Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom Fans

Ohh, ok - sorry for misunderstanding you! I get what you were saying now. Yes, just miscommunication.. we're cool!

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark should be shown at film directing school lesson #01 in how to make the perfect adventure movie.

It has an absolutely blistering set-up, which tells you almost all you need to know about the protagonist. He looks for lost artifacts, he's better than his competitors, he is afraid of snakes, he doesn't mind spiders, he carries a bullwhip and isn't afraid to use his revolver. Oh, and he almost always loses everything he manages to get his hands on. That entire opening prologue feels like it is the end of the previous 'episode', which is the intent, being based again on George's love for the old republic serials.

Then it cuts to the college and shows Jones in his other guise and off the main story goes...

Sometimes filmmakers capture lightning in a bottle, Raiders is one of those movies. Cast, story, music, cinematography, tone, everything.

It. is. brilliant.

 

yes the best opening 20 minutes of any movie ever imo.

 

I still have my VHS copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark recorded from an ITV broadcast back in the 1980's when it was on one Christmas. It is complete with some really great old adverts like Club 18-30 with "My Generation" by The Who sang over it, plus adverts for The Yellow Pages and the "new" ZX-Spectrum+ computer.

I watched it over and over as a kid, and those adverts are kind of an inherent part of it now for me lol

 

Well, you can't argue about tastes, but here it is, I said it and still mean it. I didn't say Raiders is "bad", just happen to like TOD better, for reasons already given. Besides, this IS a Doom fans thread after all. Also, Nazis as the villains have already been done to death in Hollywood. Doom is refreshing in that they chose to have a completely different kind of villain, an obscure underground cultist leader, NOT Indians in general. I thing they tried to copy that in Young Sherlock Holmes. In Last Crusade they used the Nazis YET AGAIN. I mean, come on Spielberg and Lucas, show some diversity, you do have enough imagination.
But what's the point of discussing which is the better movie anyway, on a STAR WARS forum of all places? Some people don't mind saying ANH was merely OK, while some say it's boring or even the worst of the saga, while putting ESB on a pedestal. So why would there not be people who find the second Indy superior to the first?

 

Raiders is the more iconic movie, but damn if Temple isn't amazing. Easily my favorite of the sequels.

It's so out-there and bananas, and probably portrays that classic pulp vibe the best of any of the movies. Really fun seeing that nastier, p*ssed-off side of Spielberg too, it's pretty rare.

 

I love both films. I was just joking.

 

So, a Temple of Doom question that’s always had me wondering...

How far do you reckon they travelled in those mine cars? Seemed like a long way, and not in a circle either.

 

@Bob Effette

There could have been a separate mine car going back the other way, unseen. I would say that the mine car could also go in reverse, but the design wasn't clear to me enough to draw that conclucsion

 

Judging from the movie alone they seemed to go in one direction only, and certainly didn't switch cars. Sure, there were lots of curves, but I don't think they went in circles. As to how far, very hard to estimate. I'd say at least 1 km or 2.

 

Well let's say it's in real time. The whole sequence runs from 1:35min to 1:40min, just five minutes. If they were travelling at around 35mph average , doesn't that give them a distance travelled of about 2.9 miles. How does Mola Ram get to the bridge first? How does the water get to them? We need answers!!

 

I wonder if the Thugee guys rode the mine carts like a roller coaster on their time off.

 

Probably some kind of health and safety rule about that..

 

NO STANDING
SECURE ALL LOOSE SANKARA STONES, HEARTS AND SKULLS
KEEP YOUR ARMS, RIFLES AND TURBANS INSIDE THE CART AT ALL TIMES​

 

I actually loved the dark tone and scary imagery, even when I was 9. The mine cart is unforgettable, as is the scene with Lao Che's plane.

"Goodbye, Doctor Jones."

I wish we could have seen Short Round more, maybe as an adult.

This movie's relative isolation from the others is an asset in my opinion. It could be watched before or after ROLA and make perfect sense.

 

For all we know, there could have been enough curves or spirals to hold up the mine cars even though the exit by the bridge wasn't that far away distance-wise. Maybe Mola Ram had his own secret private and straight tunnel to get him outside much faster. As for the water, it wasn't released until Indy and his friends were already a considerable distance away from the source. With all those deep trenches with lava at the bottom I wonder how the water made it to the cliff exit at all. This is just one of many inconsistencies in this as well as all other Indy movies. Normally one kettle of water, even a big one, would not have the capacity to flood multiple corridors and caves in such short a time. In those lava-filled caves all that water would not have a chance to go any further, and most of it would have evaporated after hitting the lava. So we really have to suspend our disbelief a lot watching this movie. But it's fun to watch anyway.

 

@Sith Lord 2015 I really admire you for trying to answer that seriously. lol

Respect.

 

Oh, you were not being serious? Nowadays on the internet it's kind of hard to tell. OK, that last line of yours

should have made the sarcasm clear. Guess I must have overlooked it.

 

More tongue in cheek than sarcastic, but you’re bang on, the movie is great fun anyway despite the need to have a great big suspension of reality.

 

I have a funny memory from my childhood regarding the fight scene in the video below. Indy's strange groaning reaction to getting punched in the chest (at the 1:30 mark) was so hilarious to my little group of friends that we would rewind the tape over and over again while laughing hysterically. Just thought I'd share that.

 

I’m watching ROTJ right now, but since I’m alone all night, I might make it a double feature with Temple of Doom.

 

Isn't the big guy Indy fights the same guy as the German mechanic in Raiders? Pat Roach i believe.

 

Yes, Roach appears in all three 80s Indiana Jones movies. He also was a Gestapo agent in The Last Crusade.

 

Though I think it’s definitely subpar, I don’t hate Crystal Skull like everyone else does. Still, I’m glad Temple of Doom doesn’t get crapped on like it always use to, thanks to Crystal Skull. Starting as a boy back in the ‘80s, I loved all three Indy movies nearly equally, with The Last Crusade as my favorite.

 

I love Temple of Doom and all its gloriously surreal silliness. There's really no other movie like it.