Temple of Doom: 40 Years Later

In 1981, Steven Spielberg released Raiders of the Lost with George Lucas as the Executive Producer. It became the first of three movies that brought us the cinematic icon Indiana Jones.

Spielberg and Lucas would do it again three years later when he released the movie that would serve as the prequel to Raiders known as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  

The movie had a darker tone than the movie released three years earlier. It covers the themes of child trafficking, human sacrifice, and even fortune and glory.

This cinematic classic follows Indy and his companions Short Round and a whiny female lead Willie.

Child Trafficking

In the movie, one of the pleas from the villagers to Indy and his companions was to rescue their children who were kidnapped by a cult. This group was to use them to dig until the remaining stones were found.

As Indy escapes with the stones, he hears a scream in the distance. It turns out he discovered a mining facility and the children taken from the occult are using them for slave labor.

Human Sacrifice

The occult practices human sacrifice while worshiping the Hindu God Kali. This goddess is an expression of destruction and benevolence.  In the satanic practice of the cult, a high priest named Mola Ram initiates the ritual by ripping the heart of a person out. Then the person slowly goes down into a fiery pit which burns him to death.

It shows us that the culture of death is a diabolic belief carried out by Satan, and it must be stopped.

Fortune and Glory

the stone is one of the legendary lost Sankara Stones, magical stones containing diamonds given by the Hindu god, Shiva. In a discussion with Short Round, he tells them that the stones were fortune and glory.

Yet, when it was set and done, the stones he recovered from the occult were all almost lost. He still returned at least one of the stones and the children.

While Indy didn’t obtain the “fortune and glory”, it was the children that mattered the most. It was met when every villager was happily reunited with their family.

What gets me the most is the unintentional pro-life message crafted by the screenwriters of the film. Children’s lives are the true fortune and glory. They are valued more than all the things life has to offer.