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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
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It isn't as thrilling as earlier adventures, but the nostalgic rush of seeing Harrison Ford back in action helps Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny find a few final bits of cinematic treasure.
With plenty of entertaining action and a few surprising twists, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ends the series on a high note.
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“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is somehow both never boring and never really entertaining. It walks a line of modest interest in what’s going to happen next thanks to equal parts innovative story beats and the foundation of nostalgia that everyone brings to the theater. It’s an alternating series of frustrating choices, promising beats, and general goodwill for a legendary actor donning one of the most famous hats in movie history yet again. It should be better. It could have been worse. Both can be true. In an era of extreme online critical opinion, “The Dial of Destiny” is a hard movie to truly hate, which is nice. It’s also an Indiana Jones movie that's difficult to truly love, which makes this massive fan of the original trilogy a little sad.
The unsettling mix of good and bad starts in the first sequence, a flashback to the final days of World War II that features Indy ( Harrison Ford ) and a colleague named Basil Shaw ( Toby Jones ) trying to reclaim some of the historical artifacts being stolen by the fleeing Nazis. Jones looks normal, of course, but Ford here is an uncanny valley occupant, a figure of de-aged CGI that never looks quite human. He doesn't move or even sound quite right. It’s the first but not the last time in “The Dial of Destiny” in which it feels like you can’t really get your hands on what you’re watching. It sets up a standard of over-used effects that are the film’s greatest flaw. We’re watching Indiana Jones at the end of World War II, but the effects are distracting instead of enhancing.
It's a shame, too, because the structure of the prologue is solid. Indy escapes capture from a Nazi played by Thomas Kretschmann , but the important introduction here is that of a Nazi astrophysicist named Jurgen Voller (a de-aged Mads Mikkelsen ), who discovers that, while looking for something called the Lance of Longinus, the Nazis have stumbled upon half of the Antikythera, or Archimedes’ Dial. Based on a real Ancient Greek item that could reportedly predict astronomical positions for decades, the dial is given the magical Indy franchise treatment in ways that I won’t spoil other than to say it’s not as explicitly religious as items like the Ark of the Covenant of The Holy Grail other than, as Voller says, it almost makes its owner God.
After a cleverly staged sequence involving anti-aircraft fire and dozens of dead Nazis, “The Dial of Destiny” jumps to 1969. An elderly Indiana Jones is retiring from Hunter College, unsure of what comes next in part because he’s separated from Marion after the death of their son Mutt in the Vietnam War. The best thing about “The Dial of Destiny” starts here in the emotional undercurrents in Harrison Ford’s performance. He could have lazily walked through playing Indy again, but he very clearly asked where this man would be emotionally at this point in his life. Ford’s dramatic choices, especially in the film's back half, can be remarkable, reminding one how good he can be with the right material. His work here made me truly hope that he gets a brilliant drama again in his career, the kind he made more often in the ‘80s.
But back to the action/adventure stuff. Before he can put his retirement gift away, Indy is whisked off on an adventure with Helena Shaw ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), the daughter of Basil and goddaughter of Indy. It turns out that Basil became obsessed with the dial after their encounter with it a quarter-century ago, and Indy told him he would destroy the half of the dial they found. Of course, Indiana Jones doesn’t destroy historical artifacts. As they’re getting the dial from the storeroom, they’re attacked by Voller and his goons, leading to a horse chase through the subway during a parade. It’s a cluttered, awkward action sequence with power that’s purely nostalgic—an iconic hero riding a horse through a parade being thrown for someone else.
Before you know it, everyone is in Tangier, where Helena wants to sell her half of the dial, and the film injects its final major character into the action with a sidekick named Teddy ( Ethann Isidore ). From here, “The Dial of Destiny” becomes a traditional Indy chase movie with Jones and his team trying to stay ahead of the bad guys while leading them to what they’re trying to uncover.
James Mangold has delivered on “old-man hero action” before with the excellent “ Logan ,” but he gets lost on the journey here, unable to stage action sequences in a way that’s anywhere near as engaging as how Steven Spielberg does the same. Yes, we’re in a different era. CGI is more prevalent. But that doesn’t excuse clunky, awkward, incoherent action choreography. Look at films like “ John Wick: Chapter 4 ” or a little sequel that’s coming out in a few weeks that I’m not really supposed to talk about—even with the CGI enhancements, you know where the characters are at almost all times, what they’re trying to accomplish, and what stands in their way.
That basic action structure often falls apart in “The Dial of Destiny.” There’s a car chase scene through Tangier that’s incredibly frustrating, a blur of activity that should work on paper but has no weight and no real stakes. A later scene in a shipwreck that should be claustrophobic is similarly clunky in terms of basic composition. I know not everyone can be Spielberg, but the simple framing of action sequences in “ Raiders of the Lost Ark ” and even “ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ” is gone here, replaced by sequences that cost so much that they somehow elevated the budget to $300 million. I wished early and often to see this movie's $100 million version.
“The Dial of Destiny” works much better when it’s less worried about spending that massive budget. When Indy and Helena get to actual treasure-hunting, and John Williams ’ all-timer theme kicks in again, the movie clicks. And, without spoiling, it ends with a series of events and ideas that I wish had been foregrounded more in the 130 minutes that preceded it. Ultimately, “The Dial of Destiny” is about a man who wants to control history being thwarted by a man who wants to appreciate it but has arguably allowed himself to get stuck in it through regret or inaction. There’s a powerful emotional center here, but it comes too late to have the impact it could have with a stronger script. One senses that this script was sanded down so many times by producers and rewrites that it lost some of the rough edges it needed to work.
Spielberg reportedly gave Mangold some advice when he passed the whip to the director, telling him , “It’s a movie that’s a trailer from beginning to end—always be moving.” Sure. Trailers are rarely boring. But they’re never as entertaining as a great movie.
In theaters now.
Brian Tallerico
Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.
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Film Credits
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, language and smoking.
154 minutes
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw
Antonio Banderas as Renaldo
John Rhys-Davies as Sallah
Toby Jones as Basil Shaw
Boyd Holbrook as Klaber
Ethann Isidore as Teddy Kumar
Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Jürgen Voller
Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood
Thomas Kretschmann as Colonel Weber
- James Mangold
Writer (based on characters created by)
- George Lucas
- Philip Kaufman
- David Koepp
- Jez Butterworth
- John-Henry Butterworth
Cinematographer
- Phedon Papamichael
- Michael McCusker
- Dirk Westervelt
- Andrew Buckland
- John Williams
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reminds you how much Hollywood has changed
The new Indiana Jones movie hits different in the IP age.
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In 1981’s Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark , the mercenary archaeologist René Belloq looks his friend-turned-foe Indiana Jones square in the eye and tells him the absolute truth. “Indiana,” he says, “we are simply passing through history.” They’re discussing the treasure they seek: the Ark of the Covenant, which might be just a valuable old artifact or might be the home of the Hebrew God, who knows. “This — this is history.”
Humans die. Civilizations pass away. Artifacts, however, remain. They tell us who we were, and who we still are.
History — the pursuit of it, the commodification of it, our universal fate to live inside of it — is Indiana Jones’s obsession, and that theme bleeds right off the screen and onto us. After all, Raiders was released 42 years ago, before I was born, and the fifth and final film (or so we’re told anyhow ), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, due to arrive in theaters this summer. Watch it at this moment in time, and you’re reminded that you, too, are passing through history. Those movie stars are looking a lot older.
This is a series preoccupied with time and its cousin, mortality, from the characters’ relentless pursuit of the ancient world’s secrets to the poignancy of Jones’s relationships. His adventures are frequently preceded by the revelation that someone or something in his life has died — a friend, a family member, a relationship. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , released in 1989, makes the fact of death especially moving, with its plot point turning on immortality and the Holy Grail. More humorously, cobweb-draped skeletons are strewn liberally throughout the series, reminding us that other explorers and other civilizations have attempted what Indiana is trying to do. He’s just another in a string of adventurers, one who happens to be really good at throwing a punch.
Dial of Destiny feels like an emphatic period at the end of a very long sentence, a sequel making its own case against some future further resurrection — not unlike last year’s Cannes blockbuster premiere, Top Gun: Maverick , or 2021’s fourth installment of The Matrix . That’s not just because Harrison Ford is turning 81 this summer. It’s in the text; Dial of Destiny argues, explicitly, that you have to leave the past in the past, that the only way to ensure the world continues is to put one foot down and then another, moving into the future.
Ironic, yes, for a movie built on giant piles of nostalgia and made by a company that proudly spends most of its money nibbling its own tail . In fact, the entire Indiana Jones concept was nostalgia-driven even before the fedora made its big-screen debut. Harrison Ford’s whip-cracking adventurer descends from swashbuckling heroes of pulp stories and matinee serials that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg loved as kids; like that other franchise Ford launched, the Indy series is both original and pastiche, both contemporary-feeling and set in another time, another place, a world that’s far, far away.
Dial of Destiny is loaded with related ironies, though they’re mostly extratextual. On the screen, it’s fairly straightforward: a sentimental vehicle, one that hits familiar beats and tells familiar jokes, comfort food to make you feel like a kid again for a little while. The Indiana Jones movies , even the bad ones, have always been pretty fun to watch in a cartoon-movie kind of way, while also being aggressively just fine as films — I mean that with fond enthusiasm — and Dial of Destiny fits the bill perfectly.
This installment turns on pieces of a dial created by the Greek mathematician Archimedes, which, like most of the relics that pop up in Indy’s universe, may or may not bestow godlike powers on its wielder. Naturally, the Nazis want it, especially Hitler. So the film opens in 1944, with Indy (a de-aged Ford, though unfortunately nobody thought to sufficiently de-age his voice) fighting Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) to nab it while getting out of one of his signature high-octane scrapes via a familiar combo of costume changes, well-aimed punches, acrobatics, and dumb luck. Then we jump forward to 1969, to discover a very much not de-aged Indy collapsed into his armchair in front of the TV, shirtless and in boxers, snoozing and clutching the dregs of a beer. This is a movie about getting old, after all.
You can deduce the rest — old friends and new, tricks and turns, mysteries, maybe some time travel, the question of whether the magic is real. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is in this movie as Helena Shaw, Jones’s archaeologist goddaughter, and injects it with some much-needed joie de vivre. There are some fun chase scenes, though director James Mangold’s visual sense (richly demonstrated in previous films like Logan and Ford v Ferrari ) falls a little flat next to the memory of Steven Spielberg’s direction. But for the most part, it’s all here again. I don’t want to spoil your fun.
Yet a thread that’s run through the whole four-decade series, with heightened irony every time it comes up, is the battle between Indy — who firmly believes that history’s relics ought to be in a museum for everyone to enjoy — and fortune-seeking mercenaries or power-seeking Nazis, who want to privately acquire those artifacts for their own reasons. (Leaving the artifact where it is, perhaps even among its people, still doesn’t really seem to be an option.) It’s a mirror for the very real theft of artifacts throughout history by invading or colonizing forces, the taking of someone else’s culture for your own use or to assert your own dominance. That battle crops up again in this installment, with both mercenaries and Nazis on offer. Shaw, voicing a darker archaeological aim, wryly insists that thieving is just capitalism, and that cash is the only thing worth believing in; Voller’s aims are much darker.
It’s all very fitting in a movie about an archaeologist set in the midcentury. But you have to notice the weird Hollywood resonance. When Raiders first hit the big screen, it was always intended to be the first in a series, much like Lucas and Spielberg’s beloved childhood serials. (The pair in fact made their initial Indiana Jones deal with Paramount for five movies.) But while some bits (and chunks) of the 1980s films have aged pretty badly, they endure in part because they’re remixes that are alive with imagination and even whimsy, the product so clearly of some guys who wanted to play around with the kinds of stories they loved as children.
Now, in the IP era , remixing is a fraught endeavor. The gatekeepers, owners and fans alike, are often very cranky. The producers bank on more of the same, not the risk of a new idea. The artifacts belong to them , and they call the shots, and tell you when you can have access or not. (The evening Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opened at Cannes, Disney — already infamously known for locking its animation away in a vault and burying the work of companies it acquires — announced it would start removing dozens of its own series from its streamers.) Rather than move into the future and support some new sandboxes, the Hollywood of today mostly maniacally rehashes what it’s already done. It envisions a future where what’s on offer is mostly what we’ve already had before.
In this I hear echoes of thinkers like Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer — two men who fled the Nazis, incidentally — who proposed the culture industry was giving people the illusion of choice, but only the freedom to choose what they said was on offer. You can have infinite variations on the same thing.
It’s a sentiment strangely echoed in Dial of Destiny . One night, Shaw is doing a card trick for some sailors, who are astounded that when they call out the seven of clubs, that’s what they pull out of the deck. But she shows Indy how she does it — by forcing the card on them, without them realizing. “I offer the feeling of choice, but I ultimately make you pick the one I want,” she explains, with a wry grin.
After 40 years and change, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny releases into a world where there’s more stuff than ever to watch, but somehow it feels like we have less choice, less chance of discovery. It is our moment in history — an artifact of what it was to be alive right now. When the historians of the future look back, I have to wonder what they’ll see, and thus who, in the end, they’ll think we really were.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is playing in theaters worldwide.
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‘indiana jones and the dial of destiny’ review: harrison ford cracks the whip one last time in a final chapter short on both thrills and fun.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen also star in James Mangold’s globe-hopping adventure about the quest for an ancient gadget able to locate fissures in time.
By David Rooney
David Rooney
Chief Film Critic
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What the new film — scripted by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and Mangold, with the feel of something written by committee — does have is a sweet blast of pure nostalgia in the closing scene, a welcome reappearance foreshadowed with a couple visual clues early on. That heartening return is also suggested by a moment when Harrison Ford ’s Dr. Jones, yanked out of retirement after 10 years teaching at New York’s Hunter College, stops to reflect on the personal mistakes of his past. Which is pretty much the first time the movie pauses for breath, and it happens an hour and 20 minutes into the bloated 2½ hour run time.
Part of what dims the enjoyment of this concluding chapter is just how glaringly fake so much of it looks. Ford is digitally — and convincingly — de-aged in an opening sequence that finds him back among the Nazis at the end of World War II. Hitler has already fled to his bunker and Gestapo gold-diggers are preparing for defeat by loading up a plunder train full of priceless antiquities and various stolen loot.
Scurrying to save himself and rescue his professorial Brit pal Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), Indy ends up in a death match with a Third Reich heavy on top of the train as it speeds through a long mountain pass. But any adrenaline rush that extended set-piece might have generated is killed by the ugly distraction of some truly terrible CG backgrounds. The foundations of this series are in Spielberg’s overgrown-kid playfulness with practical effects. The more the films have come to rely on a digital paintbrush, the less hair-raising their adventures have become.
The bulk of the action takes place in 1969, when Indiana feels the strain even getting up out of his recliner (and Ford commendably shrugs off vanity, making no effort to hide his age). The unexpected return into his life of the late Basil’s daughter Helena ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), whom Indy hasn’t seen since her childhood, revives thoughts of Archimedes’ golden double-discus gizmo and whether its purported properties might actually work. Helena claims to have chosen the legendary doodad as the subject of her doctorate thesis.
The dial was split in half by its inventor to avoid it slipping into the wrong hands — or to help flesh out a laborious new installment requiring multiple destinations — so half of it sits in an archeological vault, courtesy of Dr. Jones, and the other half lies in parts unknown. But Helena isn’t the only one interested.
It also brings Nazi physicist Dr. Jürgen Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ), who had a previous brush with Indy 25 years ago, out of hiding. He’s been living under an alias and working for the NASA space program, developing the technology that took the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Turns out he changed his name but not his political persuasion, so going back in time would allow him to “correct” history.
Mangold goes from one set-piece to another without much connective tissue. They include a chase on horseback and motorcycle through the streets of Manhattan that crashes through an anti-Vietnam protest and an Apollo 11 “Welcome Home” ticker-tape parade before continuing in the subway tunnels. There’s also a frantic flight in Moroccan tuk tuks and a dive to the bottom of the sea off the coast of Greece to find a coded guide to Archimedes’ tomb. By that time, you’ll likely have given up following the contorted plot mechanics and just be zoning in and out with each new location.
Or maybe you’ll spend time wondering what drew third-billed Antonio Banderas to such an insignificant role as Renaldo, Indy’s old fisherman buddy, whose diving expertise provides a crucial assist while getting Indy into a tangle with a bunch of outsize CG eels so sloppily rendered that Disney can relax about any Little Mermaid sniping. Renaldo has a crew stacked with male models who have bodies that didn’t exist in the late ‘60s, which seems an intriguing detail, though he’s not around long enough to shed light on it.
Mikkelsen can be a fabulously debonair villain (see: Casino Royale ), but any interesting idiosyncrasies the character might have exhibited are drowned in convoluted plot. This calls for a larger-than-life bad guy, and he’s somehow smaller. Filling the plucky young sidekick spot, Isidore’s Teddy is, well, let’s just say he’s no Short Round and leave it at that.
This is a big, bombastic movie that goes through the motions but never finds much joy in the process, despite John Williams’ hard-working score continuously pushing our nostalgia buttons and trying to convince us we’re on a wild ride. Indy ignores the inevitable jokes about his age and proves he can still handle himself in a tight spot. But Ford often seems disengaged, as if he’s weighing up whether this will restore the tarnished luster to his iconic action hero or reveal that he’s past his expiration date. Both the actor and the audience get a raw deal with this empty exercise in brand redemption.
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history. Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history. Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.
- James Mangold
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- 7 wins & 33 nominations total
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- Trivia In an interview on Harrison Ford/Vic Mensa (2023) , Harrison Ford explained how the filmmakers digitally de-aged him for the flashback sequence: "They have this artificial intelligence program that can go through every foot of film that Lucasfilm owns. Because I did a bunch of movies for them, they have all this footage, including film that wasn't printed. So they can mine it from where the light is coming from, from the expression. I don't know how they do it. But that's my actual face. Then I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make [it]. It's fantastic." At 80, he is the oldest actor to be de-aged in a movie, surpassing Al Pacino , who was 79 when he was de-aged in The Irishman (2019) .
- Goofs Indy identifies the half lion half eagle creature carved on Archimedes' tomb as a Phoenix. The creature is actually a griffin and bears little or no resemblance to a Phoenix.
Dr. Voller : You should have stayed in New York.
Indiana Jones : You should have stayed out of Poland.
- Crazy credits The Paramount Pictures logo appears normally, and does not fade into a mountain-shaped opening shot, the only film in the Indiana Jones films to do so. Instead, the Lucasfilm logo fades into a lock on a door in 1944 Germany.
- Alternate versions On the International prints of the film, the original variant of Disney's 100th anniversary logo (with 100 YEARS OF WONDER tagline) was shown as the first logo instead of tagline-less variant of the same logo.
- Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Changing of the Bobs (2020)
- Soundtracks Lili Marleen Written by Hans Leip and Norbert Schultze
User reviews 1.7K
- thejefflewis-92228
- Jul 1, 2023
'Indiana Jones' Stars Through The Years
- How long is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Powered by Alexa
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- June 30, 2023 (United States)
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- Greek, Ancient (to 1453)
- Indiana Jones 5
- North Yorkshire Moors Railway, 12 Park Street, Pickering, North Yorkshire, England, UK (German railway scenes)
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- $294,700,000 (estimated)
- $174,480,468
- $60,368,101
- Jul 2, 2023
- $383,963,057
Technical specs
- Runtime 2 hours 34 minutes
- Dolby Atmos
- D-Cinema 96kHz Dolby Surround 7.1
- Dolby Digital
- Dolby Surround 7.1
- 12-Track Digital Sound
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Movie Reviews
'dial of destiny' proves indiana jones' days of derring-do aren't quite derring-done.
Bob Mondello
Harrison Ford — who's about to turn 81 — stars again as the intrepid archaeologist in this fifth (and possibly final) adventure. It's directed not by Steven Spielberg, but by James Mangold. Lucasfilm Ltd. hide caption
Harrison Ford — who's about to turn 81 — stars again as the intrepid archaeologist in this fifth (and possibly final) adventure. It's directed not by Steven Spielberg, but by James Mangold.
It's been 42 years since Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced audiences to a boulder-dodging, globe-trotting, bullwhip-snapping archaeologist played by Harrison Ford. The boulder was real back then (or at any rate, it was a practical effect made of wood, fiberglass and plastic).
Very little in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , Indy's rousingly ridiculous fifth and possibly final adventure, is concrete and actual. And that includes, in the opening moments, its star.
Ford turns 81 next week, but as the film begins in Germany 1944, with the Third Reich in retreat, soldiers frantically loading plunder on a train, the audience is treated to a sight as gratifying and wish-fullfilling as it is impossible. A hostage with a sack over his head gets dragged before a Nazi officer and when the bag is removed, it's Indy looking so persuasively 40-something, you may suspect you're watching an outtake from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A digitally de-aged Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Lucasfilm Ltd. hide caption
A digitally de-aged Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Ford has been digitally de-aged through some rearrangement of pixels that qualifies as the most effective use yet of a technology that could theoretically let blockbusters hang in there forever with ageless original performers.
Happily, the filmmakers have a different sort of time travel in mind here. After establishing that Ford's days of derring-do aren't yet derring-done, they flash-forward a bit to 1969, where a creaky, cranky, older Indiana Jones is boring what appears to be his last class at Hunter College before retirement. Long-haired, tie-dyed and listening to the Rolling Stones, his students are awaiting the tickertape parade for astronauts returning from the moon, and his talk of ancient artifacts hasn't the remotest chance of distracting them.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd. hide caption
But a figure lurking in the back of the class is intrigued — Helena ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), the daughter of archeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) who was with Indy back on that plunder train in 1944. Like her father before her, she's obsessed with the title gizmo — a device Archimedes fashioned in ancient Greece to exploit fissures in time — "a dial," says Helena "that could change the course of history."
Yeah, well, every adventure needs its MacGuffin. This one's also being sought by Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who was also on that plunder train back in 1944, and plans to use it to fix the "mistakes" made by Hitler, and they're all soon zipping off to antiquity auctions in Tangier, shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, and ... well, shouldn't say too much about the rest.
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'indiana jones and the dial of destiny' is a whip-crackin' good time.
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Director James Mangold, who knows something about bidding farewell to aging heroes — he helped Wolverine shuffle off to glory in Logan — finds ways to check off a lot of Indy touchstones in Dial of Destiny: booby-trapped caves that require problem-solving, airplane flights across maps to exotic locales, ancient relics with supernatural properties, endearing old pals (John Rhys Davies' Sallah, Karen Allen's Marion), and inexplicably underused new ones (Antonio Banderas' sea captain). Also tuk-tuk races, diminutive sidekicks (Ethann Isidore's Teddy) and critters (no snakes, but lots of snake-adjacents), and, of course, Nazis.
Mangold's action sequences may not have the lightness Steven Spielberg gave the ones in Indy's four previous adventures, but they're still madcap and decently exciting. And though in plot terms, the big climax feels ill-advised, the filmmaker clearly knows what he has: a hero beloved for being human in an era when so many film heroes are superhuman.
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd. hide caption
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
So he lets Ford show us what the ravages of time have done to Indy — the aches and pains, the creases and sags, the bone-weariness of a hero who's given up too much including a marriage, and child — to follow artifacts where they've led him.
Then he gives us the thing Indy fans (and Harrison Ford fans) want, and in Dial of Destiny's final moments, he dials up the emotion.
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Movie Review: Harrison Ford gets a swashbuckling sendoff in ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Harrison Ford in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Phoebe Waller-Bridge, left, and Harrison Ford in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Mads Mikkelsen, left, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Mads Mikkelsen in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Boyd Holbrook in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Antonio Banderas in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Ethann Isidore, from left, Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)
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Goodbyes don’t tend to mean much in the Hollywood franchise system. Death isn’t a reliable end for characters or, lately, even actors. Technology, nostalgia and the often-inflated value of brands and IP have created a nightmarish cycle of resurrection and regurgitation, curdling what we love most.
And yet when someone like Harrison Ford says he’s hanging up Indiana Jones’ fedora , for better or worse, you believe him. “Indiana Jones” producer Frank Marshall has also said that they won’t recast the character, which seems more dubious and, though well-intentioned, something he won’t be able to guarantee. All it takes is a new executive demanding a reboot.
Not that it would ever really work, though. Any self-respecting movie fan knows the truth: The magic of Indiana Jones belongs wholly to Harrison Ford. Apparently, he doesn’t even necessarily need Steven Spielberg behind the camera, though, to be fair, the foundation was well-laid for a veteran like James Mangold to step in . But there is no Indy — none that we care about anyway —without Ford.
In this way, it’s hard not to go into “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” in theaters Friday, without a sense of melancholy — not exactly the ideal state of mind for what should be, and mostly is, a fun summer blockbuster. But it certainly adds a poignancy to the whole endeavor whether the film merits it or not.
If only it didn’t start with that pesky de-aging technology (the best it’s ever looked but it remains unsettling), giving us a 45-year-old Indiana Jones doing some of the wildest stunts we’ve ever seen our beloved archeology professor attempt — atop a speeding train to boot. This sequence is ostensibly there to introduce the film’s MacGuffin, Archimedes Antikythera, a real celestial calculation machine with extraordinary predictive capabilities that in the film is bestowed with some otherworldly powers.
But we know the real reason: It’s there to let us gaze at that familiar face and to go on one last adventure with the Indy we grew up with, before being thrust back reality with a nearly 80-year-old Ford (he’s 81 in July) playing a 70-something Indy.
This isn’t inherently sad, but Dr. Jones is certainly reintroduced in the most unglamorous way possible: Sleeping on a reclining chair in a sad New York apartment, a glass of something alcoholic in his hand and threadbare boxer shorts on his person. He’s depression personified, retiring from the university where the kids barely pay attention to him anyway (long gone are the “I love you” eyelids), estranged from Karen Allen’s Marion and watching the world go space crazy around him.
We’ll have to see him work back up to his adventuresome self. No training montages required, thankfully, just a plane ticket, his classic uniform (still fits!) and his old improvisational spirit. The cumbersome plot (script is credited to Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and Mangold) strains to justify and give meaning to the search for the Antikythera: The FBI is on the hunt for it, as is Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) for whom the war hasn’t ended, and the daughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) of Indy’s late partner Basil (Toby Jones) who was driven mad by the gadget. It’s a bit much, as are many of the overly elaborate and strangely murky-looking action sequences from the train in 1944 to a deep-sea diving sequence with killer eels. The movie hits its action high notes when it sticks to the tactile classics, like a brilliantly executed rickshaw chase in Tangier.
Waller-Bridge’s Helena is an enormously enjoyable character, too — a brilliant archeologist herself who’s chosen a more glamorous, dangerous and decidedly black market kind of existence, selling stolen antiquities to the world’s wealthiest and working her way out of debt. She’s introduced as a wild card and a lot of the tension is derived from whether Indy should trust her. It’s a very good non-romantic pairing of sharp-witted old souls, a generation apart. But you’d think in an almost two-and-a-half-hour film there might have been more time for one of our returning favorites, like John Rhys-Davies Sallah (he does get a few good moments).
I’m not sure anyone had an especially burning need to know what Indiana Jones was up to lately, but at least it gives everyone a chance to end on a higher note than “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Or maybe Ford just needed some closure on one of his iconic characters so that everyone will stop asking him about them.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” might not be “Raiders” or “The Last Crusade” but it’s solid, swashbuckling summer fare and a dignified sendoff to one of cinema’s most flawless castings.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” a Walt Disney Co. release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for, “language, action, sequences of violence, smoking.” Running time: 144 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
MPA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr .
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Indiana jones and the dial of destiny, common sense media reviewers.
Entertaining fifth Indy movie has some shocking violence.
A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this movie.
Ingenuity, courage, teamwork, and trying to do the
Indy is brave, resourceful, loyal, and smart, and
The two primary characters -- Indy (Harrison Ford)
Frequent peril/danger, lots of guns and shooting,
Woman spies shirtless man (one of a couple seen on
Occasional language includes uses of "damn" and "d
A character drinks a bottle of Coca-Cola. Coca-Col
Fairly frequent drinking: Indy spikes his morning
Parents need to know that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and likely final movie in the blockbuster adventure franchise starring Harrison Ford. There's plenty of the series' usual peril and violence, though this one has more deaths that really feel like murders: Several characters,…
Positive Messages
Ingenuity, courage, teamwork, and trying to do the right thing are ultimately rewarded, though some of the heroes' methods and choices are iffy. Family is important here, especially found family; knowing that people care about you can be a calming/positive influence. Violence can be swift and brutal, but it's important to acknowledge and mourn your losses.
Positive Role Models
Indy is brave, resourceful, loyal, and smart, and he's dedicated to preserving historical artifacts and protecting them from those who would misuse them. That said, you probably don't want your kids imitating him, especially given the violence he's forced to use. Helena is smart and proactive, even if her motives are questionable at best. Enemies are portrayed one-dimensionally, as purely evil. Lots of bickering. Two main characters find themselves drawn to doing illicit or unwise things because they think no one will care. When they do realize that someone cares, it settles them.
Diverse Representations
The two primary characters -- Indy (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) -- are White. Helena is smart and resourceful and has agency; she needs no rescuing. And Indy is now 80 but still active and tenacious. Movie is set in several places, including Manhattan, Sicily, and Morocco; many characters of color in background, but some locations still feel exoticized. Antonio Banderas plays a Spanish diver who helps the heroes. Helena has a young, fearless Moroccan sidekick (Ethann Bergua-Isidore, who's of Franco-Mauritian-Brazilian descent). U.S. Agent Mason (Shaunette Renée Wilson) is Black and is important to the plot, but her story arc plays into some stereotypes. Egyptian character Sallah (Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies) says that he wants his children and grandchildren to understand what it's like to be both American and Egyptian. A minor character uses crutches. Indy makes brief references to having drunk the Blood of Kali and been the target of "voodoo." An African American bellhop has a run-in with the Nazi villain, who says racist things to him (asking him where he's "really" from and making reference to "your people"). The villains are Nazis and all White.
Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.
Violence & Scariness
Frequent peril/danger, lots of guns and shooting, sometimes in crowded places (including an anti-war protest). Several characters are shot and killed, sometimes very abruptly/execution style by bloodthirsty villains (more deaths feel like murders here than in previous Indy films). Characters are thrown from moving trains and in-flight airplanes and jump/fall from heights. Knives. Fighting, punching. Woman punched in face. Burned/charred corpse in plane wreckage. Child taken captive/in peril. Two characters handcuffed together fall into the water; one escapes and leaves the other trapped, sure to drown. Threats, bloody wounds. Mace or similar sprayed on villains. Blood on hand leaves bloody prints on a phone receiver. Several action-packed car/train/vehicle chases, crashes. Plane crash. Noose put around character's neck; he barely escapes being hung, and swings from the rope for a bit. Explosions: bombs, dynamite, more. Characters held prisoner. Vicious attacking eels, creepy centipedes. Skeletons. Depiction of a large battle includes ships attacking, firing deadly weapons, ships on fire, etc. Yelling, arguing. Characters mourn the loss of loved ones.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Sex, Romance & Nudity
Woman spies shirtless man (one of a couple seen on a boat), says to herself: "promising!" Indy shown wearing just boxer briefs. Tender kiss.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Occasional language includes uses of "damn" and "dammit," "crap," "hell" and "what the hell," "stupid," "pissed off," "shut up," and "cracker." Exclamatory use of "Jesus" and "my God."
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.
Products & Purchases
A character drinks a bottle of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola sign. An old Levi's ad is seen on a subway train. Pan Am logo on airplane; ConEd, Brillo logos seen.
Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
Fairly frequent drinking: Indy spikes his morning coffee, has whiskey in a bar, Scotch on airplane, whiskeys on boat, etc. Characters drink from a flask before doing something dangerous. A character says "you've had too many whiskeys." Cigarette smoking. Character sucks on a cigar stub; another has a pipe. Ashtrays shown.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and likely final movie in the blockbuster adventure franchise starring Harrison Ford . There's plenty of the series' usual peril and violence, though this one has more deaths that really feel like murders: Several characters, including innocent bystanders, are abruptly, shockingly shot and killed. Heroes and villains alike use guns and other weapons (Indy has his trusty whip, of course) throughout the movie, and there's fighting and punching, big explosions, high-stakes chases, people being thrown from trains and planes, a villain left to presumably drown, some blood (wounds, on hands, etc.), a burned/charred corpse, vicious eels, creepy bugs, and more. Occasional mild language ranges from "damn" and "crap" to "Jesus" and "hell." A woman briefly indicates sexual attraction to a shirtless man, Indy is shown in his boxer briefs, and a couple kisses tenderly. Characters drink -- mostly whiskey/Scotch fairly frequently, and there's some cigarette smoking. Ingenuity, courage, teamwork, and trying to do the right thing are ultimately rewarded, and family -- especially found family -- is important. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .
Where to Watch
Videos and photos.
Community Reviews
- Parents say (17)
- Kids say (18)
Based on 17 parent reviews
Classic Indy movie but skip the previews
Fun family movie for tweens and up, what's the story.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY opens with a sequence set at the end of World War II, with Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) and his friend Basil ( Toby Jones ) trying to rescue an ancient religious artifact from the Nazis. What they find instead is half of Archimedes' Antikythera mechanism, a mechanical dial that's said to bring untold power to whoever possesses and masters it. Indy tangles with sinister Nazi scientist Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ), but he and Basil manage to escape with the dial. Years later, in 1969, Dr. Jones is freshly retired from teaching when he receives a visit from Basil's daughter, Helena ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), who's eager to get her hands on the dial. But why, exactly? Indy quickly finds himself caught up in yet another adventure as the truth unfolds.
Is It Any Good?
This satisfying fifth (and presumably final) Indiana Jones adventure hits all the right beats, understanding that these movies have always been about more than just chases and fights. Directed by James Mangold , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has some of the same flavor that he brought to his earlier movies about seasoned adventurers ( 3:10 to Yuma , Logan ), and plenty of soul. Ford, 80 at the time of the movie's release, is allowed to look and feel his age (while climbing a stone wall in a cave, he complains about his aches and pains). And yet the stunts and action are all very much still exciting, with Waller-Bridge more than holding her own. A pair of flashbacks that use de-aging digital technology to give us a younger Indy are nearly seamless, too.
One of the best things about the Indy movies is that they revel in scenes set in musty old libraries or storage rooms and delight in the piecing together of 1,000-year-old puzzles -- and this one is no different. These beats provide rests between chases and build the characters. Even though Mangold goes long with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , at 154 minutes, the pacing largely feels right. We really get the sense of just who Indiana Jones is here, what his history is, and how he feels about things. Now that his story is well and truly told, he's still our hero, but we feel like part of his family.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
Do you agree with Indy that historic artifacts belong in museums? What are today's best practices around preserving cultural treasures?
How are drinking and smoking portrayed here? Are they used casually? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?
How does this film compare to the previous Indy movies in terms of positive diverse representations ?
If you had a Dial of Destiny, how would you use it?
Movie Details
- In theaters : December 5, 2023
- On DVD or streaming : December 5, 2023
- Cast : Harrison Ford , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Mads Mikkelsen
- Director : James Mangold
- Inclusion Information : Female actors
- Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Topics : Adventures , History
- Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
- Run time : 154 minutes
- MPAA rating : PG-13
- MPAA explanation : sequences of violence and action, language and smoking
- Last updated : December 6, 2023
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.
Suggest an Update
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COMMENTS
Jul 21, 2023 Full Review Thelma Adams AARP Movies for Grownups Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is faithful to the original story while retaining the zest of the action-adventure serials of ...
In an era of extreme online critical opinion, "The Dial of Destiny" is a hard movie to truly hate, which is nice. It's also an Indiana Jones movie that's difficult to truly love, which makes this massive fan of the original trilogy a little sad. The unsettling mix of good and bad starts in the first sequence, a flashback to the final days ...
Total Film' s James Mottram gave the film a rave review, writing that Indy "goes out on a high.". Mottram loved the nods to the past but also enjoyed Mangold's attempt to show growth in ...
Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney. By Manohla Dargis. Published June 28, 2023 Updated June 30, 2023. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Directed by James Mangold. Action, Adventure. PG-13. 2h 34m. Find ...
Alissa is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. In 1981's Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the mercenary archaeologist René Belloq ...
The movie has been billed as a send-off for Indiana Jones, but it doesn't feel definitive, particularly when the film's final shot makes a very decisive point about Ford/Indy hanging up the hat.
Indiana Jones still has a certain old-school class. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny screened at the Cannes film festival and is released on 30 June in UK and Irish cinemas. Explore more on ...
Director: James Mangold. Screenwriters: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp, James Mangold. Rated PG-13, 2 hours 34 minutes. What the new film — scripted by Jez Butterworth ...
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Directed by James Mangold. With Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Karen Allen. Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.
Very little in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Indy's rousingly ridiculous fifth and possibly final adventure, is concrete and actual. And that includes, in the opening moments, its star ...
It's a film about letting go of the past and moving forward, but one that refuses to do the same. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Lucasfilm. PG-13. Review scoring. The fifth movie fails ...
A fter scoring box-office bullseyes with Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Steven Spielberg blotted his Hollywood wunderkind copybook with 1941 (1979). A "comedy ...
Therein lies the greatest struggle of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday). Director James Mangold ("Logan") takes over from Steven ...
A de-aged Ford as a World War II-era Indy Courtesy of Lucasfilm. Yet Dial of Destiny creaks under the weight of the franchise's stature. The movie's opening flashback scenes give us a much ...
Any self-respecting movie fan knows the truth: The magic of Indiana Jones belongs wholly to Harrison Ford. Apparently, he doesn't even necessarily need Steven Spielberg behind the camera, though, to be fair, the foundation was well-laid for a veteran like James Mangold to step in .
Our review: Parents say ( 17 ): Kids say ( 18 ): This satisfying fifth (and presumably final) Indiana Jones adventure hits all the right beats, understanding that these movies have always been about more than just chases and fights. Directed by James Mangold, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has some of the same flavor that he brought to ...
By Justin Chang Film Critic. June 29, 2023 2:20 PM PT. The first time Harrison Ford appears in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," you can't take your eyes off him, and not really in a ...
Movie Review. It's 1936, and a youngish archaeologist named Indiana Jones is about to be buried alive in an ancient Egyptian tomb. His nemesis, Belloq, gloats from above. Recalling an earlier conversation they had over the value of a dime-store pocket watch after a thousand years, Belloq offers a cutting quip.
Support Shelby Oaks: http://www.shelbyoaksmovie.comChris Stuckmann reviews Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, starring Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridg...
Published on June 19, 2023 10:00AM EDT. Since his debut in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has remained one of Hollywood's most iconic action heroes. The blockbuster series currently ...
Surprisingly, it still works. Temple of Doom's third act is jaw-dropping, even by modern-day standards. Roger Ebert explained that "Steven Spielberg's 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ...
The second installment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is a prequel to the first movie.Set in 1935, the film follows Indiana, aided in his escape from Chinese gangsters by singer/actress ...
Media Format : PAL, DVD. Run time : 2 hours and 28 minutes. Release date : 4 December 2023. Studio : The Walt Disney Company. ASIN : B0CKTLZ6Y3. Best Sellers Rank: 47 in Movies & TV ( See Top 100 in Movies & TV) 44 in Movies (Movies & TV) Customer Reviews: 4.5 1,063 ratings.
For people in many places, the most visible part of the storm will be the northern lights, known also as auroras. But authorities and companies will also be on the lookout for the event's ...