[Upbeat music playing during narration] If you’re an Indiana Jones fan then stick around
because you’re about to discover 15 behind the scenes facts about Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom.
[Film clapper sound, music continues]
“Temple of Doom” was intentionally darker than “Raiders” partly due to the fact
that both Lucas and Spielberg were dealing with divorces.
The other reason was because “Empire Strikes Back" was the dark sequel of the original
Star Wars trilogy, which did well,
so George Lucas thought to try the same thing with “Temple of Doom”.
However, the two depressed filmmakers didn’t really know how dark it was really going to be
until the editing process when they realized that they had more dark material than light.
Decades later Spielberg went on record to say that “Temple of Doom” is his least favorite Indy film,
but in retrospect he felt fated to make it because he met Kate Capshaw who he married years later.
The filmmakers followed tradition by naming more characters after pets.
Steven Spielberg followed after George Lucas’s footsteps by naming Willy Scott after his Cocker Spaniel,
and Short Round was the name of the screenwriters’ Sheepdog.
The river rafting scene and railcar scene were originally planned to be in “Raiders”
but were scrapped since the first movie was already jam-packed with action scenes,
so the two set pieces were brought back to the table once the decision was made to make a sequel.
The opening musical number was actually one of the last scenes to be filmed
all because of the time it took to create Willy’s red dress.
It had to have so many shiny beads and sequins put on it that the production schedule had
to be rearranged around its construction.
However, the dress got damaged before it was ever worn.
While filming the campfire scene the elephant decided to eat the whole back of the dress
while it hung over a branch.
The costumer was flown out first class to get the very expensive dress repaired
and he thought the insurance office wouldn’t believe him to read a claim that said “damaged by elephant”.
When Kate Capshaw agreed to do the movie she didn’t read the script very carefully
so she was unaware about the snake, bugs, and all the screaming she would have to do.
Capshaw eventually got the courage to film with a snake,
but the first snake scene they had planned was cut by Steven Spielberg
when he saw Capshaw go completely pale and start
to shake uncontrollably by just touching a snake with her finger.
But Spielberg told her that she had to do the bugs, which took her by surprise because
it was the first time she realized the scene even existed.
Over 30,000 bugs were used for the movie and piles of them had to be dumped on Kate Capshaw
who took Valium in order to help her relax during filming.
The scene took several days to film and many of the bugs escaped the set.
Spielberg said every day of filming there were 25% less bugs than the day before,
so by the end of it they only had about a few thousand left.
The mine cart chase was made on a tight budget.
The walls of the miniature mine cart track were built out of aluminum foil
and painted to look like rock.
And a simple Nikon camera was strapped to the back of the mini mine cart.
To film the fast POV shots they actually had to film very slowly at 1 frame per second,
and stop motion animation was used when they needed movement from the characters.
The life size mine cart set took up a whole soundstage
and since it traveled in a circle
they just changed the lighting to make it look longer than it really was.
The sounds of the mine carts running on their tracks were recorded at Disneyland.
The sound designers were given private access to the park late at night so they could ride
all the roller coasters without any of their music and sound effects on.
If you ever wondered what Steven Spielberg’s favorite scene in the Indy series is,
it’s the spike chamber
because of how excited he was to see it built
and it was one of the most fun to shoot and the easiest action set piece to edit.
Kate Capshaw was unaware about how much screaming she would have to do
and it might surprise you that she admitted she didn’t even know how to scream when she accepted the role.
But as you and I know she got plenty of practice in this movie.
The village leader didn’t actually speak any English
so Steven Spielberg dictated all of his lines to him one by one and he recited them back as best he could,
even mimicking the director’s hand motions.
To help you feel less grossed out about the palace dinner scene,
the fake beetles were plastic, filled with custard
and the monkey brains were custard with raspberry sauce.
The eyes in the soup were also plastic and were glued to the bottom of the bowl,
so Kate Capshaw had to scoop deep to break them loose so they would float to the surface.
Harrison Ford suffered a herniated disc in his lower back while flipping a stunt man over his shoulder.
Ford had to be flown out to LA for six weeks to have his surgery but Steven Spielberg needed
to continue filming with the stunt double to keep the movie on schedule.
Once Harrison was back on set he filmed all the close ups to be added in later.
To create the suspension bridge fall,
the steel cables holding it up were rigged to be blown apart at the seam.
This is before the days of heavy CGI work, so the bodies on the bridge were dummies that
had mechanical legs so they could kick as they fell.
The risky part about the whole stunt though was that they didn’t have any time to test
the bridge before filming, so they had eight cameras rolling at several different angles
to make sure they got everything they needed in one take.
“Temple of Doom” created the PG-13 rating.
The movie’s darker tone was slammed by critics and families with young kids who felt that
the PG rating was too soft, and Steven Spielberg agreed.
So he called up his friend who was also the head of the MPAA, or the Motion Picture Association of America,
to see if they could create a rating for films like this that were between PG and R,
which is why we have the PG-13 rating today.
Click a video on the screen to discover more facts about other movies on the channel
so you can keep learning more fun facts about your favorite films.