Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 American action-adventure film directed by James Mangold and written by Mangold, David Koepp, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. It is the fifth and final in the Indiana Jones film series. Harrison Ford and John Rhys-Davies reprise their roles from the previous films, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen joining the cast. Set in 1969, the film follows Jones and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Dr. Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist, who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II.
Plans for a fifth Indiana Jones film date back to 1979, when a deal was made with Paramount Pictures to produce five Indiana Jones films. Lucas began researching potential plot devices for a fifth film in 2008, and Koepp was hired to write the screenplay in 2016. In 2018, Jonathan Kasdan replaced Koepp but later left the project. Originally set for release in 2019, the film faced delays due to rewrites and the COVID-19 pandemic. Steven Spielberg was initially set to direct but stepped down in 2020, with Mangold taking over. Filming began in June 2021 in various locations including the United Kingdom, Italy, and Morocco, wrapping in February 2022.
Franchise composer John Williams returned to score the film, earning nominations for Best Original Score at the 96th Academy Awards and Best Score at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Williams won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for "Helena's Theme".
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered out of competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 30, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It grossed $384million, becoming a box-office bomb due to being one of the most expensive films ever made.
Plot
Towards the end of World War II, Nazis capture Indiana Jones and Oxford archaeologist Basil Shaw as they attempt to retrieve the Lance of Longinus from a castle in the French Alps. Astrophysicist Jürgen Voller informs his superiors the Lance is fake, but he has found half of Archimedes' Dial, an Antikythera mechanism built by the ancient Syracusan mathematician Archimedes which reveals time fissures, thereby allowing for possible time travel. Jones escapes onto a Berlin-bound train filled with looted antiquities and frees Basil. He obtains the Dial piece, and they escape just before Allied forces derail the train.In 1969, Jones, who is retiring from Hunter College in NYC, has been separated from his wife Marion Ravenwood since their son Mutt's death in Vietnam. Jones' goddaughter, archaeologist Helena Shaw, unexpectedly visits and wants to research the Dial. Jones warns that her late father Basil became obsessed with studying it before relinquishing it to Jones to destroy, which he never did.
As Jones and Helena retrieve the Dial half from the college archives, Voller's accomplices attack them. The CIA assists Voller, now working for NASA as "Dr. Schmidt". Helena, revealed as an antiquities smuggler, absconds with the Dial to auction it on the black market. Jones is framed for two colleagues' murders, forcing him to escape through the Apollo 11 moon landing parade, then an anti-war protest.
Jones seeks out his old friend Sallah, now a New York cab driver, who helps him flee the country after surmising that Helena will likely sell the Dial in Tangier. There, Jones disrupts Helena's illegal private auction, but Voller and his henchmen arrive and steal the artifact. Jones, Helena, and her teenage accomplice Teddy Kumar chase them through the streets in a tuk-tuk. The CIA intercepts Voller after the U.S. government disavows him for going rogue, but he and his cohorts murder the agents and steal the CIA helicopter.
Jones, Helena and Teddy trail Voller to Greece and team up with Jones' old friend Renaldo, a professional diver. Guided by Basil's research, they dive to the Antikythera wreck and retrieve a "graphikos" tablet containing directions to the Dial's other half. Voller arrives and murders Renaldo and his crew, but Jones' group escapes and heads to Sicily, pursued by Voller.
Inside the Ear of Dionysius cavern, Jones and Helena find Archimedes' tomb, the Dial's second half, and a 20th-century wristwatch on Archimedes' skeletal arm. Voller appears and captures Jones, wounding him. Helena and Teddy escape and chase Voller. Voller reassembles the dial, intending to time-travel back to 1939 to help lead Germany to victory in World War II by assassinating Adolf Hitler and avoiding his mistakes. At an airfield, Voller activates the Dial and locates a time fissure in the sky. Jones is held captive on Voller's stolen plane while Helena stows away through its landing gear. Teddy follows in another plane.
While approaching the fissure, Jones realizes that continental drift could have altered the timeline coordinates. Rather than 1939, the group arrives at the Siege of Syracuse in 214 BC. The warring armies shoot down Voller's plane, believing it to be a dragon. Jones and Helena parachute out just before it crashes, killing all aboard, while Teddy lands safely. Archimedes finds Voller's body and wristwatch in the wreckage. He gives Jones the Dial but keeps the watch. Jones and Helena learn that Archimedes created the Dial to bring allies from the future through fissures that lead only to 214 BC to save Syracuse and lift the siege. As the fissure begins to collapse, Jones wants to remain behind, feeling he has nothing left to return to. Helena, fearing a time paradox and unwilling to give up on him, knocks Jones unconscious. Back in 1969, a recovering Jones awakens in his apartment and reunites with Helena, Teddy, Sallah and Marion, with whom he reconciles.
Cast
- Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr., a world-renowned globe-trotting archaeologist and college professor.
- * Anthony Ingruber as young Indiana Jones. Ingruber had portrayed a younger version of Ford's character William Jones in The Age of Adaline, serving as the on-set body double before Ford's de-aged likeness and voice was inserted over Ingruber's using CGI for brief parts of the 1944 scenes of Dial of Destiny. Ingruber also portrays a hotel guest attending Helena's auction.
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw, Jones' goddaughter. The filmmakers described the character as "slippery, charming, the girl next door, a grifter," a "pioneer in ethical accounting" and similar to comedic characters with "machine-gun" dialogue akin to those of Ben Hecht's plays. She is the daughter of Indy's old friend and colleague, Basil Shaw. Holly Lawton portrays a young Helena.
- Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Jürgen Voller, a sociopathic German scientist, astrophysicist and former Nazi during World War II who has been hired by NASA under the name "Dr. Schmidt" to run the Apollo Moon landing program, while using CIA assets for his own gain. The character is based upon real life Nazi Wernher von Braun, while his dressing style is inspired by that of previous Indiana Jones villain Major Arnold Ernst Toht, whom Mikkelsen deemed iconic due to Ronald Lacey's performance but made sure to avoid copying, in addition to denying any connection between the two as "Toht was more of a henchman" while Voller is the "brain" behind a lot of things. Mikkelsen felt that Voller is a man who would like to "correct" some mistakes of the past with the film's MacGuffin to make the world "a much better place to live in," matching wits against Jones in a race to retrieve the artifact.
- Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, an old friend of Jones who operates as an expert frogman. Banderas claimed that his character is a rogue who is "a good guy who dies for Indiana Jones". He enjoyed working with Ford, Mangold and Steven Spielberg, who co-produced The Mask of Zorro, one of his previous films. Banderas also pointed out that his role as Renaldo veers more into a cameo appearance.
- John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, Jones' old friend who aided in finding the Ark of the Covenant in 1936 and the Holy Grail in 1938. Sallah and his family have since immigrated to New York City with Jones' assistance. He now works as a cab driver.
- Toby Jones as Basil Shaw, an Oxford professor of archaeology, ally of Jones from his days in World War II, and Helena's father, who was obsessed with the Dial.
- Boyd Holbrook as Klaber, Voller's nefarious and trigger-happy right-hand man in 1969. Holbrook described Klaber as Voller's lapdog, "and a very crazy one at that".
- Ethann Isidore as Teddy Kumar, Helena's young Moroccan sidekick in Tangier.
- Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Jones' estranged wife, who aided in finding the Ark of the Covenant in 1936 and the Crystal Skull of Akator in 1957.
- Shaunette Renée Wilson as Agent Mason, a CIA agent assigned to work for Voller.
- Thomas Kretschmann as Colonel Weber, a Nazi for whom Voller works in 1944.
- Olivier Richters as Hauke, a henchman of Voller.
- Mark Killeen as Pontimus, a soldier from 212 BC during the Siege of Syracuse.
- Nasser Memarzia as Archimedes, a brilliant scientist from 212 BC Syracuse and inventor of the Antikythera.
- Martin McDougall as Durkin, a CIA agent working with Voller. The role marked a return to the franchise for McDougall, who had previously portrayed Red Cross worker Joe in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episode "Northern Italy, June 1918".
- Alaa Safi as Aziz Rahim, the son of a Moroccan mobster, who was previously engaged to Helena Shaw.
- Anna Francolini as Mandy, one of Jones' colleagues at Hunter College.