Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Difference between revisions

2023 film by James Mangold

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 American action adventure film directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote it with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp.^[12] It is the sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as well as the fifth and putatively final installment in the Indiana Jones film series. Featuring Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen reprising their roles as Indiana Jones, Sallah, and Marion Ravenwood, respectively, new cast members include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen. Set in 1969, the film follows Jones and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II.

Dial of Destiny is the only film in the series that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg nor conceived by George Lucas, with both serving as executive producers instead. It is also the only film in the series not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures, following Walt Disney Studios‘ acquisition of Lucasfilm and film rights for future sequels. Paramount retains the distribution rights to the first four films and a residual associate credit.^[3]

Plans for a fifth Indiana Jones film date back to the late 1970s, when a deal was made with Paramount to produce four sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Lucas began researching potential plot devices for a fifth film in 2008, and Koepp was eventually hired to write the film in 2016. A release date was set for 2019, which was then delayed several times due to rewrites and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, Jonathan Kasdan replaced Koepp and eventually left the project. Spielberg was originally set to direct but stepped down in 2020, with Mangold taking his place. Filming began in June 2021 in various locations including the United Kingdom, Italy, and Morocco, wrapping in February 2022. Longtime franchise composer John Williams returned to compose and conduct the film’s score.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film, which has grossed $307 million worldwide, received lukewarm reviews from critics.^[7] It has been deemed a box-office bomb due to a lack of wide appeal for moviegoers and an expensive overall budget.^[13]

In 1944, Nazis capture Indiana Jones and Oxford archeologist 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, allowing for possible time travel. Jones escapes onto a train filled with looted antiquities and frees Basil. He obtains the Dial piece, and the two leap from the train just before Allied forces derail it.

In 1969, an elderly Jones, now living in New York City, is retiring from Hunter College. Marion has left and filed for legal separation due to Jones becoming depressed and isolated after their son Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War. Jones’ goddaughter, archaeologist Helena Shaw, unexpectedly visits, claiming she wants to research the Dial. Jones warns that her late father, Basil, became obsessed studying the Dial 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. Voller, now working for NASA under the alias “Dr. Schmidt”, is assisted by the CIA. Helena, revealed to be 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 into a parade celebrating the Apollo 11 moon landing, then an anti-war protest, and through the New York City Subway. He seeks out his old friend Sallah, now a New York cab driver.

Sallah surmises that Helena will likely auction the Dial in Tangier before he helps Jones flee the country. At a Tangier hotel, Jones disrupts Helena’s illegal private auction, but Voller and his henchmen arrive and steal the artifact. Jones, Helena, and her teen sidekick, Teddy Kumar, join forces and chase them through the streets in a tuk-tuk. The CIA intercepts Voller after the U.S. government disavows him for going rogue, but Voller’s cohorts murder the agents and steal their helicopter.

Jones, Helena, and Teddy trail Voller to Greece and team up with Jones’s old friend, Renaldo, a professional diver. Guided by Basil’s research, they dive to an ancient shipwreck in the Aegean Sea and retrieve a “graphikos” tablet containing directions to the Dial’s other half. Voller arrives and murders Renaldo. Jones’ group escapes…