tek's rating: ½

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (PG)
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This came out in 1984. It's the second movie in the "Indiana Jones" franchise, but it's actually a prequel, set about a year before the first movie. I have no idea why. Anyway, I suppose it has some iconic bits, but not nearly as many as the first movie. I must have seen the movie, either in part or in whole, when I was a kid, but by the time I re-watched it in 2024, I didn't remember much about it. Possibly the only thing I did actually remember was a bad guy reaching into someone's chest and pulling out his heart. Oh, and the monkey brains at dinner. Most of the other things I might consider iconic are actually things that have happened in plenty of other movies, and I'm not sure whether they originated here or elsewhere, such as a sort of rollercoaster mine cart, and a wood and rope bridge being cut down while people are on it.

So, in 1935, Indiana Jones is in Shanghai, trying to complete a deal he'd made with a guy named Lao Che, who double crosses him. Indy escapes aboard a plane with his young sidekick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) and a singer named Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw). But over India, the pilots abandon the plane, leaving it to crash. But Indy and the others manage to escape that as well. I must say, I have no idea why Willie went with Indy and Short Round, that made no sense to me. It also made no sense to me when the movie eventually shoehorned in some vaguely romantic interactions between Indy and Willie, as they didn't even like each other. But whatever.

They come to a village in India, where the people want them to go to Pankot Palace and retrieve a sacred stone that had been stolen from the village, as had all the village's children. Indy agrees, and the three of them are welcomed by Pankot's prime minister. That night, Indy discovers a secret passage into a hidden temple within the palace, where a bunch of people are worshipping some god, and all the kidnapped children are being used as slave labor to look for two of five sacred stones the cultists wanted. They already had three of the stones, including the one that had been stolen from the village.

So... lots of stuff happens that I don't want to spoil. It's all reasonably exciting, I guess. Eventually, Indy gets the stones and escapes with Short Round and Willie, and return the stolen stone and children to the village. I must say, I didn't like this movie as much as the first one, but it was still a decent adventure story. I'm afraid I can't think of anything more to say about the movie.


action/adventure index

Indiana Jones franchise
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movies: Raiders of the Lost Ark * Temple of Doom * Last Crusade * Kingdom of the Crystal Skull * Dial of Destiny
TV: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles