After ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ became a huge cinema success in 1981, it was clear that a sequel was needed quickly. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford delivered three years later in the form of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which also did well at the box office, but remains one of the more controversial parts of the saga of the famous archaeologist.
Spielberg himself said of the film that he found it “too dark (…) and far too cruel” – there was none of his personal feelings in the film. Lawrence Kasdan, the screenwriter of the first film, politely declined beforehand and later wasn’t exactly thrilled with the end result: “I hated it. I think it represents a chaotic period in the lives of Lucas and Spielberg and the movie is very ugly and mean.”
In contrast, the author of these lines considers the second “Indiana Jones” adventure to be perhaps the best film of the series, from the brilliant musical opening to the amazingly blatant horror elements to the spectacular truck scene. But no matter how you feel about the film at the end: it is certainly not perfect – because as in every Hollywood blockbuster Has some kind of bug crept into “Temple of Doom” too, which eluded the creators, but not some particularly observant Indy fans.
When the boy Wan “Short Round” Li, played by Ke Huy Quan (Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All At Once”) escapes the evil cult members, he makes his way through the underground dungeon called “Temple”, where he becomes a makes its way past the turbans. child slaves with torches and baskets. If you pause the movie at 81 minutes and 25 seconds and pay close attention to the top right corner of the frame, you’ll notice two people who don’t quite fit into the landscape: a man in a blue t-shirt, crossing his arms, and another in a cap.
Here’s a picture of this moment:
Actually, there is only one logical explanation for the presence of the two men: Presumably they are members of the crew. who believed they would go unnoticed by the camera – but who had not positioned themselves so conspicuously that the cameramen could notice them. Even later, no one seems to have encountered the two “invaders”, although in 1984 it would have been much more difficult to retouch them from the finished film anyway.
That’s not the only blunder you can see in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, by the way. Even in the supposedly perfect opening scene, there is a rather gross blunder: