5 Things You Didn’t Know About 1984’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom collage — Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

After the massive success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was only natural that Indiana Jones received a sequel. In this case, the follow-up film — Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — was a prequel, set one year before the events of the first movie. Opening over Memorial Day weekend of 1984, Temple of Doom took in nearly $34 million (across the four-day holiday weekend) to become the No. 1 title at the box office. That, however, was short-lived (more on that below).

The prequel film is set in 1935, and after tussling with thugs in Shanghai, Indy (Harrison Ford), his street urchin sidekick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) and singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) barely escape when their plane goes down in the Himalayas. They find themselves helping the residents of an Indian village, whose children have been enslaved by an evil cult that is using them to dig in mines seeking two sacred stones with supposed mystical powers.

Here are a few things you might not have known about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in celebration of the film’s release, which was May 23, 1984.

1 Competition during the summer of 1984 knocked “Indy” out of the No. 1 Box-Office position

GHOSTBUSTERS, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, 1984, (c)

Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection

The film began dropping in gross and rank the following week after its premiere, but still came in at No. 10 by the time the Labor Day weekend rolled around. A couple of factors contributed to this. Temple of Doom faced tough competition from other big-name summer titles like Ghostbusters, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Gremlins.

2 The film’s intensity, violence and horrific scenes might have turned away viewers

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, Ke Huy Quan & Harrison Ford, 1984

Paramount / Everett Collection

Elements of this Indy film may also have turned away some viewers. In coming up with an Indy adventure that was different from Raiders, director Steven Spielberg and executive producer George Lucas may have made it too different for some. The prequel’s story was a lot darker, even horrific in spots, and many of its violent scenes — notably a sacrifice victim having his heart ripped out — were so shocking to see in a PG-rated film that it was one of the titles that year that led Hollywood to begin using the PG-13 rating.

3 Dan Aykroyd makes a brief cameo

Dan Aykroyd has a brief cameo during the opening scene where Indy, Willie and Short Round flee Shanghai with crime boss Lao Che (Roy Chiao) hot on their tail. Aykroyd plays Weber, a British gent who finds them a cargo plane on which to escape — a plane that unfortunately turns out to be owned by Che.

4 A little love given to Producer George Lucas

Director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas on the set of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, 1984, (c) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

The name of the nightspot where Indy clashes with Che is “Club Obi Wan,” a little reference to another classic George Lucas production. Pictured is Spielberg (left) with Lucas on the set.

5 Leftover story concepts from Raiders made it into Temple of Doom

Some sequences in this film — Indy escaping machine gun fire while shielded behind a giant rolling gong, the escape from a crashing plane using an inflatable raft and the mine cart chase — had originally been planned for Raiders but were cut for various reasons: time, cost, story flow or (believe or not) lack of believability.