Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom/Headscratchers


 * So, why didn't Mola Ram pull Willie's heart out of her chest anyway? Is it an every-fifth-person-we-pull-the-heart-out-of thing? Do they not do that to female sacrifices? (Of course, it's simply too easy to joke that it's because she doesn't have a heart, but seriously.)
 * My interpretation is that Mola Ram never actually pulled anybody's heart out of anybody's body --It was all mass suggestion. Mass hypnosis, if you want to call it that. During the first sacrifice, we are shown what those present think they are seeing. During the second (attempted) sacrifice, we see what really happens (Mola Ram doing as if he is holding aloft a beating heart, when if fact he isn't). At the end of the movie, I interpret what Mola Ram tries to do to Indy on the remains of the rope bridge as an attempt at suggestion, perhaps inducing a heart attack or something.
 * James Kahn's excellent Novelization of Temple Of Doom says that Mola Ram was just messing with Willie's head in that scene (I guess just to torture her further before the actual sacrifice).
 * Why didn't Indy have a panic attack when "snake surprise" was being served?
 * I got the impression that he was so busy chatting with the others at the table that he didn't notice any of the Foreign Queasine.
 * Another possibility is his fear of snakes is prevalent only in his "action" mode. During the Temple of Doom dinner scene, Indy was in full "academic/teacher" mode. In Last Crusade, when young Indy was being chased, he fell into a crate full of snakes, and he was freaking out, as opposed to brushing off a snake before being chased.
 * I thought the whole point of the snake-crate was to show the origin of Indy's phobia. He brushed off the snake (and even said "it's just a snake") because it preceded the traumatic, phobia-inducing event.
 * The python that was served as "snake surprise" was quite obviously dead, hence wouldn't intimidate Indy, who isn't even freaked out by human corpses. The squirmy live critters inside it were eels, not snakes.
 * The man Indiana is talking with about the airplane arrangements in the beginning of the film. What is it with him sounding like c3po and enunciating every word in a deliberately obnoxious manner and nasal voice? "as You Will Be Riding On A Car-go-plane-full-of-live Poultry". Really now? If it's supposed to be an accent I am at a complete loss as to which one, and why such an irritating one was chosen.
 * Um, it's obviously supposed to be a humorously exaggerated British accent. What's not to get?
 * Plus he's played by Dan Aykroyd, so it Rule of Fun applies...
 * At the beginning of the film, Indy spends a good portion of the club scene desperately looking for the antidote to his poisoned drink. Willie, spotting the antidote, does the most helpful thing by sliding it down the front of her dress, and is angry when he reaches in and grabs it in the car. Did she mistake it for the diamond from the club scene, or was she actively trying to kill him?
 * I think her being angry was just on the principle of a guy she barely knows--and who had threatened her earlier--reaching into her dress. She was probably planning to just give him the antidote--possibly in return for something, who knows--but wasn't expecting him to basically molest her to get it.
 * She was probably planning to use it as a bargaining chip. "Give me the diamond, I give you the antidote." And she just forgot that she had it when things really went to Hell.
 * Why did Willie get on the plane with Indy and Short Round?
 * It never exactly came up in dialogue, but she was really just dragged along without resistance once things turned bad at the club. Note that she's not in any way an Action Girl like Marion; she's a total diva, and would need somone streetwise and tough like Indy to protect her from the gangsters. If they weren't intending to kill Willie, she probably thought they were, and in any event they were so reckless and trigger-happy she probably figured running away with Jones was the safest option. The whole group made things up as they went once the deal went sour; no time to think or plan ahead, just roll.
 * Because Indy had ordered three airline tickets: for himself, Short Round, and Wu Han. Even though Wu Han died, Indy's not going to waste that third seat, dammit!