Temple of Doom Trivia

Sharon Stone was one of the top choices for the role of Willie Scott before Kate Capshaw auditioned.

Shots of mining-car chase were done with models and a 35mm camera modified to hold extra film.

While filming the whipping scene, the crew played a practical joke on Harrison Ford. While Ford was chained to a large stone, Barbra Streisand appeared, dressed in a leather dominatrix outfit. She proceeded to whip him, saying "That's for Hanover Street, the worst movie I ever saw." She continued whipping him for Star Wars, and making all of that money. Carrie Fisher then threw herself in front of Ford to protect him, and Irvin Kershner chided director Steven Spielberg. "Is this how you run your movies?" The entire sequence was filmed, but it has yet to be seen by the public.

Because the rope bridge used during the final fight scene was not an optical effect, Steven Spielberg would never cross over it, and had to drive a mile and a half to reach the other side.

The club at the beginning is called "Club Obi Wan", a reference to Star Wars.

Temple of Doom contains a reference to one of the scenes from Star Wars when Han Solo chases Storm Troopers down a hall, screaming. Indiana Jones does the same when he runs off a swordsman screaming. He then turns and runs as he is followed by an army of swordsman coming at him.

Temple of Doom includes an homage to Raiders when Indy confronts two swordsmen but this time he doesn't have a gun to shoot them with.

This film inspired the PG-13 MPAA rating.

An early draft of the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark had Indy traveling to Shanghai to recover a piece of the Staff of Ra. During his escape from the museum where it was housed, he sheltered from machine gun fire behind a giant rolling gong. The same script also featured Indy and Marion fleeing destruction in a mine-cart chase. Both of these scenes were cut from that script, but resurface in this movie.

Short Round was named after screenwriter Willard Huyck's dog, which was named after the orphan in The Steel Helmet.

The village shaman refers to the Sankara stone as "Shiva linga". In traditional Hinduism, the linga is a tall, cylindrical stone representative of a phallus, often set inside a circle representing the yoni, or female organ. Together, the two symbols stand for the dualistic sexual energy of the god Shiva.

During the sacrifice, Mola Ram chants in Hindi, imploring "Kali Ma Shakti de," asking for the "Spiritual power of Mother Kali."

The rotating tabletop used to exchange items in the opening Club Obi Wan sequence is still common in Shanghai restaurants. It's normally used for easy access to the multiple dishes served at meals.

The film came under fire when it was released for being racist.

Dan Aykroyd makes a small cameo at the beginning of Temple of Doom as Weber.

Steven Spielberg & Frank Marshall both make cameos as a tourists in the background in the airport scene at the beginning of the film.

To meet audience demands for a universal undesirable equivalent of snakes, Spielberg came up with the bugs.

Short Round's car is a 1936 Auburn Boat-tail Speedster, a highly popular car in the 1930s.

The "chilled monkey-brains" were made from whipped cream and red food-coloring.

The rope bridge was coated in sand to make it briefly leave an afterimage of itself in mid-air when it collapsed.

The footage of the giant bats as Jones, Willie and Short Round pass through the jungle on their way to Pankot Palace is taken from David Lean's Bridge on the river Kwai. Spielberg himself is a huge fan of Lean, citing him as the inspiration behind his decision to become a director.

The sound effect we hear in the opening sequence on the plane is the same failing-engine sound effect used when Han Solo's Millennium Falcon fails to crank up in Star Wars.