Indiana Jones. The name alone conjures images of adventure, exotic locations, mystic relics, and Harrison Ford’s whip-wielder as the picture of sexy male perfection. After more than 40 years as a pop culture icon, Ford and Indy return for one last quest in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And, as Indy himself questions throughout Dial of Destiny, can this last adventure live up to the legacy of one the most beloved characters in cinema history?
Dial of Destiny kicks off in 1944, and finds Indy (Harrison Ford) in pursuit of the Spear of Longinus, an ancient relic Hitler believes will give him ultimate power to win the war. Helping him is Basil Shaw (Toby Jones, ideally cast), an old friend that discovers the Nazis have found the lost Antikythera, a dial designed by the mathematician Archimedes. Basil gets caught by the Nazis, led by Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a rocket scientist who believes the dial holds the key to turning the tide of the war.
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Old Ford, New Indiana Jones
The early scenes of Dial of Destiny feature a digitized Ford looking just the way he did circa Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It’s one of the best looking attempts at computer de-aging to date, though the result looks a bit rubbery when he moves, and even if he sounds like Ford circa 2023. Those scenes also feature a terrific train chase that echos David Lean’s work in Bridge on the River Kwai. Director James Mangold, taking over for Steven Spielberg, certainly has done his homework. Everything about the sequence feels like a classic Indiana Jones set piece.
The movie then flashes forward to 1969, where Indy, sporting a granddad bod, now toils at a small New York College, underappreciated by his students. Family tragedy has dissolved his marriage to Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and Indy has turned to heavy drinking for comfort. Indy has his malaise interrupted by the arrival of Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Basil’s grifter daughter. Having analyzed her father’s notes, Helena believes the Antikythera can detect fissures in spacetime … and that it might fetch a hefty price on the black market.
Related: Dial of Destiny Producer Breaks Down Indiana Jones’ “Scientific” Brush With Time Travel
Helena’s reunion with Indy also coincides with a resurfaced Voller, now living under an assumed name and working for the US government to develop rocket technology. The CIA initially helps Voller track Indy and the dial, though the brutality of his blond-haired/blue-eyed henchmen should telegraph to audiences that they have other allegiances. From there, Indy and Helena, aided by a few old friends, must race Voller to discover the missing piece of the dial to prevent a catastrophe of, ahem, historic proportions.
The Final Quest
Walt Disney Studios
Of course, the real elephant in the room here isn’t the absence of Spielberg or Indy creator George Lucas, it’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the long-awaited, much-derided previous outing for Indy and company. The reception to that movie signaled that maybe the titular hero should have gone into permanent retirement.
Detractors can complain until the end of time about the use of computer effects, the Soviet villains, or the absence of Denholm Elliott, John Rhys-Davies and Sean Connery. The biggest void was that left by cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, who shot the first three Indy movies. Crystal Skull didn’t look or feel like an Indiana Jones picture, as Janusz Kamiński, who lensed the movie couldn’t recreate Slocombe’s color palette of rich scarlet and butterscotch yellows.
Here, Mangold and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael nail the look. Dial of Destiny more closely resembles the aesthetic of the first three films than Crystal Skull did in terms of color and jet-setting vistas. If the sets in Crystal Skull looked like sound stages, Dial of Destiny seems to have shot on location in Morocco, Germany, Sicily, and the like. The look and feel gives the movie a higher degree of verisimilitude and lets the audience invest in a deeper level of realism.
Mangold also strikes the jackpot when it comes to Indy’s female companion. Waller-Bridge’s character Helena is, hands down, the only sidekick that deserves mention alongside Marion Ravenwood — a woman with enough pluck, cunning, and grit to stand toe-to-toe with Indy himself. To paraphrase a line from Raiders of the Lost Ark: Helena isn’t just “the chick,” she’s Indy’s goddamn partner.
Dialing it Up
Walt Disney Studios
Other elements of the film match classic Indy as well. The inclusion of Nazi villains, particularly in a film set in the late 1960s, seems reductive at first glance. In the larger context of the film, the Nazi menace works: Dial of Destiny is, in many ways, a movie about confronting the past. Mikkelsen’s character draws inspiration from Wernher von Braun, a real-life Nazi scientist granted clemency and citizenship in exchange for heading the United States’ space program.
That von Braun — who was photographed at a Nazi death camp — never faced a trial for his actions or complacency in Nazi atrocities remains one of the most controversial issues of recent history. (von Braun was also a good friend of Walt Disney, the man who founded the studio behind Dial of Destiny, and who endured his own allegations of antisemitism. That also gives the movie a weird meta quality.)
In 2008, Nazis may have seemed like tired cartoon characters. In 2023, Nazi baddies — or neo-Nazi baddies, in this case — have a newfound menace to them. That threat doesn’t hold weight because, as some toxic fans have contended, Indy should only fight Nazis (which is ludicrous — he battles more than that even in the first three films). Rather, given the resurgence of alt-right and Nazi ideology in America and abroad in recent years, neo-Nazi villains have a fresh urgency to them. God help us, but Nazis are scary again.
The Final Quest
Walt Disney Studios
The final act of Dial of Destiny will provoke the most debate among fans. We’ll not spoil anything here, other than to say viewers that had a problem with Indy surviving a nuclear explosion via refrigerator in Crystal Skull will probably have trouble swallowing Dial’s climax. Yes, Indy has endured wrathful angels, voodoo magic, psychic aliens, divine healing powers and even seen a man live after getting his heart ripped out, but this movie [cough] dials up the suspension of disbelief to the absolute limit.
Mangold really shows off his skill as a director in the aftermath of it all. Had he not stuck the landing with such grace and sensitivity, the final scenes of Dial of Destiny would have fallen apart. But Mangold succeeds, and apart from a bit of distracting fan service, the movie ends with a touching final curtain.
There’s only one Harrison Ford, and there’s only one Indiana Jones. Dial of Destiny knows as much, and treats both star and character with proper respect. The movie might not have the same freshness as when Indy first landed on screens back in 1981, but it knows that these stories are their own type of vintage wine, the kind that once poured out, can never be recreated. Here, one last time, is a great Indiana Jones adventure, a movie true to the legacy of the series, and one that tells an original story without relying on fan service to mask a lack of creativity.
Enjoy the flavor, folks. It’s meant to be savored.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens in cinemas June 30.
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