Fantha Tracks writers give their responses, initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on the fourth sequel to the 1981 Lucasfilm classic Raiders of the Lost Ark. Beware spoilerific elements as we try to keep up with the Joneses one final time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Mark Newbold
Fifteen years on from his last adventure in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and 34 years since the trilogy ending Last Crusade we’re riding with Doctor Henry Walton Jones Jr. once again, and while the directors chair is now occupied by James Mangold rather than Steven Spielberg, don’t be fooled into thinking this is anything other than a cracking, final ride for Indy. Yes, my flag is proudly nailed to the mast; I loved Dial of Destiny for many reasons, none more so than Harrison Ford delivering a world-weary, heartfelt performance that adds so many layers to the story of Indiana Jones it’s difficult to know where to start.
We open in 1944, as we find Indy on one of the many bold Office of Strategic Services missions he undertook during the war that was referred to by General Ross in Crystal Skull, and the advancements in visual effects are immediately highlighted as this is Harrison Ford not in his late 70’s, but as a 45 year-old, not much older than when we saw him in Last Crusade. The work done here by ILM is exemplary (surely worthy of an Oscar nomination which it won’t win, because for some odd political reason ILM never does), and for the next 20 minutes he tries to not only steal back the Lance of Longinus (you could say a 50 year-old fake being stolen by a 45 year-old deep fake) but also acquires half of the legendary Archimedes Dial. Imagine they filmed the opening 20 minutes of an Indiana Jones film in the early 90’s and then abandoned it, only for someone to find the footage 30 years later – that’s how impressive this is.
We step forward to July 1969 to find a worn out Indy, angry at his very noisy neighbours and less than impressed at man landing on the Moon (wouldn’t you be if you’d seen with your own eyes a flying saucer the size of an aircraft carrier in Peru twelve years before?) we soon see why he’s in such a funk. Marion is filing for divorce, he’s being retired off from his position at Hunter College in Manhattan after a decade and life is catching up with him fast. Enter Helena ‘Wombat’ Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge devouring the role with relish), his goddaughter who he hasn’t seen for 18 years and we quickly learn she’s also hunting for the Antikythera and isn’t afraid of using Indy to get it. Indy hasn’t had his final great adventure. A move to Manhattan has seen him stagnate, and here the gears begin to turn as the Indy we know – inventive, decisive, ready to take a tumble to get to where he needs to be – begins to reappear in the ‘present’. Thankfully he has his ever-loyal friend Sallah to help out, brought to the States at the end of the War thanks to Indy and now a New York taxi driver in a fantastic turn by John Rhys-Davies delivering an older Sallah far more satisfyingly than the comic relief version we saw in Last Crusade.
It would be very easy to go through the entire plot of the film and dissect it piece by piece, and goodness knows I’d be more than happy to do that, but as with all Indy adventures it’s not about the Macguffin but rather the growth and journey Indy takes. In Temple of Doom he’s all about the fortune and glory (very much in line with Helena in Dial of Destiny), while the things he saw in Raiders changed his perspective on his career – it belongs in a museum. In Hunters we see a room of steel shelving filled with treasures he presumably had a hand in acquiring, and he has no compunction in sending shelving tumbling to make his escape. Family is now his treasure, something he rediscovered in The Last Crusade when he made peace with his father, and in Crystal Skull when he not only reunited with Marion but learned he has a son.
While it’s been known for a long while that Shia LeBeouf wouldn’t be a part of Dial of Destiny, that doesn’t mean that Mutt Williams has no role in the film, and while Mutts involvement comes via his absense, it adds a weight and sorrow to Indy that layers right through to that emotional final scene in New York. To see Indy in such a tough place is hard, but if you were listening back in ’81 a 37 year-old Indy told us “It’s not the years, honey. It’s the mileage,” and 33 years later (in Indy’s world, 42 years for us) that’s still the truth. People get older – even Indiana Jones – but the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles over 30 years ago showed us a 90-something Indy in New York, surrounded by family and telling stories of the people he’d met during his travels. This day was always coming; perhaps it’s harder to see it with Harrison Ford as the older adventurer juxtaposed against his younger self in our memory and in the opening of the film. He’s now not much younger than his father Henry was when he passed in 1951; in reality Harrison is 20 years older than Sean Connery was when he played Henry Jones Sr..
It’s a world in which Indy has outlived his usefulness. Students who once gazed at him in adoration now fall asleep as he wearily teaches history, excited only by the heroes of the space race who’s technical advancements were largely designed by the very Nazi’s Indy’s been punching all these years. The college no longer needs him, the grief of his sons passing has broken his marriage and the many friends he once counted on are all but gone. Dial of Destiny, as much as anything else, is about Indy getting his mojo back so he can tackle the next phase of his life, and do it with Marion by his side.
That he can still travel the globe on the hunt for treasures is a gift we could never have hoped for in 2023, and to be accompanied by one of the most dynamic John Williams scores in years (clearly having an absolute ball and not leaning heavily on the classic themes but peppering them in judiciously, giving us another engaging entry in the Indy musical songbook) is something to be truly thankful for.
Ford, Williams, Spielberg, Lucas, Kennedy, Marshall, ILM, Skywalker Sound, Lucasfilm, Paramount….all the ingredients needed for a final, whip-cracking Indiana Jones adventure. Ignore the hate, believe the hype. This is a film you need to see on the big screen.
Paul McQue
Hold onto your potatoes, because my review is deep and perhaps too personal, but after watching the latest instalment I decided to write this because, quite frankly, it is what it is. I’m not going to deep dive the plot but I am going to deep dive what this movie means to me.
Without being hyperbolic, Doctor Jones may have saved my life.
For those that don’t know me IRL, I worked offshore pre-pandemic. For the best part of 20 years I was ‘month on-month off’ and pretty much the only thing I liked about the job was the time I spent not offshore. It allowed me to travel to some amazing places like Kauai where Raiders was filmed. In 2014 I booked one of the many ATV tours available on the island because that tour stopped at the filming location where Indy swung out into the river escaping the poisoned blow darts. I also photographed the fade in from Paramount mountain while I was there.
It also allowed me to try new interests & hobbies like becoming an Extra/Supporting Artist on film/TV sets. I managed to live the dream of being in a Star Wars movie, which was Rogue One. When the pandemic hit I was suddenly, without any warning, no longer required offshore and my life changed with one email. My position had been filled by a relative of the boss. Work mates reached out and told me not to worry, the new kid on the block wouldn’t last and that I’d be back soon. Spoiler alert; he did. I wouldn’t.
This is when anxiety and depression crept up on me and began to kick my arse. Days lying awake because my brain wouldn’t allow me to sleep followed by days of sleep due to physical and mental exhaustion. That went on for about 12 months. During one of the spells where I was awake for days and the anxiety was so physically painful in my chest I thought I my heart was ready to quit, and I was ready for the pain to end.
Then one day a video was recommended on YouTube. “Indiana Jones 5 filming in Glasgow”. WTF?!? Indiana Jones? Glasgow? Cannae be. I hit play so fast and watched in awe. A man was riding a horse, being chased by a car, through a crowded street with cheerleaders and lined with draped USA flags. Holy s***. A new Indy film really was being filmed 30 minutes away from me. I watched it again. That’s when I noticed people I recognised. Hair & make up crew and one of the costume women I’d worked with on Outlander, The Crown and most recently Operation Mincemeat. Then it dawned on me. With it being just down the road I had probably been asked if I was available to be one of the extras/supporting artists. Because I was depressed I had given up reading emails. I charged my phone for the first time in months and scrolled the thousands of emails. Yup, found it. Was I available for a Disney production filming in Glasgow? I could have been in an Indiana f****** Jones movie. I had missed my chance, but it lit a fire and feeling I had forgotten. I needed help. I reached out and within a 2 weeks I had a new job and new hope.
I continued to stay reclusive for several more months by staying offline. Until Celebration London. Doctor Jones turned my life around and Celebration got me back into sharing the Star Wars fandom I love with my fellow Fantha Trackers. (I’ll take this opportunity to write a special thanks for understanding and having me back, Mark, Brian, Matt, and everyone else that contributes here at Fantha Tracks).
Yeah yeah, so what about my Dial of Destiny review? Well, sometimes a movie means more than a dimly lit room with popcorn.
Like Doctor Jones, I have regrets. Like Doctor Jones, I wish I could turn back the clock. Like Doctor Jones, I have to live in the present and try to make each day an adventure.
Greig Robertson
This was just what the doctor ordered! From the very start of Dial of Destiny, I was hooked and so invested in another adventure from Dr Jones, but sad this will be the last. I was concerned how the de-aging would look in the film and with such a long segment, but ILM did an outstanding job and the technology just keeps getting better. The opening to the film was incredible and I really want to get back to the cinema at least one more time to watch this again, the perfect popcorn movie!
Phoebe Waller-Bridge was a great addition to the story, as was Toby Jones – such a versatile actor. I loved having Salah back, having missed him in Crystal Skull. I watched the film with my eldest son, who is quite the fan of history, especially around World War One and Two and he had some excellent takes on the story and ranks the film as his second favourite out of the 5, just behind Last Crusade.
I would love to see more from Indy on the big or small screen, but if this was the last adventure, Indy was given a great farewell!
Ross Hollebon
The glowing grin of Indiana Jones accompanied by the grasping soundtrack of John Williams is all it really takes. Those feel-good moments as the fedora hugs Harrison’s head tighter than the sorting hat on an especially tricky adolescent wizard is the reason to see this film.
Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny is The Goonies for grown-ups in all the best ways as the audience experiences serious moments of thrill and danger but in a mystical place where magic and time travel happen.
This film is unlikely to win any awards based on the screenplay or acting, but it wins points of the heart, especially for an older audience able to see a childhood hero race through adventures, fight the Nazis, and gracefully stick a heart-felt redemptive ending with Jones and Marion. In the end, they are together, and things are right.
The nostalgia factor was big but my favorite part of the film was the role of Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It gave me hope that she could even pick up the adventurous archaeologist mantle at some point—especially after her upcoming work on a new Tomb Raider series. She was sharp and sassy, maybe unintentionally sexy. A presence on the screen with confidence and swagger that can make someone cheer for her even when she’s being nefarious.
Dr. Voller, played by Mads Mikkelsen, was the perfect villain for our times and for Indy’s film farewell, and we were treated to Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) and Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) once again for good measure.
The film took us back in time as an audience in modern times as it relocated us to Syracuse and the tie-in to Archimedes and the power of the dial. It was a journey worth taking and an appropriate farewell to one of the great characters in film history.
Mark Newbold and Mark Mulcaster discuss Dial of Destiny on Making Tracks Reaction Chat: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Sean Patrick Flanery, George Hall, Ronny Coutteure (Actors)
- Carl Schultz (Director)
