In what year is Temple of Doom set?

In what year is *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom* set? It is set in 1935.

The film opens in Shanghai in 1935 before Indiana Jones escapes Lao Che and crash-lands in British India. There, he becomes involved with the village of Mayapore, whose children have been taken by the Thuggee cult. Indy’s mission ultimately leads beneath Pankot Palace, where the cult uses enslaved children to mine for diamonds and worships the goddess Kali.

The date can cause confusion because *Temple of Doom* was released in 1984 but is a prequel to *Raiders of the Lost Ark*. *Raiders* takes place in 1936, so the second-released film occurs one year earlier in the story chronology. The other listed years—1936, 1938, and 1957—belong to different points in the Indiana Jones timeline or are not the film’s setting.

The 1935 setting also places the adventure before Indy’s better-known confrontation with the Nazis over the Ark of the Covenant. It helps establish a younger, more fortune-seeking version of Jones before his character develops further.