Book Loaded with FANTASTIC Photos of the Movie! Picture Book is VG+ (shelf wear) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones franchise and a prequel to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. After arriving in North India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees, stumbling upon a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritual human sacrifice in honor of their god Kali. Producer and co-writer George Lucas decided to make the film a prequel as he did not want the Nazis to be the villains again. After three rejected plot devices, Lucas wrote a film treatment that resembled the film's final storyline. Lawrence Kasdan, Lucas's collaborator on Raiders of the Lost Ark, turned down the offer to write the script, and Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz were hired as his replacement, with the resultant screenplay partly based upon the 1939 film Gunga Din.