PART 2

Afler filming in Sri Lanka, the production moves to EMi-Elstree Studios outside London to shootthe remaining half of Temple's footage. Early plans to film in Australia were scrapped due to lack of studio space, construction materials and technically-skilled engineers. EMI, aka "Lucas East," has made available every soundstage, including the monolithic Stage 6, which served the Star Wars crew. Elliot Scott erected the Palace of Pankot in all its exotic splendor, using enough raw materials to supply a small country. Equally elaborate sets include mines and a stone quarry. Crews have built, dismantled and rebuilt on nine stages with the choreographed precision of a Marine drill unit. As testimony to Scolds talent, new sets have appeared almost overnight, ready for filming the next day. Still, EMI has not been without its problems. As cameras are set up for the complex Temple of Doom sequences, Indian actor Amrish Puri rushes onto the set, having just arrived from Bombay. He nods to Spielberg before hustling to make-up for his transformation from docile actor to fiendish torturer Mola Ram. He has been elusive during filming, and with good reason. At the time Watts contacted him in Bombay, Puri was shooting 18 different movies - at the same time!

"The Indian film industry is so different from ours," the producer reveals. "Amrish must split his work schedule into blocks so he can shoot Temple, and still fulfill his commitments back home."

Watts is interrupted by the screeching of an infant chimpanzee, one of a menagerie of wild animals including owls, elephants and snakes imported from around the world, and currently housed on the British set. A bull elephant has been borrowed from the London Zoo. He is easily spotted on the EMI lot, where he waits in a mobile trailer. In restless moments, he sways until the entire van heaves on its frame! Rockabye, baby, indeed! One of Temple's most suspenseful scenes is yet unfilmed: the spike chamber sequence. Inspired by the classic B-movie tradition of hair-raising traps and split-second escapes, a secret tunnel has been added to the plot as Indy's deus ex machine. "The spike chamber is a cliffhanger scene with strong comedic overtones," Watts says as Ford arrives on the set, clad in tattered khaki and roughed leather, looking crustier than a buried artifact. "It's very heart-stopping."

Indy, Willie and Shorty must flee from a palace chamber through a subterranean cavern to confront the dreaded room with I deadly spikes bristling from the floor and ceiling. Indy stumbles in a fallible moment, setting the trap in motion. As the room closes in, similar to the garbage scow scene in Star Wars, Indy and Shorty turn to Willie for aid - and outmaneuver the impossible predicament by a bedbug's whisker.

Another danger-laden episode occurs at the film's climax, in a mine beneath the Temple of Doom, as the daring adventurer must narrowly avoid death in a manner never before seen on film. The mining car action has him in peril up to the brim of his rumpled fedora. "We've tried to create original sequences," Frank Marshall explains. "The mine scene is very difficult. When I read the script, I thought, 'How the hell are we going to do that?"' The thundering finale will undoubtedly have audiences posing the same question. Whitewater explodes over rapids, cascading angrily down a channel eroded through solid rock in centuries past. Overhanging tree branches are speckled with foam from the swig current.

A tiny yellow rubber raft speeds along, bounding uncontrolled over the craggy rocks. Indiana and Willie clutch the slippery craft for life as the nightmare jaunt winds downstream. The scene is Yosemite National Park's 40-foot deep Toulumne River in California's San Joaquin Valley, where photography is grinding to a halt after months of treacherous shooting. An effective take is called; the raft and its occupants are dragged from the rapids. Director Spielberg calls outfrom an intricate scaffold rigged precariously in mid-stream. He positions the camera so the proper angle captures the edge-of-the-seat action. A crane extends over the boiling river far below, and all members are required to don life vests. Another inflatable raft is dropped as a test from a launch pod mounted atop the structure. Careful rehearsal insures that every precaution is taken. Still, human risk is high, a fact im- mediately evident as the stunt is performed for the cameras. Afterward, daredevils Dean Serrendini and Donna Keegan, sputtering water, roll onto dry land. Keegan is slightly injured from the spectacular 40' fall, and medics rush to tend her wound.

Such dangerous scenes are increased by the lack of miniatures used in production. Most Temple shots have been live!

"The stunt work has been hairy at times," Watts admits. "We've attempted to combine impressive theatrics with safety. But, Indy spends his life in a certain amount of difficulty. He's not invincible; he pulls through with guts, determination and intelligence. Our stunt coordination reflects his philosophy, and we've fortunately had no injuries to date." The producer pretends to stick his foot in his mouth as Keegan hobbles away for further medical attention .

As with Raiders, Ford has done many of his own stunts, and escaped with nothing more than the usual bumps and bruises, except for a wrenched back. Main unit production ceased for several weeks while the star recovered, and Spielberg utilized the time to film stunt work and reverse angle shots with a stand-in. The remainder of the cast has opted to sit out the dangerous scenes, allowing the doubles to do what they get paid for. Midget Felix (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) Silla, who played an Ewok in Return of the Jedi, appropriately substitutes for Quan.

"I'm not usually a worrier," Ford says, reflecting on the dangerous lifestyle of his cinematic alter ego. "I know they're probably not gonna kill the main character in a multl-million dollar movie. But, sometimes think the most difficult part of being in films is being cool as an airplane rolls over your legs - and acting like it doesn't hurt at all!"

The rugged actor has had more than his share of screen action. As the two-fisted lead in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedl, Blade Runner and Raiders of the Lost Ark, he has set the pace by which most other fantasy heroes must measure their exploits. While his characters are similar, Ford believes they have different personalities.

"Han Solo flies a spaceship, and shoots his mouth off and that's about it - he is primarily a plot device. Star Wars is a straight adventure serial, containing a variety of one-dimensional characters. Solo and Jones are both mercenaries, both adventurers, but those are the only things they have in common.

"Indiana Jones carries much of the movie by himself. He has to have more facets, more character, more personality than Solo. He has sensitivity, vulnerability, a sense of humor - and a fear of snakes. In general, the stories' situations give Indy more depth and humanity. There's a necessity to know a bit more about him, because he stimulates your curiosity."

Ford was originally cast in Raiders at the last minute, a tight two weeks before the film was scheduled to roll. "That proved to be both a liability and an asset," he recalls. "Take this shirt I'm wearing, for instance. The cloth was bought in America and flown to England, but it couldn't be cut until the lead was cast. Because I came in at the last minute, I made many decisions about my own costuming - everybody else was too busy to start nitpicking, and I stayed within George's general specifications.

"He was quite explicit in his vision of Indiana Jones in terms of personality, abilities and attitude. He knew he wanted Indy to wear a leather jacket and hat, and carry a bull-whip. He's always malleable to my suggestions; I'll give him credit for that.

"George is a very practical and conscientious filmmaker, and Steven is one of the best directors alive today. They are my allies. I have no fear they'll muck it up. The only anxiety I feel is like . . . like I'm waiting for Christmas.I want to see the finished film as much as anyone easel"

The 41-year-old actor prepared for Temple's physical exertion with eight months of musclebuilding with "Body by Jake" after completing his work on Jedl. Because his character is younger in the new film, he created a more daring persona for the hard-hitUng explorer. In addition to rigorous body-shaping, Ford developed an amazing proficiency with the bull-whip, completing the Indian swordsmen scene, for instance, in one take. "He could shave George Lucas with that whip," a crew member confides. Fortunately, he has not put the claim to the test.

Final days are spent filming the $27 million epic at California's Mammoth Mountain and Hamilton Air Force Base, redecorated to resemble Shanghai Airport, another site in the ten-minute opening sequence. The trio must bail out of an airplane to save their skins from the clutches of Chinese gangster Lao Che.

The scene was modified in mid-production atSpielberg's request, transforming the script's passenger plane into a cargo craft, and adding a clutch of chickens to the payload. The director is confident that audiences will have a finger-lickin' good laugh with the result.

With principal photography completed by September, 1983 (except for an additional week's shooting with Ford in March, 1984), the film footage is transported to Lucasfilm's Marin County facility for post-production work. The final blue screen sequences, optical and special fx were completed by the wizards at Industrial Light and Magic. Lucas and Spielberg make their final editing together, but the cutting-room floor is practically bare of celluloid remnants when they are through - a tribute to trimming excess from the script before filming even began.

After final mixing chores are wrapped, the filmmakers congregate in the screening room to examine footage shot for a nine-minute featurette to serve as a teaser clip. It will later be expanded to an hour-long "Making of" documentary for cable TV.

Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy discuss their favorite scenes as Robert Watts joins them. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz amble in, at odds over a line revision ("I'm bigger," Huyck chuckles, "but, she's more stubborn!"). Spielberg enters wearing Indy's battered hat. Minutes later, George Lucas arrives, and the lights are dimmed. The screen springs to life with images of Indiana Jones' latest exploits. Between verbal puns and wide eyed wonderment, a spine-chilling, super action sequence unfolds:

An old rope bridge sways precariously in the jungle breeze. The gorge below is breathtakingly deep. The scene calls for Indy to run full-bore onto the suspension to meet Willie and Shorty on the other side, but a rather unexpected event interrupts the proceedings. Under the supervision of special fx Coordinator George (Superman-The Movie) Gibbs, "cable cutter" explosives are installed along the span. They must detonate together for the bridge to collapse.

The all-or-nothing scene can only be shot once. Nine cameras are trained on the action, and tension on the set can be cut with a machete. Only Ford remains aloof, standing casually aside while the crew waits nervously for the sun to break through the clouds. The bridge looks about as safe as a wet Kleenex suspended over a snake pit.

Ford, who agreed to do the scene without a double, is asked by a stuntman how he will muster the nerve to run across the swinging structure. He rubs his unshaven face, cracks his most rakish grin and paraphrases a Raiders quip that is characteristically Indy: "How should I know? I'm just making this up as I go!."

By Brendan Strasser
Prevue, 1984