Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

"If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones."

- Tagline

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the May 23, 1984 prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark and chapter twenty-three in The Complete Adventures of Indiana Jones.

Set one year prior to the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the story follows Indiana Jones journeying through India to recover a sacred stone stolen from a small village by a religious cult intending to harness its power, along with four others, to establish the reign of their god in place of all others.

The movie was re-released on VHS video in 1999, on DVD in 2003, and again in 2008 for a Special Edition DVD release. In 2012, the film received a high-definition home video release as part of Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures.

Prologue: Shanghai, 1935
The film is set a year before the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy is delivering the remains of Emperor Nurhachi to a gangster named Lao Che in a nightclub, Club Obi Wan, in Shanghai, China, in exchange for a large diamond. Lao introduces Indy to Willie Scott, the club's singer and his "girlfriend". After Indy sips his drink, Lao starts laughing ominously as he pulls out a vial of blue liquid. Willie asks what it is, and Lao replies that it is the antidote to the poison Indiana just drank. Indy's friend Wu Han, in disguise as a waiter, pulls a gun and threatens to shoot if the antidote is not handed over. However, Lao Che's son Chen shoots and kills him. A brawl ensues, with Indiana Jones trying to grab the antidote and Willie Scott trying to grab the Peacock's Eye.

Willie finds the antidote and slips it in her dress. Chen is killed, and Lao Che's other son, Kao Kan pulls a machine gun on Indy. Indy and Willie just barely avoid the mad man's gunfire by hiding behind a rolling gong which Indy cut with a large sword. The two make their escape when the gong crashes through a window. After several awnings break their fall, they land in a car driven by Short Round, Indy's kid sidekick. Indy drinks the antidote after grabbing it out of Willie's dress. A car chase follows, with Willie dropping Indy's gun in the chaos. The three heroes arrive at an airport with Lao Che and Kao Kan right behind them. Indy, Willie, and Short Round board the cargo plane, with Indy saying that Lao Che made a good try. He shuts the door and Lao Che is written across the door. Lao Che says goodbye to Indy and tells his pilot to kill all of them. The plane flies off.

India


It turns out that the plane was owned by Lao Che, and the captains abandon the plane, leaving the passengers to die. They survive by using a raft as a parachute. They land in India, where they come to a village with no children. The inhabitants explain that the Thuggee Cult of Pankot Palace has taken all of their children and their sacred stone that protects the village. They then lend the heroes elephants so they can reach the palace.

Initially the palace seems normal enough; the Maharajah's prime minister Chattar Lal acts insulted by his questions about the village's claims. In retaliation he brings up Jones' shadier elements as an archaeologist, in particular the Sultan of Madagascar's threat of castration should he ever return. Indy is later attacked in his room by an assassin, which leads him to find a secret door in Willie's room. Beneath the palace is a vast underground chamber where the village rock and two more are held by Thuggees. Indy, Willie, and Short Round watch as the Thuggee high priest Mola Ram sacrifices a human to the goddess Kali. The cult uses the village's children to dig for the remaining rocks within the mines of the palace, in hope that with all of them they can rule the world.



Indy, Willie, and Short Round are captured by the Thuggee and separated: Indy sides with the Thuggee after being whipped and tortured to drink the "blood of Kali Ma", Willie is kept as a human sacrifice, and Short Round is put in the mines alongside the village children. Short Round escapes and helps Indy return to his normal self (with the help of a torch and also figuring out that extreme pain breaks the trance), which allows him to save Willie, take the Sankara stones, and free the children. Indy then has a fist fight with the huge, bearded Chief Guard on a moving conveyer belt fitted with a rock crusher. Their comfrontation ends with the guard's red sash being caught in the machinery. Despite Jones' attempt to save him, the man is pulled into the machine and crushed to death.

Indy and his friends get in a mine car chase with the Thuggees. The trio eventually run through the rest of the mine tunnels, out to an exit at the end of a mountain. Shorty and Willie run to an old bridge, where they meet up with Mola Ram and his minions, while Indy fights more Thuggee soldiers on his way to the bridge. Indy then meets up with Mola Ram on an old bridge. Indy breaks the bridge (with the help of a sword) and everyone clings on to the broken bridge, while most of Mola Ram's men plummet to their deaths by crocodiles in the river.



During the fight with Mola Ram on what remains of the bridge, Indy accuses the evil priest of betraying Shiva. Using the dark magic he learned from the Thuggee, the anger of the god apparently causes the stones in Indy's bag to catch fire and two fall to the crocodile-infested river below. As the final stone falls out of the bag, Mola Ram grabs it, but it burns his hand, causing Mola Ram to lose his grip on the bridge railing and fall into the river, where he is torn apart and eaten by the hungry crocodiles. Indy catches the then-cool stone. The last remaining Thuggees are either shot or captured by the British Army.

Indy and his friends triumphantly return to the village with their sacred stone and their children. After Willie tells Indy she is going back to Missouri, he brings her towards him with his whip, and they share a kiss, but not before Short Round's elephant sprays them with water.

Crew

 * Casting ....
 * Mike Fenton, CSA
 * Jane Feinberg, CSA
 * Mary Selway Buckley
 * Marci Liroff
 * Second Unit Director .... Michael Moore
 * Choreography .... Danny Daniels

United Kingdom production crew

 * Assistant Director .... David Tomblin
 * Production Supervisor .... John Davis
 * Production Manager .... Patricia Carr
 * Second Assistant Directors ....
 * Roy Button
 * Steve Harding

United States production crew

 * Production Manager .... Robert Latham Brown
 * First Assistant Director .... Louis Race
 * Second Assistant Director .... Louis G. Friedman
 * Sound Design .... Ben Burtt
 * Visual Effects Supervisor .... Dennis Muren
 * Mechanical Effects Supervisor .... George Gibbs
 * Stunt Arranger (Studio) .... Vic Armstrong
 * Stunt Arranger (Location) .... Glenn Randall
 * Production Controller .... Arthur Carroll
 * Marketing and Promotion .... Sidney Ganis


 * Script Supervisors ....
 * Phyllis Townshend,
 * Pamela Mann Francis
 * Production Secretary .... Linda Rabin
 * Additional Photography .... Paul Beeson, BSC
 * Operating Cameramen .... Chic Waterson, David Worley
 * Assistant Cameramen .... Robin Vidgeon, Chris Tanner
 * Second Assistant Cameramen ....
 * Tony Brown,
 * Danny Shelmerdine
 * Dolly Grips ....
 * Colin Manning,
 * John Flemming
 * Camera Maintenance .... Nobby Godden
 * Sound Mixer .... Simon Kaye
 * Boom Operator .... David Sutton
 * Sound Maintenance .... Taffy Haines
 * Chief Art Director .... Alan Cassie
 * Art Director .... Roger Cain
 * Set Director .... Peter Howitt
 * Assistant Art Directors .... Peter Russell, Stephen Scott
 * Production Illustrators ....
 * Edward Verreaux,
 * Andrew G. Probert
 * Draughtsman .... Richard Holland
 * Construction Manager .... Bill Welch
 * Property Master .... Barry Wilkinson
 * Scenic Artist .... Ted Mitchell
 * Production Buyer .... John Lanzer
 * Chief Modeller .... Derek Howarth
 * Modellers .... Keith Short, Brian Muir,
 * Valerie Charlton,
 * Stuart Smith
 * Chief SFX. Technician .... Richard Conway
 * Floor Effects Supervisor .... David Watkins
 * Senior SFX. Technicians ....
 * Trevor Neighbour,
 * David Watson
 * SFX. Technicians .... Bob Hollow, Brian Morrison,
 * Rodger Shaw
 * SFX. Assistants ....
 * Peter Davey,
 * Stephen Hamilton,
 * Joss Williams
 * Chief SFX. Wireman .... Bob Wiesinger
 * Wardrobe Supervisor .... Ron Beck
 * Assistant Costume Supervisor .... Joanna Johnston
 * Wardrobe Mistress .... Janet Tebrooke
 * Wardrobe Master .... Patrick Wheatley
 * Makeup Supervisor .... Tom Smith
 * Chief Makeup Artist .... Peter Robb-King
 * Makeup Artists .... Linda De Vetta, Dickie Mills,
 * John Webber
 * Chief Hairdresser .... Colin Jamison
 * Hairdresser .... Janet Jamison
 * Unit Publicist .... Susan D'Arcy
 * Stillsman .... Keith Hamshere

Post-Production Services by Sprocket Systems A Division of LucasFilm Ltd.


 * Re-Recording Mixers .... Ben Burtt, Gary Summers,
 * Randy Thom
 * Assistant Film Editors .... Colin Wilson, Bruce Green
 * Steve Kemper
 * Supervising Dialogue Editor .... Laurel Ladevich
 * Dialogue Editors ....
 * Gloria S. Borders,
 * Richard Hymns
 * Sound Effects Editors .... John Benson, Teresa Eckton,
 * Ken Fischer, Suzanne Fox
 * Assistant Sound Editors ....
 * Tom Christopher,
 * Kathleen Korth,
 * Mary Helen Leasman,
 * John Watson,
 * Christopher Weir
 * Sound Assistants .... Karen Harding,
 * Steve Klocksiem
 * Foley Artist .... Dennie Thorpe
 * Audio Engineers ....
 * Howard W. Hammerman,
 * Tomlinson Holman,
 * Brian Kelly
 * Audio Technicians .... Tom Johnson, Tom Martin,
 * Gary Rydstrom,
 * Dawn Warkneking,
 * Kris Handwerk Wiskes
 * Sprocket Systems Administration ....
 * James Kessler,
 * Catherine Coombs,
 * K. C. Hodenfield, Susan Leahy


 * Supervising Music Editor .... Kenneth Wannberg
 * Music Recording Mixer .... Lyle Burbridge
 * Orchestrations .... Herb Spencer
 * Music Recording Consultant .... Bruce Botnick
 * Dance Sequence Playback Arranged by .... Peter Howard
 * Assistant Choreographer .... Caroline Hamilton


 * Production Accountant .... George Marshall
 * Location Accountant .... Stefano Priori
 * Assistant Production Accountant .... Tony Miller
 * Assistant to Production Controller .... Barbara Harley
 * Research .... Deborah Fine
 * Indian Advisor .... Cristi Janaki Rathod
 * Assistant to Mr. Lucas .... Jane Bay
 * Assistant to Mr. Marshall .... Mary T. Radford
 * Assistant to Ms. Kennedy .... Kate Barker
 * Secretaries to Mr. Spielberg ....
 * Kathleen Switzer,
 * Patsy De Lord
 * Secretary to Mr. Watts .... Rebecca West
 * Studio Teachers .... Adria Later, Janet Willis
 * Transport Manager .... Vic Minay
 * Animal Handler .... Mike Culling
 * Mr. Ford's Stand-In .... Jack Dearlove
 * Marketing Coordinator .... Susan Trembly


 * Chargehand Standby Props .... Joe Dipple, Bernie Hearn
 * Chargehand Dressing Props .... Charles Ixer, Peter Wallis
 * Prop Storeman .... Tommy Bacon
 * Standby Prop .... Martin Kingsley
 * Assistant Construction Manager .... Bert Long
 * Construction Storeman .... Dave Middleton
 * Master Carpenter .... Anthony Youd
 * Master Plasterer .... Kenneth Clarke
 * Supervising Chargehand Plasterer .... Kenneth Barley
 * Master Painter .... Bill Beecham
 * Supervising Rigger .... Red Lawrence
 * Supervising Stagehand .... Micky Driscoll
 * Standby Carpenter .... Stephen Hargreaves
 * Standby Plasterer .... Ray Staples
 * Standby Painter .... Bob Betts
 * Standby Rigger .... Fred Crawford
 * Standby Stagehand .... George Gibbons
 * Gaffer .... Martin Evans
 * Best Boy .... Ray Meehan
 * Rigging Gaffer .... Tommy Brown
 * Drapes .... Barry Wilson

Second Unit (London)

 * Second Unit Director .... Frank Marshall
 * First Assistant Directors ....
 * David Bracknell,
 * Michael Hook
 * Operating Cameraman .... Wally Byatt
 * Assistant Cameraman .... Keith Blake
 * Second Assistant Camraman .... Martin Kenzie
 * Dolly Grip .... Jim Kane
 * Floor Effects Supervisor .... David Harris
 * Gaffer .... Eamonn Dunne
 * Chief Makeup Artist .... Connie Reeve
 * Hairdresser .... Hilary Haines
 * Standby Props .... Steve Short, Simon Wilkinson
 * Standby Carpenter .... Roger Dawson
 * Standby Plasterer .... Michael Quinn
 * Standby Painter .... Tony Caccavale
 * Standby Rigger .... Tom Parker
 * Standby Stagehand .... George King

California

 * Second Unit Director .... Glenn Randall
 * Director of Photography .... Allen Daviau
 * Art Director .... Joe Johnston
 * Location Manager .... Richard Vane
 * Production Co-ordinator .... Lata Ryan
 * Operating Cameramen .... John Connor, John Stevens
 * First Assistant Cameraman .... Eric Engler
 * Key Grip .... Ken Phelps
 * Gaffer .... Pat Kirkwood
 * Property Master .... Danny Colangelo
 * Wardrobe Mistress .... Barbara Kassel
 * Makeup Artist .... Yvonne Curry
 * Hairdresser .... Lynda Gurasich
 * Stunt Co-ordinator .... Dean Raphael Ferrandini
 * SFX. Supervisor .... Kevin Pike
 * Raft Camera Mounts .... Art Vitarelli
 * Transportation Co-ordinator .... Dave Marder
 * Sound Mixer .... David McMillan
 * Sound Boom Operator .... Stephen Powell
 * Stills Photographer .... Ralph Nelson, Jr.
 * Production Accountants .... Bonnie Radford,
 * Diane Dankwardt
 * Ski Unit Co-ordinator .... Clifford Mann
 * Producer's Secretary .... Annie Berardini
 * Producer's Assistant .... Patrick Crane

Asian Unit (Macau & Sri Lanka)

 * Assistant Director .... Carlos Gil
 * Second Assistant Director .... Ian Bryce
 * Script Supervisor .... Ceri Evans

Macau
Facilities in Macau Supplied by Salon Films (H.K.) Ltd.
 * Production Supervisor .... Vincent Winter
 * Production Manager .... Pay Ling Wang
 * Assistant Director .... Patty Chan
 * Location Manager .... May Leung
 * Stills Photographer .... Jeff Marks

Sri Lanka
Facilities in Sri Lanka Supplied by Sri Lanka Location Services Ltd.
 * Production Supervisor .... Chandran Rutnam
 * Location Manager .... Peter Manager
 * Production Manager .... Willie De Silva
 * Unit Manager .... Asoka Perera
 * Assistant Director .... Ranjit H. Peiris
 * Steadicam ® Photography .... Garrett Brown
 * Art Director .... Errol Kelly
 * Production Secretary .... Rita De Silva
 * Sound Mixer .... Colin Charles
 * Boom Operator .... Gary Weir
 * Sound Maintenance .... Colin Dandridge

Aerial Unit

 * Second Unit Director .... Kevin Donnelly
 * Director of Photography .... Jack Cooperman, ASC
 * Pilots ....
 * Art Scholl,
 * Lennard von Clemm,
 * Ross Reynolds
 * Jump Master .... Larry Lee Perkins

Visual Effects Produced at Industrial Light & Magic Marin County


 * Chief Visual Effects Cameraman .... Mike McAlister
 * Optical Photography Supervisor .... Bruce Nicholson
 * General Manager, ILM .... Tom Smith
 * Production Supervisor .... Warren Franklin
 * Matte Painting Supervisor .... Michael Pangrazio
 * Modelshop Supervisor .... Lorne Peterson
 * Stop Motion Animator .... Tom St. Amand
 * Supervising Stage Technician .... Patrick Fitzsimmons
 * Animation Supervisor .... Charles Mullen
 * Supervising Visual Effects Editor .... Howard Stein


 * Visual Effects Cameraman .... Mike Owens
 * Assistant Cameramen .... Kim Marks, Pat Sweeney,
 * Randy Johnson, Joe Fulmer
 * Production Coordinator .... Arthur Repola
 * Stage Coordinator .... Edward Hirsch
 * Optical Camera Operators .... John Ellis, David Berry,
 * Donald Clark
 * Optical Line-Up .... Tom Rosseter, Ed Jones,
 * Peg Hunter
 * Lab Technicians .... Tim Geideman, Jeff Doran,
 * Louis Rivera
 * Effects Creaive Consultant .... Phil Tippett
 * Stop Motion Technicians .... Davod Sosalla,
 * Randy Ottenberg, Sean Casey
 * Matte Artists .... Christopher Evans
 * Frank Ordaz, Caroline Green
 * Matte Camera Supervisor .... Craig Barron
 * Matte Photography ....
 * David Fincher,
 * Deborah Morgan
 * Storyboard Artists .... Stan Fleming, Phil Norwood
 * Chief Model Makers ....
 * Paul Huston,
 * Barbara Gallucci,
 * Charlie Bailey, Ease Owyeung,
 * Michael Fulmer
 * Model Makers ....
 * Wesley Seeds,
 * Barbara Affonso, Larry Tan
 * Marc Thorpe,
 * Scott Marshall, Chuck Wiley,
 * Pete Ronzani, Jeff Mann,
 * Ira Keeler, Richard Davis,
 * William George,
 * Mike Cochrane
 * Head Effects Animator .... Bruce Walters
 * Effects Animators ....
 * Barbara Brennan,
 * Jack Mongovan,
 * Ellen Lichtwardt,
 * Rebecca Petrulii,
 * Sean Turner, Suki Stern
 * Visual Effects Editor .... Michael Gleason
 * Assistant Effects Editor .... Michael Moore
 * Additional Photography .... Rick Fichter
 * Stage Technicians .... Bob Finley III, Dick Dova,
 * John McLeod, Dave Childers,
 * Harold Cole, Lance Brackett,
 * Merlin Ohm, Mike Speakman
 * Miniature Pyrotechnics .... Ted Moehnke, Peter Stolz,
 * Bob Finley, Jr.
 * Still Photography ....
 * Terry Chostner,
 * Kerry Nordquist,
 * Roberto McGrath
 * Engineering ....
 * Michael MacKenzie,
 * Wade Childress,
 * Greg Beaumonte,
 * Jerry Jeffress, Kris Brown
 * Machine Shop ....
 * Udo Pampel,
 * Christopher Rand
 * Location Coordinator .... Patty Blau
 * Administrative Staff ....
 * Chrissie England,
 * Cheryl Durham,
 * Susan Monahan, Paula Karsch,
 * Kathy Shine, Karen Ayers,
 * Karen Dubé, Ned Gorman,
 * Geoffrey de Valois
 * Effects Processing .... Monaco Labs


 * Negative Cutters .... Jack Hooper, Tom Hooper,
 * Gary Burritt
 * Color Timers ....
 * Jim Schurmann,
 * Terry Claborn
 * Titles and Additional Optical Effects .... Modern Filma Effects
 * Additional Optical Line-Up .... Jacques Protay


 * Stunts ....
 * Vic Armstrong, Wendy Leech,
 * Felix Silla, Roy Alon,
 * Dickie Beer, Peter Brace,
 * Andrew Bradford, Terry Cade,
 * Graeme Crowther, Dean Raphael Ferrandini,
 * Terry Forrestal, Marietta Gillman,
 * Ted Grossman, Reg Harding
 * Frank Henson, Nick Hobbs,
 * Billy Horrigan, Donna Keegan,
 * Bronco McLaughlin, Wayne Michaels,
 * Gareth Milne, Greg Powell,
 * Glenn Randall, Bill Reed,
 * Doug Robinson, Denise Ryan,
 * Colin Skeaping, Rocky Taylor,
 * Tip Tipping, Malcolm Weaver,
 * Chris Webb, Jason White,
 * Chuck Waters, Fred Washburn


 * Dancers ....
 * Debbie Astell, Maureen Bacchus,
 * Corinne Barton, Carol Bebbington,
 * Sharon Boone, Elizabeth Burville,
 * Marisa Campbell, Christine Cartwright,
 * Andrea Chance, Jan Colton,
 * Louise Dagleish, Lorraine Doyle,
 * Vanessa Fieldwright, Brenda Glassman,
 * Elaine Gough, Sue Hadleigh,
 * Sarah-Jane Hassell, Samantha Hughes,
 * Julie Kirk, Deirdre Laird,
 * Vicki McDonald, Nina McMahon,
 * Julia Marstand, Gaynor Martine,
 * Lisa Mulidore, Dawn Reddall,
 * Rebekkah Sekyi, Clare Smalley,
 * Lee Sprintall, Jenny Turnock,
 * Ruth Welby

"Anything Goes" Music & Lyrics by Cole Porter

Thanks to the Governments of Sri Lanka and Macau for their help

Photographed at Thorn EMI-Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, England

and on location in

Sri Lanka, Macau, Mammoth Mountain

and the Tuolomne and American Rivers in California

Thanks to

Balfour Beatty Nuttal Victoria Project, Sri Lanka

Physical Conditioning for Mr. Ford by Body by Jake, Inc.

Lighting Equipment and Crew from Lee Electric Ltd.

Metalwork by Norank Engineering Ltd.

Rafts by Maravia Corportaion

Catering by Location Caterers

Auburn Duesenberg Constructed by Specialty Cars

Production Vehicles Courtesy of GMC Truck and Bus

Air Transportation by Pan Am and Air Lanka

ADR by Mayflower Recording Ltd.

and Warner Hollywood Studios

Music Recording at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Thanks to Reed Smoot

Color by Rank Laboratories®

Prints by Deluxe®

Lenses and Panaflex® Cameras by Panavision®

A Lucasfilm Ltd. Production

Original Soundtrack on Polydor Records and Tapes

Dolby Stereo® in selected theatres

Novelization from Ballantine Books

™ and © Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 1984 All Rights Reserved

No. 27401 Motion Picture Association of America

The persons and events in this film are ficitious.

Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional.

This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States

and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition

may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Paramount

A

Gulf+Western

Company

Cast

 * Indiana Jones .... Harrison Ford
 * Willie Scott .... Kate Capshaw
 * Short Round .... Ke Huy Quan
 * Mola Ram .... Amrish Puri
 * Chattar Lal .... Roshan Seth
 * Captain Blumburtt .... Philip Stone
 * Lao Che .... Roy Chiao
 * Wu Han .... David Yip
 * Kao Kan .... Ric Young
 * Chen .... Chua Kah Joo
 * Maitre d' .... Rex Ngui
 * Chief Henchman .... Philip Tann
 * Weber .... Dan Aykroyd
 * Chinese Pilot .... Akio Mitamura
 * Chinese Co-Pilot .... Michael Yama
 * Shaman .... D. R. Nanayakkara
 * Chieftain .... Dharmadasa Kuruppu
 * Sajnu .... Stany De Silva
 * Village Women ....
 * Ruby De Miel
 * D. M. Denawake
 * I. Serasinghe
 * Village Child .... Dharshana Panangala
 * Little Maharajah .... Raj Singh
 * Merchant #1 .... Frank Olegario
 * Merchant #2 .... Ahmed El-Shenawi
 * Eel Eater .... Art Repola
 * Sacrifice Victim .... Nizwar Karanj
 * Chief Guard .... Pat Roach
 * Guard .... Moti Makan
 * Temple Guards ....
 * Mellan Mitchell
 * Bhasker Patel
 * 1st Boy in Cell .... Arjun Pandher
 * 2nd Boy in Cell .... Zia Gelani

Other characters

 * Big Short Round
 * Clive
 * Gong striker
 * Nurhachi
 * Thuggee assassin

Locations

 * British Honduras
 * China
 * Shanghai
 * Club Obi Wan
 * Nang Tao Airport
 * Chungking
 * India
 * Pankot
 * Mayapore
 * Pankot Palace
 * Temple of Doom
 * Madagascar
 * United States of America
 * Missouri
 * East China Sea

Artifacts

 * Nurhachi's ashes
 * Peacock's Eye
 * Sankara Stones
 * Sanskrit manuscript

Vehicles and vessels

 * 1934 Duesenberg Auburn convertible
 * Ford Tri-Motor Airplane

Miscellanea

 * Lao Che Air Freight

Production
Most of the filming was done on location in Sri Lanka and at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. Macau served as a substitute for Shanghai. There was a denial of filming in North India and Amber Fort due to the Indian government finding racism and offense in the script and demanding for changes. This led to the filming of India in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Reaction
Due to the graphic scenes, dark theme, and cultic overtones, this film recieved negative reviews from many critics. The film is much darker in tone than its predecessor (a fact which Lucas attributes to the messy divorce he was going through during the film's production), and has been criticised for being overly violent and scary, as well as for its gross misrepresentations of Indian culture. Despite its PG rating, it is the darkest Indiana Jones film. It also had been praised for being different to the other films and Mola Ram is considered by even the hardest-to-please critics to be the best Indy enemy to date.

The film did, however receive a rating of 85% from film aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, calling it, "an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form."

Deleted scenes

 * On the way to Pankot Palace, Indy, Willie, and Short Round sing Anything Goes.
 * During the scene where the camp in the jungle, a snake lands on Willie's shoulder and she pets it until it falls asleep.
 * When Indy sees the snake statue when stealing the stones, he touches the statue in awe.
 * Willie makes it back to her room and encounters Chattar Lal and a guard. Chattar Lal then reveals himself as part of the cult.
 * While Short Round was digging, a guard nearby gets burned by lava and wakes up from the Black Sleep. When he is taken away, Short Round gets the idea of how to wake Indy.
 * After Indy rescues Willie, Chattar Lal recovers from his injury and attacks Indy. They jump on the sacrificial cage and fight. Indy jumps free but Willie pulls the lever and Chattar Lal is killed when the cage hits the lava.
 * When Indy, Willie, and Short Round have to get to the mines, they build a bridge to get across the lava.

Ratings
Some fairly gruesome scenes in Temple of Doom, as well as other PG-rated films of the time such as Gremlins (another film of Spielberg's) caused a significant public outcry. Spielberg spoke to the MPAA about creating a new rating covering the middle ground between a clear PG and a clear R that his films often found themselves on. This led to the creation of a new rating category: PG-13. The film has very violent scenes, scenes with bugs which can be disturbing to people with Entomophobia, a particularly graphic scene involving cardiectomy and, just like Raiders, the casual use of profanity.

Trivia

 * The Chinese dialogue in the opening scene is in the Shanghainese dialect.
 * Though always called "Willie", Capshaw's character is fully named "Wilhelmina", an apparent Lucasfilm in-joke referring to the infamous Wilhelm scream.
 * Actor/wrestler Pat Roach — who appeared in two roles as towering, burly henchmen who fight Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark — also appeared in this film, as the slavemaster in the mines. Besides Ford, he is the only cast member to return for the second film. (He also had a cameo appearance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)
 * The opening musical sequence was designed by Steven Spielberg to fulfill his desire to direct a Busby Berkeley-style musical number. The song performed is Cole Porter's Anything Goes, translated into Mandarin.
 * The nightclub in which the opening sequence takes place is called "Club Obi Wan", undoubtedly a reference to a character in Lucas's other famous film series, Star Wars. The club's name is visible when Indy, Willie, and Short Round escape in an automobile.
 * The sound effects of the mine car scene were recorded from the Disneyland attraction Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's trains going around the track.
 * When Indy is about to cross the rope bridge, he is stopped by a sabre-wielding Thuggee. He attempts to draw his gun a la Raiders of the Lost Ark but finds that he has lost his gun. A musical cue from Raiders is played.
 * Indiana Jones is named for George Lucas's dog. In this film, all three leads are named after dogs. Willie was the name of Spielberg's dog, and Short Round was the name of the dog belonging to scriptwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.
 * Some of the bugs in the scene greatly featuring them are not even from Asia.
 * "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death" was the original title
 * The monkey brains were custard with food coloring.
 * Willie stating her desire to go back to Missouri is a likely inside reference to the fact that the actress portraying her, Kate Capshaw, grew up there herself.
 * When Indiana finally defeats Mola Ram and takes back the magic stones, he says to him, "You have betrayed Shiva!", whereas when he says the same thing in Hindi, he says, "Tum Shiva ke, evideth ka tato, Tum Shiva ke vishwaas karte ho!", which translates to, "You are faithful to Shiva!" which could be taken either as Indiana suggesting that Mola Ram cannot escape Shiva's power, even in opposition to him or that it is probably a practical joke played by the Hindi-speaking crew.
 * Some fans believe that the mention of the Japanese bombing of Shanghai is an anachronism, thinking that it applies to an event that occurred in 1937. Actually, the Japanese bombed Shanghai in 1932.
 * When the map showing the flightpath of Indiana Jones and his companions is displayed, it shows their path goes from Shanghai to Chungking and then onward toward the eastern India-China border, near Burma. However, images show the plane flying over a section of the Great Wall of China, which would not be near their flight path at all.
 * When Indy is fighting in his room with the assassin, the whip gets caught in the ceiling fan and lifts him off his feet. In reality, the chances of a ceiling fan being able to support the weight of a full-grown man are extremely slim. Besides, after the assassin is hanged, the fan would not continue revolving with the body weight hanging from the blades.
 * During the rope bridge scene, there are a few distant camera angles that show that the bridge is suspended between a gorge that seems to be a hundred feet deep with tree branches and large rocks in the shallow creek not far below. But whenever there are above shots, such as after Indy cuts the bridge in half and when the half with the survivors clinging on hits the gorge wall and a few Thuggees lose their grip and fall, or when Mola Ram dislodges one of his men and causes him to fall, the gorge appears to have changed heavily: at first when the bridge is sawed in half, most of the Thuggees plunge down into the rocky creek, the gorge wall is steep and the chasm does not look very deep although it is a nasty drop. But when a few surviving Thuggees on one half of the bridge fall off, the gorge appears to have become a thousand feet deep with a completely vertical wall, no branches in sight, and a wide, deep-looking river with no rocks in it.
 * After the assassination attempt, Indy tells Shorty to turn off the ceiling fan. He does and the whip is untangled from the blades, dropping the dead assassin to the floor. However, as he drops, the assassin puts his hands out to soften his landing and after he hits the ground, the man moves his hands as though to steady himself.
 * When Indy, Willie and Short Round arrive at the airport, the man who greets them, Weber, is portrayed by Dan Aykroyd. Weber's first name is debatable as it appears as Art in the DVD subtitles, yet others claim it is Earl. In the background of the same scene, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg can be seen handling luggage.
 * This is the only film in the Indiana Jones series not to feature or mention the Ark of the Covenant.
 * Kate Capshaw would marry director Steven Spielberg seven years later.
 * The television show MythBusters tested the plausibility of two of the film's stunts: using a series of awnings to make a multi-story fall survivable, and using a life raft to make a fall out of an airplane survivable. The life raft stunt was considered busted, while the awning fall stunt was considered plausible.

Toy line
There was a Temple of Doom toy line released by LJN in 1984. The line was very short-lived and only had three figures.

A new Temple of Doom toyline was released by Hasbro in September 2008.

Novel
There was a novelization of the movie released in 1984 by James Kahn along with a junior version adapted by Les Martin. Kahn's novel was republished as part of The Adventures of Indiana Jones to coincide with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008, but an entirely new young adult adaptation, penned by Suzanne Weyn, was also released.

Home video
The film was released on VHS, Beta and laserdisc in 1986. It was later reissued on DVD.