Indiana Jones arrives in India and is asked by an Indian village to retrieve and bring back a sacred stone that was stolen from them along with their children.
Blaine: While George Lucas was discussing “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with Steven Spielberg, he made him agree to direct two more films after that. The thing was George only had an idea for one movie at the time. After “Raiders” both George and Steven had to think about what the two sequels were going to be about. There was a lot of sequences that they didn’t get to use in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” because it was already packed with a lot of stuff and there was no room to fit anything else in it. One of the things they didn’t get to use for “Raiders” was a river rafting scene and another one was the mine car chase scene that is supposed to be like a roller coaster ride. Steven had all those ideas saved for the next “Indiana Jones" film.
George thought that Indiana Jones’ next adventure should take place in India. George had hired Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz to help him write the script for “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” because he knew that they had studied a lot about India. They traveled there once and they collected Indian art. George Lucas had wanted “Temple of Doom” to be more dark compared to the last one just like how “Empire Strikes Back” became the darkest chapter to the “Star Wars” trilogy. George then came up with the idea that “Temple of Doom” would be about the Kali cult involving black magic. Harrison Ford had to get in better shape for “Temple of Doom” because he was going to be shirtless a lot of the time and so he did a lot of weight training.
Steven had thought about bringing the character Marion Ravenwood back as Indiana’s love interest, but he and George had discussed it and thought there should be a different girl for each “Indy” film just like how there’s a different Bond girl for every James Bond film. Willie Scott, the second Indiana Jones girl, was named after Steven’s dog just like Indiana was named after George’s dog. Kate Capshaw wasn’t interested in being apart of an “Indiana Jones” film at first. She wanted to be apart of movies that are foreign or artistic, but then she thought that maybe a movie like this could give her the big break she needs in order to give her the film opportunities she desires. Kate brought props for her screen test and Steven was really impressed with the way she was acting that it made him believe she was Willy Scott. George wanted “Temple of Doom” to start off with a musical number and dancing. Steven had always wanted to shoot a musical and so he was all for it. They hired a choreographer named Danny Daniels. Kate Capshaw had to learn the song she was going to sing. It was a dream come true for Kate because she loved to dance and sing. Kate would go through the script and it said Willy screams several times and she asked herself if Willy could do anything besides scream all the time because she didn’t know how to scream. Steven would teach Kate how to scream and they would joke around about it on set.
Ke Huy Quan was a twelve year old boy at the time and originally he was bringing in his little brother to audition for Indiana Jones’ sidekick, Short Round. The casting directors and Harrison Ford had their eyes on Ke Huy after they saw him telling his brother what to do in the audition. They had him audition with Harrison and they loved him so much that got the part of Short Round.
Producer Robert Watts scouted India and found many great locations, but the place he liked the most was the Amber Palace in Jaipur, that they used as the palace. They would need permission from the government for what should be kept in the script and what should be taken out that represented India.
D.R. Nanayakkara, who played Shaman the wise one and speaker of the village, was an actor who only spoke Singhalese and his role required him to speak English. So Steven had him copy the words that were coming out of his mouth when he read his lines to him. Steven would also do hand movement to go with the lines so that when D.R. would be looking at Steven doing the hand movements he would know the line he was supposed to be saying.
Kate Capshaw didn’t read the script very carefully to find out there was going to be a scene where she falls into a lake and snakes would slither around her. She felt uncomfortable doing that so they took that scene out of the movie. Steven made a deal with Kate that she would only have to deal with one snake during the scene where a snake comes down around her neck believing it’s the elephant’s trunk. Kate did however have to deal with a lot of bugs.
Steven, George, Gloria and Bill were trying to figure out what the next creepy crawly thing should be after they used snakes for “Raiders” and bugs was recommended. So they got millions of bugs. Kate was given something to help her relax from all the bugs that they had put on her. And then when the cameras were rolling she would freak out for real. The spike room was based on the stuff Steven watched as a kid and he thought they should add that into the film. It excited Steven to see that spike room be constructed because it brought back memories.
Steven, George and the co-writers were having fun and a few laughs while they were disgusting the dinner scene of all these disgusting foods like snakes, bugs and monkey brains. It reminded Steven of when he used to tease his younger sisters when he was a kid.
Roshan Seth had given up acting and went back to India, but then he was hired to be apart of “Gandhi”, directed by Richard Attenborough, and he liked the experience he had in that movie. Then he was hired to play Chatter Lal, one of the bad guys of “Temple of Doom”.
The evil temple was the hugest set of “Temple of Doom” and it looked like an opera hall to Steven because he had never seen a set as big as that. Steven really liked the red lighting his cinematographer, Douglas Slocombe, did for the set in order to make it look like something dark and evil. He lit the pit with nine-lights.
Harrison got an injury on his back while they were shooting the scene where Indiana Jones fights off the assassins in his suite in the Pankot Palace. Harrison would flip the guy off of him, then the guy would flip Harrison back and that’s when he hurt his back. Harrison was in pain and called out for help. Harrison would continue to work through the rest of the movie, but he would be in terrible pain. There was a bed on the set that he would lie down on while taking a break. George was in Hollywood and Steven called him to come down and take a look at Harrison. George saw how terrible Harrison looked, so he recommended to give Harrison a vacation and have surgery done on his back. The surgery was successful and it took three weeks for Harrison to recover. Meanwhile Steven would just be shooting the mine scene using Harrison’s stunt double without seeing his face. When Harrison came back Steven would shoot close up shots of him. Harrison was in really good shape when he returned. Kate Capshaw got a black eye during the mine scene because Ke Huy Quan accidentally hit her with an object when he was trying to get this big guy off of her during a scene.
Some of the shots of the mine cart chase scene where these little models that were shot at ILM Studios and then the live action shots were done on this set that was almost like a roller coaster. Steven needed a bridge that was high above of a river for when Indiana Jones fights off Mola Ram’s men. A British company was building a dam near Kandy, Sri Lanka and there was a gorge on the other side of the dam. These engineers designed and built the bridge Steven and his team needed which made them very lucky. Steven was really scared to go on that bridge because he is afraid of heights and that bridge was 150-feet high. Steven never took one step on that bridge, but the camera man did even though he was afraid of heights too. Harrison Ford was never afraid crossing that bridge.
Production wrapped after that. When “Temple of Doom” was released it got terrible reviews because it was so dark and people would complain that it wasn’t for kids, but it did pretty well with others. George didn’t care what people thought of “Temple of Doom" because he wanted it to be something different from what “Raiders” was. Steven is thankful that he got something out of “Temple of Doom” and was meeting and getting to know his future wife, Kate Capshaw.
My rating on “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” is five out of five stars.
