Until Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came along – and then Dial of Destiny, at least if you believe the Rotten Tomatoes approval rating – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had been designated as the “worst” entry in the legendary franchise for decades.
While that sounds fairly harsh on the surface, it’s also technically true, but that’s hardly designed to be an insult when both Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade are certifiable classics that continue to reign as a pair of the most accomplished, entertaining, and all-round rollicking blockbusters that have ever been made.
Setting an accidental precedent that would swiftly become par for the course in Hollywood, Harrison Ford’s second outing as the iconic archeologist headed down the “darker and grittier” route long before it became cool, leading to a complete overhaul of cinema’s ratings systems as a result.
Thanks to its content, thematic undertones, and bursts of supernatural violence, Temple of Doom served as the catalyst behind the MPAA introducing its PG-13 rating, which is now the established songbook that virtually every expensive studio production now sings from. You get additional violence, plenty of gunplay without the blood, and a solitary use of the word “f*ck,” all of which is derived directly from Steven Spielberg’s under-appreciated and unfairly maligned follow-up.
Almost 40 years later and with Dial of Destiny just over the horizon, Temple of Doom has been making some moves on streaming as audiences revisit the back catalogue, with FlixPatrol naming it as one of the most-watched features on both Paramount Plus and iTunes.