Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom: 10 Funniest Goofs & Mistakes That Made It Into The Film

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was an attempt to capitalize on the runaway success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, this time with a much darker, yet fantastic fantasy prequel story. It’s a critical mixed bag but lauded for its many successes. Unfortunately, it’s also renowned for its many mistakes, and there are a lot of goofs that crept into the final cut of the film.

Naturally, many of these mistakes are downright funny and entertaining, and it’s hard to fault the filmmakers for missing little things while filming such a huge movie. Some, however, are a bit jarring, and it’s a wonder why nobody caught the mistake during the editing process. Still, it’s a whole new way to view Temple of Doom, while learning why it helped inspired a future crop of high-earning PG-13 films.

10 The Baby Eels

The infamous dinner sequence was Steven Spielberg’s attempt to gross out the audience in the most disgusting manner possible. He kicks the entire horrid affair off with what’s known as a Coiled Wriggly, consisting of a boa constrictor stuffed with live baby eels. Once cut open, the eels spill out, to the horror of Willie and Short Round.

In reality, eating uncooked live eels might just be a death sentence, given their inherent toxicity. Eel blood is dangerous to consume, as is the skin, depending on the species. Cooking eel at high temperatures takes care of the blood problem, while the rest of the animal is filleted accordingly. It’s one of the most nonsensical scenes of the entire franchise, designed to elicit some cheap laughs.

9 The Centipede Error

Viewers who are terrified of insects and spiders in movies probably had to look away during the scene when Indy and Short Round are almost crushed to death with a falling roof. It’s all up to Willie, who wades into a nest of creepy crawlies in order to save them, while they start covering her body.

Amidst all the relatively harmless bugs in the scene is one rather massive centipede, and it’s quite possibly a Scolopendra Gigantea. This is a highly aggressive and voracious species of centipede that will not hesitate to attack. Its bite is extremely painful and potentially fatal to humans, so there’s no way it would be crawling on her casually.

8 Superheated Lava

There’s some debate as to whether the first sacrifice seen in Temple of Doom is realistic, or not. When the victim is lowered into the lava pit, he is virtually incinerated, as evidenced by the empty cage that is drawn back up afterward. But technically, there should be a skeleton there, given that bone doesn’t melt until at least 1,600C.

However, lava temperature increases with flow and can shoot up as high as 2,100C. The lava depicted in Temple of Doom is orange in color, signifying intense heat, but it’s not moving in a flowing pattern, but rather a swirl. Technically, this lava shouldn’t be hot enough to melt a skeleton down. If it was, Willie would never have survived being in such close proximity to it.

7 Mola Ram’s Helmet

Pickup shots are both a blessing and a curse. They can be used to fill in gaps in the shot for the sake of continuity, but they can also mess up a shot just as easily. A perfect instance of this takes place in the third act of the film when Indiana Jones regains his sanity and battles Mola Ram’s forces. He then turns his attention to Mola Ram, who disappears through a trap door.

Before Indy rushes him, Ram takes off his signature helmet. Right before he strikes, a second shot shows him with his helmet on, before it quickly cuts to the shot of him escaping through the trap door. It’s easy to miss, given the speed of the sequence, but it can’t be un-seen once pointed out.

6 Willie’s Disappearing Bling

After capturing Indy, Short Round and Willie for snooping on their sacrificial activities, Mola Ram forcibly indoctrinates Indy to the point where he’s ready to kill his friends while preparing Willie to be the next offering. They adorn her in a series of elaborate garb and accessories, including a rather large number of ceremonial necklaces around her neck.

When she’s loaded into the sacrificial cage, all of her necklaces are present, but after a quick cutaway shot, they’ve mysteriously vanished. It’s possible that the Thuggee cult members removed all the necklaces after securing her, but it’s far more likely that somebody fumbled the continuity while the scene was being filmed.

5 The Tenacious Voodoo Doll

During the scene when Indy fights the hulking Maharajah in the mines, the young indoctrinated Prince uses the equivalent of a voodoo doll to inflict agony by stabbing it with a large pin. Short Round makes his way up to the Prince and tries to stop him from using the doll, effectively pulling his arms away and separating it from the pin.

The cutaway shot shows the doll landing on the ground with the pin still in it, which continues to inflict torturous pain on Indy. It’s surprising that nobody noticed this continuity error while shooting, since the pin needed to remain in the doll for the tension to build appropriately.

4 The Water Problem

During the famous mine cart chase (one of the highlights of the film), the Thuggee cult members topple a gigantic water reservoir, which causes a massive tidal wave of water to rush through the caverns and chase Indy, Willie and Short Round to the very edge of the mine.

In reality, this is highly far-fetched and embellished. The sheer number of twists, turns and chasms strewn throughout the mine would have redirected the water flow six ways from Sunday, leaving little more than a few droplets to pour out at the end of the shaft. Then again, the scene wouldn’t have been as exciting.

3 Indy’s Instant Sword

In the final act of the film, before Indy makes his way to the rope bridge, he squares off against two Thuggee cult members wielding large swords. With no guns to fall back on, he goes up against them using just his whip, but there’s a massive error in there that can’t be covered up with conventional editing.

Indy manages to wrap his whip around the sword arm of one of the cultists, yanking the blade out of his hand and sending it spiraling off the mountainside. In the very next shot, the cult member is unconscious (somehow), and Indy is wielding his sword in his other hand. It’s not quite as iconic as the battle with the swordsman in Raiders, but it’s worth a nod.

2 The Shifting River

Two distinct rivers appear to have been used for the scene where Indy, Willie and Short Round face down the Thuggee on the rope bridge. Depending on the angle and shot, the river changes in appearance, while the only things that remain constant are the crocodiles waiting underneath.

Some shots show the river as very narrow and full of loose rocks, while others, particularly the close-up shots, show it to be massively wide. It doesn’t really matter in the grand context of the scene, but it is a bit jarring when the two shots are compared side by side.

1 The Visible Safety Cord

After Indy slashes the rope bridge and causes it to split in two, the action shifts to the mountainside, where he battles Mola Ram for the bag of stones. After narrowly escaping having his heart yanked out his chest, Mola Ram ascends the ladder, but he loses his grip when Short Round and Willie kick at his hands, which sends him tumbling down into Indy.

During that particular shot, there safety cord attached to Harrison Ford can clearly be seen clinging to his waistline. It’s a wonder why nobody thought to digitally remove it for future home releases of Temple of Doom, but it’s still there, sticking out like a sore thumb to this day.

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