Ramon- Temple of Doom

The difference in belief and believing is a great one. It is one thing for someone to be aware of a certain belief a group has, but believing is the key to success in a journey. To make reference to sport, a team must not only execute a system of play the their coach has set for them, but they must also genuine belief in that system for a sense of confidence among the members an a cohesive unit to become truly successful. That is directly equated to the apotheosis Indiana Jones goes through in Temple of Doom. In the beginning of Act II, Shorty is told by Indiana that the villagers merely told him a ghost story about the stone’s importance to the village. At this point, Indiana is a pure mercenary (like we see in the bar in Episode IV: New Hope). Jumping to (pun) the scene on the bridge, Indiana emerges from a state of belief to believing in the power of the stones.

In a hermeneutic arc, one goes through constant states of refection and experience. Not all of these experiences come from “good.” Here Indiana’s believing comes from his journey to the underworld, where “evil” reigns. It is through our experiences with ‘evil” that we grow to a sense of “good.” Once Indiana experiences the underworld, he is drawn to the side of “good” for which he must fight to protect. Indiana uses the divine powers of “good” as a catalyst to overcome Mola Ram, thus overcoming “evil.” In the hero’s journey, he is sent to bring back an item from the underworld to the people he is a part of or sent to be a part of. The hero’s journey would not be complete if Indiana would have taken the stone to a museum.