Trivia / Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• Actor-Shared Background: Like Kate Capshaw, Willie Scott is from Missouri.
• Acting for Two: Stuntman Bill Reed is seen ringing the gong in the nightclub in the film's opening, and later shows up as an assassin who attacks Indy at Pankot Palace.
• Banned in China: Temporarily banned in India due to its offensive representation of their culture; or more specifically, for the "gross"ly inaccurate feast scene, extremely dark and violent portrayal of the worship of the goddess Kali, and the portrayal of the British colonial authorities in a heroic light. The writers claimed any inaccuracies to the feast scene were intended to be deliberate clues that something wasn't right at Pankot Palace and that the similar inaccuracies to the worship Kali were supposed to be deliberate clues that Mola Ram was evil and a heretic.
• California Doubling:
  • The filmmakers tried to avert this with regards to India, but the Indian government was too offended by the portrayal of their country and so the Indian exteriors were filmed in Sri Lanka instead. The Shanghai exteriors were done in Macau, which was still under Portuguese colonial rule at the time of filming. California filled in for a few more exteriors while the sound stages were, as always, built at Elstree Studios in England.
  • In a DVD documentary, Spielberg notes that the climactic rope bridge battle was filmed on three continents. First, they had an actual rope bridge in Sri Lanka, built and destroyed specifically for the movie. After the bridge splits in half, the shots of Indy and Mola Ram battling on the side of the cliff were done at Elstree Studios in the UK. Finally, the shots of the alligators were filmed by a second unit in Florida.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Spielberg has stated in his interviews that Temple of Doom was his least favorite of the Indiana Jones films, and the best thing about it is that he met Kate Capshaw while making it.
  • Capshaw herself dislikes how much her character is a Damsel Scrappy.
  • According to some sources star Harrison Ford himself was not entirely comfortable with the film's story and, again, according to some sources, he was not entirely happy with how the film turned out either.
  • The predictable reaction to the racist characterizations in this movie (more pronounced in this film than the others) stands as a hard lesson learned by Spielberg; a lesson he took to heart in 2011 when he adapted Tintin, which itself has similarly come under fire for racist depictions.
• Creator Breakdown: The film was produced while George Lucas was going through a divorce, and Steven Spielberg was going through a breakup as well, hence the scene where a sacrificial victim gets his heart ripped out and set ablaze. Lucas has admitted that this may be why the film was made so much Darker and Edgier than its predecessor. It may also explain why Willie is an annoying collection of sexist stereotypes as opposed to the somewhat better female characters in the other films. It probably could be one explanation for the "Shiva is good, Kali is evil" dynamic of Mola Ram's cult. Shiva & Kali are a couple and the masculine & feminine halves of Deity. It's like Shiva & Kali got a divorce. However, this is clearly a heresy on Mola Ram's part rather than Spielberg & Lucas' beliefs or the beliefs of Hinduism.
• Creator's Pest: In the 2003 documentary about the film, Capshaw was very critical of Willie's character, saying that all she does is scream.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In the French dub, Short Round is voiced by Belgian voice actress Jackie Berger.
• Deleted Scene:
  • While traveling to Pankot Palace, Willie is disgusted by the smell of the elephant which carries her and pours the entirety of a bottle of perfume on the animal. In the film, we find a while later that, dissatisfied with being soaked with the stuff, the elephant stops in the middle of a river and, using his trunk, soaks his back as well as his passenger. This causes Willie to fall into the river, which causes general hilarity. Originally, the scene was longer. The elephant did not only react to its "freshening up", but also to Willie's voice. Forgetting the jungle's dangers, thanks to the perfume, and finding a little of its social context, Willie starts begins to loudly sing the song from the beginning of film. Moved by the melody, Indy and Short Round chime in the same way with a song of their own. The perfume and the constant noise is definitely too much for the elephant which, with a bellow, again interrupts the smell and the songs. Indy and Short Round can do nothing else than explode into laughter.
  • Right after the first sacrifice Indy makes his way to the center of the Temple to grab the Sankara Stones. Having put the Stones in his pouch he spots a big stone snake on the top of the altar. Originally, Indy was shown touching the stoned snake in awe, but considering his established snake phobia, the filmmakers came up with the idea of Indy adjusting his hat in a hello manner.
  • As Indy walks past the Temple's altar, to explore where the mysterious cries he hears are coming from, we see Willie and Short Round's encounter with a group of Thuggee guards. As Shorty is being captured Willie manages to flee back to the catacombs. What has been left out is the part that shows Willie's return to her room. Following the same trail that lead them to the underground Temple, Willie finds her way back to her room, there she finds Chattar Lal waiting for her only to be captured again. This little scene, besides the fact that it explains how Willie was captured, reveals for the first time Chattar Lal's allegiance to the Thuggees. When the time came to cut the film Spielberg and Kahn figured that the scene slowed the film's pace while the deletion of it didn't affect anything! Once again Marvel Comics can give a hint of what this scene was all about. Another scene of Indy feeding lies to Captain Blumburt and menacing Willie has not been verified yet.
  • A Thuggee guard is whipping slave children when he is suddenly struck in the legs by lava exploding from a fissure. Short Round who was digging nearby witnessed the guard's awakening from his possessed state before the Thuggee was dragged away by other guards. This scene explained how Short Round knew what to do to bring Indy out of Kali's "black sleep." Although, of great significance to the plot, this scene was cut from the final film for unknown reasons.
  • A scene was shot showing Indy and Willie helping the freed children to cross the lava pit through a makeshift bridge. When the time came for Short Round to cross the pit the bridge had caught fire under the intense heat and Indy and Willie managed to save him in the nick of time from falling in the lava pit. With the bridge crumbled the trio had to find another way out and that was through the mines. As with the above scenes, the most logical explanation for this cut seems to be the pace and not the film's running time, since it ended up at 113 minutes. Even the addition of all of the scenes mentioned on this writing would never push the film over the 120 minute barrier.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Prior to Temple of Doom, Amrish Puri had quite the full head of hair. His role as Mola Ram was so iconic, he kept his head shaved from then on.
  • As he knew that he would spend a large portion of film shirtless, Harrison Ford underwent a strict weightlifting regimen to prepare for the film. In an interview on the DVD release, he credits being in such good shape for his quick recovery from a back injury while filming.
  • Steven Spielberg wanted Willie to be a complete contrast to Marion Ravenwood, so Kate Capshaw dyed her brown hair blonde for the part. Costume Designer Anthony Powell wanted the character to have red hair.
• Enforced Method Acting: Apparently Kate Capshaw was legitimately terrified during the bug tunnel scene (even though the bugs weren't really dangerous). One can only hope she got paid extra for that part.
• Fake Brit: Dan Aykroyd putting on a fake British accent.
• Fake Nationality:
  • The Chinese boy Short Round is played by Vietnamese-American Ke Huy Quan (although Quan’s parents are of Chinese descent). Also, because the movie couldn't be filmed in India, it features many Sri Lankans playing Indians, the result being that most of the "Indians" speak the wrong language.
  • The Thuggee Giant Mook in the mine was played by Pat Roach, an Englishman.
• Hey, It's That Sound!: The mine car chase sequence utilizes the sound of the trains from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at the Disney Theme Parks.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Experienced, lauded pilot Harrison Ford playing someone clueless about flying.
• Looping Lines: Roy Chiao (Lao Che) and Raj Singh (Zalim Singh) performed their dialogue on-set and their respective voice actors, Ron Taylor and Katie Leigh, re-recorded them in post-production.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: The beaded dress worn by Kate Capshaw was eaten by an elephant. You can almost see it in the campfire at night scene ^note (when the elephant's head is just out of frame, it's eating the dress in front of the entire crew). The good news? It was covered by insurance (Spielberg notes that all he could write on the insurance claim for "cause" was "dress eaten by elephant" and hope he was believed). The bad news? It was a dress made of genuine vintage crystal beads.
• On-Set Injury:
  • Harrison Ford herniated a disc in his back filming a fight scene, forcing him to fly back to Los Angeles for an operation. He returned six weeks later, and in the meantime production focused on scenes where stunt double Vic Armstrong could pass for Ford.
  • According to Ke Huy Quan, he accidentally hit Kate Capshaw, giving her a black eye during filming of the mine cart chase scene.
• The Other Darrin: In the French dub, Francis Lax (Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy) replaced Claude Giraud as Indiana Jones. Giraud would come back to voice adult Indy in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
• Portrayed by Different Species: The crocodiles (presumably intended as mugger crocodiles, the species found the light much of India) in the climax are played by American alligators, mainly due to actual crocodiles being dangerously aggressive.
• Referenced by...: Shares a page with the rest of the Indiana Jones franchise.
• Refitted for Sequel: Several scenes were meant for Raiders of the Lost Ark:
  • Much of the original sword fight that would have been between Indy and the swordsman he shot instead made it into the sword fight where Indy tries the same thing, but his gun is missing.
  • The minecart chase was originally planned for Raiders (and even storyboarded) but had to be cut for pacing reasons (it would have taken place right after the ark destroys the Nazis).
  • Indy was originally to find the headpiece to the Staff of Ra in Shanghai, but the scene was cut before shooting. Elements of it (like Indy covering from gunfire behind a rolling gong) are in the opening scene.
  • The villain buying the pilots in Indy's plane, who parachute and leave him to crash, but he saves himself by using an inflatable raft to soften the impact. This was going to happen before Indy arrived in Egypt in Raiders.
• Romance on the Set: After the film was complete, in 1991, Kate Capshaw married Steven Spielberg. He declares it's the only good thing to come out of the movie.
  "In the film it looks like Indiana Jones gets the girl, but in real life, I got the girl." —Steven Spielberg
• Stunt Double: During filming, Harrison Ford injured his back and was out for several weeks. His stunt double, the legendary Vic Armstrong, was very similar in appearance to Harrison (even for a stunt double) and the two could be mistaken for brothers. Steven Spielberg continued work on the film by using Vic to perform the actions filmed from behind and then later filmed a few token close ups of Harrison to keep the illusion. The resemblance was so great, Ford's son would approach and talk to who he thought was his father before discovering it was Armstrong.
• Tribute to Fido: Indy was already named after Lucas' dog, and this film took things further with Willie named after Spielberg's dog, and Short Round after the one for writers Willard Hyuck and Gloria Katz.
• Typecasting: Amrish Puri has a long list of villainous Bollywood roles.
• Uncredited Role:
  • The kid in cage with Short Round and Indiana Jones who says "I pray to Shiva, let me die" is voiced by an uncredited Tress MacNeille.
  • The young Maharaja is dubbed by Katie Leigh and sounds a lot like a little girl as a result.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sharon Stone auditioned for the part of Willie Scott before Kate Capshaw was cast.
  • Chris Columbus wrote a script for this movie, in which Indiana traveled to Africa and dueled a Monkey prince. It was rejected, because of too many negative African stereotypes, but a tank chase sequence in the script was later used in The Last Crusade.
  • Lawrence Kasdan was asked to write the script, but he refused the offer, as he was working on The Big Chill:
    "I didn't want to be associated with Temple of Doom. I just thought it was horrible. It's so mean. There's nothing pleasant about it. I think Temple of Doom represents a chaotic period in both their [Lucas and Spielberg] lives, and the movie is very ugly and mean-spirited."
  • In the original draft, there was supposed to be a motorcycle chase scene across the Great Wall of China. However, the Chinese government refused to grant the permission of filming. Though the motorcycle chase scene was later used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
  • Spielberg originally wanted to bring Marion Ravenwood back, with Abner Ravenwood being considered as a possible character. He and Lucas had already decided that every movie should include a different woman for Indy.
  • A dogfight was deleted from the script, as well as a scene showing those who drank the Kali blood turned into zombies with physical superhuman abilities. Though the dogfight scene was also later used in The Last Crusade.
  • Lucas' initial idea for Indiana's sidekick was a virginal young princess, but the writers and Spielberg disliked the idea.
  • One of Lucas' early ideas had Indiana discover a "Lost World pastiche with a hidden valley inhabited by dinosaurs".
  • One thing was thankfully avoided: Harrison Ford sustained a serious back injury while filming a fight scene, and was in such constant pain that George Lucas considered shutting down production. Ford traveled to the U.S. to get experimental surgery, and luckily it worked and he's still making movies today.
  • George Lucas wanted the movie to take place in a haunted house. Steven Spielberg refused because he had just finished working on Poltergeist, and wasn't interested in "doing that again".
  • According to Paul Freeman, Belloq was considered for a return, but the idea was dropped for unknown reasons, although Lucas and Spielberg told Freeman that they would call him for the second movie.
• Working Title: The film's original title was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death which was changed because it sounded too foreboding. It was retained as the film's German title (Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes).
• You Look Familiar:
  • The Thuggee overseer was portrayed by Pat Roach, who first appeared as a mechanic and the Giant Sherpa in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Frank Marshall, who portrayed the Flying Wing's pilot in Raiders, also appears as a tourist in the airport.

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