Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is different than the rest of the movies in the series, but I still find it to be very enjoyable and worthy of it’s place alongside the other excellent Indiana Jones adventures.

The movie begins with Indiana Jones traveling to Shanghai to acquire a large diamond from a man named Lao Che. He narrowly escapes, only to fly off on an airplane owned by Lao. The pilots empty the gas, parachute off the plane and leave Indy, his love interest, and sidekick to die. As the plane is about to crash, Indy and crew make a miraculous escape down a mountain, across a raging river, and straight into a poor Indian village.

It is here that the tone of the story diverges from the other Indy films. Temple of Doom is much darker in tone than the other movies in the series. The story, which deals with human sacrifice, kidnapping, and child slavery, was conceived by George Lucas during a dark period in his life.

That said, Temple of Doom is still a very enjoyable movie. The music is great as always, Harrison Ford is still wonderful as Indiana Jones, and there are some great stuntwork such as a mine cart chase that has become a movie staple in much the same way as the truck chase in Raiders. Even with the dark story, it is still very much classic Indiana Jones.

This movie is much darker then the other two in the series, especially in the middle. But it does have several lighter moments and plenty of great action sequences.