Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

**Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom** is a 1984 film starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone and Jonathan Ke Quan, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz and produced by Robert Watts.

The film was a financial success as it generated a profit of $110 million.

## Plot

In 1935, Indiana Jones narrowly escapes the clutches of Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai, China. With his 11-year-old Chinese sidekick Short Round and the nightclub singer Willie Scott in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on an airplane that, unbeknownst to them, is owned by Lao Che. While the three of them are asleep on the plane, the pilots dump the fuel and parachute out, leaving the plane to crash over the Himalayas. Indy, Shorty, and Willie discover the sabotage and narrowly manage to escape by jumping out of the plane on an inflatable raft. They ride down the mountain slopes and fall into a raging river, eventually arriving at the village of Mayapore in northern India. The impoverished villagers believe the three to have been sent by Shiva to retrieve the sacred sivalinga stone stolen from their shrine, as well as the community's missing children, from evil forces in the nearby Pankot Palace. During the journey to Pankot, Indy hypothesizes that the stone may be one of the five fabled Sankara stones that promise fortune and glory.

The trio receive a warm welcome from the Prime Minister of Pankot Palace, Chattar Lal. The visitors are allowed to stay the night as guests, during which they attend a lavish but grotesque banquet given by the young Maharaja, Zalim Singh. Lal rebuffs Indy's questions about the villagers' claims and his theory that the ancient Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles. Later that night, Indy is attacked by an assassin, leading Indy, Willie, and Shorty to believe that something is amiss. After Indy kills the assassin, they discover a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue in Willie's room and set out to explore them, overcoming a number of booby-traps along the way.

The trio eventually reach an underground temple where the Thugs worship Kali with human sacrifice. They watch as the Thugs chain one of their victims in a cage and slowly lower him into a ceremonial lava pit, burning him alive. They discover that the Thugs, led by their high priest Mola Ram, are in possession of three of the five Sankara stones, and have enslaved the children to mine for the last two. As Indy tries to retrieve the stones, he, Willie, and Shorty are captured and separated. Indy is whipped and forced to drink a potion called the Blood of Kali, causing him to enter a trance-like state and mindlessly serve the Thugs. Willie is prepared for sacrifice, while Shorty is whipped and put to work in the mines alongside the children. Shorty breaks free and escapes back into the temple, where he burns Indy with a torch to bring him back to his senses. After fighting off the guards and defeating Lal, Indy stops Willie's cage and cranks it out of the pit just in time to save her from the fire, while Mola Ram escapes. Indy retrieves the Sankara stones, and the three return to the mines to free the children. As Indy fights a hulking overseer, Singh—also under Mola Ram's control—tries to cripple him with a voodoo doll. Shorty knocks the doll away and burns him to break the trance, and a restored Indy escapes and leaves the overseer to die in a rock crusher.

The trio escape from the temple in a mine cart, pursued by Thugs, while Mola Ram orders a water cistern dumped in an attempt to flood them out. After barely escaping the deluge, they are again cornered by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a rope bridge high above a crocodile-infested river. Indy cuts the bridge in half with one man's sword, leaving everyone to hang on for their lives. As he and Mola Ram struggle over the stones, he invokes the name of Shiva, causing them to glow white-hot. Mola Ram burns his hand on the stones, causing him to lose his grip and fall to his death; Indy catches the last one safely and climbs up as a company of British Indian Army riflemen, summoned by Singh, arrive and open fire on the Thuggee archers trying to shoot him. Indy, Willie, and Shorty return to Mayapore with the children and give the missing stone back to the villagers.