Temple of Doom traded the pulpy thrills for something nastier, and the series never went back

Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opens in a Shanghai nightclub and ends in a mountain temple, and the distance between those two rooms is the whole argument of the film. Released by Paramount Pictures on May 23, 1984, it is the second installment in the Indiana Jones series and a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, set in 1935. It stars Harrison Ford, who returns as the archaeologist, alongside Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone and Ke Huy Quan.

It is a meaner, faster, uglier movie than the one that made the character. It is also, for long stretches, a remarkably inventive adventure. Both things are true, and neither cancels the other.

Trailer, via Paramount Movies.

A Nightclub Singer, an Orphan, and a Raft

The plot does not waste time. Indiana Jones survives a murder attempt in Shanghai by Triad crime boss Lao Che, who had hired him to retrieve the remains of Nurhaci. He flees with his young orphan sidekick Short Round and nightclub singer Willie Scott, unaware the plane belongs to Lao Che. The pilots dump the fuel and parachute away. The trio escapes in an inflatable raft, rides down the slopes of the Himalayas and falls into a river, arriving at the Indian village of Mayapore.

The villagers ask Jones to retrieve a sacred lingam stone and the children they say were taken by evil forces from nearby Pankot Palace. He agrees, guessing the stone is one of five Sankara stones given by the Hindu gods to help humanity fight evil.

That is a clean setup. What follows is not clean.

Mola Ram and the Temple Under Pankot Palace

The trio are welcomed warmly at Pankot Palace and attend a banquet hosted by the young maharaja, Zalim Singh. During the night, Jones is attacked by an assassin and kills him. He finds tunnels beneath the palace and explores them with Willie and Short Round. They watch Thuggee cultists conduct a human sacrifice.

The cult holds three Sankara stones. It has brainwashed Singh and abducted the children of Mayapore, using them as slave labor to find the remaining stones. During Jones’ attempt to take the stones, the trio is captured. High priest Mola Ram forces Jones to drink a potion that puts him in a trance, under which he prepares Willie for sacrifice.

Amrish Puri plays Mola Ram, and the character is named after an 18th-century Indian painter. Lucas wanted him terrifying, so the screenwriters folded in elements of Aztec and Hawaiian human sacrificers and European devil worship. The result is a villain who works precisely because he is not charming.

What the Casting Bought

Capshaw won the role of Willie Scott after more than 100 actresses auditioned, among them Sharon Stone. Spielberg chose her after viewing her videotaped test and showing it to Ford. She dyed her brown hair blonde because Spielberg wanted Willie to be a complete contrast to Marion Ravenwood. Costume designer Anthony Powell wanted red hair instead.

Quan was cast after his brother auditioned and Quan tagged along, giving his brother directions behind the camera. About 6,000 actors auditioned worldwide for Short Round. Spielberg liked his personality, so he and Ford improvised the scene where Short Round accuses Indy of cheating at cards. Quan’s Short Round is the film’s warmest presence and its best comic timing.

The Numbers and the Problem

Key facts
– Released May 23, 1984, by Paramount Pictures
– Runtime: 118 minutes
– Worldwide gross: $333.1 million
– Highest-grossing film of 1984
– TMDB score: 7.3/10

The film made $333.1 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing film of 1984. It earned that money. It also drew criticism on release, and the reasons have not aged away — the Thuggee cult, the child slavery, the ritual sacrifice and the trance sequence are a lot of cruelty for a film with a wisecracking kid in it.

Lucas decided against using Nazis as the villains again and treated the film as a prequel instead. Three plot devices were rejected before Lucas wrote a treatment resembling the final storyline. Lawrence Kasdan, his collaborator on Raiders of the Lost Ark, turned down the script, so Huyck and Katz — who had worked with Lucas on American Graffiti — were hired. That is a reasonable explanation for the tonal swing. It is not an excuse.

Where This Lands

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a prequel that behaves like a sequel, which is its central trouble. It escalates where it should hold back: more sacrifice, more screaming, more Willie.

Capshaw gets the worst of it. Willie is written as a damsel in distress and stays one, and the film asks her to be funny about it. The nightclub is called Club Obi-Wan, a nod to the Star Wars franchise, and that joke is funnier than most of what Willie is given.

What holds up is the machinery. The raft escape, the mine tunnels, the banquet, the sacrifice sequence — Spielberg stages all of it with a physical clarity that most modern adventure films have lost. Ford is fully settled in the part. Quan is a genuine find. Puri gives the film a villain with weight.

The film is remembered as the dark one, and it earns that. A 7.3 out of 10 on TMDB is the honest number. The craft is excellent, the cruelty is real, and the two do not balance cleanly.

7.3/10 on TMDB

1984 movies · Harrison Ford · Indiana Jones · movie review · Steven Spielberg · Temple of Doom