Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: A large pile of cash mysteriously appears on the table in the nightclub scene when Indy asks for the diamond. The glass nearby also refills itself. (00:04:15)

Lynette Carrington

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

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.

Randy DeShong

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy fights the two guards before the bridge scene, the sequence is all off. He knocks one to the ground, who lands still clutching his sword. The other one has his sword whipped away from him - it flies over the cliff, and he runs off, whimpering. We then see the other guard approach, and suddenly Indy's standing over an unconscious guard by the boulder and clutching a sword, both of which have appeared from nowhere. (01:37:25)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: On the bridge scene Indy's sword changes. Initially, he has a sword with a straight blade and no hilt; however, when he shouts at Mola Rom, he has a something like a cutlass curved blade and heavy handguard to a machete-like weapon he uses to cut the bridge. (01:38:05 - 01:38:55)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

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.

Super Grover

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.

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

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy kicks the Thuggee rifleman off the scaffolding, you can see in the background that Mola Ram is about to reach the scaffolding. In the next shot, he is no longer there. (01:34:54)

Big Game

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the shot before Chattar Lal's hand and knife appear, Indy turns his head back. In the shot of the knife, he now looks at the wheel. (01:25:12)

Big Game

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Indy is put inside a cage Short Round comes to hug him. There's a shot of Indy from behind and he is a noticeable stand-in: Thinner face, clean hair, no sweat, and clean shaven instead of stubble.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Indy is fighting the Chief Guard on the conveyor belt, there is nothing behind the guard before he picks up the large rock, but in a close-up there are now small rocks on the belt.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Mola Ram falls off the bridge-ladder when a step breaks in two, but from the immediate wide angle it just moves slightly out of place. Furthermore, in the next angles the step is perfectly fixed.

Sacha

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the three heroes arrive at the village there's not a single bit of grass around. When they leave the place the morning after there's vegetation everywhere.

Sacha

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

More mistakes in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
More quotes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Trivia: Just like Indiana was named after George Lucas' dog, Willie was named after Steven Spielberg's dog and Short Round was named after screenwriters Bill Hyuck and Gloria Hatz's dog.

More trivia for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Question: When the man was hanged on the fan, what exactly happened? It seems like he was cut by the fan, but then there's no blood or anything. How exactly did he die? And why did the fan suddenly stop when he hit it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: His neck was snapped by the whip getting caught in the fan. There isn't always blood with a hanging. Since the fan wasn't designed to hold a man's weight, the motor in it would have stopped or given out.

Captain Defenestrator

More questions & answers from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.