continues to lower Willie we see in her closeup that the flowers in her hair and the flower garland around her neck are already shriveled and blackened, but in her next closeup the flowers are back to being vibrant and fresh.
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.
Continuity mistake: At Club Obi Wan, Indy places Nurhachi on the table in the closeup with his left hand, but when Indy puts the diamond on the table with his left hand it's not actually Indy's hand that we see in this shot.
Continuity mistake: During the melee at Club Obi Wan, Lao Che's goons toss Indy onto the dish cart which has a horizontal metal bar between two of its legs over the wheels, but in the closeup as Indy tries to grab the antidote vial, the metal bar has vanished, but it reappears when it crashes into the bandstand.
Continuity mistake: When the pilots jump from the airplane we see Willie asleep directly under the rolled up tapestries, but when she wakes up and starts to make her way to the cockpit as she coughs, in the wide shot we see she's coming from the area that's further in the back toward the tail.
Continuity mistake: At the bar, Indy punches the cigarette seller and packs fly all over the place. Half a second later the floor is spotless.
Continuity mistake: After Willie saves Short from the hole in the bridge, the river is filled with water. Seconds later, when Indy is about to cut the bridge, there's a wide angle where there's barely any water, with rocks coming out. Then he cuts the bridge and it's filled with water again.
Continuity mistake: Near the end when Kate Capshaw, Harrison Ford, and the kid are on the bridge, Harrison cuts the bridge with a large sword. Several men fall into the water below. The bad guy grabs hold and hangs on to some of the henchmen. The number of henchmen changes between shots. Close-up 3, wide shot 2, close-up no men, then back to 2 and so on. The bad guy throws some off as he climbs up the bridge but the number changes in the wrong order.
Continuity mistake: When Willie and Shorty get to the rope bridge they start walking out and Shorty starts jumping on it, then in the next shot the sunburn on Willie's back is significantly worse and her hair differs. In the second shot it's presumably her stand-in.
Continuity mistake: While hanging onto the fallen bridge, both Mola Ram and Indy are pulling Indy's bag with the Shankara Stones, and note that this bag has three drain holes underneath instead of just two drain holes, which it normally has.
Continuity mistake: When Indy threatens Willie with a fork on her ribs, in the wide angles her arm is down, but in the close-ups it's up to allow for the fork to be seen. This keeps swapping back and forth, with no continuity at all.
Continuity mistake: The jet of water comes out through a squared hole on the rocks, and seconds later comes through many other places, making the first hole much bigger, and making pieces of rock fall off. However, when Indy cries, "Let's meet up at the bridge!" there's an aerial shot of him climbing and the mountain has the very same perfect structure as before the jet of water burst.
Continuity mistake: In the village, Willie grabs food with her hand and puts it inside her mouth. From the angle behind, the arm and hand are not raised and close to the mouth.
Continuity mistake: During the mine cart scene, Indy hits the second lever with the shovel to change the course. The Thuggees in the cart behind him shoot the same lever and it flies back just as Indy hits it, and changes the course again.
Suggested correction: Actually it appears the vial falls to the left of Kao Ken's chair, not Lao Che's. It appears after Indy pierces the other guy with the shishkebab, Kao Ken, off camera, takes the vial and puts on his left side. Indy jumps on the table and after missing the vial he slides further and then elbows Kao Ken who is on the right side now. The vial is still on the left side of Kao Ken's chair when it's kicked onto the wooden floor.
lionhead
You're very much mistaken. Lao Che is wearing an embroidered dinner jacket and has a pinky ring on his left pinky, and Kao Kan's left hand is bandaged in gauze. After Indy skewers Chen, in the closeup of Indy's hand just as it knocks the vial off the table, it's Lao Che's hand (note the pinky ring, etc) that we see on the table next to Nurhachi's urn, the stack of money, and the vial. That is not Kao Kan's hand/arm, remember his left hand is bandaged. And as this closeup continues to pan down it follows the vial as it lands on the floor in the empty space where Kao Kan's chair should be, but it isn't.
Super Grover ★
Yep, you're right I see it. There are 2 shots of Indy trying to grab the vial off the table and the second one is followed through with the vial falling off it and that one is wrong. Alright.