Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Continuity mistake: In the angle from below where Short falls through the hole on the bridge, there are no ropes hanging off the sides. In all subsequent shots there are many ropes.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: During the palace dinner scene, the "snake surprise" is laid down at Willie's left side. A few shots later it's on her right.

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: 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

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: 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

Continuity mistake: In the village, the three are surrounded by a huge crowd, yet when Short goes for a walk, half a second later, there's barely a dozen people in front of Indy and Willie. Then it cuts back to the previous wide angle and the huge crowd reappears.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Indy uses his whip to swing into the mine cart that Willie and Shorty are in, the way that he is holding the whip changes from shot to shot. Frontal shots show Indy holding the whip with his hands above his head. In shots from behind, Indy is holding the whip with his hands at his chest.

Continuity mistake: The dancers pick up some red handkerchiefs creating a narrow tunnel for Willie to walk through. A frame later they are spread 15 meters apart and just two dancers are parallel to each other holding the fabric.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Indy tries to grab the antidote vial from the table, in the closeup just as the vial falls off the table the camera follows the vial as it lands in the empty area to the left of Lao Che's chair where Kao Kan's chair should be, but it's not, and the rug's edge with wood floor beside Lao Che's chair though it shouldn't be. Then Indy hits Kao Kan who is again seated closely to Lao Che's left, as he should be, and when Kao Kan falls backward we see the rug edge is nowhere near Lao Che's chair, also as it should be. (00:08:20)

Super Grover

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

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

Trivia: The little boy, Ke Huy Quan, didn't initially intend to try out for Short Round. He was merely accompanying his brother who auditioned for the character, but Ke Huy called out so much advice to him that he caught the directors' notice.

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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