Temple of Doom (Cont'd)
"Pankot Palace" was created as a matte painting (right), based closely off Amber Palace in Jaipur, India. The production originally planned to film in India, but due to the government trying to force script changes upon them they decided to move shooting to Sri Lanka.
Address: Devisinghpura, Amer, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302001, India
The palace courtyard was constructed on the backlot at Elstree Studios, and extended with a matte painting.
The Palace hall was built on Stage 3 at Elstree.
Another matte painting shot combined with live action.
Indy & Willie's rooms & the hallway between them was a set on Stage 3 at Elstree.
The bug tunnel & spike chamber were sets on Stage 9 of Elstree Studios.
The caverns beneath the palace were accomplished with a foreground miniature combined with a matte painting by Frank Ordaz (shot at ILM) and live-action footage of the actors.
The ceremonial hall of the temple was a massive set that completely filled Stage 2 of Elstree Studios. The lava pit was added with an ILM miniature composite.
The shot of the poor sacrificial victim being lowered into the lava pit was done with a model at ILM.
The mine quarry set was constructed in Stage 6 at Elstree.
Mola Ram's chamber was on Stage 9 at Elstree.
The mine car chase was a combination of a set on Elstree's Stage 4 with a working roller-coaster mine car ride (for close-ups and following shots with the actors) and miniature stop-motion work done at ILM.
The dead-end of the tracks was part of the mine car set on Stage 4, but once the water comes...
...it changes to a miniature tunnel with actors against bluescreen. The big water reservoir spill was done with a miniature set as well (left), shot on stage at ILM.
The cliff wall was a miniature set at ILM, with the actors composited in later.
The bridge was built downriver from the Victoria Dam in Sri Lanka, which was under construction at the time. The engineers who were working on the dam were hired by the film crew to construct the 200' long bridge. The only thing that remains of the bridge today are the concrete support pillars on either side and the cable anchor points. Wide shots from below were filmed from a bridge near the base of the dam that no longer stands.
GPS Coordinates: 7.237633, 80.788644
Insert shots of the alligators were done by Frank Marshall's 2nd unit at Gatorland Zoo in Kissimee, Florida & an alligator farm in St. Augustine, FL.
After the bridge breaks, the ensuing fight on the cliff wall was filmed on a set on the Elstree backlot that was only a few feet off the ground. It was extended in several shots with matte paintings. A section of the bridge was also elevated by a crane for shots of it breaking. For Mola Ram's fall into the river, a 2nd unit plate shot was done off a cliff near Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.
This was shot on a bluff overlooking Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, CA using doubles. The background of the village is a matte painting.
Back at the tea plantation in Kandy.