June 18, 2025 • 59 mins
The Darkest Indiana Jones Adventure
In this episode of The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast, hosts Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell dive into the controversial second installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). This prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark takes our hero to Shanghai and then India for what many consider the darkest chapter in the series.The hosts explore how the film's darker tone was influenced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's personal lives at the time, with both going through difficult periods that affected the creative direction. Despite being considered the black sheep of the original trilogy, Temple of Doom has gained appreciation over time for its unique qualities and memorable moments.Nathan shares his childhood memory of seeing the film in theaters and covering his eyes during the infamous heart-ripping scene—the very scene that, along with Red Dawn, prompted the creation of the PG-13 rating that changed Hollywood forever. Both hosts give the film high marks (8-8.5 out of 10), placing it just below The Last Crusade in their rankings.Key topics discussed:
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In this episode of The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast, hosts Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell dive into the controversial second installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). This prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark takes our hero to Shanghai and then India for what many consider the darkest chapter in the series.The hosts explore how the film's darker tone was influenced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's personal lives at the time, with both going through difficult periods that affected the creative direction. Despite being considered the black sheep of the original trilogy, Temple of Doom has gained appreciation over time for its unique qualities and memorable moments.Nathan shares his childhood memory of seeing the film in theaters and covering his eyes during the infamous heart-ripping scene—the very scene that, along with Red Dawn, prompted the creation of the PG-13 rating that changed Hollywood forever. Both hosts give the film high marks (8-8.5 out of 10), placing it just below The Last Crusade in their rankings.Key topics discussed:
- How Temple of Doom works as a prequel set in 1935 (before Raiders)
- The incredible Shanghai club opening sequence and its filming challenges
- Short Round as one of the best sidekicks in the series who sadly never returned
- Kate Capshaw's performance as Willie Scott and her real-life sedatives for the bug scenes
- The film's cultural insensitivity issues and how they were meant to be portrayed
- Why the mine cart chase might be 20% too long but remains iconic
- Practical effects including stop-motion animation and early compositing techniques
- Indiana Jones' character as more of an anti-hero than classic hero
- The brilliant suspension bridge finale and Mola Ram as a memorable villain
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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Most
Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast. Want to skip those ads and
get early access, become a member at true story dot fm,
slash join and discover all the other great parks that
come with it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello, and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's the podcast where we rip the still beating heart
out of the eighties movies we think we love or
might have missed with these our grown up eyes to
see how they hold up and how we still like
them and what we think doesn't hold up or what
(00:50):
we don't like about them with our modern grown up eyes.
And today we're talking about Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Doom, a movie selection from nineteen eighty four, about
which the overview says, adventure sequel period. Intrepid archaeologist Indiana
(01:12):
Jones on the trail of fortune and glory in old Shanghai,
is ricocheted into a dangerous adventure in India with his
faithful companion, Short Round and nightclub singer Willie Scott. Indy
goes in search of magical Shankara Stone and uncovers an
ancient evil which threatens all who come into contact with it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's a terrible description.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
It's a terrible description. All right, here comes the trailer.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones
from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Indiana Jones and the
(02:15):
Temple of Doom.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You don't believe me, you will doctor Jones.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And that's uh the overview for Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom. I am Chrissy Lenz, one of the
directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Mesa, Arizona.
And with me is always is award winning filmmaker.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
See. I I still don't think we've got the hang
of the lead in for the the the announcements or
or whatever what is it called when you say your name,
when you introduce yourself introductions? Yeah, so I think it,
and you can keep all this in the episode. I
think the way it should go is is not the
(03:29):
lead up and with me as always and then uh,
that's the that's the break in, right there.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So don't say that part.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
No, no, say that part, but then don't say the describer.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, okay, but you never say that you win awards.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I know because I can't say that. I feel like
that's not needed, that doesn't need to be included. I
feel like that's implied.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Oh you feel like it's implied. Oh okay, I think
if I feel like it's a applied by me saying it,
it's not.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
A mandatory inclusion.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Okay. Well, I just think you deserve your accolades.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Oh I thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Okay, So we'll try it your way. I'm Christy Lenz,
one of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in
downtown Mason, Arizona, and with me as always is.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Nathan Blackwell, an independent filmmaker with Squishy Studios. Hey, look
at that worked.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Okay, very well. So Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
This is so, this is our first host only episode
this season. H we've had guests.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
When did the season start?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It started with the Empire strikes back?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Okay, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We've had a guest for every episode so far.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Right, But that's been fun. It's been fun having guests
because we went kind of a long period without many
due to laziness, yes.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Bar parts and scheduling and scheduling, laziness and scheduling. Yeah,
so it's just you and me. Today is Temple of Doom,
a favorite of yours. I know that Indiana Jones is
a favorite of yours.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, it's so. It absolutely is one of the favorites.
Now it's not. It's probably my third favorite Indiana Jones film,
being Raiders and Last Crusade. Yeah, but yeah, no, I
can't help but love this movie. It's it's the first
(05:46):
Indiana Jones movie I remember seeing in the theater. I
know I saw Raiders in the theater, or at least
I assume, but this one I remember, and I remember
standing in life for with my dad and my grandpa
who was in from out of town from Omaha, and
(06:08):
I just remembered like the actual like anticipation and waiting
in line. And the only part I remember of in
the theater experience was covering my eyes during the mollah
ram pulling the heart out.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh yes, So speaking of that, just to give you
a heads up, our bonus content today for our members
is going to be scenes in movies where you have
to cover your eyes so you have a tiny bit
of time to think about it. Okay, I love this movie.
(06:45):
So I don't remember seeing it in the theater, but
we had it on VHS, so I watched it all
the time because I definitely had seen it by the
time Last Crusade came out, which I do remember seeing
in theaters. So it's always been a favorite of mine.
(07:05):
I know that it's like, uh, not very popular.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Well, like I kind of feel like the problem with it, right,
I mean, I feel I feel like there were there
was more problems back then with it on how dark
or or like broadly comic it was. But I feel
like it now it's kind of like, well, I prefer
this flavor to that flavor, Like there's a I don't
(07:30):
think there's a stigma to it really anymore. It's now
just like a preference, Like I'm there, you know. I
think that there's a lot of people out there now
who who prefer Temple of Doom over the other ones
because it's because it's a little weird and funky and different.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
And back then it's like we were talking about Empire
Strikes back it was. Now it's perceived as the superior
Star Wars movie, but back then it was thought of
as a disappointment because the first one was such a
big blockbuster it was such a like yeah at the end,
like people were standing up in applouding. But now we
(08:10):
like the dark complexity of Empire strikes back, and I
think Temple of Doom is definitely darker. It's definitely Zanier
broader in his comedy. But some people prefer that now,
you know, and I think those people are welcome.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yes, welcome people who prefer Temple of Doom. So we
start out in Shanghai in nineteen thirty five. Am I
right in thinking that this movie takes place before Raiders?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Uh huh? Yeah, So this movie technically is a prequel.
So like Raiders comes out and is set in nineteen
thirty six, and this is set in nineteen thirty five,
and then Last Crusade is in thirty eight. They didn't want,
they they even though that's only two years after Raiders.
(09:06):
They didn't want World War two to officially start yet.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Okay, okay, but.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
So think I think the reasons why they wanted to
do it is one is that they wanted to do
something unexpected and and also to to kind of show
the serialized nature of it. That's one of the reasons.
It's like, you know, in their mind, like each of
these like were a different like pulp novel with like
(09:38):
a the further Adventures of Indiana Jones, like Indiana Jones
versus the Sky Pirates and Indiana Jones finds the Lost
Minotaur's Maze and things like that, kind of like what
they ended up doing with like the novelizations and stuff
like that, but that they have. He just has further
adventures and this one could have taken place earlier. But
(09:59):
also I think they you know, like raiders, you know,
he learns, you know, it's like he's got Marion and
it seems like they're together and he's learned a big lesson.
And if you walk it back a year, then you
can give him a new girl and you can have
him be even more impetulant. You know.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, he's a real cad in this one. And I
get that it's the enemy is to Lovers trope that
they're leaning on really heavily here all the way up
to the very last kiss at the end. So I
get that, and I am a little bit charmed by it.
But it's just a reminder that Indiana Jones is a cad.
(10:45):
He is he is a a what is the word
I want besides cad skirt chaser.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, it's it's so funny, like how like in Last Crusade,
like how hard he is putting on the charm with
Alison Duty when he arrives in Venice and Marcus is
there please, Oh my god, just get a room. Why
do I have to be here? You know, it's funny
(11:19):
also that it like Indiana Jones is a bit of
a grave robber, Like yeah, yeah, he is. Like it's
part of the you know, there's so many people who say, well,
that's not real, real archaeology what Indiana Jones does? Well, duh,
that was the point. You know. It's there's a couple
(11:41):
of things aspects of Indiana Jones that they portray a
certain way, and it's supposed to be the bad version,
you know, yeah, but they make it so fun and
accepted that the message could could kind of get crossed.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's like he's supposed to be a trouble like a
grave robber, a little bit of a grave robber, a
little bit of fallen from the faith. You know. It's
kind of the same way. It's that you know, with
like the you know, I guess skip ahead with the
big you know, like thuggy dinner like that. That was
(12:25):
meant to be they they were meant to be unusual
and not Indian like Hindi. That was not meant to
be like a Hindu like dinner.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
They were meant to be obscene from even you know,
the people who live there, you know. But it's just
so broad and comical that it kind of seems like
a like a an other ism. You know.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's like, look, does it seems like a heap and
help and of cultural insensitivity.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Right, And it was supposed to not be. There was
even some lines taken out of that that they thought
would actually make it worse rather better, which was just
like Indiana Jones saying, it's like, well, a lot of
Hindus don't even eat meat. I wonder what these guys
are up to, you know, And I feel like that
(13:24):
would have worked, that would have helped. But but yeah,
it is what it is. There's a lot of moments
in this so to kind of understand Tumble to Doom,
you have to understand that like George Lucas and and
Steven Spielberg, you know, like in their own personal lives
were going through kind of a rough time and so
(13:46):
they they they were a little both darker, like like
George Lucas was going through a divorce, huh. And and
and so they were kind of like throttling in one
direction a bit hard. And I feel like, I know,
(14:07):
I know, Steven Spielberg doesn't like the movie that much.
Other than meeting Kip Capshaw, who he married, you know,
he has a harder time watching this one. He felt
like he went too big and didn't feel too comfortable
with the darker themes, which I think a lot of
(14:28):
the darkness stuff is actually pretty cool. Yeah, I like
it right, Yeah, me too, Me too. It's a problem
when you do a sequel, when when you do a
sequel that's kind of off to one side, doing a
little bit of craziness because at that point it's fifty
percent of the Indiana Jones movies, you know, even if
(14:51):
there were just three, it's like, Okay, this one can
be an odd ball because it's not now half of
all Indiana Jones stories, you know. And so yeah, I
remember feeling less comfortable enjoying this movie when I was younger,
but now it's it's just a lot of fun and
(15:12):
it's got the soundtrack is great.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Oh, the soundtrack is wonderful. It's it's exciting, and there's
lots of like use ed moments to cheer. I love
that we get Short Round in this movie who sort
of had they sort of have a Marty and doc like, uh,
I know, he tells the origin story of where they
met when he was picking his pockets on the streets
(15:37):
of Shanghai, But we don't like get to see their
whole like friendship develop. But I love Short Round in
this movie, Indy, I love you. You're my best friend.
And I'm like, yay, I love you too, Short Round,
You're my best friend in.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
All the movies. I promise. Now, all right, let's get going.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yep. And we never see him again. He's never heard
from again.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, I don't know why he was perfect. He was
so fun.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, I guess it's tough to have like it. I
think a lot of these decisions of why didn't they
bring back Willie, why didn't they bring back Short Round,
like it has to come down to like the needs
of the individual movie, Like to put any of those
people in Last Crusade wouldn't have made any sense.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know, No, I totally understand that, and I get
why they didn't bring back Willie because I totally understand
like the need and the trope for him to have
a new woman.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, the James Bond trope.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, right, exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And it's it's like the original incarnation of Indiana Jones
was that he was kind of a James Bond who
had a different woman in every movie. But he's he's
not He's not that classic hero. He's kind of a
lot of an anti hero. You know. He's born in
the category of like John McLain and die Hard, you know,
(17:12):
to where he's a human and you lean into that
to make it better. In some ways, you're sending up
some like action hero thing in moments, you know, for comedy,
and and I think the way that the series went
is that tried to do that, and then we just
(17:33):
kind of realized that that's not Indiana Jones, and we
wanted Mary him back, you know that. Yeah, you know,
after the after the three movies, it's like, you know what,
it would be weird just to bring in someone else.
It's like, we really want to just see Marion again.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, and then we do get a younger woman in
the Dial of Destiny, but she's like his like Airsat's neats.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, Yeah, it's base like his new child.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Past the Torch sort of moment. Yeah, he's gonna get
a new child in every movie. Yeah to Nurture and
and Hone one part that like speaking of him being
like not that great a guy. One part that always
has stood up to me. In the like cat and
Mouse game that he's playing. In the very opening scene
(18:25):
where they're like, give me your hotchie, give me the diamond. Oh,
here's the poison, where's the antidote? He has a friend
who's like helping him out, who like pulls a gun
and gets shot.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Wohn.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
And he has that great line into this great adventure,
I go first, Indy, and that line always sticks with me.
And then he just like dumps that guy on the ground.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Well we don't know how close they were, but also
we don't know like how much he Yeah, it's it's
tough because I mean one of the lines that Indiana
Jones has to dance is that it's a pulp adventure.
You know. It's like a great explanation is like when
(19:16):
when Indiana Jones is, you know, is having his adventure,
does his hat ever come off? And for the most part,
it doesn't. It's like one of those things to where
the movie magic is keeping his hat on, and so
there is always that like big sound effect punch adventure.
(19:37):
You know, a pulp hero who's doing a dare doing,
but also at the same time he's human and he
struggles and you know, and as the movies continue, he
gets more and more human. But Will has to write
that line of being kind of like a the kind
(19:58):
of movie where where no one dies, but that means
like sidekicks could get killed. It's like, no, I've known
you before all my life. And then the next scene
it's like, okay, on with the adventure, can't walk adventure.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, this was literally like the next moment he like
gets up and throws that flaming skewer of chicken like
into the other man's heart and like his friend is forgotten. So,
speaking of his hat, there's a lot of fun hat
moments in this movie. There's of course, the hats on
(20:33):
the other side of the slowly lowering stone trap wall
and he snatches it out of the clutches of the
spike room.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Love It spikeroom, classic.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Classic, classic spikeroom covered in bugs, always a part I
hate it, And I'm totally on Willy's side that I
don't want to stick my hand into the gross bug.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Well there's another movie. There's another movie. Magic. It's like
one of the things, especially with the first two movies,
where you've got you've got to you've got to have
the creepy crawler scene. Yeah. Yeah, actually with the first three,
like the first three are the best in terms of that,
but they're also the most ridiculous. But because it's like
(21:21):
how are they how are these animals feeding themselves? You know,
how are they surviving in such a huge quantity? And
that's that's an Indiana Jones movie. You've got to have that.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You know, Yeah, why are they all hanging out where
the handle is?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
You know, it's like, you know, how are the how
are the snakes? Like literally what is the snake food source?
There's got to be more food than there are snakes,
Like they can't sure they can eat each other, but
eventually there's just gonna be one left right in.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
One big snake. Yeah, I love that as a mysterious quandary.
But they have like those like big leafy stick bugs
and stuff, and she's just like covered in covered in bugs,
and I read that she had to take a sedative
to do that scene, and I'm like, I'm with you,
(22:16):
Kate Capshaw, I'm not into it.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Many many drugs were used in the making of this film.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
But there's also that really nice moment when Short Round
wakes India up from his black sleep where they like
give each other their hats back and he like puts
Short Rounds little Yankees cap on him, and then he
gives Indiana Jones his uh, his fedora, and it's such
(22:52):
a nice moment. Like I wrote it down, I was like, oh,
this hat exchange. First of all, I love that Short
Round gets the bags as he's escaping a thuggy prison camp.
He's like, I got to get India Jones's bags. He
needs his hat. I'm swinging up a rope and climbing
over a ladder, but I've got to get the bags.
(23:15):
That's what Short Round does. So as a filmmaker, what
do you think of the opening scene where it's like
the antidote is getting kicked around, the diamond is getting
kicked around. She's looking for the diamond, he's looking for
the antidote. Ice pours all over the dance floor, balloons
(23:38):
drop all over the dance floor. That must have been
a really hard sequence to choreograph.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, so that fight where he's going for the antidote
and everything is going everywhere like that. Actually one, I
just like looking that as a filmmaker, like that's a
tough sequence to shoot, And maybe not for the reason
you're thinking, like, it's a well lit, large open space, Okay,
(24:08):
and it's really tough because you're shooting from this direction.
You you're gonna have a sense of geography, you're gonna
shoot from this direction, you're gonna have interesting things happen.
But a large, wide open space where there's like no
obstructions or like thing like like even barely even tables,
Like it's just kind of like a large dance floor
(24:30):
that's really hard to make look interesting. And so they're
all the time they're just using people as foreground and
background and having people go in the run around in
the back, people run around to the side, and just
to kind of have a sense of where things are
is super tough, you know, well, but also.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Like having the actors who are running around like strategically
kick the antidote away at the exact right moment when
Harrison Ford reaches for like, that must have been such
a pain in the neck.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that was one of those
sequences that really had to kind of be either storyboarded
or really kind of figured out beat to beat to beat.
My guess is that this was during that phase when
when Spielberg really storyboarded the heck out of everything, like
nowadays he really doesn't storyboard except for like visual effects scenes,
(25:28):
I think. Yeah, and so yeah, they would really have
to figure out what each bit just to kind of
give it not only a sense of geography, but that
sense of energy too, you know. Yeah, m hmmm.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Because then the next big thing that happens is like
a crazy action sequence where they're up in the plane
which Indiana Jones doesn't realize. Is louch a air.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Such a great gag? And did you you cut dan
Ackroid's cameo there?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yes? Of course, I was like, what is dan Ackroid
doing here?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
It was not until you got kind of larger TV
screens that you could really pick up that that's totally
dan Akroid, you know, because.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I remember just like hanging out and being like can
I be in this movie?
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Mm hmmm. Uh so one thing, So this is one
of those movies where I've just memorized like all the
sound effects and all the moments and all the every
kid you know, it's like you can just close your
eyes and and know exactly what's gonna come next, you know. Yeah,
(26:44):
but this is the first time I've watched the movie
putting the subtitles on.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Oh I always watch with subtitles, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
I, I really don't that often. But there was just
one or two, Like there's like some stuff that you
hear over an over again, and it's like and then
you realize, oh, I don't actually know what they're saying.
They're just like yelling out expletives, you know, like exclamations,
(27:12):
and I actually don't know what they're ever. I've seen
this movie like a hundred times, and I actually don't
know what the hell they're saying. And so I put
the captions on just to see if there were moments
in the movie where I was totally understanding the wrong thing.
And there's like a couple of those which wasn't really amusing.
It's like, you know, and so so the the when
(27:36):
Indiana Jones is going, it just says goodbye to dan Aykroyd,
and it is getting on the plane. It's like, I
never understood what he said. And so that's when I
turned on the captions and and and he's and I'm
sure tons of people have picked this up already, but
he just says, I owe you a.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Gin, you know, yeah he saw yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
And and for whatever reason, like I just never understood
what he was saying during that moment.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
But so but some of the other moments in the
movie that I misread. The funniest is when they're at
Pancott Palace and the Maharajah, you know, like like Keith
Kapshaw is like kind of jonesing for him. It's like, oh,
(28:31):
I hear the Maharaja is swimming in loot, you know, yeah,
and aife.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah exactly. And then Indiana Jones is talking to her,
so putting on the cash is I didn't realize that
Indiana Jones is really trying to lay on the compliments
on her, and I just didn't pick up at all
because I was paying attention to what she was saying.
And he's like, oh, you look beautiful, you know what,
you look like a princess, you know. So he's saying
that between her lines.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
But I I I just thought that the line I
never got was the Maharajah is swimming in loot.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Uh. What I thought she said is like she turns
them and was like, I hear the ma Maharaja is
swimming in the nude Like she's like, oh, Like it
conveyed the same idea, you know, that that she's going
to make a move on him and she's turned on
by this prospect. But I never thought she was saying
(29:31):
what she actually said, which was yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
He's swimming in loot uh huh. And I love the
moment where she's like, it's the Maharaja is a kid
and short round goes, maybe he likes older women.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Uh huh. But yeah, those are the That was the
funniest caption discovery that I that I had.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
That's why I get those captions on baby, because then
you know what they're really saying and you could be like, oh,
I never picked up on that line before.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
My not so deep deep cut recommendation is like turn
on cashins on movies that you that you've seen a
hundred times, and I think there's gonna be a couple
of points to be surprised.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, I love it. So they're up in the plane
it's Louja Air, and the pilots are like, are they sleeping, Yes,
they're sleeping. They dump the fuel and they tiptoe out
the back of the plane and they have a really
(30:34):
funny moment where which I hadn't noticed before, where it
seems like one of the pilots is like, I don't
want to go, and he's like, well, you have to go,
and he's like, I don't want to jump out, you
have to jump out, and then he shoves about the door, which,
by the way, what the fuck are they gonna do
when they land in the snowy mountains and there's no
way out, Like they're gonna die cold and alone.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was a cinematic plan.
I think there's a lot of those in Indiana Jones movies.
But but, but, but Steven Spielberg sells them so well
that we just we don't even think, or we don't
worry about it. We buy it. There's so many moments
in Indiana Jones that I have no logic problem with
(31:24):
all at all, because they're they're they're done so well.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, I agree, because what happens next is so overwhelming
that you just don't have time to think about it
because they Willie wakes up. She sees that there's no pilots.
She wakes up Indiana Jones and they jump out of
the plane in a boat in a raft it that
(31:51):
doesn't that doesn't tip over or flip, which which I
believe the MythBusters busted all the Indiana Jones myths, and
I believe they busted this one, that it would just
flip over and dump them all out. But then they
land in the snow. They toboggan down the mountain. They
(32:14):
go all the way down the snowy mountain and he's like,
that wasn't so bad. They go over a cliff and
land in the rapids and then basically whitewater rapids toboggan
until they end up in India. That was a crazy
(32:38):
action sequence. And I one of the things that I
always think about Indiana Jones movies when especially when I
saw a Dial of Destiny, was like, there's too many chases,
and the chases are too long. So in this one,
I thought that the chase in the mine carts was
(33:04):
the one that was too long. I was like, I've
had it up to here with these mine carts? How
much more can you do with these mine carts? But
I definitely felt like in Dial of Destiny there were
too many chases, and the chases were too long. I
didn't feel like the boat because it kept changing right
the boat out of the plane, into the snow, into
(33:26):
the cliff, into the river. I didn't find that too
long of a chase. But the mine cart adventure a little.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Much, just maybe too much. But it's a good one.
It's such a good one.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
It is such a good one, and I do love it.
But you're just you're watching it and you're just like, Okay,
how many more like stunts do we have to pull
with the mine cart? And then after the immediately after
the mine cart, there's a moment where he is Indiana
Jones has used himself as the brakes and put his
(34:05):
feet on the wheels.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Well, one of the things I love about the the
mine cart is just that such such a difficult scene
to shoot, but it's so it's so fun to kind
of like keep an eye out for there are there's
a surprising amount of stop animation scenes or shots in
(34:29):
that scene, to where it was all done with a
little with an actual camera like a like a like
a shooting still frames, and I think it's using kind
of a go motion technique because all the scenes are bouncing,
but just like how many shots are actually just little
(34:52):
tiny miniature people moving around.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Okay, all right, yeah, I love the part where short
Round is being like torn between the two wine carts
and he's just like wow, and they're like trying to
pull him out Indidiana Jones and Willie are trying to
pull him in. That part's great, But there's a moment
(35:18):
so after we've had this whole mine cart race, he's
used his feet for the brakes. They're smoking, they're about
to catch fire, and he's like water water water, and
then they're being chased by water, water, water, water, and
they have to run away from the water. And so
it's just like this Indiana Jones thinks where it's like, oh,
you think the chase is over because the mine cart
pipe part was too long. Well guess what. Now they're
(35:41):
being chased by the elements of the earth.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
It's such a great gag though, so good it is.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
And they get backed out onto that cliff and there's
a really weird effect is it stop motion where Indians
up on the wrong side.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Oh it's compositing and so okay, yeah, so it's probably
a miniature with all the water and then they've they've
filmed them against kind of like yeah, so it seems
like they're kind of cut out. You know, it's effectively
the same thing that green screen does, but it's basically
two different elements. So they're standing by a real life
(36:23):
wall face that they're probably shooting some water out of.
Probably not though it's it's probably just the whole cut
the hole is cut out and it's cut into a
miniature where they're blasting the water out of.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You know, because the effect really looks kind of janky
to me.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah, I feel like compositing during the eighties is one
of the things that doesn't hold up super well, that
kind of comes off at a little janky. And then yeah,
because at this point you're not using computers, you're using
for timeraphy and so you've you've got to match the
(37:03):
color and it's really the the line that you're cutting
around gives it away the most. You know that you're
cutting the image out. Like the old Star Wars movies
had the problem to where like you could actually see
a box around all the spaceships in outer space, you know,
(37:23):
and then they've they've been removing them as as new
versions of the movie come out, you know, but just
actually how the move the the when they you know,
in compositing is basically just taking two different images and
putting them together.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
You know, right right, yeah, like a blue screen green
screen kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's the the simple version of it is
that you're you're taking one element that you shot in
a different time and then putting it into another shot.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Mm hmm. Okay. There's also a there's so there's this
big thuggy ceremony which Indiana Jones and Willie and Short
round witness where Mola Ram who is the king of
(38:15):
the Thuggies. I'm rish Puri, who is great and so scary,
so many.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Great, so many great actors in this movie.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
It's true. He rips the still beating heart out of
a man who's being sacrificed as one would, which I've
been told where lots of people have covered their eyes.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yes, this is where a young Nathan covered his eyes.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yes, And he gets sacrificed, He gets dipped down into
the lava, and I'm like, why doesn't the cage melt
in the lava. Why isn't his skeleton or anything left
of him?
Speaker 3 (38:59):
It's science reasons. There's science reasons, science reasons.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
But what I love is that there's like, you know,
hundreds of thuggies who are all like bowing, and we
have to assume they're all under the black sleep of
the Khali blood. I mean there's also some of them.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I feel like, I feel like, you know, for some cults,
you don't need everyone to be hypnotized. Some people just join, Yeah,
some people just join.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, Okay, Well there's also a band. So do we
think the band is hypnotized or do we think that
they just joined because there's like there's like drums, of course,
which is what we mostly like. There's also a guy
with like a tambourine.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, so let's talk about this. It's kind of like
you can put the same judgment at the like the
like Jaba's Palace band.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, I wish, I love.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
I feel like they're not that they're a separate thing,
but they gotta be aware. There's gotta be some clue.
It's not kind of like what they were all thuggy.
I can't believe it, Honey, did you hear, well, I'm
not going back there. Like you may't.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
A gig economy, you go where the work takes you.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
I feel like they probably, like this band, probably knew
something was up. I feel like the Jaba's band one
hundred percent of them knew that that there was criminal activity.
You know, it's Jaba You're you're you're working for the mob,
you know. Yeah, but I think here there's a little
(40:38):
more room. It's like, well, maybe just rich people are weird,
you know.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, rich people have weird ceremonies. But I you know,
there's not a lot of work in Paycott right now
for a tambourine player.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
So yeah, I think like them and the dancers, like
there's some they're probably sensing something's a little up, but
maybe it's.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Just and what about the big ending on the bridge
where they're on a suspension bridge.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Or Yeah. I feel like people know, if you're listening
to this episode, you probably know Temple of Doom, and
so we're really just going by favorite scenes rather than
any kind of order.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah I'm not, I'm not recapping it for you, right, Yeah,
skipping along on one of.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
My favorite scenes is the is the kind of the
romantic comedy scene where they're both waiting for each other
to make the first move in their room.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Oh yeah, where they're having that that will there, won't
they enemy is still lovers. You'll be back in five minutes.
You'll be back in five minutes.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
So it's always fun, like Indiana. It's weird to see
when Indiana Jones is is a cad, but it's more
it's more fun and more in line with what I
feel like the character is is when you use that
to make fun of him, you know. And so like
this scene is perfect where he's feeling he's feeling, he's
(42:15):
feeling it, but at the same time, he's also kind
of like, well, why isn't she Well, I should just
go over there. Why isn't she coming over here? Smelling
in his breath, and so he feels a little ridiculous,
he feels a little human.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, I think that's a that's a real fun scene.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
But yeah, I also love the scene where the end
of that scene where he gets attacked, Oh yeah, and
he's like being attacked and she comes out into the
hallway and screams, Indiana Jones, this is the night you
let me slip right through your fingers and he's like
extending his hand and you know we see his like
(42:55):
fingers all splayed out as he's reaching for like to
get away from the strangulation that's happening. That's a really
good moment too. So I love the playfulness of that.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
I the so it's Spielberg is not I mean he's
written scripts, but he's not a screenwriter. But he is
so good at story. He's so good at at heightening scenes,
at building them, uh and just and he has such
a great level of playfulness. That's the that's the aspects
(43:32):
of Spielberg I really respond to the most.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
It's just the way that he just continues to stack
and build the scene. And then that moment that you
pointed out where where he's dying and choking, that's where
I had that moment. It's like when when he's like
reaching out, it's like you just let me slip right
through your fingers and he's just like ah, you know,
(43:56):
like reaching his hand out a perfect match cut of
reaching for her, his hand going out for the door
being choked. It's like that This is what makes Indiana
Jones special, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Is followed by the moment where he walks into her
room and she's like, I'm right here, I'm right here,
and he's just like feking sweating, and then he pushes
the statue in by the boops and she's like, hey,
I'm right here.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
But before that, he's like sweating and looking in all
directions and she's like, be chentil oh, be gentle with me.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
It's so good. But there. One of my favorite moments
is because I always love it when these heroes who
seem so capable and just slide from one situation to
the next, and they're totally able to, you know, with
confidence and swagger get through anything. I love it when
(44:56):
they have a moment where they go, oh shit, so
suspension bridge and he's like, Okay, what's my next move.
I'll drop the Shankara stones. We'll find them, oh ship.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
One of the I feel like Indiana Jones's main ability
is his tenacity, and he's not a fantastic plan maker.
He's just making it up as he goes, you know,
he's just swinging with it, and it's great to have
that moment, has no idea what to do.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah. Then they march Willian short round out on the
bridge and he's like he tells him in Cantonese, like
we're going for a ride, Hayley, hold on, We're going
for a ride. And she goes, oh no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Even blam like drops the like the pretenses, like what
what are you doing, you idiot?
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Yeah, we thought this was a bad idea. We all
thought we workshopped it. We all thought it was a
bad idea. Don't do it. And I love when Mola
Ram is like throwing other thuggies at him.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
He's just like.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Throwing them down, like to try and knock them off
the bridge, and like, Mola Ram, You's so bad, Like,
oh my gosh. So we should talk about in case
people don't know that, because we talked about it with
Red Dawn, which was the first PG thirteen movie, but
(46:37):
it was the first PG thirteen movie because of this movie,
right right.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Which is not only is it because of the content,
but it also has a lot to do with Spielberg,
you know, like he wants to it's like, you know,
so at this point they were just PG movies and
our movies, so there was like stuff that me you know,
basically for kids or adults, and there kind of needed
(47:07):
to be something for older kids. It kind of be
something for older kids where they where you could kind
of push some of the boundaries of violence and things
like that. But I feel like, because this didn't get
an R because it was done by Spielberg and Lucas,
you know, and so it was really like, you know,
(47:31):
Spielberg like saying, as I feel like there should be
to Jack Falencia is like, there needs to be like
a PG thirteen or a PG fourteen or something like
that in there where a little more violent, grosser stuff
can be made. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
So that's what I tell people all the time when
we when it comes to improv, are seven thirty shows
at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater are all ages, and like
people will ask like is it family friendly? And I
say like, well, I don't like the term family friendly
because family friendly seems like a young hip, a cool
(48:09):
kid unfriendly. You know. Family friendly sounds like it's rated
G or PG. And I like to tell people like,
our show is rated PG thirteen. Yeah, so the old
you know, Hollywood saying like you can't make a good
PG movie. Okay, maybe I agree with that, but you
can definitely make a good PG thirteen movie. And our
(48:34):
show is even like a little bit cleaner than PG.
Thirteen because we don't say shit at least once. Yeah,
we don't say shit at all. So all right, Okay,
So on a scale of one, still beating heart, h
ten still beating hearts?
Speaker 3 (48:55):
How many beating hearts are in my heart?
Speaker 2 (48:57):
For Indiana Jones and the template exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
I'm so I'm going so I have to calibrate it
with the other Indiana Jones movies of course. So I
feel like eight point five is the magic number for me, okay,
because I feel like it's better than an eight. But
it's not a nine. It's not Last Crusade like I
(49:22):
would give Last Crusade a nine. I hope I gave
Last Crusada nine.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
I'm pretty sure we both gave it a nine. I
maybe gave it a ten, but yeah, I think we
both gave it a nine.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, so it it's really it's maybe really an eight
point four or eight point three, but I'm going eight
point five because that's just bull pullsh it. Okay, So yeah,
where does it land for you?
Speaker 2 (49:51):
I'm going to give it an eight. I'm not going
to push it up that last point five. But if
we have eight nine ten, there was comfortable.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
How can I get you into an eight point five?
Would it be less mind.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Cart less mine cart let's brown faced British actors. Yeah,
mm hmmm, less uh, less cultural and sensitivity to the
poor Indian people, not not that they're not that the
Indian people are poor, saying the poor Indian people who
(50:26):
are suffering through the portrayal that is being put together
of them.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
And then is there is there one other gag that
we could remove to get you an eight point five?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Maybe? I don't know. I love the gags, like I'm
here for the gags. I like the part where he's
removing the Shankara stones and he sees the statue of
the snake and just like, yeah, that's great, a justic
hat uh. And I love the part where Willie has
like been harassed by the elephant all night and so
she pulls the snake off and tosses it away, and
(51:02):
Indiana Jones is just like, mm hmmm, I love all
those gags. Maybe more gags, more gags, I'll make a call, okay,
please do okay? And you already mentioned your deep cut recommendation.
Speaker 3 (51:22):
No, I well, I not really that was more of
my gag deep Well, I.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Thought you were being real. I believe you.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
I was sincere in the recommendation. But it's not my
deep cut recommendation.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Okay, all right. So in addition to putting on the subtitles,
which I wholeheartedly support, that's.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
My hot tip. That's my hot tip, not my deep cut.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
I love that hot tip. I love that hot tip.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
My hot tip is if you're going to go in
a mine cart, take the left tunnel, like the kids.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Said, uh huh yeah, have a plan.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah, what's your deep cut recommendation?
Speaker 3 (52:06):
So so I've got I've got two what is a
self serving one. It's more of a more of a
bonus deep cut. So my web series Voyage Checkers, it's
a it's a sci fi comedy about the worst starship
crew in the galaxy. But we did a half hour
(52:28):
radio play of with the characters, and so it's on
our website, the Voidge Checkers website. It's probably under like
special features. It's called Quest for the Golden Orb, but
it's it's basically a parody of Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
So they basically go to a poor village and they
go to a mind full of kids, but it's it's
it's obviously space India and not real India. But yeah,
it's ridiculous and stupid and the characters don't do anything right.
But my real deep cut recommendation is if you want,
(53:13):
if you want to get into Indian films like Bollywood,
a good entry level movie one that's a lot of
fun is and it's on Netflix right now. It's called
Om Shanty Ohm. So it's kind of like a movie
about movie making, but it's really more of a a
(53:38):
love and revenge melodrama. But the Bollywood itself is just
a backdrop, so it's not really a movie about movie making,
but it is kind of like a Bollywood epic. There's
death and then there's reincarnation. There's a lot of the
things that you want from a Bollywood movie. One of
my favorite there's one of my favorite like song and
(54:03):
dance numbers in it. That's a lot of fun because
it's kind of like like period Indian films like sixties, seventies, eighties.
But it's also a good entry level movie because you
get to see shahru Khan, who's like the the number
one international film star in the world. And so if
you haven't Wow Shahru Khan films sr K as he's known,
(54:30):
then that would be a good a good one to
see it. It's it's on Netflix. So OMSHANTIOM, I mean,
if we're if we're really going for like a connection.
Uh there's a movie that's commonly called d DLJ that
also has Sharru Khan and and Amrishpuri who is Mula
(54:52):
ram Is in that movie as the disapproving dad. So
that's a good one too.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
But I want to tear out anyone still beating.
Speaker 3 (55:00):
Heart, well just metaphorically. That actually is his job. Yeah,
disapproving dad. Of course, I would say he tears out
at least two people's metaphoric hearts in that movie. Uh
oh tipperarily but back. But but if you're if you
haven't seen many Indian films, Omshanti Ohm is gonna be
(55:22):
a little more accessible, a little more fun.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
Mm hmm. That's great. That's really wonderful, beautiful recommendations. I
my deep cut recommendation is also like a big left turn.
It's not it's not because of if you love Indiana
Jones or anything like that. It's just because I love
the story of Kei Kwan, who plays Short Round and
(55:50):
I love that. You know, he is Short Round in
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He is Data
in the Goodies, and he does these two hues huge
eighties at movies, and then nothing for a long, long,
long long time, and then when he is in his fifties,
(56:14):
here comes Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which he
wins an Oscar's Louise, Jeez Louise. And I just think
that that story is so beautiful and so inspiring, and
I think that the movie Everything Everywhere, All at Once
(56:36):
is also a beautiful and inspiring piece. So that is
my deep cut recommendation. If you want more Keihuai Kwan,
I love it. That's where you get it from. Or
the more recent movie he did called Love Sucks. Is
that what it's called love? Love? Or love Hurts? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (56:59):
I think it's love hurts.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yeah, let's see love hurts. It's called love hurts. And
that's you know, he's starring in an action movie. He's
fifty three, and he's like finally getting this beautiful career.
He was in Kung Fu Panda four, Like, how do
you argue with that?
Speaker 3 (57:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (57:21):
Yeah, I love it. It's beautiful, so awesome, excellent. Thank
you for listening so much. Thank you for being here
with us at the end. As we said, if you're
here with us at the end, you may want to
become a member. You get a little extra bonus content
from us every week curated to the episode. Today, we're
going to talk about scenes from movies where you have
(57:43):
to cover your eyes where you either had to when
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your eyes. And you become a member at true story
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epic projects on true story dot fm include Gank That Drink,
(58:06):
a supernatural drinking game, pot prod podcast where you can
hear me and my other co host, Nate McCord making
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up drinking game rules that you can follow along with
as well. Nathan. Where can people follow you and your
(58:29):
filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 3 (58:31):
Uh Squishy Studios dot com. Our movie The Last Movie
Ever Made, is on Amazon and two b If you
want to check it out.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, definitely do check it out. And if you want
to find me in the real world doing comedy up
on a stage, The Neighborhood Comedy Theater is located in
downtown Mesa, Arizona, and you can find out more about
it at Nctphoenix dot com. That's end for Neighborhood, c
for Comedy, t for Theater, and Phoenix I'll spelled out
dot com. Thank you so much again for being here.
(59:05):
Like rate review, subscribe, tell a friend, tell lounge singer
who is inexplicably on an adventure with you for some reason,
uh romantic or otherwise. And when you're out there in
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(59:27):
to each other.
Speaker 3 (59:28):
And dudes, every time I do that, I feel like
I'm doing a Abraham Lincoln impersonation when he because you are.
It's it leans more and more into that every episode.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
Baron, dude, the words of Lincoln. You can't you can't
take them. They can't go wrong.
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Most
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello, and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's the podcast where we rip the still beating heart
out of the eighties movies we think we love or
might have missed with these our grown up eyes to
see how they hold up and how we still like
them and what we think doesn't hold up or what
(00:50):
we don't like about them with our modern grown up eyes.
And today we're talking about Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Doom, a movie selection from nineteen eighty four, about
which the overview says, adventure sequel period. Intrepid archaeologist Indiana
(01:12):
Jones on the trail of fortune and glory in old Shanghai,
is ricocheted into a dangerous adventure in India with his
faithful companion, Short Round and nightclub singer Willie Scott. Indy
goes in search of magical Shankara Stone and uncovers an
ancient evil which threatens all who come into contact with it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's a terrible description.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
It's a terrible description. All right, here comes the trailer.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones
from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Indiana Jones and the
(02:15):
Temple of Doom.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You don't believe me, you will doctor Jones.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And that's uh the overview for Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom. I am Chrissy Lenz, one of the
directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Mesa, Arizona.
And with me is always is award winning filmmaker.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
See. I I still don't think we've got the hang
of the lead in for the the the announcements or
or whatever what is it called when you say your name,
when you introduce yourself introductions? Yeah, so I think it,
and you can keep all this in the episode. I
think the way it should go is is not the
(03:29):
lead up and with me as always and then uh,
that's the that's the break in, right there.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So don't say that part.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
No, no, say that part, but then don't say the describer.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, okay, but you never say that you win awards.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I know because I can't say that. I feel like
that's not needed, that doesn't need to be included. I
feel like that's implied.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Oh you feel like it's implied. Oh okay, I think
if I feel like it's a applied by me saying it,
it's not.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
A mandatory inclusion.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Okay. Well, I just think you deserve your accolades.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Oh I thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Okay, So we'll try it your way. I'm Christy Lenz,
one of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in
downtown Mason, Arizona, and with me as always is.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Nathan Blackwell, an independent filmmaker with Squishy Studios. Hey, look
at that worked.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Okay, very well. So Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
This is so, this is our first host only episode
this season. H we've had guests.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
When did the season start?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It started with the Empire strikes back?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Okay, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We've had a guest for every episode so far.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Right, But that's been fun. It's been fun having guests
because we went kind of a long period without many
due to laziness, yes.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Bar parts and scheduling and scheduling, laziness and scheduling. Yeah,
so it's just you and me. Today is Temple of Doom,
a favorite of yours. I know that Indiana Jones is
a favorite of yours.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, it's so. It absolutely is one of the favorites.
Now it's not. It's probably my third favorite Indiana Jones film,
being Raiders and Last Crusade. Yeah, but yeah, no, I
can't help but love this movie. It's it's the first
(05:46):
Indiana Jones movie I remember seeing in the theater. I
know I saw Raiders in the theater, or at least
I assume, but this one I remember, and I remember
standing in life for with my dad and my grandpa
who was in from out of town from Omaha, and
(06:08):
I just remembered like the actual like anticipation and waiting
in line. And the only part I remember of in
the theater experience was covering my eyes during the mollah
ram pulling the heart out.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh yes, So speaking of that, just to give you
a heads up, our bonus content today for our members
is going to be scenes in movies where you have
to cover your eyes so you have a tiny bit
of time to think about it. Okay, I love this movie.
(06:45):
So I don't remember seeing it in the theater, but
we had it on VHS, so I watched it all
the time because I definitely had seen it by the
time Last Crusade came out, which I do remember seeing
in theaters. So it's always been a favorite of mine.
(07:05):
I know that it's like, uh, not very popular.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Well, like I kind of feel like the problem with it, right,
I mean, I feel I feel like there were there
was more problems back then with it on how dark
or or like broadly comic it was. But I feel
like it now it's kind of like, well, I prefer
this flavor to that flavor, Like there's a I don't
(07:30):
think there's a stigma to it really anymore. It's now
just like a preference, Like I'm there, you know. I
think that there's a lot of people out there now
who who prefer Temple of Doom over the other ones
because it's because it's a little weird and funky and different.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
And back then it's like we were talking about Empire
Strikes back it was. Now it's perceived as the superior
Star Wars movie, but back then it was thought of
as a disappointment because the first one was such a
big blockbuster it was such a like yeah at the end,
like people were standing up in applouding. But now we
(08:10):
like the dark complexity of Empire strikes back, and I
think Temple of Doom is definitely darker. It's definitely Zanier
broader in his comedy. But some people prefer that now,
you know, and I think those people are welcome.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yes, welcome people who prefer Temple of Doom. So we
start out in Shanghai in nineteen thirty five. Am I
right in thinking that this movie takes place before Raiders?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Uh huh? Yeah, So this movie technically is a prequel.
So like Raiders comes out and is set in nineteen
thirty six, and this is set in nineteen thirty five,
and then Last Crusade is in thirty eight. They didn't want,
they they even though that's only two years after Raiders.
(09:06):
They didn't want World War two to officially start yet.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Okay, okay, but.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
So think I think the reasons why they wanted to
do it is one is that they wanted to do
something unexpected and and also to to kind of show
the serialized nature of it. That's one of the reasons.
It's like, you know, in their mind, like each of
these like were a different like pulp novel with like
(09:38):
a the further Adventures of Indiana Jones, like Indiana Jones
versus the Sky Pirates and Indiana Jones finds the Lost
Minotaur's Maze and things like that, kind of like what
they ended up doing with like the novelizations and stuff
like that, but that they have. He just has further
adventures and this one could have taken place earlier. But
(09:59):
also I think they you know, like raiders, you know,
he learns, you know, it's like he's got Marion and
it seems like they're together and he's learned a big lesson.
And if you walk it back a year, then you
can give him a new girl and you can have
him be even more impetulant. You know.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, he's a real cad in this one. And I
get that it's the enemy is to Lovers trope that
they're leaning on really heavily here all the way up
to the very last kiss at the end. So I
get that, and I am a little bit charmed by it.
But it's just a reminder that Indiana Jones is a cad.
(10:45):
He is he is a a what is the word
I want besides cad skirt chaser.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, it's it's so funny, like how like in Last Crusade,
like how hard he is putting on the charm with
Alison Duty when he arrives in Venice and Marcus is
there please, Oh my god, just get a room. Why
do I have to be here? You know, it's funny
(11:19):
also that it like Indiana Jones is a bit of
a grave robber, Like yeah, yeah, he is. Like it's
part of the you know, there's so many people who say, well,
that's not real, real archaeology what Indiana Jones does? Well, duh,
that was the point. You know. It's there's a couple
(11:41):
of things aspects of Indiana Jones that they portray a
certain way, and it's supposed to be the bad version,
you know, yeah, but they make it so fun and
accepted that the message could could kind of get crossed.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's like he's supposed to be a trouble like a
grave robber, a little bit of a grave robber, a
little bit of fallen from the faith. You know. It's
kind of the same way. It's that you know, with
like the you know, I guess skip ahead with the
big you know, like thuggy dinner like that. That was
(12:25):
meant to be they they were meant to be unusual
and not Indian like Hindi. That was not meant to
be like a Hindu like dinner.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
They were meant to be obscene from even you know,
the people who live there, you know. But it's just
so broad and comical that it kind of seems like
a like a an other ism. You know.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's like, look, does it seems like a heap and
help and of cultural insensitivity.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Right, And it was supposed to not be. There was
even some lines taken out of that that they thought
would actually make it worse rather better, which was just
like Indiana Jones saying, it's like, well, a lot of
Hindus don't even eat meat. I wonder what these guys
are up to, you know, And I feel like that
(13:24):
would have worked, that would have helped. But but yeah,
it is what it is. There's a lot of moments
in this so to kind of understand Tumble to Doom,
you have to understand that like George Lucas and and
Steven Spielberg, you know, like in their own personal lives
were going through kind of a rough time and so
(13:46):
they they they were a little both darker, like like
George Lucas was going through a divorce, huh. And and
and so they were kind of like throttling in one
direction a bit hard. And I feel like, I know,
(14:07):
I know, Steven Spielberg doesn't like the movie that much.
Other than meeting Kip Capshaw, who he married, you know,
he has a harder time watching this one. He felt
like he went too big and didn't feel too comfortable
with the darker themes, which I think a lot of
(14:28):
the darkness stuff is actually pretty cool. Yeah, I like
it right, Yeah, me too, Me too. It's a problem
when you do a sequel, when when you do a
sequel that's kind of off to one side, doing a
little bit of craziness because at that point it's fifty
percent of the Indiana Jones movies, you know, even if
(14:51):
there were just three, it's like, Okay, this one can
be an odd ball because it's not now half of
all Indiana Jones stories, you know. And so yeah, I
remember feeling less comfortable enjoying this movie when I was younger,
but now it's it's just a lot of fun and
(15:12):
it's got the soundtrack is great.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Oh, the soundtrack is wonderful. It's it's exciting, and there's
lots of like use ed moments to cheer. I love
that we get Short Round in this movie who sort
of had they sort of have a Marty and doc like, uh,
I know, he tells the origin story of where they
met when he was picking his pockets on the streets
(15:37):
of Shanghai, But we don't like get to see their
whole like friendship develop. But I love Short Round in
this movie, Indy, I love you. You're my best friend.
And I'm like, yay, I love you too, Short Round,
You're my best friend in.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
All the movies. I promise. Now, all right, let's get going.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yep. And we never see him again. He's never heard
from again.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, I don't know why he was perfect. He was
so fun.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, I guess it's tough to have like it. I
think a lot of these decisions of why didn't they
bring back Willie, why didn't they bring back Short Round,
like it has to come down to like the needs
of the individual movie, Like to put any of those
people in Last Crusade wouldn't have made any sense.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know, No, I totally understand that, and I get
why they didn't bring back Willie because I totally understand
like the need and the trope for him to have
a new woman.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, the James Bond trope.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, right, exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And it's it's like the original incarnation of Indiana Jones
was that he was kind of a James Bond who
had a different woman in every movie. But he's he's
not He's not that classic hero. He's kind of a
lot of an anti hero. You know. He's born in
the category of like John McLain and die Hard, you know,
(17:12):
to where he's a human and you lean into that
to make it better. In some ways, you're sending up
some like action hero thing in moments, you know, for comedy,
and and I think the way that the series went
is that tried to do that, and then we just
(17:33):
kind of realized that that's not Indiana Jones, and we
wanted Mary him back, you know that. Yeah, you know,
after the after the three movies, it's like, you know what,
it would be weird just to bring in someone else.
It's like, we really want to just see Marion again.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, and then we do get a younger woman in
the Dial of Destiny, but she's like his like Airsat's neats.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, Yeah, it's base like his new child.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Past the Torch sort of moment. Yeah, he's gonna get
a new child in every movie. Yeah to Nurture and
and Hone one part that like speaking of him being
like not that great a guy. One part that always
has stood up to me. In the like cat and
Mouse game that he's playing. In the very opening scene
(18:25):
where they're like, give me your hotchie, give me the diamond. Oh,
here's the poison, where's the antidote? He has a friend
who's like helping him out, who like pulls a gun
and gets shot.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Wohn.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
And he has that great line into this great adventure,
I go first, Indy, and that line always sticks with me.
And then he just like dumps that guy on the ground.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Well we don't know how close they were, but also
we don't know like how much he Yeah, it's it's
tough because I mean one of the lines that Indiana
Jones has to dance is that it's a pulp adventure.
You know. It's like a great explanation is like when
(19:16):
when Indiana Jones is, you know, is having his adventure,
does his hat ever come off? And for the most part,
it doesn't. It's like one of those things to where
the movie magic is keeping his hat on, and so
there is always that like big sound effect punch adventure.
(19:37):
You know, a pulp hero who's doing a dare doing,
but also at the same time he's human and he
struggles and you know, and as the movies continue, he
gets more and more human. But Will has to write
that line of being kind of like a the kind
(19:58):
of movie where where no one dies, but that means
like sidekicks could get killed. It's like, no, I've known
you before all my life. And then the next scene
it's like, okay, on with the adventure, can't walk adventure.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, this was literally like the next moment he like
gets up and throws that flaming skewer of chicken like
into the other man's heart and like his friend is forgotten. So,
speaking of his hat, there's a lot of fun hat
moments in this movie. There's of course, the hats on
(20:33):
the other side of the slowly lowering stone trap wall
and he snatches it out of the clutches of the
spike room.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Love It spikeroom, classic.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Classic, classic spikeroom covered in bugs, always a part I
hate it, And I'm totally on Willy's side that I
don't want to stick my hand into the gross bug.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Well there's another movie. There's another movie. Magic. It's like
one of the things, especially with the first two movies,
where you've got you've got to you've got to have
the creepy crawler scene. Yeah. Yeah, actually with the first three,
like the first three are the best in terms of that,
but they're also the most ridiculous. But because it's like
(21:21):
how are they how are these animals feeding themselves? You know,
how are they surviving in such a huge quantity? And
that's that's an Indiana Jones movie. You've got to have that.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You know, Yeah, why are they all hanging out where
the handle is?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
You know, it's like, you know, how are the how
are the snakes? Like literally what is the snake food source?
There's got to be more food than there are snakes,
Like they can't sure they can eat each other, but
eventually there's just gonna be one left right in.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
One big snake. Yeah, I love that as a mysterious quandary.
But they have like those like big leafy stick bugs
and stuff, and she's just like covered in covered in bugs,
and I read that she had to take a sedative
to do that scene, and I'm like, I'm with you,
(22:16):
Kate Capshaw, I'm not into it.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Many many drugs were used in the making of this film.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
But there's also that really nice moment when Short Round
wakes India up from his black sleep where they like
give each other their hats back and he like puts
Short Rounds little Yankees cap on him, and then he
gives Indiana Jones his uh, his fedora, and it's such
(22:52):
a nice moment. Like I wrote it down, I was like, oh,
this hat exchange. First of all, I love that Short
Round gets the bags as he's escaping a thuggy prison camp.
He's like, I got to get India Jones's bags. He
needs his hat. I'm swinging up a rope and climbing
over a ladder, but I've got to get the bags.
(23:15):
That's what Short Round does. So as a filmmaker, what
do you think of the opening scene where it's like
the antidote is getting kicked around, the diamond is getting
kicked around. She's looking for the diamond, he's looking for
the antidote. Ice pours all over the dance floor, balloons
(23:38):
drop all over the dance floor. That must have been
a really hard sequence to choreograph.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, so that fight where he's going for the antidote
and everything is going everywhere like that. Actually one, I
just like looking that as a filmmaker, like that's a
tough sequence to shoot, And maybe not for the reason
you're thinking, like, it's a well lit, large open space, Okay,
(24:08):
and it's really tough because you're shooting from this direction.
You you're gonna have a sense of geography, you're gonna
shoot from this direction, you're gonna have interesting things happen.
But a large, wide open space where there's like no
obstructions or like thing like like even barely even tables,
Like it's just kind of like a large dance floor
(24:30):
that's really hard to make look interesting. And so they're
all the time they're just using people as foreground and
background and having people go in the run around in
the back, people run around to the side, and just
to kind of have a sense of where things are
is super tough, you know, well, but also.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Like having the actors who are running around like strategically
kick the antidote away at the exact right moment when
Harrison Ford reaches for like, that must have been such
a pain in the neck.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that was one of those
sequences that really had to kind of be either storyboarded
or really kind of figured out beat to beat to beat.
My guess is that this was during that phase when
when Spielberg really storyboarded the heck out of everything, like
nowadays he really doesn't storyboard except for like visual effects scenes,
(25:28):
I think. Yeah, and so yeah, they would really have
to figure out what each bit just to kind of
give it not only a sense of geography, but that
sense of energy too, you know. Yeah, m hmmm.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Because then the next big thing that happens is like
a crazy action sequence where they're up in the plane
which Indiana Jones doesn't realize. Is louch a air.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Such a great gag? And did you you cut dan
Ackroid's cameo there?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yes? Of course, I was like, what is dan Ackroid
doing here?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
It was not until you got kind of larger TV
screens that you could really pick up that that's totally
dan Akroid, you know, because.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I remember just like hanging out and being like can
I be in this movie?
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Mm hmmm. Uh so one thing, So this is one
of those movies where I've just memorized like all the
sound effects and all the moments and all the every
kid you know, it's like you can just close your
eyes and and know exactly what's gonna come next, you know. Yeah,
(26:44):
but this is the first time I've watched the movie
putting the subtitles on.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Oh I always watch with subtitles, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
I, I really don't that often. But there was just
one or two, Like there's like some stuff that you
hear over an over again, and it's like and then
you realize, oh, I don't actually know what they're saying.
They're just like yelling out expletives, you know, like exclamations,
(27:12):
and I actually don't know what they're ever. I've seen
this movie like a hundred times, and I actually don't
know what the hell they're saying. And so I put
the captions on just to see if there were moments
in the movie where I was totally understanding the wrong thing.
And there's like a couple of those which wasn't really amusing.
It's like, you know, and so so the the when
(27:36):
Indiana Jones is going, it just says goodbye to dan Aykroyd,
and it is getting on the plane. It's like, I
never understood what he said. And so that's when I
turned on the captions and and and he's and I'm
sure tons of people have picked this up already, but
he just says, I owe you a.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Gin, you know, yeah he saw yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
And and for whatever reason, like I just never understood
what he was saying during that moment.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
But so but some of the other moments in the
movie that I misread. The funniest is when they're at
Pancott Palace and the Maharajah, you know, like like Keith
Kapshaw is like kind of jonesing for him. It's like, oh,
(28:31):
I hear the Maharaja is swimming in loot, you know, yeah,
and aife.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah exactly. And then Indiana Jones is talking to her,
so putting on the cash is I didn't realize that
Indiana Jones is really trying to lay on the compliments
on her, and I just didn't pick up at all
because I was paying attention to what she was saying.
And he's like, oh, you look beautiful, you know what,
you look like a princess, you know. So he's saying
that between her lines.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
But I I I just thought that the line I
never got was the Maharajah is swimming in loot.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Uh. What I thought she said is like she turns
them and was like, I hear the ma Maharaja is
swimming in the nude Like she's like, oh, Like it
conveyed the same idea, you know, that that she's going
to make a move on him and she's turned on
by this prospect. But I never thought she was saying
(29:31):
what she actually said, which was yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
He's swimming in loot uh huh. And I love the
moment where she's like, it's the Maharaja is a kid
and short round goes, maybe he likes older women.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Uh huh. But yeah, those are the That was the
funniest caption discovery that I that I had.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
That's why I get those captions on baby, because then
you know what they're really saying and you could be like, oh,
I never picked up on that line before.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
My not so deep deep cut recommendation is like turn
on cashins on movies that you that you've seen a
hundred times, and I think there's gonna be a couple
of points to be surprised.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, I love it. So they're up in the plane
it's Louja Air, and the pilots are like, are they sleeping, Yes,
they're sleeping. They dump the fuel and they tiptoe out
the back of the plane and they have a really
(30:34):
funny moment where which I hadn't noticed before, where it
seems like one of the pilots is like, I don't
want to go, and he's like, well, you have to go,
and he's like, I don't want to jump out, you
have to jump out, and then he shoves about the door, which,
by the way, what the fuck are they gonna do
when they land in the snowy mountains and there's no
way out, Like they're gonna die cold and alone.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was a cinematic plan.
I think there's a lot of those in Indiana Jones movies.
But but, but, but Steven Spielberg sells them so well
that we just we don't even think, or we don't
worry about it. We buy it. There's so many moments
in Indiana Jones that I have no logic problem with
(31:24):
all at all, because they're they're they're done so well.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, I agree, because what happens next is so overwhelming
that you just don't have time to think about it
because they Willie wakes up. She sees that there's no pilots.
She wakes up Indiana Jones and they jump out of
the plane in a boat in a raft it that
(31:51):
doesn't that doesn't tip over or flip, which which I
believe the MythBusters busted all the Indiana Jones myths, and
I believe they busted this one, that it would just
flip over and dump them all out. But then they
land in the snow. They toboggan down the mountain. They
(32:14):
go all the way down the snowy mountain and he's like,
that wasn't so bad. They go over a cliff and
land in the rapids and then basically whitewater rapids toboggan
until they end up in India. That was a crazy
(32:38):
action sequence. And I one of the things that I
always think about Indiana Jones movies when especially when I
saw a Dial of Destiny, was like, there's too many chases,
and the chases are too long. So in this one,
I thought that the chase in the mine carts was
(33:04):
the one that was too long. I was like, I've
had it up to here with these mine carts? How
much more can you do with these mine carts? But
I definitely felt like in Dial of Destiny there were
too many chases, and the chases were too long. I
didn't feel like the boat because it kept changing right
the boat out of the plane, into the snow, into
(33:26):
the cliff, into the river. I didn't find that too
long of a chase. But the mine cart adventure a little.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Much, just maybe too much. But it's a good one.
It's such a good one.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
It is such a good one, and I do love it.
But you're just you're watching it and you're just like, Okay,
how many more like stunts do we have to pull
with the mine cart? And then after the immediately after
the mine cart, there's a moment where he is Indiana
Jones has used himself as the brakes and put his
(34:05):
feet on the wheels.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Well, one of the things I love about the the
mine cart is just that such such a difficult scene
to shoot, but it's so it's so fun to kind
of like keep an eye out for there are there's
a surprising amount of stop animation scenes or shots in
(34:29):
that scene, to where it was all done with a
little with an actual camera like a like a like
a shooting still frames, and I think it's using kind
of a go motion technique because all the scenes are bouncing,
but just like how many shots are actually just little
(34:52):
tiny miniature people moving around.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Okay, all right, yeah, I love the part where short
Round is being like torn between the two wine carts
and he's just like wow, and they're like trying to
pull him out Indidiana Jones and Willie are trying to
pull him in. That part's great, But there's a moment
(35:18):
so after we've had this whole mine cart race, he's
used his feet for the brakes. They're smoking, they're about
to catch fire, and he's like water water water, and
then they're being chased by water, water, water, water, and
they have to run away from the water. And so
it's just like this Indiana Jones thinks where it's like, oh,
you think the chase is over because the mine cart
pipe part was too long. Well guess what. Now they're
(35:41):
being chased by the elements of the earth.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
It's such a great gag though, so good it is.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
And they get backed out onto that cliff and there's
a really weird effect is it stop motion where Indians
up on the wrong side.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Oh it's compositing and so okay, yeah, so it's probably
a miniature with all the water and then they've they've
filmed them against kind of like yeah, so it seems
like they're kind of cut out. You know, it's effectively
the same thing that green screen does, but it's basically
two different elements. So they're standing by a real life
(36:23):
wall face that they're probably shooting some water out of.
Probably not though it's it's probably just the whole cut
the hole is cut out and it's cut into a
miniature where they're blasting the water out of.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You know, because the effect really looks kind of janky
to me.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah, I feel like compositing during the eighties is one
of the things that doesn't hold up super well, that
kind of comes off at a little janky. And then yeah,
because at this point you're not using computers, you're using
for timeraphy and so you've you've got to match the
(37:03):
color and it's really the the line that you're cutting
around gives it away the most. You know that you're
cutting the image out. Like the old Star Wars movies
had the problem to where like you could actually see
a box around all the spaceships in outer space, you know,
(37:23):
and then they've they've been removing them as as new
versions of the movie come out, you know, but just
actually how the move the the when they you know,
in compositing is basically just taking two different images and
putting them together.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
You know, right right, yeah, like a blue screen green
screen kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's the the simple version of it is
that you're you're taking one element that you shot in
a different time and then putting it into another shot.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Mm hmm. Okay. There's also a there's so there's this
big thuggy ceremony which Indiana Jones and Willie and Short
round witness where Mola Ram who is the king of
(38:15):
the Thuggies. I'm rish Puri, who is great and so scary,
so many.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Great, so many great actors in this movie.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
It's true. He rips the still beating heart out of
a man who's being sacrificed as one would, which I've
been told where lots of people have covered their eyes.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yes, this is where a young Nathan covered his eyes.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yes, And he gets sacrificed, He gets dipped down into
the lava, and I'm like, why doesn't the cage melt
in the lava. Why isn't his skeleton or anything left
of him?
Speaker 3 (38:59):
It's science reasons. There's science reasons, science reasons.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
But what I love is that there's like, you know,
hundreds of thuggies who are all like bowing, and we
have to assume they're all under the black sleep of
the Khali blood. I mean there's also some of them.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I feel like, I feel like, you know, for some cults,
you don't need everyone to be hypnotized. Some people just join, Yeah,
some people just join.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, Okay, Well there's also a band. So do we
think the band is hypnotized or do we think that
they just joined because there's like there's like drums, of course,
which is what we mostly like. There's also a guy
with like a tambourine.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, so let's talk about this. It's kind of like
you can put the same judgment at the like the
like Jaba's Palace band.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, I wish, I love.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
I feel like they're not that they're a separate thing,
but they gotta be aware. There's gotta be some clue.
It's not kind of like what they were all thuggy.
I can't believe it, Honey, did you hear, well, I'm
not going back there. Like you may't.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
A gig economy, you go where the work takes you.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
I feel like they probably, like this band, probably knew
something was up. I feel like the Jaba's band one
hundred percent of them knew that that there was criminal activity.
You know, it's Jaba You're you're you're working for the mob,
you know. Yeah, but I think here there's a little
(40:38):
more room. It's like, well, maybe just rich people are weird,
you know.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, rich people have weird ceremonies. But I you know,
there's not a lot of work in Paycott right now
for a tambourine player.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
So yeah, I think like them and the dancers, like
there's some they're probably sensing something's a little up, but
maybe it's.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Just and what about the big ending on the bridge
where they're on a suspension bridge.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Or Yeah. I feel like people know, if you're listening
to this episode, you probably know Temple of Doom, and
so we're really just going by favorite scenes rather than
any kind of order.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah I'm not, I'm not recapping it for you, right, Yeah,
skipping along on one of.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
My favorite scenes is the is the kind of the
romantic comedy scene where they're both waiting for each other
to make the first move in their room.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Oh yeah, where they're having that that will there, won't
they enemy is still lovers. You'll be back in five minutes.
You'll be back in five minutes.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
So it's always fun, like Indiana. It's weird to see
when Indiana Jones is is a cad, but it's more
it's more fun and more in line with what I
feel like the character is is when you use that
to make fun of him, you know. And so like
this scene is perfect where he's feeling he's feeling, he's
(42:15):
feeling it, but at the same time, he's also kind
of like, well, why isn't she Well, I should just
go over there. Why isn't she coming over here? Smelling
in his breath, and so he feels a little ridiculous,
he feels a little human.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, I think that's a that's a real fun scene.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
But yeah, I also love the scene where the end
of that scene where he gets attacked, Oh yeah, and
he's like being attacked and she comes out into the
hallway and screams, Indiana Jones, this is the night you
let me slip right through your fingers and he's like
extending his hand and you know we see his like
(42:55):
fingers all splayed out as he's reaching for like to
get away from the strangulation that's happening. That's a really
good moment too. So I love the playfulness of that.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
I the so it's Spielberg is not I mean he's
written scripts, but he's not a screenwriter. But he is
so good at story. He's so good at at heightening scenes,
at building them, uh and just and he has such
a great level of playfulness. That's the that's the aspects
(43:32):
of Spielberg I really respond to the most.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
It's just the way that he just continues to stack
and build the scene. And then that moment that you
pointed out where where he's dying and choking, that's where
I had that moment. It's like when when he's like
reaching out, it's like you just let me slip right
through your fingers and he's just like ah, you know,
(43:56):
like reaching his hand out a perfect match cut of
reaching for her, his hand going out for the door
being choked. It's like that This is what makes Indiana
Jones special, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Is followed by the moment where he walks into her
room and she's like, I'm right here, I'm right here,
and he's just like feking sweating, and then he pushes
the statue in by the boops and she's like, hey,
I'm right here.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
But before that, he's like sweating and looking in all
directions and she's like, be chentil oh, be gentle with me.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
It's so good. But there. One of my favorite moments
is because I always love it when these heroes who
seem so capable and just slide from one situation to
the next, and they're totally able to, you know, with
confidence and swagger get through anything. I love it when
(44:56):
they have a moment where they go, oh shit, so
suspension bridge and he's like, Okay, what's my next move.
I'll drop the Shankara stones. We'll find them, oh ship.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
One of the I feel like Indiana Jones's main ability
is his tenacity, and he's not a fantastic plan maker.
He's just making it up as he goes, you know,
he's just swinging with it, and it's great to have
that moment, has no idea what to do.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah. Then they march Willian short round out on the
bridge and he's like he tells him in Cantonese, like
we're going for a ride, Hayley, hold on, We're going
for a ride. And she goes, oh no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Even blam like drops the like the pretenses, like what
what are you doing, you idiot?
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Yeah, we thought this was a bad idea. We all
thought we workshopped it. We all thought it was a
bad idea. Don't do it. And I love when Mola
Ram is like throwing other thuggies at him.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
He's just like.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Throwing them down, like to try and knock them off
the bridge, and like, Mola Ram, You's so bad, Like,
oh my gosh. So we should talk about in case
people don't know that, because we talked about it with
Red Dawn, which was the first PG thirteen movie, but
(46:37):
it was the first PG thirteen movie because of this movie,
right right.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Which is not only is it because of the content,
but it also has a lot to do with Spielberg,
you know, like he wants to it's like, you know,
so at this point they were just PG movies and
our movies, so there was like stuff that me you know,
basically for kids or adults, and there kind of needed
(47:07):
to be something for older kids. It kind of be
something for older kids where they where you could kind
of push some of the boundaries of violence and things
like that. But I feel like, because this didn't get
an R because it was done by Spielberg and Lucas,
you know, and so it was really like, you know,
(47:31):
Spielberg like saying, as I feel like there should be
to Jack Falencia is like, there needs to be like
a PG thirteen or a PG fourteen or something like
that in there where a little more violent, grosser stuff
can be made. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
So that's what I tell people all the time when
we when it comes to improv, are seven thirty shows
at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater are all ages, and like
people will ask like is it family friendly? And I
say like, well, I don't like the term family friendly
because family friendly seems like a young hip, a cool
(48:09):
kid unfriendly. You know. Family friendly sounds like it's rated
G or PG. And I like to tell people like,
our show is rated PG thirteen. Yeah, so the old
you know, Hollywood saying like you can't make a good
PG movie. Okay, maybe I agree with that, but you
can definitely make a good PG thirteen movie. And our
(48:34):
show is even like a little bit cleaner than PG.
Thirteen because we don't say shit at least once. Yeah,
we don't say shit at all. So all right, Okay,
So on a scale of one, still beating heart, h
ten still beating hearts?
Speaker 3 (48:55):
How many beating hearts are in my heart?
Speaker 2 (48:57):
For Indiana Jones and the template exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
I'm so I'm going so I have to calibrate it
with the other Indiana Jones movies of course. So I
feel like eight point five is the magic number for me, okay,
because I feel like it's better than an eight. But
it's not a nine. It's not Last Crusade like I
(49:22):
would give Last Crusade a nine. I hope I gave
Last Crusada nine.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
I'm pretty sure we both gave it a nine. I
maybe gave it a ten, but yeah, I think we
both gave it a nine.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, so it it's really it's maybe really an eight
point four or eight point three, but I'm going eight
point five because that's just bull pullsh it. Okay, So yeah,
where does it land for you?
Speaker 2 (49:51):
I'm going to give it an eight. I'm not going
to push it up that last point five. But if
we have eight nine ten, there was comfortable.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
How can I get you into an eight point five?
Would it be less mind.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Cart less mine cart let's brown faced British actors. Yeah,
mm hmmm, less uh, less cultural and sensitivity to the
poor Indian people, not not that they're not that the
Indian people are poor, saying the poor Indian people who
(50:26):
are suffering through the portrayal that is being put together
of them.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
And then is there is there one other gag that
we could remove to get you an eight point five?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Maybe? I don't know. I love the gags, like I'm
here for the gags. I like the part where he's
removing the Shankara stones and he sees the statue of
the snake and just like, yeah, that's great, a justic
hat uh. And I love the part where Willie has
like been harassed by the elephant all night and so
she pulls the snake off and tosses it away, and
(51:02):
Indiana Jones is just like, mm hmmm, I love all
those gags. Maybe more gags, more gags, I'll make a call, okay,
please do okay? And you already mentioned your deep cut recommendation.
Speaker 3 (51:22):
No, I well, I not really that was more of
my gag deep Well, I.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Thought you were being real. I believe you.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
I was sincere in the recommendation. But it's not my
deep cut recommendation.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Okay, all right. So in addition to putting on the subtitles,
which I wholeheartedly support, that's.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
My hot tip. That's my hot tip, not my deep cut.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
I love that hot tip. I love that hot tip.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
My hot tip is if you're going to go in
a mine cart, take the left tunnel, like the kids.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Said, uh huh yeah, have a plan.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah, what's your deep cut recommendation?
Speaker 3 (52:06):
So so I've got I've got two what is a
self serving one. It's more of a more of a
bonus deep cut. So my web series Voyage Checkers, it's
a it's a sci fi comedy about the worst starship
crew in the galaxy. But we did a half hour
(52:28):
radio play of with the characters, and so it's on
our website, the Voidge Checkers website. It's probably under like
special features. It's called Quest for the Golden Orb, but
it's it's basically a parody of Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
So they basically go to a poor village and they
go to a mind full of kids, but it's it's
it's obviously space India and not real India. But yeah,
it's ridiculous and stupid and the characters don't do anything right.
But my real deep cut recommendation is if you want,
(53:13):
if you want to get into Indian films like Bollywood,
a good entry level movie one that's a lot of
fun is and it's on Netflix right now. It's called
Om Shanty Ohm. So it's kind of like a movie
about movie making, but it's really more of a a
(53:38):
love and revenge melodrama. But the Bollywood itself is just
a backdrop, so it's not really a movie about movie making,
but it is kind of like a Bollywood epic. There's
death and then there's reincarnation. There's a lot of the
things that you want from a Bollywood movie. One of
my favorite there's one of my favorite like song and
(54:03):
dance numbers in it. That's a lot of fun because
it's kind of like like period Indian films like sixties, seventies, eighties.
But it's also a good entry level movie because you
get to see shahru Khan, who's like the the number
one international film star in the world. And so if
you haven't Wow Shahru Khan films sr K as he's known,
(54:30):
then that would be a good a good one to
see it. It's it's on Netflix. So OMSHANTIOM, I mean,
if we're if we're really going for like a connection.
Uh there's a movie that's commonly called d DLJ that
also has Sharru Khan and and Amrishpuri who is Mula
(54:52):
ram Is in that movie as the disapproving dad. So
that's a good one too.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
But I want to tear out anyone still beating.
Speaker 3 (55:00):
Heart, well just metaphorically. That actually is his job. Yeah,
disapproving dad. Of course, I would say he tears out
at least two people's metaphoric hearts in that movie. Uh
oh tipperarily but back. But but if you're if you
haven't seen many Indian films, Omshanti Ohm is gonna be
(55:22):
a little more accessible, a little more fun.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
Mm hmm. That's great. That's really wonderful, beautiful recommendations. I
my deep cut recommendation is also like a big left turn.
It's not it's not because of if you love Indiana
Jones or anything like that. It's just because I love
the story of Kei Kwan, who plays Short Round and
(55:50):
I love that. You know, he is Short Round in
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He is Data
in the Goodies, and he does these two hues huge
eighties at movies, and then nothing for a long, long,
long long time, and then when he is in his fifties,
(56:14):
here comes Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which he
wins an Oscar's Louise, Jeez Louise. And I just think
that that story is so beautiful and so inspiring, and
I think that the movie Everything Everywhere, All at Once
(56:36):
is also a beautiful and inspiring piece. So that is
my deep cut recommendation. If you want more Keihuai Kwan,
I love it. That's where you get it from. Or
the more recent movie he did called Love Sucks. Is
that what it's called love? Love? Or love Hurts? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (56:59):
I think it's love hurts.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yeah, let's see love hurts. It's called love hurts. And
that's you know, he's starring in an action movie. He's
fifty three, and he's like finally getting this beautiful career.
He was in Kung Fu Panda four, Like, how do
you argue with that?
Speaker 3 (57:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (57:21):
Yeah, I love it. It's beautiful, so awesome, excellent. Thank
you for listening so much. Thank you for being here
with us at the end. As we said, if you're
here with us at the end, you may want to
become a member. You get a little extra bonus content
from us every week curated to the episode. Today, we're
going to talk about scenes from movies where you have
(57:43):
to cover your eyes where you either had to when
you were a kid or you still have to cover
your eyes. And you become a member at true story
dot fm. Just click on our little podcasty and follow
the little prompties and you'll you'll find the way. Other
epic projects on true story dot fm include Gank That Drink,
(58:06):
a supernatural drinking game, pot prod podcast where you can
hear me and my other co host, Nate McCord making
up drinking game rules for favorite episodes of our favorite
show Supernatural UH and drinking along with them and making
up drinking game rules that you can follow along with
as well. Nathan. Where can people follow you and your
(58:29):
filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 3 (58:31):
Uh Squishy Studios dot com. Our movie The Last Movie
Ever Made, is on Amazon and two b If you
want to check it out.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, definitely do check it out. And if you want
to find me in the real world doing comedy up
on a stage, The Neighborhood Comedy Theater is located in
downtown Mesa, Arizona, and you can find out more about
it at Nctphoenix dot com. That's end for Neighborhood, c
for Comedy, t for Theater, and Phoenix I'll spelled out
dot com. Thank you so much again for being here.
(59:05):
Like rate review, subscribe, tell a friend, tell lounge singer
who is inexplicably on an adventure with you for some reason,
uh romantic or otherwise. And when you're out there in
the world, please keep the most excellent podcast, uh the
most excellent eighties movies podcast. Motto in mind be excellent
(59:27):
to each other.
Speaker 3 (59:28):
And dudes, every time I do that, I feel like
I'm doing a Abraham Lincoln impersonation when he because you are.
It's it leans more and more into that every episode.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
Baron, dude, the words of Lincoln. You can't you can't
take them. They can't go wrong.
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