I. Raisa M.

Gelera 14-58627, BSA-5101

II. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

III. Introduction

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom directed by Steven Spielberg, is a 1984
American movie that shows the tradition of ethnic groups in India and Indy’s adventure
along with his sidekick Short Round and Willie Scott, a night club singer. The story
begins with a musical show in Shanghai night club. At first, I didn’t understand if it’s a
ritual dance or simply a dance number. Indiana Jones or simply “Indy” is an
archaeologist. I thought he was a bad man on the way he acted in the night club but as the story
goes on, it did uncovered his true character in the story. I don’t believe in the saying that first
impression lasts. This movie proves it as my first impression for Indy changed and didn’t lasts.
But how can we relate this movie to demand and supply?

IV. Reflection and Discussion

It all start with Buyer and Seller. At the night club, Indiana Jones encountered a crime boss
Lao Che who are seeking the remains of Nurhachi, an ancient emperor from the Ming
Dynasty. The buyer is Lao Che and the seller was Indy. They come together to negotiate a price
that works for both of them. In this scene, the buyer wants to pay the lowest price possible but
Indy, the seller doesn’t want to accept the offer. The buyer really wants that product so in order to
have the deal closed, he have to increase the price to something the seller is willing to take, in
this case the price that the seller is willing to take was a diamond. In this example there is only
one buyer and one seller. When you start analyzing multiple buyers and sellers then you are
looking at markets.

In order to have demand, buyers must be willing and able to buy the particular product. Let’s
have an example of some animals showed in this movie. For example, the buyer wants pet snake.
Some peole wants pet snake, some people don’t especially me. When the price of pet snake is
high, for example P 1000, people don’t want to buy lots of pet snakes. Thus, only 8 pet snake
could be purchased. In a market, there is bunch of substitute pets that the buyer can buy instead.
From Indiana Jones movie, the peple can buy pet elephant, pet eels, or pet monkey as a substitute
for pet snake. If the price for pet snake declines, consumers would willing and able to buy pet
snakes. In graphing the demand curve, it shows a downward sloping this is because of the
negative relationship of Price and Quantity demanded. As the price increases, quantity demanded
tends to decrease. On the other hand, as the price decreases, quantity demanded increases. This is
what we called the Law of Demand.

In the supply curve, the graph shows an upward sloping that indicates a positive relationship
between Price and Quantity supplied. As the price increases, quantity supplied increases. As the
price decreases, quantity supplied decreases. This is what we called Law of Supply. It takes time,
money and energyto produce and sell certain products. At the low price, seller doesn’t want to
sell many pet snakes in the reason that it is not profitable. However, if the there is an increase in
price of a pet snake, seller have more incentive to bring a bundles of pet snakes to the market.
How can we relate shortage and surplus in the movie. Suppose the buyer wants to buy 100 pet
snakes but the seller only wants to sell 60, this is called a shortage. On the other hand, if the
seller wants to sell 100 pet snakes but buyer only wants to buy 60 pet snakes, this is called
surplus.

Demand and supply curve is a great tool to assess what will happen if there will be change in
a marke and to determine the market prices and product quantities in any given market.
For instance, snakes and eels are substitute pets. Assume that the price of pet eels fall.
What will happen to the price and quantity of pet snakes? There will be no changes in
supply curve. This is because substitute goods is under the price of related commodity
which is one of the non-price factor that affects the demand curve. Thus, it only affects
the demand curve. Consumers that would normally buy pet snakes will shiftto buy pet
eels.The demand for pet snakes would decrease. This would result in shifting of the
demand curve to the left of the pet snakes. The graph will shows new equilibrium point.
Equilibrium point is the point in the graph where the demand and supply meet. After the
demand curve shifted to the left, what would happen if sellers kept trying to sell pet
snakes? There will be a surplus in the market because there had many more snakes
out in the market. So the sellers would compete each other because they want to get rid
of the surplus or excess in pet snakes which would drive the price down.

Assume further that in a community there will be a pest control problem. The people
in the community are having a hard time how they will get rid of rats. What happened to
the demand of pet snakes? The demand curve will shift to the right. There will be an
increase in a demand and this would result to a new equilibrium point. This is because
there will be an increase both in price and quantity. After the demand curve shifted to
the right, the quantity demanded is greater than quantity supplied. This would result in a
shortage. Consumer wants to get rid of rats but seller are running out of pet snakes.
Buyer will tend to have a competition wherein they would bit up the price of snakes and
give sellers more incentive to bring more pet snakes in the market. Price and quantity
would go up.

V. Conclusions

The most important concepts in economics are the demand and supply and looking
economics in the movie Indiana Jones is a a great help for us to have a clear
understanding demand and supply. The concepts inherent in the demand and supply
model further provide a backbone for modern economics discussions, especially as it
applies to capitalist societies. Without a fundamental understanding of this model, it is
almost impossible to understand the complex world of economic theory.All in all, Indiana
Jones was about the adventure of Indy, Willie and Short Round in the Northern India. I like this
movie because Indy here was like Cardo in Probinsyano. He became the hero of the community
as he saved the people from the abusive leader who degraded the right of each of the person. He
did his best to save the children from the slavery and return the stolen stone in all means. I
thought first that I can’t relate or understand the story of the movie as I saw that it was from year
1984. But gladly, I liked the story especially because it was all about saving the community and
gave them the assurance of security by relieving them from the slavery of the Pankot Palace. At
the same time, I learned how to relate this movie to the concept of demand and supply.
Understanding the specific supply and demand issues affecting both the sales and
purchases a business makes can help it make more informed and smarter business
decisions.

I felt sorrow and sympathy when I discovered the life of the ethnic group in India because of
their lifestyle and the shortage of resources like food, money, and the source of income. It also
relates to economics as the lack of proper demand and supply showed here. This movie
uncovered the past and showed the abscence of proper exchange of resources in the society. It
gives a glimpse of the social, cultural and economic problems of the past. It gave historical
understanding of the present conflict. This understanding uncovers the unpleasant past where
there is no civilization and proper exchange system of resources. The movie showed how the
high status in the community benefited from the labor and expense of the people in a community.
Moreover, the film showed existing forms of exploitation, injustice and social insult. Such a
depiction implies that historical circumstances becomes an inspiration to have a proper system of
demand and supply or the flow of resources in a market.