Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a summer hit, but it is more than a pop corn movie.

The summer of 1984 at the movies was about Gremlins, Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones 2, otherwise known as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Darker

Director of Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg, admits in an Indiana Jones DVD extra that the second Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, wasn’t as successful as the first Indiana Jones film and the third film in the trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The reason given for Temple of Doom’s lack of popularity was that it was the darkest of the three films.

However, executive producer George Lucas wanted the second film to be darker because the second episode in a trilogy is the darker one, he said.

Lucas had already made a dark episode with The Empire Strikes Back in his Star Wars trilogy of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Lucas insisted to Spielberg that Indiana Jones 2 go in the same direction as The Empires Strikes Back: darker than the first film.

Though Temple of Doom was a prequel rather than a sequel. Temple of Doom is time-line wise the first part in the trilogy yet in terms of the order of theatrical release it was the second part.

Everything you have heard about Temple of Doom is probably true. You may catch Temple of Doom as your mood dictates.

More than darkness

Temple of Doom is darker—there’s a human sacrifice cult, a nasty villain, occult ceremonies, and lots of bugs—however there’s more to it that goes beyond its darker mood.

Temple of Doom, among a few other things, is about the unexpected adventure.  Jones and company were not expecting to land in India, but they do. They expect a way back home through Delhi. But a villager, who finds them, tells them to go a palace. That’s not on the way to Delhi, says Jones to the villager. Doesn’t matter.

This is the unexpected adventure and involves saving enslaved children in the palace’s ‘basement’, a darker adventure, but one that is meant to save lives. If saving lives means sacrificing Indiana Jones’ personal interests, he’ll do it. Indiana Jones has got to do what he has to do even on the way to Delhi and safely home.