AFTER the alien nonsense in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, no one would be faulted if they thought any sequel would probably be even more “out there” and silly.
However, that’s not the case with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which shifts hands from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to James Mangold.
The last film to feature Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, The Dial of Destiny sees the legendary archaeologist on his final adventure in 1969.
Pulled into the criminal plotting of Helena Shaw (Phoebe Walter-Bridge), Indiana’s goddaughter, the duo – joined by new and old characters – race against time to stop Nazi remnants led by Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen).
Voller, intending to change the past, seeks out the Antikythera, an ancient mechanism that – in the Indiana Jones universe – was said to be able to predict future events, and possibly change the outcomes of past events.
The dusty hat and the whip
Though the film feels “unnecessary”, credit has to be given where it’s due: Mangold’s reverence and respect for Indiana and the character’s one last adventure are just as good as – if not better than – Spielberg’s if he had directed this film.
And the reason is quite simple: Mangold is willing to take Indiana to dark places.
As great as Spielberg has been in creating and handling Ford’s character since 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, he’s never done this with Indiana, whom Spielberg has always propped up as this iron-willed, will-not-back-down, faultless hero.
In The Dial of Destiny, Indiana is a broken husk of the man he once was. The hero a lot of us grew up watching, the man that stood toe-to-toe, whip-to-guns, against Nazis, is now in his “sunset years”.
The film opens with a flashback of a younger Indiana – where Ford is digitally de-aged – stopping the Nazis right before they lost the Second World War in an action set piece on a train. The film then moves almost 30 years later to Indiana, who is a lonely old man in an apartment with young neighbours partying in the middle of the night.
So, how does Mangold create a film around an action hero who is now past his prime? He acknowledges it throughout the film.
Fleeting age
Indiana knows he’s old – Ford himself is 81 years old next month – and despite that “handicap” that comes with age, where in one scene, he can’t even move fast enough to escape two bad guys — he is still that icon of unyielding good against evil.
At the same time, Mangold shows Indiana’s age not just through the action but also through the emotional parts of the film, which are better both in quality and quantity – than previous films.
Towards the middle of the film, Indiana breaks down and cries over a certain mistake in the past that has deeply affected him, including his relationship with franchise favourite action heroine Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).
At the climax of the film, there is an even more emotional scene where Indiana is tempted to return to “the good old days” through the film’s magical MacGuffin, the Antikythera.
Despite being of age himself, Ford still flawlessly nails the acting for Indiana, regardless of what the film requires, whether it’s the action sequences, the banter with the co-stars, or the aforementioned emotional moments.
Although the film is an existential nightmare about the realities of ageing in a world that glorifies youth, it’s a great story that highlights Indiana Jones’ story arc through the years. One thing is for sure: this is one grand sendoff that audiences will remember for a long time.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny releases in cinemas on 29 June.