Prime Video Officially Just Added Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite Indiana Jones Movie

1 week ago 18

harrison ford as indiana jones in indiana jones and the temple of doom

Published Oct 11, 2026, 4:40 AM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Trust Quentin Tarantino to have an unpopular opinion about something that most of the world agrees on, but his favorite Indiana Jones movie happens to be the one that even Steven Spielberg isn't too proud of. The movie was recently added to the Prime Video library, where younger audiences can experience some of its unexpectedly grim themes and borderline racist narrative. The film does, of course, have its fans beyond Tarantino. For instance, its opening musical sequence is widely appreciated; it was revived when Spielberg made his first full-fledged musical, West Side Story, decades later. The movie also marks the memorable debut of Ke Huy Quan, who would go on to have a fairytale Hollywood comeback after spending nearly 20 years on the sidelines of the business.

We're talking, of course, about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Such was the film's impact at the time of its release that it forced the Motion Picture Association to create a new rating category altogether, the now ubiquitous PG-13. Unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark and most other movies in the franchise, Temple of Doom featured an Indian religious cult as the primary antagonistic force. It courted controversy for its depiction of Indians as monkey brain eaters and for its portrayal of a Goddess as a demon. Describing it as his least-favorite installment of the original Indiana Jones trilogy, Spielberg said, I wasn't happy with Temple of Doom at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There's not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom."

Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Indiana Jones Movie Was a Box-Office Hit

However, Tarantino was a major fan of the film, describing it as his favorite of the series and his favorite Spielberg movie behind Jaws. He said on the ReelBlend podcast, "Spielberg pushes the envelope, he creates PG-13, a movie so badass it created a new level in the MPAA." Temple of Doom featured Harrison Ford as the iconic character for the second time and grossed $333 million worldwide. It now holds a 77% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The Indiana Jones series continued with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and was then resurrected years later with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Another attempt to revitalize the series was made a few years ago with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but the movie tanked both critically and commercially. You can watch Temple of Doom on Prime Video, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.