Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

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

1984 1h 58m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

🍅

77%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.3TMDB · 10,433🍅77%Rotten Tomatoes●57Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 564,776

AdventureAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees – and stumbles upon a secret cult plotting a terrible plan in the catacombs of an ancient palace.

“If adventure has a name... it must be Indiana Jones.”

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Cast

Harrison Ford
Indiana Jones
Kate Capshaw
Willie Scott
Ke Huy Quan
Short Round
Amrish Puri
Mola Ram
Roshan Seth
Chattar Lal
Philip Stone
Phillip Blumburtt
Roy Chiao
Lao Che
David Yip
Wu Han

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, George Lucas
Languages: Mandarin, English, Sinhalese
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $333M — a 11.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

42 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Mandarin, English, Sinhalese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Indiana Jones Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Steven Spielberg, shot by Douglas Slocombe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Kahn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw and Ke Huy Quan carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Steven Spielberg directs. Douglas Slocombe behind the camera. John Williams scores. Michael Kahn cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Mandarin, English, Sinhalese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $333M — a 11.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
242 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Mandarin, English, Sinhalese.
4Part of the "Indiana Jones Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Steven Spielberg, shot by Douglas Slocombe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Michael Kahn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw and Ke Huy Quan carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "If adventure has a name... it must be Indiana Jones.".
10IMDB entry: tt0087469 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11The top-rated still from this film on TMDB has 4 community votes — a signal the frame composition stuck with viewers.
1210,433 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
13Classified under 25 themes, including "treasure", "skeleton", "wind", "elephant".
14Released under 25 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Original score: John Williams
Editing: Michael Kahn
Production design: Elliot Scott
Costume design: Anthony Powell
Makeup / hair: Peter Robb-King
VFX supervisor: Dennis Muren
Sound: Ben Burtt
Stunt coordinator: Dean Raphael Ferrandini
Runtime: 118 min · 1h 58m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $28,000,000
Box office: $333,107,271
Return: 1190% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Rotten Tomatoes: 77% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 57/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 564,776 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 11 wins & 22 nominations total

Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Indiana Jones Collection

Adventure film series created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman starring Harrison Ford as archaeologist Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., and directed by Steven Spielberg and James Mangold. Spanning the globe, on death-defying archeological endeavors, if adventure has a name... it must be Indiana Jones.

Also by

Steven Spielberg

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Potential Kermode2017-02-13
★ 9/10
The best film in the series Raiders was great but suffered patches of slowness where the momentum was damaged - I know people who actually fast forward Raiders when Indy and Sallah discover the Well of Souls and begin watching the film again at the plane fight sequence. Temple of Doom, however, is a non stop rollercoaster ride - a thrilling, violent and funny adventure. Spielberg's best action film, in my opinion. Violence, horror, sentimentality, thrills, comedy - Temple has it all! And more!!! John Williams provides a superb Indian infused score performed beautifully by the ever reliable London Symphony Orchestra probably my favourite musical score of the series too. Indy takes a severe beating in this adventure, famously losing his shirt sleeve in the process - whereas in the toned down Raiders rehash, Last Crusade, he merely gets a bit of dust on his hat. A great whirlwind of energy this film is. Love it! - Potential Kermode
Gimly2017-10-18
★ 5/10
Simultaneously both more grim and more silly than the Indiana Jones films either side of it, The Temple of Doom was my favourite of the series as a kid. As an adult though, it seems it is objectively the worst movie in the trilogy, but damn if there isn't a lot of memorable parts to love about it. Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.
John Chard2018-12-24
★ 9/10
Spielberg on devilishly OTT form! Prior to the long mooted and eventual release of part 4, Temple Of Doom was often thought of as the weakest part of the series, yet it actually appears to me to be maturing nicely with age. With honest appraisal I see the only crime that Temple Of Doom can be charged with is is not being as good as Raiders Of The Lost Ark. But since few films can match that movie's classic status I find it churlish to do the second film down for it. Temple Of Doom is a frenetic roller-coaster ride, full of enough crash bang wallop fit to grace any action adventure in the history of cinema. The set pieces are pure outrageous fun; life raft escape from a crashing plane, mine cart thrill ride & a bridge sequence that is pure boys own brilliance. And while the film finds Spielberg cramming the action with a darkly sinister streak (hence the PG13 rating), we find that the fun still far outweighs any horror that junior viewers might get from certain scenes. The film also finds Ford giving his best performance as Indiana Jones since the plot calls for a more humane Jones. In fine physical shape, his witty interplay with Short Round is coupled with a textured feel of friendship that plays real well up on the screen. Kate Capshaw was always going to struggle to get close to Karen Allen's wonderful turn as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders, for where Marion was feisty and tough, Capshaw's Willie Scott is more scare-d-cat and reliant on Indy's guile to save her from peril, but she does OK and looks gorgeous into the bargain. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a massive hit at the box-office and firmly bought Spielberg the time to then go out and make two dramas in Empire of the Sun (1987) & The Color Purple (1985). He would then return with the third Indiana film to finish what was then a marvellous trilogy; of which Temple Of Doom is the prime piece of meat in the delightful (original) trilogy sandwich. 8.5/10