INDIANA AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY: A Messy but Loving Last Crack of the Whip

For large movie franchises obligated to remind people they’re still around, Indiana Jones has always been a bizarre case. After the success of The Last Crusade, it took the series 19 years to remind us (and fall short) why we love Indy so much, and now it’s been another 15 years since that attempt.

The character of Dr. Jones has very much become a relic himself. Though the original trilogy remains some of the most beloved action movies ever made, we don’t seem to talk about Indy as much anymore. No, instead people want to talk about superheroes.

The Passage of Time

This is a similar situation in which we find Indy (Harrison Ford) in Dial of Destiny. It’s now 1969. People are celebrating the successful Apollo 11 mission, and everyone wants to talk about space, not history. His personal life is not much better – he’s pushed into retirement at his college, he has separated from his wife Marion, and his son Mutt is not around. It’s only when a last remnant of family, his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), comes knocking that Indy is swept up into one final adventure: to retrieve the legendary Archimedes’ Dial, said to locate fissures in time.

Through a fantastic prologue sequence set during the end of WWII, director James Mangold establishes the premise of the dial. A de-aged Indy, with his colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), successfully retrieves half of the dial from astrophysicist Jürgen Voller (a fantastic Mads Mikkelsen) and the Nazis.

Despite the at-times murky lighting and the noticeable problem of a de-aged Indy face not matching up with his 80-year-old sounding voice, this entire prologue sequence is beautifully choreographed and edited together, bringing back fond memories of particular moments in The Last Crusade. With Mangold’s sensibility in directing momentum and John Williams back at the musical helm, Dial of Destiny took no time (pun intended) in putting a smile on my face.

The contrast between the opening sequence and where we find Indy now in 1969 is so apparent, it could not be more clear that we’re finally getting an Indy film that is tackling his age and head-on. It also brings a compelling dramatic question of what exactly is driving Helena’s motivation. A lot has happened since. Her father Basil was eventually driven mad trying to analyze the dial his final conclusion before his death was that the dial needs to be destroyed. Even Archimedes himself split it into two pieces. But with the sudden return of Voller and his Nazi men, Indy has no choice but to find and complete the dial before it falls into the wrong hands.

Plot Plot Plot?

Perhaps the biggest writing component in Dial of Destiny that will divide audiences is the role Indy plays in his adventure. With his age and retirement being a huge factor and his motivated passiveness written into his character, it can at times feel like Indy is a side character. For a good portion of the first half, Indy is dragged across the globe – from Tangier to Greece to Sicily – looking for Helena and putting up with her shenanigans. Along the way, we meet new characters like Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Helena’s sidekick, in an obvious nod to Short Round.

A good portion of the second act is the banter between Indy, Helena, and Teddy, along with enough archaeology and historical dialogue to propel the plot to the next puzzle or mystical object. Sometimes the pacing wobbles. Sometimes it can feel like these new characters are not being challenged as much as I’d hoped. But it’s amazing to see how easily my worries fly out the window when Mangold has his hand on an action sequence again. In the same vein as the truck chase in Raiders and the minecart sequence in Temple of Doom, the auto-rickshaw car chase sequence in Dial of Destiny is a load of fun. It feels right at home with the franchise in bringing silly but perilous roller coaster rides onto the big screen.

Sense of Pace

In all the right ways, Dial of Destiny contains the traditional ingredients you would hope to see out of an Indiana Jones movie. The fun action, the cool historical gizmos, the elaborate puzzles, the skeletons, the bugs, the reference to Indy’s fear of snakes, and of course, awful scumbag Nazis. But sometimes, the sense of pace is just a bit off.

Ford gives a terrific performance here as an aged Indy who thinks the world no longer has a place for him. It always hurts when we see our hero give up, and some of the best moments in Dial of Destiny involve Indy being extremely vulnerable towards Helena or when he figures out a puzzle that brings joy back to him. Though these moments are all beautifully acted and written, they can all feel a little short.

Recall when Dr. Jones finds that “X marks the spot” in The Last Crusade. Steven Spielberg went ahead and made another silly moment out of Jones trying to break the tile and having that sound sync up with the librarian stamping his documents. Here in Dial of Destiny, Indy or Helena will figure something out and that’s that. They move on to the next room. Seeing how Mangold handled action, I wish he handled these archaeological discoveries a bit better. Drag them out a bit. Let us have a moment to think about the answer. Have Indy see a clue the same time we do, so we get a chance to “figure it out” the same time he does. For a 2.5-hour long movie, Dial of Destiny strangely feels too slow at some times and too rushed in others.

What a Swing!

And then the third act arrives. Wow, what a swing, it is. Thanks to a marketing campaign that showed nothing from it, the last 30 minutes of Dial of Destiny are some of the craziest “out there” decisions I’ve seen in a blockbuster. No, we’re not in Crystal Skull territory. This one feels more in line with what is possible and what could happen.

All that needs to be said is thematically, it aligns with what the writers have been addressing with Indy’s character since the start, and character-wise, it continues the tradition of the Indiana Jones villain succumbing to their own obsession and dying via the classic “you did it to yourself” formula. Though the third act is guaranteed to once again divide audiences, plus raise a ton of questions that might not add up, this is exactly the kind of crazy swing I wish more blockbusters are unafraid of trying.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Hats Off to Everyone

Indiana Jones to me has always been a wonky franchise. Three iconic films (one which I personally do not care for), one extremely divisive one that attempted to conclude the series, and now a “for real this time” conclusion.

Dial of Destiny is not perfect. In fact, it’s a rather flawed movie, and the flaws are extremely noticeable. But it is also very entertaining, exciting, well-acted, traditional at the right places and surprising in the best way. I tip my hat to Ford, who has been here since the beginning, and Mangold, who clearly had a moving story in mind to bring onto the big screen. The end result is a messy but loving last crack of the whip.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023. It was released in theaters in the US on June 30, 2023.

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