10 things you might not know about INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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10 things you might not know about INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM

Geek Dave offers up 10 bits of trivia you might not know about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.


1. The original title for the movie was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death.

2. George Lucas planned a motorbike chase along the Great Wall of China as the opening scene for Temple of Doom. However the Chinese authorities didn't like that idea at all and rejected the request to film there, so the Shanghai club scene was written in its place.


3. You might not have noticed but that the name of that Shanghai club is more than just a subtle nod towards Star Wars - "Club Obi Wan"!

4. It wasn't just China that had problems with the movie. Producer Robert Watts and production designer Elliott Scott traveled to India to scout out potential locations for the upcoming shoot. They were ecstatic to discover that the country had suitable locations for nearly every scene they needed, meaning the movie could be achieved on the $28 million budget. However (there's always a 'however'!) the Indian government found the script offensive to their culture. The production team offered to make changes but negotiations did not go well, the Indian government would only agree if given authority over the final cut which was never going to happen and so the plans to shoot in India were scrapped. Subsequently, when Temple of Doom was released it was initially banned in India.

5. Although substitutes for some of those Indian locations were found in Sri Lanka, many were recreated at Paramount Studios, Hollywood and Elstree in the UK. One small scene was even shot in Gatorland, Orlando. You know the shot at the end of the film when the bad guys fell off the bridge into the river below? The bridge was in Kandy, Sri Lanka but those 'gators' were Florida's finest.


6. Both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas appear in the background during the airport scene near the beginning of the movie. In the same scene Dan Aykroyd has a brief cameo as a character called Weber, who walks the Willie (Kate Capshaw) to the plane.

7. The sound effects for the mine cart scene were recorded at Disneyland, California. Sound designer Ben Burtt and sound mixer Gary Summers spent two hours in the park one evening whilst it was closed. They rode and recorded every roller coaster to find the right sound of the mine carts.

8. Indian actor Amrish Puri portrayed the bad guy Mola Ram in Temple of Doom. He was a huge Bollywood star at the time (and right up until his death in 2005), and whilst filming the second Indy installment he was also shooting 18 other movies!!! He had to shoot his scenes in small chunks and go between productions.




9. Whilst shooting the scene where Indy is strapped to the boulder in Mola Ram's Temple and about to be whipped, Spielberg played a joke on Harrison Ford. He had Barbara Streisand walk in and start whipping him instead. She's wearing a dominatrix outfit and lashes him whilst saying things like "This is for all the money you're going to make from Return of the Jedi". It might be difficult to make out in the clip above but someone walks in and kisses Ford, he says "Who's that", the reply is "Someone who needs you". That was Carrie Fisher. Oh the fun they had!

10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is quite a dark movie, with a man pulling the still-beating heart out of another man and death by lava pit, to name just two of the gruesome scenes, but it was still given a PG rating. However many parents complained about all the violence and felt it really wasn't suitable for younger children. Steven Spielberg then wrote to the Motion Picture Association of America and suggested they add a new category of certificate. In fact he even suggested four possible names; PG-13, PG-14, PG-2 or R-13. The President of the MPAA, Jack Valenti liked the idea and introduced the PG-13 category. So Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually inspired a brand new movie category, cool eh?

Previously
10 things you might not know about Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Next time it's the turn of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

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