Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

 After the long awaited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released and did well at the box office but was not widely loved (and fans' frustration with it seemed to multiply over the years) I think there were mixed feelings about doing another one.  People wanted to see the series end on a stronger note but there was fear that another film might not be good.  For a few years I doubted it might be made since although Ford sounded game, Shia Lebeouf, who played Mutt (Indy's son) had trashed Crystal Skull in the press and was generating a lot of negative headlines with increasingly odd behavior.  

In early 2016, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens doing extremely well at the box office, due in no small part to Harrison Ford's delightful return as Han Solo, Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm announced a deal had been made with Ford for a final Indiana Jones film.  A release date of 2019 was announced and Spielberg was planning to direct (though George Lucas was not going to come up with the MacGuffin this time-to the relief of many since he had insisted on using "interdimensional beings" aka aliens for Crystal Skull), but it kept getting pushed back while David Keopp worked on the story and Spielberg directed a lot of other films.  

In early 2020 Lucasfilm surprised me when they announced that the new Indy film would be directed by James Mangold.  Spielberg had a full dance card with his West Side Story remake and may have felt he did not have enough fresh ideas to bring to the series.  Mangold has made several terrific films of varying genres, including Walk the Line, Copland, and at the time the announcement was made, his  entertaining Ford vs. Ferrari was in cinemas.  Mangold also made the final two Wolverine films but as I have only seen the first X-Men film I could not speak to it, though apparently Logan is a fine film about an aging hero.  I was disappointed Spielberg would not be back but eager to see the series through fresh yet competent eyes.  Mangold also took on a writing role along with Koepp and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth.

The Covid-19 pandemic delayed production from 2020 to 2021.  Soon after production began the 79-year-old Ford injured his shoulder and was out for a couple of months while it healed.  This ultimately led to the film being released in 2023 when it made only $384 million.  While $384 million is an enormous amount of money it ended up being a loss because it cost nearly $300 million before marketing costs.

Why did Dial of Destiny underperform since Indiana Jones films are usually a pretty safe bet at the box office.  I think Crsytal Skull's sullied reputation (people who only saw it once remember it as much worse than it actually is) hurt enthusiasm for Dial of Destiny.  But how does Dial of Destiny hold up?  Shouldn't it be judged on its own merits?  How does Mangold's malleable style fit into a series defined by a top director?

Spoilers below

Mangold clearly has studied the films and what makes them work.  He fashioned a film around his elderly star whose character is best remembered as a hero fighting against Nazis during films set in the 1930s.  To this end Mangold and his writers set the 20 minute prologue (by far the longest of the series) in France in 1944 and use current technology to make 79-year-old Ford look around 45, the age Indy would have been in 1944, similar to what was done in The Irishman with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino.  For the most part it works, though the voice sounds a little off.  Ford stretches his voice into a higher register to sound younger but it does not match perfectly.   Fortunately Indy does not have much dialogue in the sequence.

Mangold follows the series tradition of introducing a sidekick who is new to the audience but is a longtime friend of Indy.  Basil Shaw, who only appears in the prologue and briefly in a flashback about an hour into the film played by Toby Jones (in a rare sympathetic role after playing a villain in the Captain America films and a sexually abusive Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl) has Indy's love of archeology and unquestioned loyalty but not his fighting skills.  His uncontrolled reaction to later obtaining the Antikythera sets a horrible example for his daughter who ends up becoming a smuggler.  

As the film opens it is nighttime and Indy and Basil are trying to obtain the Lance of Longinus from a castle in France which is occupied by the Nazis.  Separately both are captured and as in Crystal Skull our first shot of Indy is as a prisoner.  The Nazis set Indy to hang (which is a new deathtrap for him) but Mangold has him saved by pure luck when the Allies bomb the castle and a missile hits the floor and then playfully works its way down to a lower floor before exploding.  This conveniently kills the Nazis in the room, but not Indy since he is hanging above the floor.  When Indy falls near the hole the missile created and barely gets the rope from around his neck he does not struggle to get the rope off the way he might have in the earlier films. 

When Indy chases the train the Nazis have taken the Lance of Longinus he conveniently finds Basil .  Basil's purpose in the sequence, other than to set up Indy's later relationship with Helena, seems to be exposition.  While Indy gets to the train there is a funny moment when he impersonates a Nazi driver but he moves more easily in and out of the car while fighting with other Nazis than I remember him doing in other films.  While Indy is fit and strong a lot of his appeal is how he struggles to accomplish his goals and some of that seems diminished here.

When the sequence moves into the train there is a lot of fun cat and mouse moments as Nazi scientist Dr. Voller and Indy both discover the Lance (which was used to cut Jesus Christ as he hung on the crucifix) is a fake but among the stolen antiquities are an Antikythera, which is half of the dial of Archimedes (the ancient Syracusan mathematician/inventor who lived in the 3rd century B.C.).  The dial's true purpose is unknown but for the purposes of the film it is believed to allow time travel.

Voller is played by Mads Mikkelsen who has become a default casting choice for villains in established franchises since making his mark in Casino Royale.  Mikkelsen is Danish but speaks English fluently  but with an accent (and the Danish and German accents are similar) so he looks and sounds a little exotic.  Mikkelsen is probably most known for playing Hannibal Lecter in the show "Hannibal", in addition to Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, Kaecilius in Doctor Strange, and Grindenwald in Fantastic Beasts.  He has also starred in several Danish films, which I have not seen.  I enjoyed his work in the survival thriller Arctic and the western Salvation both in which he played interesting protagonists in genre films.  Mikkelsen gets a lot of screen time as Voller and is shown to be both intelligent (as an astrophysicist he worked for the U.S. government after World War II and helped on the Apollo 11 mission) and at times quite ruthless.  Voller is neither the best nor worst Indy antagonist but Mikkelsen always makes him worth watching.

The train sequence has a funny moment when Colonel Weber, played by Thomas Kretschmann (who memorably also played a Nazi in The Pianist- as well as in Valkerie and Downfall) shouts "Have you ever MET HITLER?" upon discovering the Lance is a fake, though I think they could probably fool Hitler with it.  Indy moves back and forth between rescuing Basil and the Dial trades hands a few time before all the protagonists end up on top of the train in a struggle.  There is another moment where Indy, who is wearing a Nazi uniform throughout most of the sequence, is discovered when soldiers see it has a bullet hole.  We never see Indy shoot the previous owner of the uniform but we can assume it occurred.  

The struggle on top of the train looks less real than a similar sequence in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning where it is very clear the characters are actually on top of a moving train.  I can believe Indy could move around on top of a train but less so Basil, and they do not seem to struggle much with their movement so it is pretty clearly shot in a studio with a background.  But it is always fun to see characters fighting over a MacGuffin and I appreciate that the MacGuffin changes from a Christian  artifact to a historical one as I do not believe Indy should always be fighting religious wars. The sequence has a satisfying close when the train is derailed.  The night (which helps cover some of the effects) ends and there is a sense that now the Nazis have been defeated and daylight is coming. John Williams' score as always delivers the excitement throughout this intricate planned prologue.

When the films jumps forward (as it did in Last Crusade) Indy is shown having relocated to New York City and working at Hunter College on Moon Day.  We first see Indy in an apartment being annoyed by loud neighbors.  Indy is kind of a mess, having fallen asleep in his recliner, still looking pretty fit, especially for someone his age, but he has one sock one and on off and his hair looks disheveled.  When he confronts his young neighbor about the noise the neighbor calls him Mr. Jones instead of Dr. Jones.  When Indy is teaching he still seems sharp but his lesson plan is on Archimedes and the Siege of Syracuse which is a nice bit of foreshadowing.  In previous films Indy seems to be a respected teacher but here this ancient history is of little interest to the students who thanks to Apollo 11 are looking more toward the future.  Pictures and documents show that Marion (who he married at the end of Crystal Skull) has left him and his son was killed.  Mutt's death keeps Lebeouf (whose character was not well liked) out of the film and the aftermath (as well as the setting) also knocks Indy down several pegs and has him as a man out of time (and sets up his desire to stay in the past in the climax).  

There are a couple of continuity issues here.  Moon Day was August 13, 1969.  Did colleges have classes in mid August and if Moon Day was as big of a celebration as presented here, would classes have been cancelled?  Also, Indy is teaching a lesson and mentions the final, which he presumably will grade, but right after class he retires.  It feels like there is still work for him to do.  

This is also a side note but I wonder why Indy left Marshall College where he was an Associate Dean to go live in New York City.  Dramatically I see that Mangold wanted to show him out of place and juxtaposed against the Moon Day parade but I would have liked an in story reason (though there may be a novelization or some other in-universe fiction that explains it).

Harrison Ford, who has always been an actor of great depth, and a handsome man who is not given to vanity, revels in these scenes. Indy seems about to spend the rest of his life alone, paying a horrible price for the loss of his son, as he had finally settled down with Marion but probably did not have the maturity to support her when Mutt died.  Indy is irascible and depressed but also still a decent man.  When Phoebe Waller Bridges' Helena shows up she brings the perfect energy and murky morals.  Helena has become cynical probably in response to her father's unhealthy obsession with the Antikythera and tricks Indy out of it, also leaving him in danger from Voller's men.

Waller Bridges character and her relationship with the boy Teddy, played by Ethan Isodore, recall Indy and Short Round (they met the same way).  Indy had a similar lack of morals in the beginning of Temple of Doom until he rescued the children.  Helena discovers her conscience when she devotes herself to saving Indy, first from the Nazis and then from the past which gives him a sense of purpose again.  

Waller Bridges presence is a little reminiscent of  her screenwriting work in No Time To Die.  In that film some of her wit enlivened a dark story which like Dial of Destiny was also the fifth entry in a series about a heroic figure whose personal life is a disaster who has to go back into the fray one last time.

The chase in New York is the first action sequence with the older Indy.  Scenes have to be framed to  make use of Indy's limited speed and while we can see him land punches Indy is not going to believably be able to last in extended fistfights with younger opponents.  In the library Indy (in a suit instead of his usual outfit) is unable to escape Voller's men but uses the crowd and the parade to get to a horse where the real danger is from the subways.  It's always fun to see a character go on horseback and Indy has been established as a competent rider in Raiders and Last Crusade.  Ford plays Indy as terrified of these men who he knows he cannot outfight without really knowing who they are.  

John Rhys Davies' Sallah has a fabulous entrance into the film, knocking out a person who recognizes Indy, who is now a fugitive (Ford briefly gets to play both Indy and The Fugitive simultaneously) gives us a friendly face at a time we really need one.  Sallah has brought his family to New York and is driving a taxi, which seems below his intellectual abilities but is probably the only way he can survive.  

I could question how Indy is able to get through passport control and onto a plane while on the run for murder but perhaps in 1969 this was easier.  Mangold never explains how Indy's name is ultimately cleared but if we bother to remember (which I didn't in the first viewing) Helena probably somehow proved that it was Voller's men who killed the woman at the college.  

The auction scene has a lot of fun back and forth in which Helena, Indy, and Voller all face off against  each other and gangsters to which Helena is indebted to.  Indy is back in his usual wardrobe (with a new hat) and is bravely facing the opposition now.  There is a clever Raiders callback when Indy threatens several men with his whip and then they draw their weapons which is a reverse of the swordsman scene.  Fortunately Indy has time to duck under a table and escape in the chaos.

The tuk tuk chase scene is a light spirited sequence with some fun bickering between Helena and Indy.  We see Helena is also a good a fighter as Indy and is perfectly comfortable in an action scene which allows Ford to share some of the heavy lifting.  The tuk-tuks are a fun vehicle that do not have much horsepower but great maneuverability.  It's also fun to see Indy in a different type of relationship with a woman.

Ford makes a long awaited reunion with his Expendables 3 costar Antonio Banderas, who plays Renaldo a captain of a fishing boat which Indy and Helena use to hunt for the Grafikos, which has directions to the rest of the dial.  Banderas does not have much screen time but it is always fun to meet Indy's friends and Banderas is as charming as ever.  

The scene in which we learn what happened to Mutt and Marion is teed up nicely when Helena lightly asks what Indy would do if he could go back in time and Indy uses it to reveal his deepest pain.  Mutt is only referred to as Indy's son and Williams uses Marion's theme to underscore the loss.  Ford plays Indy describing it sadly, but honestly.

Interestingly in The Force Awakens Han Solo's relationship with Leia has also ended due to the loss of their son, though in this case it is because the son has become evil.  Also recently in The Call of the Wild, Ford's character John Thornton is mourning the recent death of his son which has caused him to leave his wife.  This leads me to want to check on the health of Ford's real life kids although I only thought of the connection after seeing the films, not while watching them.  

Ford has been doing some of his best work ever lately, imbuing his characters with incredible soul.  Indy was never a superficial character but he does so many outlandish things in films that are so  entertaining that the exploits are often what audiences remember, without recognizing how affected they were by some of the character work.  1923 is a well written showcase for both Ford and Helen Mirren as a longstanding couple who own a ranch in Montana.  Ford's irascible psychiatrist Paul is the most enjoyable part of the Apple TV+ show Shrinking.  At an age when many actors are retired (Gene Hackman stopped working 20 years ago and Sean Connery did his last film at about age 73), or spend a lot of times in material below their talents (ie Robert De Niro with the notable exception of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Irishman) Ford is peaking and I hope he continues to work for many years to come.

I say this because I like seeing Ford bring this much depth to Indy.  The character has been through a lot on and offscreent and we see he is both worn down by life but also has plenty left to offer if people are willing to "put up with him".  Indy also has the kind of perspective you would only get with age, notably when his gives his views on magic, which are based on his specific experiences.  I remember watching Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood when Eastwood was about the same age as Ford is here.  Like this film, Gran Torino made no attempt to hide Eastwood's character's age and while it had nowhere near the level of stuntwork or physical action, Eastwood is presented as a tough old Korean War veteran who at one point severely beats up a gang member young enough to be his grandson.

The underwater sequence in which Indy, Helena, and Renaldo go scuba diving to get the Grafikos, is a first for the series and it is fun to see how Indy gets spooked by the snake like eels. When the film goes to Sicily there is a funny moment when Indy comments on the absurdity of a man his age climbing with all the injuries he has sustained over the years.  The Sicily scenes end with Indy captured by Voller who reveals that he is planning to use the Antikythera to go to 1939 right before the start of World War II to assassinate Hitler and use his knowledge of the future to help Germany win World War II.  Voller lacks Hitler's charisma so I do not know how successful he would be in getting the people to follow him but maybe he has another contingency worked out.

Indy is wounded in the shoulder so he is not be able to fight his captors.  Helena hops onto the plane  in a scene that tests plausibility (her motorcycle catches up with the plane pretty easily) but sets up how devoted she is to keeping Indy alive.  Teddy follows in a separate plane astounding its owner who was asleep.  Voller could have killed Indy but the excuse for keeping Indy alive seems to be to let him see how Voller's plan works out.     

Voller sets the date to 1939 when they take off and Indy claims continental drift (the moving of continents over time) means they will not end up in 1939 but at some other time.  When they do end up at the Siege of Syracuse in 214 B.C. we learn that Archimedes had created the device to bring back help from the future.

Mangold and his team do an excellent job presenting the time travel which is a big leap even for this series.  The characters create a portal in the air during a storm which looks like storm clouds opening into a clear circular path, which is much more effective than how we might imagine a portal CGI window with a frame.  The force of the wind is so strong it pulls the planes to a lower altitude and when the one Voller Indy and Helena are on loses power briefly the sound design matches that of the Millenium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back when the hyperdrive fails and cannot go into lightspeed.  one The move to the clear daylight beyond the portal is neat as Voller thinks they have arrived until they see the battle and the ancient ships.  Mikkelson shows Voller is so happy he even shares the moment with Indy, who he knows would appreciate the effort on some level.

When first watching this I could tell we had gone far into the past but had no idea what battle it was.  My son, who loves ancient history, immediately nudged me and said it was the Second Punic War in which the Romans attacked and eventually took over Syracuse, which Indy also identifies.  Impressively both armies successfully are able to bring down the plane which we see from inside the plane as the spears easily break through with their medival weapons (which they believe is a dragon), but the plane is also flying pretty low.  Indy and Helena escape the plane and on the ground meet Archimedes, who is a hero to both of them.  

Now some people might think it is too big a leap but I beg to differ.  All of the Indiana Jones films have supernatural elements in the third act.  I loved seeing two historians have the chance to briefly travel back to a time they would be most interested in (instead of going back 30 years and seeing younger versions of themselves).  The production design is impressive and while the sequence is fairly brief (about 10 minutes) it is as involving as the Grail and Ark sequences in their respective films.  Because both Indy and Helena know the period well, they are able to converse with Archimedes in his native Greek.  Indy is utterly humbled by the experience and he looks more vulnerable (his hat has also fallen off).  Ford softens Indy's voice as he explains with full conviction to Helena that he wants to stay.  

When Indy said he wanted to stay I wanted him to as well.  Everything in 1969 had been taken from him (his family, his job, his respect) and he preferred to spend his last days seeing this period in person.  Indy's wound will kill him if he does not get medical treatment. Helena is the voice of reason both fearing that she will lose another father figure and wants to prevent a paradox.  Mangold makes a few good decisions here both faking out the audience and using an economical form of storytelling.

Indy puts his hat on, his theme sounds, and it appears he will stay though he probably will die fairly soon.  Helena knocks Indy out, which is funny but also efficiently gets us to the story's finale as the screen goes black and the next scene skips back to 1969.  This saves an extended sequence in which the second plane goes back to the portal which would have felt anticlimactic, repetitive and been expensive to shoot.

The final scene is a beautiful denoument as Helena sets the stage for Marion to appear.  She has clearly reached to out Marion to explain that Indy needed her and Karen Allen enters the film, showing Marion as more quiet than we have ever seen her.  But the warmth between Marion and Indy is clear as is their shared history.  The callback to kissing the hurt body parts in Raider is sweet but also shows they are going to focus on healing together.

Sallah also appears in this final scene telling his children about the fight on tarmac from Raiders, which serves to remind the audience that Marion is a pretty cool character too.  When he leaves he sings the same song he did as he walked off the scene in Raiders (A British Tar), which is a Gilbert and Sullivan tune from the operetta HMS Pinafore.

I could question how Helena got a wounded Indy back to the United States but since she is a smuggler she probably called in some favors, getting him stable enough to get medical treatment and it looks like he was treated at home (due to the hospital bed in the living room).  Indy may not have been unconscious the whole time but this is certainly the first time he will recall any of what has happened since he left the past.

History has been changed by their actions.  Ancient civilizations saw airplanes and met people from the future.  In real life Archimedes died in that siege but in the film clearly survives and Romans abandon the siege.

After Indy and Marion reconcile the next scene shows Helena and Teddy leaving (before panning up to show Indy grabbing his hat).  This might have happened to potentially set up a separate film with just them.  Due the grosses I think such a film is unlikely nor do I feel it necessary but Helena and Teddy certainly were terrific sidekicks in this film.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a worthy finish to this fantastic series.  The series is as much a testament to the rich characters of each film as it is to its worthy hero who gets to close out his journey with a fantastic adventure.  ****