Check Out the Trailer

For the second INDIANA JONES film, Dr. Jones heads off to China and India. Actually taking place before the events of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the new tale is much darker than the original, featuring blood cults and child slaves. Like the original, TEMPLE OF DOOM borrows themes from classic pulp cinema. Less of a globetrotting adventure, DOOM stands puts Indy against megalomaniacal bad guys and their impenetrable fortress, where their plot to take over the world is being constructed under ground. If RAIDERS was the serial-style adventure than DOOM is the BOND-like escapade.

Starting in China, Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, STAR WARS) is making a shady deal with Chinese gangster Lao Che (Roy Chiao, TOUCH OF ZEN), who is dating the pretty American singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw, DREAMSCAPE). When the deal goes bad, Indy escapes just in time with the aide of his kid sidekick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan, THE GOONIES). After surviving a plane crash, Indy, Short Round and Willie end up in India where a devastated village asks Indy to go to Pankot palace, where a Kali Thuggee cult has taken their magic stone and imprisoned their children. The cult leader Mola Ram (Amrish Puri, GANDHI) is using the children to dig for the two remaining missing stones, so that his power can be complete.

Outside of the jungle location, the film is very Bond-like in nature. The villains sitting down to dinner with the hero, discussing how powerful they are. The underground lair. Indy’s suave behavior with Willie. Producer George Lucas, director Steven Spielberg, and screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz combine those elements with elements from Satanic horror films of the 1950s. Human sacrifice. Drinking blood. Zombie henchmen. Black magic.

As a prequel, the story paints Indiana as a man seeking “fame and fortune.” Through the experience, he matures, which fits into his more research oriented motivations in the other films in the series. For INDY 2, the adventuring archeologist gets two sidekicks. Short Round is in the mold of Batman’s Robin or the kid from Dick Tracy. A plucky orphan who idolizes the hero and tries to emulate him. Willie, on the other hand, is in the tradition of the dumb blonde dead weight sidekick. As a kid I remember finding her primped princess in the muddy jungle shtick funny, but as an adult, the part carries on the tradition of those characters being dumb and annoying. That said it is not the fault of Capshaw whom does the best she can with the character, making her more of a priss than a dimwit.

I do agree with Dave Kehr’s assessment that some parts are no better than “a ten-year-old boy trying to gross out his baby sister by dangling a dead worm in her face.” This point directly goes to the over-the-top gross-out food options at the palace feast. Eyeball soup, really? These details are just the subjects that led scholars like Yvette Rosser to complain that the film has attributed to bad misconceptions about Hindus and Indian culture. But nothing in the film paints the actions of the bad guys as a wider view on India. So are misconceptions really the fault of the filmmakers or that of the culturally unaware audience? No one believes all Germans are evil, because Nazis are the go-to bad guys in hundreds of films, so they should do the same with any group of people. But sadly that doesn’t always happen.

TEMPLE OF DOOM is a dark thrill ride, in the tradition of classic horror films, but with more action. You get a daring (if not impossible) escape from a falling plane, brawls with assassins, human sacrifices in a pit of lava, a mine cart chase, finished off with a battle on a rope suspension bridge. While none of the sequels are as good as the original, none of the INDIANA JONES films repeat themselves. They’re sometimes silly, thrilling and grand adventures with an interesting twist each time. And Harrison Ford brings the perfect “oh crap” quality to his smart hero that always makes every impossible situation even more fun.

Support the Site

Buy “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” Here!