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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’ Review: Turning Back the Clock

The gruff appeal of Harrison Ford, both de-aged and properly weathered, is the main draw in this generally silly entry in the long-running franchise.

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By Manohla Dargis

What makes Indy run? For years, the obvious answer was Steven Spielberg, who, starting in 1981 with “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” guided Harrison Ford’s hunky archaeologist, Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr., in and out of gnarly escapades and ripped shirts in four box-office behemoths. By the time Spielberg directed Ford in their last outing, “ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ” (2008), Indy was in his late 50s and fans were speculating that the character was immortal, even if the franchise itself had begun running on fumes.

As a longtime big Hollywood star and hitmaker, Ford had already achieved an immortality of a kind. Indy-ologists, though, were more focused on the eternal life that Indy might have been granted by the Holy Grail when he takes a healthy swig from it in his third outing, “The Last Crusade” (1989). It’s pretty clear from his newest venture, the overstuffed if not entirely charmless “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” that while Indy may not in fact be immortal, the brain trust overseeing this installment wishes he were. They haven’t simply brought the character back for another go, they have also given him a digital face-lift.

The face-lift is as weird and distracting as this kind of digital plastic surgery tends to be, though your mileage will vary as will your philosophical objections to the idea that Ford needed to be de-aged to draw an audience, even for a 42-year-old franchise that’s now older than most North American moviegoers. The results don’t have the spooky emptiness of uncanny-valley faces. That said, the altered Indy is cognitively dissonant; I kept wondering what they’d done to — or perhaps with — Ford. It turns out that when he wasn’t getting body doubled, he was on set hitting his marks before his face was sent out to be digitally refreshed.

The guy you’re familiar with eventually appears — with wrinkles and gray hair, though without a shirt or pants, huzzah — but first you need to get past the prolonged opener, which plays like a franchise highlight reel. These nods to the past are unsurprising for a series steeped in nostalgia. “Raiders” was created by Spielberg’s pal, George Lucas, who saw it as a homage to the serials that he’d loved as a kid. Lucas envisioned a hero along the lines of Humphrey Bogart in “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” but with morals (more or less), while Spielberg was interested in making a Bond-style film without the hardware and gimmicks.

As soon as the younger Indy appears in “Dial of Destiny,” it’s clear that the nostalgic love for old Hollywood that defined and shaped the original film has been supplanted by an equally powerful nostalgia for the series itself. That helps explain why this movie finds Indy once again battling Nazis, who make conveniently disposable villains for a movie banking on international sales. After directing “Schindler’s List” (1993), Spielberg expressed reluctance to make Nazis “Saturday-matinee villains,” as he once put it . The team here, by contrast, knows no such hesitation, even if evoking Spielberg’s films inevitably raises comparisons that do no one any favors, particularly the franchise’s new director, James Mangold.

The movie opens in 1944 with Indy — wearing an enemy uniform as he did in “Raiders” — being held captive, a sack coyly obscuring his head while Nazi hordes scurry about. Once the sack comes off — ta-da! — the plot thickens with a mysterious antique (à la “Raiders”), nods to the Führer, the introduction of an Indy colleague (Toby Jones) and dastardly doings from a fanatic (Mads Mikkelsen, whose face has been similarly ironed out). There’s an explosion, a sprint to freedom, a zipping car, a zooming motorcycle (as in “The Last Crusade”) and a dash atop a moving train (ditto), a busy pileup that Mangold finesses with spatial coherency.

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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.

by Alissa Wilkinson

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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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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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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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny First Reviews: 'Safe,' 'Wacky,' 'Empty,' Critics Say

"harrison ford's performance carries the movie" and more opinions from cannes film festival critics about the latest indiana jones adventure, in which ford revisits his role as the titular hero one last time..

TAGGED AS: Film , Lucasfilm , movie , Walt Disney Pictures

Exactly 15 years after the Cannes premiere of the previous installment, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny   just made its debut at the same film festival, and the first reviews have made their way online. This fifth movie in the franchise sees Harrison Ford return as the titular adventuring archaeologist, with many of his scenes set in the past using de-aging special effects.

Also along for the ride are Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy’s goddaughter and Antonio Banderas as a new ally, while John Rhys-Davies returns as Sallah, last seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . James Mangold directs Dial of Destiny , taking over from Steven Spielberg, who helmed the first four Indiana Jones movies.

Here’s what critics are saying about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny .

(Photo by Lucasfilm)

Click image to open full poster in a new tab.

Does it live up to expectations?

“It’s fun; it’s wacky; it works.” – Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“We all sat down to this movie hoping for a resurgence comparable to what JJ Abrams did with The Force Awakens, and if that didn’t exactly happen, it still gets up a storytelling gallop.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“James Mangold brings the character’s adventures to a satisfying close.” – James Mottram, South China Morning Post

“If this is the final Indiana Jones movie, as it most likely will be, it’s nice to see that they stuck the landing.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap

“Unfortunately, it ultimately feels like a counterfeit of priceless treasure: the shape and the gleam of it might be superficially convincing for a bit, but the shabbier craftsmanship gets all the more glaring the longer you look.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

“A belabored reminder that some relics are better left where and when they belong.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

“We have lived with worse.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

Where does it rank among the other Indiana Jones movies?

Ray Winstone, Shia LaBeouf, Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Photo by ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection)

“It’s an improvement on the execrable Crystal Skull .” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“This one has quite a bit of zip and fun and narrative ingenuity with all its MacGuffiny silliness that the last one really didn’t.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“ Dial of Destiny feels like an old-school Indy romp, more so than 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , as it tries to capture the rollicking spirit of the originals.” – James Mottram, South China Morning Post

“ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny may not be the finest film of the franchise, but it’s far from the worst.” – Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture

“Nobody with a brain in their heads will compare Dial of Destiny favorably to the first three films.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

“Four were enough.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

What are some other comparable movies?

National Treasure (2004) stars Diane Kruger, Nicolas Cage, and Justin Bartha (Photo by Touchstone/courtesy Everett Collection)

“There are big National Treasure vibes…take from that what you will.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“It could give late-vintage Fast & Furious a very, very speedy run for its money when it comes to spectacular (and spectacularly ludicrous) SFX stunts.” – Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily

How is Harrison Ford’s return as Indiana Jones?

“Ford is beyond triumphant…his performance shines in the sense that the audience can feel the deeply emotional send-off he personally is giving his character in every quip, every punch, and every heartfelt adage that comes off his lips.” – Lex Briscuso, Slashfilm

“At 80 years old, Ford himself really gives it his all, even though the role initially requires him to look like he’d rather be anywhere else.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

“Now 80 years young, but carrying it off with humor and style and still nailing that reluctant crooked smile.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“He never loses either his scowl or his doggedness. He plays even the flimsiest scenes with conviction and dry humour. His performance carries the movie. Age cannot wither him in the slightest.” – Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

“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.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

What about Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s new character?

“She is gratifyingly badass.” – Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“Like Karen Allen’s Marion in the first film, a Howards Hawksian woman.” – John Nugent, Empire Magazine

“Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a tremendous co-star turn as Indy’s roguish goddaughter.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“Waller-Bridge has clearly been given the instruction to ‘just do Fleabag ’ but she’s operating without Fleabag -level material here, and her frequent attempts to juice up the clumsy gags with her trademark winking delivery tend to fall flat.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

“While Phoebe Waller-Bridge, of Fleabag fame, makes her saucy, spiky, and duplicitous in a cheeky way (she’s like the young Maggie Smith with a boatload of attitude), we never feel in our guts that Helena is a chip off the old Indy block.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

How are the movie’s villains?

Mads Mikkelsen (left) and Thomas Kretschmann (far right) in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)

“As Jürgen Voller, Mads Mikkelsen is enjoyably hissable.” – John Nugent, Empire Magazine

“Mikkelsen, flanked by some heavies including Boyd Holbrook, is an excellent adversary.” – James Mottram, South China Morning Post

“He’s an infuriating villain, one that feels both menacing and overwhelming in his brutish intelligence — the kind of adversary it seems impossible to defeat, and thus the perfect final match for the one and only Indiana Jones.” – Lex Briscuso, Slashfilm

“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.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“Mads Mikkelsen, with his lizard scowl and his shiny metallic hair, doesn’t play Voller as a realistic character. He’s a leering megalomaniac out of central casting.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Unfortunately, what we get is the pantomimic, hubristic, goose-stepping version of the Nazis.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Are the action scenes worth the price of admission?

“The action is often very inventively staged. James Mangold, who has taken over directing duties from Steven Spielberg, sets a breakneck tempo.” – Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

“A bit involving a very heavy bomb is worthy of any movie this franchise has ever produced.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

“There are plenty of jolly chases, including a tuk-tuk vs classic Jag event in the narrow streets of Tangier.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd.)

“The action is generic and clunkily staged – for all the local detail in every individual shot of the heavily advertised tuk-tuk chase, it might as well be taking place on an endless conveyor belt.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

“Endless action sequences can become so flabbily overblown they lose any punch, but [Mangold] is never anything but brisk.” – Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“Like virtually all action sequences these days, this one suffers from the fact that visual effects can do pretty much anything, which tends to strip away any sense of surprise, novelty or even high stakes, no matter how frantic and extravagant things get.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap

“[They] utilize too much (far too much) of the era’s computer-generated imagery.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

Does it otherwise look good?

Boyd Holbrook in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)

“The recreations of the 1960s vistas are gorgeous.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

“There’s no shot here, nor twist of choreography, that makes you marvel at the filmmaking mind that conceived it.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

“The climax of the film…looks washed out and sallow.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Is the script satisfying?

Harrison Ford, Mads Mikkelsen, and Toby Jones in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)

“The plot is hokum of the cheesiest hue, but the screenwriters know that hokum is the mulch in which this franchise germinates.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

“The screenplay does provide a few big laughs.” – Jo-Ann Titmarsh, London Evening Standard

“The screenplay sometimes seems like a mish-mash of elements from the older movies thrown together in scattergun fashion.” – Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

“The globe-trotting can occasionally feel a bit MacGuffin-by-numbers: we must find the thing, which leads us to the map, which will help find the other thing.” – John Nugent, Empire Magazine

“One can feel the four credited screenwriters grasping at inspiration and coming up short.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

“Considering that the screenplay is credited to four writers, couldn’t they at least have thought of something cool for Indy to do with his whip?” – Nicholas Barber, BBC.com

Does it lean too much on nostalgia?

Harrison Ford de-aged in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

“It contains lots of satisfying fan service, from old friends popping up, to familiar situations unfolding in different ways.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap

“Just hearing John Williams’ score, yet another variant on the heroics and theatrics of the original, makes anyone of a certain age feel that everything is momentarily right with the world.” – Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“This is an exercise in affectionate nostalgia.” – Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

“At least this film’s easy nostalgia has some meta-textual purpose behind it.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

“The film just about gets a passing grade for not going too heavy on the nostalgia-porn fan service.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Is Steven Spielberg missed?

“The missing component is Steven Spielberg, for as talented as a director James Mangold is, he cannot measure up to the cinematic brilliance that Spielberg imbues into each of his projects.” – Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture

“James Mangold, tasked with living up to a fearsome legacy, is competent with an action set piece, but displays little of Spielberg’s nimble, inventive physics, or of Spielberg’s famous gift for conjuring awe.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

“It’s content to tick off everything you’ve seen in other Indiana Jones films already, but with little of Spielberg’s sparkle.” – Nicholas Barber, BBC.com

“The biggest (or at least most evident) difference between Spielberg and Mangold is that one of them would never have allowed himself to make anything this stale, and one of them probably wasn’t given any other choice.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Are there any other major issues?

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)

“As the film goes on, the focus on uninteresting puzzles becomes a bit tedious.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

“Tonally, the film wavers. It pulls in too many different directions at once.” – Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

“One problem is the title relic, a curio of Ancient Greek lore rumored to give its possessor the power of time travel… Dial of Destiny ’s digression from holiness, though, is less than inspiring.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review: Disney whips up a lively (final?) adventure

If Indiana Jones does hang up his hat, the fifth film is a surprisingly emotional, diverting, and satisfying conclusion.

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine , The Hollywood Reporter , and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight , is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

It's not the years, it's the mileage… and in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, out June 30, the titular hero racks up plenty of thrilling miles in what is supposedly his farewell to the big screen.

We open on a younger Indy (a de-aged Harrison Ford in the best use of the often questionable technology to date) running for his life amidst the death throes of the Third Reich. Infiltrating a Nazi treasure trove, he and fellow academic/archaeologist Basil Shaw ( Toby Jones ) attempt to recover priceless historical artifacts from the retreating Nazis. On board a train, Indy encounters Jürgen Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ), a Nazi mathematician intent on locating the Dial of Destiny, more formally known as Archimedes' antikythera, a cosmological device with potentially world-altering powers.

Flash forward to 1969 and the celebration of the moon landing in New York City. Indiana Jones is living alone. He mourns his son Mutt, who died in combat in the Vietnam War (an expedient end to the problematic specter of what to do about Shia LaBeouf 's existence within the franchise); he's separated from Marion ( Karen Allen ); and he's now preparing to retire from Hunter College where he's been a professor for over a decade.

His lonely life is interrupted by the arrival of Helena Shaw ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), his goddaughter, who is on the hunt for the antikythera with questionable motives. Helena's appearance and bid for the dial thrusts Indy into a new adventure where he must once again face off against Voller, who now goes by the name of Professor Schmitt, and stop his quest to return the Nazi regime to power.

Ford returns as Indy, but he's not merely a guy with a cool hat and a bullwhip with a few more lines on his face. Just as James Mangold did for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in Logan , he presents an Indiana Jones weathered by life — a man who has spent decades chasing down ancient artifacts and fighting Nazis.

Indiana Jones has always been a world-weary guy, cynical and full of wise cracks in the face of danger, but here, he feels like he's finally earned it. Ford's soulful, craggy face is the cipher for the lifetime of adventure, physical pain, and loss that Indy has endured. There's humor in that, as when Indy lists off some of the more ridiculous things he has done while scaling a wall with Helena. But there's sadness too, in the friends he's lost and the tragedy he has faced.

Ford has always lent Indy a humanity and depth that is too often ignored in favor of celebrating his capacity for dry one-liners and his rugged good looks (both well-deserving of the praise they've received). Here, he gets to unleash the emotional side of Indy, his reverence for history and love for those he holds dear visibly weighing him down. In 1969, as humanity looks to the future, Indiana Jones, a man dedicated to protecting the past, is a man out of place in his own time. Ford's curmudgeonly restraint barely conceals the open wounds of his losses.

Dial of Destiny is often best in its moments of quiet resonance, but it doesn't leave enough breathing room to maximize the impact of Ford's performance. Instead, the film volleys from one action sequence to the next, whether it be a dangerous dive into deep ocean waters, a horse race through New York City streets and subways(!), or a perilous car chase through Tangiers. Mangold crafts these scenes with precision, building them to a fever pitch and then throttling the accelerator when it seems the scene has peaked. This makes the pacing wonky, and more scenes of introspective Indy would have been welcome in exchange for shaving a few minutes off the nonstop danger. But that doesn't make the sequences any less exciting or nerve-wracking, generating an old-school adventure energy reminiscent of the original trilogy.

Unlike the monkey swinging or the infamous nuclear explosion refrigerator nonsense of Crystal Skull, the action here also feels utterly believable. The physical toll it takes on an older Indy is palpable, the stakes higher because of the acknowledgement of his mortality. At his best, Indiana Jones has always been a hero that feels utterly human. Maybe a little smarter than the rest of us, but no less earthbound. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, when he takes a punch to the jaw, we feel it — and Dial remembers that Indy's greatest asset is his conspicuous humanity in the face of peril.

Waller-Bridge, who leaped from Fleabag 's critical acclaim to writing for James Bond and starring in an Indiana Jones flick, is a saucy, slippery foil to Ford. Where Marion was feisty and reckless, and Dr. Henry Jones ( Sean Connery) was persnickety and gruff, Helena is whimsical and brash. Her loyalties shift faster than sand in an hourglass, keeping Indiana Jones, and by extension, the audience, on their toes. Waller-Bridge has a winking sense of humor as a performer that imbues her natural ability to make the audience believe they're her confidantes while remaining delightfully unpredictable.

Mikkelsen, a prince of silver-tongued, elegant villainy, is under-used. Jürgen Voller lacks distinction as a villain, possessing neither the naked ambition of Belloq (Paul Freeman) from Raiders or the self-serving sycophancy of Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) in Last Crusade. While his goons are outright unhinged, Voller is chilled cardboard, a Nazi who lacks any personality besides his commitment to the ideals of Nazism. His villainy lacks teeth, but perhaps that's because the notion of bringing fascism back feels like a day-to-day occurrence in our world. He's not half so frightening as anything on the nightly news.

Dial of Destiny is 85 percent of a delightful return to form for the franchise and 15 percent absolutely ludicrous climax. We won't spoil the reveal, but suffice it to say it leans too heavily into a plot point that Marvel and DC have exhausted in recent years — and the temporal, geographical place it decides to take its climactic sequence is both outlandish and entirely too on-the-nose.

It's not that Indiana Jones hasn't always built its stories around fantastical ancient artifacts. (See: the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones, the Holy Grail, and, sigh, the Crystal Skull.) The antikythera is as good a McGuffin as any other (and it is based on a real scientific device from ancient Greece). But while the mystical, inexplicable power of objects like the Ark and the Grail have the capacity to shock and awe, the antikythera is merely a tool for a tired trope with a payoff that verges on tritely absurd.

One can understand the allegorical impulse of the storytelling device. This older, probably not wiser version of Indiana Jones is one who feels as much a relic as the artifacts he's dedicated his life to studying and preserving. It's hard to resist literalizing the metaphor in a story where the hero is made to feel like time has passed him by. But it doesn't land the way the filmmakers intended, instead undercutting Indy's reckoning with history and his place in it.

It's a testament to Ford's performance and the movie's overall effectiveness that this disappointing climax doesn't outweigh how much fun it all is. Much like the entries of the original trilogy, at its heart, Dial is a rip-roaring adventure that borrows more from the cinematic language of golden age swashbucklers than modern blockbusters.

In a sense, Indiana Jones has always been about nostalgia. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas set out to make movies that evoked the 1940s serials they loved growing up. That operates on two levels in Dial of Destiny, both in the film's historical setting and our own yen for the way the original movies made us feel.

Dial uses nostalgia as an appetizer, not a main course, and it's absolutely delicious for it. Nothing feels pandering, but rather each nod to the past is welcome in its measured distribution, as cozy and familiar as a favorite sweater or reconnecting with an old friend. Speaking of, Sallah ( John Rhys-Davis ) is back, but mainly as a vestige of the life Indy feels he's lost. Sallah too yearns for their shared past.

There are nods to our hero's well cataloged hatred of snakes, a cheeky reversal of the Raiders bringing a knife (or whip) to a gunfight, plenty of traveling by map, and a tear-jerking return to kissing where it doesn't hurt, all set to the core memory sounds of John Williams ' inimitable score (including a new theme for Helena!).

Much has been made of the fact that Dial will be Ford's last outing in the franchise. 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.

If it is indeed the last we'll see of Ford's Indiana Jones, it's a far more satisfying goodbye than where we last left him. But Dial makes one thing clear: whatever happens next, this franchise still has fresh skullduggery left to explore. Indiana Jones does not (and will never) belong in a museum. He's far too vital for that; his mileage, as a character and a pop culture icon, is infinite. Grade : B+

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Related content:

• Indiana Jones stars Harrison Ford, Ke Huy Quan reunite at Dial of Destiny premiere: 'You're all grown up!'
• Harrison Ford defends de-aging in Indiana Jones 5 at Cannes: 'That's what I looked like 35 years ago'
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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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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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‘mcveigh’ review: alfie allen impresses in this chilling account of the radicalization of the oklahoma bomber – tribeca festival, ‘indiana jones and the dial of destiny’ review: indy’s final adventure packed with action and nostalgia – cannes film festival.

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Dial of Destiny is the first installment in the swashbuckling archaeology franchise since Indiana Jones ventured to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008 and, given Indy’s and Harrison Ford ’s ages, surely the last. Crystal Skull was generally regarded as an attempt to drive the old-school comic-book aesthetic of the Indiana Jones concept into the new world of action spectaculars. The lackluster result got the thumbs-down from critics and a lot of fans. It lacked that appealing aroma of cheap seats at the Saturday matinee.

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The latest Indiana Jones is also anything but artisanal: it could give late-vintage Fast and Furious a very, very speedy run for its money when it comes to spectacular (and spectacularly ludicrous) SFX stunts. It serves them up, however, in the same gleeful spirit that Steven Spielberg brought to Raiders of the Lost Ark way back in 1981, when CGI was just a pup, with a satisfying sprinkling of call-backs to moments in the earlier films. Where new tech really comes into its own, however, is undoing the weathering of the years on Ford’s handsomely old face.

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The driving plot is the usual: a search for a priceless antiquity supposed to have magical powers that, if real, would be dangerous in the wrong hands. The object in question is the Antikythera, a clock-like pile of dials and levers that was supposedly invented and made by the genius second-century Greek mathematician Archimedes – mostly famous these days for jumping out of the bath, having grasped the principle of displacement – to calculate and calibrate astronomical phenomena. For the purposes of this story, it is also suspected of having the godlike power to find and skip those so-called fissures, making it possible for the holder to travel through time.

Since antiquity, however, the Antikythera has been divided in two. One half is the object of contention between Voller and Indy, who tussle for it in 1939, when the Führer wants to get hold of it to exploit its potential to do – well, this is unclear, but bad things. This half is apparently lost forever during the fight in the train, but no: Indy’s late colleague and friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones, gone full mad-professor) managed to hang on to it. The other half is buried with Archimedes. Maybe. Somewhere. Shoot forward to 1969: Voller wants to find both halves and use his math knowhow to zap back to the war and fix things so the Nazis win. Indy, of course, wants to see it in a museum.

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There is also a new kid on the block with a different agenda: Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena, Shaw’s daughter and Indy’s goddaughter, known in her childhood as Wombat. Helena/Wombat has persuaded herself that whatever the charms of archaeology, money is better. She is in the business of selling relics. It is not a nice business. She is not very nice all round, but the women in Indy’s life have always matched his curmudgeonly surliness with abrasiveness of some kind. Helena is abrasively witty. She can also deliver a firm punch, drive maniacally and get into moving planes by hanging off a wheel and hauling herself into the hold. In short, she is gratifyingly badass; Ford responds by doubling down on his customary gruff competence.

However much action swirls on the surface of this kind of film, its foundations are built of reassuring nostalgia. Just hearing John Williams’ score, yet another variant on the heroics and theatrics of the original, makes anyone of a certain age feel that everything is momentarily right with the world. Incoming director James Mangold gets plenty done before the titles, just as Spielberg always did, starting as he means to go on: endless action sequences can become so flabbily overblown they lose any punch, but he is never anything but brisk. One minute we’re with Indy underwater, looking for directions written in an Alexandrine code; next we’re at a Passion week procession in a Sicilian village: it moves along in the frame-by-comic book frame way that Raiders did, but with more international destinations.

Title: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Section: Out of Competition Distributor: Disney Director: James Mangold Screenwriters: Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp and James Mangold Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, Mads Mikkelsen Running time: 2 hr 22 min U.S. release date: June 30, 2023

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• DVD & Streaming

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• June 30, 2023
• Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones; Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena; Ethann Bergua-Isidore as Teddy; Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Voller; Karen Allen as Marion; Boyd Holbrook as Klaber; Antonio Banderas as Renaldo; John Rhys-Davies as Sallah; Toby Jones as Basil Shaw; Olivier Richters as Hauke; Shaunette Renée Wilson as Mason

Home Release Date

• August 29, 2023
• James Mangold

Distributor

• Walt Disny Studios Motion Pictures

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.

“You’re about to become a permanent addition to this archeological find,” Belloq says. “Who knows? In a thousand years, even you may be worth something.”

It’s 1969, and luckily, Indiana Jones wasn’t buried alive after all. He is, however, getting—and feeling—older by the day. Only he doesn’t feel like he’s gaining value. He feels as though he’s losing it.

Forget the days when underclassmen would write “love you” on their eyelids and blink slowly in the handsome Dr. Jones’ direction. When his students shut their eyes these days, it’s to take a quick nap. Forget the years when he came back to a home filled with love and family: His only son, Mutt, died in Vietnam. His relationship with wife, Marion, was wrecked by the grief, and she left him.

The man who survived the blood of Kali? Who braved the most devious of medieval traps? Who ran pell-mell from a gigantic boulder and nonchalantly brushed tarantulas from his leather coat? That man is 30 years gone. A big adventure these days might be more fairly called Indiana Jones and the Afternoon Nap .

Or so it would seem.

But then, on the day of his retirement, a familiar figure walks through his classroom door: Helena Shaw, Indy’s goddaughter. She’s after the Antikythera, an ancient Greek construct that was her father’s obsession. What does it do? No one really knows. The technology it represents shouldn’t, technically, exist for another thousand years. But Helena’s dad—in his crazed, waning days—thought that it might be able to manipulate time . 

Whatever it does, its Greek creator (the famed Archimedes) thought it was so powerful that he broke the thing in half.

Indy has one part of the Antikythera: Helena wants his help in finding the rest. Or so she says.

But she’s not the only one after the fabled mechanism: Dr. Voller, once-and-future Nazi, has his eyes on the prize, too. And you can guarantee that the bespectacled baddie has his own plans for it.

Nazis. We hate those guys.

Positive Elements

We can’t quibble with stopping Nazis. And, as we all know, Indiana Jones (for all his faults and occasionally questionable choices) has stopped more than his fair share. The stakes are high this time around, because even though Germany lost the war, Dr. Voller is scheming to make everything … Reich.

Helena’s not the do-gooder that Indy is. She’s on this particular quest for (as Indiana Jones himself once said) fortune and glory. Or so she says, at least. Indy sees something more in her, though: A desire to connect with her late father. She develops a real attachment to her godfather, too.

Helena also serves as a guardian/friend/mentor to a teen named Teddy. Now, their relationship is hardly perfect, given that it’s based on stealing and cheating and all sorts of bad behavior. But Helena has managed to keep Teddy relatively safe and off the streets, and she might be the closest thing to a mother/friend that Teddy’s ever had. And when things get particularly dangerous, we see the lengths that they’ll all go to save one another.

We also see some nice messages about friendship, marriage and reconciliation.

Spiritual Elements

When the movie opens in flashback (during the final days of World War II) we see that Indiana and his friend, Basil Shaw, are after another biblical relic. The Nazis have in their possession the Lance of Longinus—the spearhead that pierced Jesus’ side during His crucifixion—and Indy and Basil are attempting to liberate it.

The spear is revealed to be fake (though we see it again in a later scene).

The Antikythera, meanwhile, is very much real and (again in flashback) very much in Nazi hands. We hear that if the ancient dial finds its way into Hitler’s hands, “He will be God.”

We hear that Archimedes was a “mathematician, not a magician.” Indy says that he doesn’t believe in magic, but he does allude to his many experiences that he can’t explain. He’s come to the conclusion that “It’s not so much what you believe; it’s how hard you believe it.”

A picture of Christ is seen hanging on a wall. A Bible reference (Philippians 22) is scrawled on a subway wall. A Catholic statue makes its way through a Sicilian street. Indy alludes to earlier adventures, including drinking the blood of Kali. (The name refers to the Hindu goddess of death, and the blood itself apparently held magical powers.)

Sexual Content

Helena wears a top that reveals a bit of midriff. She was also engaged to a violently lovelorn mafia don. Indy walks around shirtless and in his skivvies. A couple shares a kiss or two.

Violent Content

The violence in Dial of Destiny isn’t as gross as we’ve seen in previous Indiana Jones adventures: No melting faces, no monkey brains, no one gets chopped up by airplane propellers. But the body count is quite high.

We can “thank” the opening flashback for a great many fatalities. Cars and motorcycles crash and fly around, killing and sometimes throwing free their occupants. On a train, a huge machine gun goes haywire (thanks to the sudden demise of its operator) and shoots dozens of people (most of whom fall off the train). Several folks are killed via handgun, too. A guy is killed a bit grotesquely while on the top of said train.

Several people—many of them entirely innocent—are flat-out murdered in the film. One or two are shot in the back as they try to run. One man is handcuffed to something underwater and presumably drowns. Another person nearly drowns, as well. Bullet lead flies frequently, often finding fleshy termination. (Not everyone dies from these gunshot wounds, but many do.)

People are killed via arrows and (more grotesquely) gigantic harpoons. Cars crash. Planes crash. Trains crash. Bridges collapse. Boats are dynamited. We see several corpses. Punches upon punches are thrown. People are threatened. Various vehicles careen in disturbingly unsafe ways. Indy says that he’s been shot nine times. We hear that Indy’s son died in the war.

Characters must brave eels (which can, and do, issue a painful bite), tarantulas and giant centipedes.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear several misuses each of “d–n” and “h—.” Language such as “crap” and “p-ss” is also used. God’s name is misused three times, once with the word “d–n,” and Jesus’ name is abused once. A racial slur is used.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Indiana’s first scene in 1969 finds him in his apartment, empty bottles strewn about. After Indiana retires, Helena finds him in a nearby bar, drinking. She joins him, and she tries to encourage him to join her quest over glasses of whiskey. He spikes his coffee with a bit of liquor from a flask. The consumption of liquor is fairly common throughout.

Characters—especially Nazis—also smoke. Voller often puffs on cigarettes, while another character chomps on a cigar.

Other Negative Elements

Teddy is a skilled thief. Helena tells Indy that they actually met when Teddy tried to steal her purse. He swipes several possessions during the film, including some money from a couple of Italian kids who made fun of his clothes. While he’s often forced to give the stuff he steals back, he uses that money to buy ice cream.

Helena lies frequently and steals the Antikythera. (She calls it “capitalism.”) She also calls out Indy for his questionable archaeology—saying he’s more a tomb robber than noble scholar. We hear that Indy broke a promise to a friend.

We learn that the American government has shielded an ex-Nazi from prosecution and put him on the payroll, using his expertise to help win the Space Race. (It seems that they’re willing to let a great many things slide when it comes to the behavior of him and his ever-present attaches, but his CIA handler will only go so far for him.)

There are references to blackjack and gambling debts.

Indiana Jones’ adventures have always been, in a way, about time. A 3,000-year-old ark. A 2,000-year-old cup. Stones too ancient to guess. With each new exotic setting, Indy and his friends dive into the dirt of history, peeling away pages of time.

Paradoxically, time has always seemed on the verge of running out on Indy, too. The torch fades. The tank trundles to the edge of the cliff. Even though he’s after such timeless artifacts, Indy always needs to do something right now , before the boulder catches up to him.

On one hand, Indy deals in eons. In the other, seconds.

It seems altogether fitting that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny deals so explicitly with time and the desire to turn it back. Here, we can feel the weight of time not just on Indiana Jones’ adventure, but on Indy himself.

Turns out, he didn’t need to worry about the careening boulder. The thing that threatens to crush Indiana Jones is the sands dropping through the hourglass, one grain at a time.

And yet he still has something to say. And do.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is no Raiders of the Lost Ark . Like Indy himself, the franchise is well past its prime. But it is a reasonably entertaining adventure story that is far better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (the franchise’s midlife crisis, perhaps?) and comes with, if not a treasure, at least a keepsake. A bittersweet poignancy at its core. And while it loses its way sometimes in its own convoluted story, it still boasts heart.

Of course, any archeological dig turns up plenty of unwanted detritus, and Dial of Destiny is no different. You’ll turn up shovelfuls of muck: foul language, irresponsible behavior, drinking, smoking and, of course, tons of violence. Nope, the Indiana Jones franchise didn’t turn all sweet and innocent while you weren’t looking.

But compared to some of the previous installments, the Dial of Destiny does dial the content back—just a touch. So maybe Dr. Jones did mellow in his old age.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Review: Harrison Ford Plays the Aging Indy in a Sequel That Serves Up Nostalgic Hokum Minus the Thrill

James Mangold's action epic is made in the style of Steven Spielberg, but the exhilaration is gone.

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“ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ” is a dutifully eager but ultimately rather joyless piece of nostalgic hokum. It’s the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, and though it has its quota of “relentless” action, it rarely tries to match (let alone top) the ingeniously staged kinetic bravura of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” How could it? “Raiders,” whatever one thinks of it as a movie (I always found it a trace impersonal in its ’40s-action-serial-on-steroids excitement), is arguably the most influential blockbuster of the last 45 years, even more so than “Star Wars.”

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In the prologue, Indy is racing to get hold of the device before Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a mad-dog Nazi scientist, can steal it for himself. Mangold does a winning homage to the playful rhythms of early-’80s Spielberg, as Indy disentangles his neck from a hanging noose and finds himself in a car-vs.-motorcycle chase, only to wind up, along with his British archaeologist associate Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), dueling with Voller on top of a speeding train.

Have you ever seen an action sequence set atop a speeding train? We’ve all seen 10,000 of them, and this one, while efficiently executed, is brought off with just enough CGI that you can see the digital seams. It’s worth noting how audacious the action sequences in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” were, a sensation expanded upon in the darker, spookier, unfairly maligned “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” But by the late ’80s, when Spielberg gave us “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” as A-okay as that movie was it was already (except for Sean Connery) a revamp on autopilot. And “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” (2008) was the rehash of the revamp, reducing Indy’s antics to tepid formula.

“The Dial of Destiny” at least tosses the series in a new direction, by being the first “Indiana Jones” movie built around the impressive fact of Harrison Ford’s age. He’s 80 now, and a vibrant 80, still handsome and lean, with a scruff of gray hair and a slower, more gravelly voice as well as a combative physicality that now feels more rote than compulsive. After Indy and Basil leap off that train into a river and retrieve the Antikythera (though the other half of it must still be found!), the film cuts to 1969, where Indy himself is now a relic: an old man living in a cruddy New York apartment, waking up to his hippie neighbors blasting “Magical Mystery Tour,” pouring a shot of whiskey into his instant coffee as he glances over his divorce papers.

Mangold sketches in the period well, so that it stands in for the present day ­— not literally, but as a signifier of the idea that Professor Henry “Indiana” Jones has been yanked into the modern world. He’s teaching at Hunter College, where he’s getting ready to retire and keeps that one-half of the Antikythera stashed in the archaeology stacks. Then his goddaughter, Helena Shaw ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), shows up (they haven’t seen each other for 18 years), announcing that she’s an archaeologist too and would like to team up with Indy to locate the other half of the Antikythera.

It turns out that Helena has mercenary motives. And while Phoebe Waller-Bridge, of “Fleabag” fame, makes her saucy, spiky, and duplicitous in a cheeky way (she’s like the young Maggie Smith with a boatload of attitude), we never feel in our guts that Helena is a chip off the old Indy block. So while it feels like the film is setting her up to become the “new Indy Jones,” I wouldn’t bet the farm on that happening.

Indy and Helena are going after the Grafikos, the missing other half of the Antikythera, a journey that will take them from New York to Tangier, where Helena tries to unload the piece they already have at an auction for stolen artifacts. Then it’s on to Greece and Sicily, to caves and ruins and giant wriggling caterpillars. Voller is right behind them, along with three assistants: one (Olivier Richters) gigantic, one (Mark Killeen) who will shoot anybody on sight, and one (Shaunette Renée Wilson) who styles herself like a Black Panther. A chase through a ticker-tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts, with Indy leaping onto a police horse and riding it into the subway, is grabby in its very absurdity, and a car chase through Tangier, with Indy driving a three-wheel taxi, has enough comic dash to evoke what we cherish about this series. I laughed out loud when Indy leaps into another 3-wheeler at the very moment the one he was driving gets smashed to smithereens.

But those early high points aren’t really followed through on. Mostly, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” works by translating Indy’s old daredevil kick-ass fervor into the pure will with which he’s now hunting for the artifact. As the film leaps international locations, the action starts to feel more conventional and less “Indiana Jones”-y. Did I mention that the reason the Antikythera is so valuable is that it can create fissures in time that will theoretically allow one to time travel? The film actually tests this out, with spectacularly preposterous results. But time travel, in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” is really an unconscious metaphor, since it’s the movie that wants to go back in time, completing our love affair with the defining action-movie-star role of Harrison Ford. In the abstract, at least, it accomplishes that, right down to the emotional diagram of a touching finale, but only by reminding you that even if you re-stage the action ethos of the past, recapturing the thrill is much harder.  

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition), May 18, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 142 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a LucasFilm Ltd. Production. Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Simon Emanuel. Executive producers: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas.
• Crew: Director: James Mangold. Screenplay: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp, James Mangold. Camera: Phedon Papamichael. Editors: Michael McCusker, Andrew Buckland, Dirk Westervelt. Music: John Williams.
• With: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters, Ethann Isidore, Mads Mikkelsen, Martin McDougall, Alaa Safi.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Review: An Anticlimactic Finale

By Jonathan Sim

Indiana Jones is back. The new action-adventure movie features an 80-year-old Harrison Ford donning the hat and whip for one last time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . This movie marks 42 years since he first played the character in Raiders of the Lost Ark . It follows our iconic hero on one more adventure as he teams with his goddaughter Helena Shaw ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ) to find a mysterious dial that can alter the course of history. This is Ford’s first time playing the character since the critically mixed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. Unfortunately, the new installment isn’t much better.

It brings me no pleasure to say that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a disappointing conclusion to Ford’s tenure as the legendary archaeologist. There are many moments in the film that are fun, especially one chase sequence through Tangier. However, the movie ultimately comes up short of recapturing the magic that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas created with the original trilogy in the 1980s. Those three films were the quintessential action-adventure, defining the genre with its blend of fights, humor, drama, and horror. Like most others in the genre that have come since, this movie feels like a knock-off of that.

The movie begins with a flashback to decades prior, where we see a young Indy not long after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The opening action sequence is excellent. It features a de-aged Indy, which is one of the better-looking uses of the technology. Although it’s noticeable, and there are times when the dialogue does not match up with the lip movement, it looks great. Getting to see a younger Indiana Jones ride a horse, fight people on trains, and crack his smile makes it a classic Indy adventure. The cinematography from Phedon Papamichael effectively recaptures the World War II feel of Spielberg’s work with Douglas Slocombe.

Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold , who has previously helmed a variety of films, such as Logan, Ford v. Ferrari, and Girl, Interrupted. With a filmography this diverse, he seems to be the perfect replacement for Spielberg, who stepped out of the director’s chair in 2020. He has a great sense for staging and editing action, as seen in the early train sequence, the Tangier chase, and a chase scene that sees Indy escaping the bad guys through a parade on a horse. However, despite looking much better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the movie still isn’t as visually stunning as that original trilogy. In a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark, every scene feels like the best possible version of that scene. With this movie, every scene feels like 75% of the best possible version.

Perhaps the weakest aspect of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the screenplay. This movie recycles a lot from the previous films, and not in a good way. Helena is the new Mutt Williams; she is a child figure for Indy, a sidekick who accompanies him on his mission, a part of the film’s inciting event, connected to someone from Indy’s past, just as likable and developed, and played by a relevant actor of the era (Waller-Bridge of Fleabag fame, Shia LaBeouf of Transformers fame). They serve the same purpose in both movies.

One of the film’s most emotional scenes is one where Indy reflects on what has happened to his family since the events of the previous film. It is a beautifully written scene, but the issue is that it is mostly a standalone moment. His tragic backstory is not something that consistently haunts him throughout, nor is it relevant to the relationship between Indy and Helena. There is a surprising lack of emotional investment in Indy’s godfather relationship with Helena. While their backstories are established, it’s not nearly interesting enough to give the audience a reason to care about their relationship.

Another character who gets introduced in this movie is a child named Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore). One does not simply bring another child character into a franchise that has already established one of cinema’s cutest children in Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While it would have been great to see Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan reprise his role, we get Teddy. Teddy’s backstory is exactly the same as Short Round’s; he attempted to pickpocket Helena, but when she caught him, they teamed up with each other. However, Teddy is a much less likable character than Short Round. While Short Round had a positive energy and saved Indy, Teddy doesn’t seem like he wants anything to do with this adventure for the whole movie.

Like most Hollywood movies, the film underutilizes Mads Mikk elsen as the villain, Jürgen Voller. Mikkelsen is an excellent actor who does a good job with his role, but his character’s motivation comes far too late for it to be interesting, and his performance doesn’t feel distinct from his other villainous franchise roles in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore or Doctor Strange . Speaking of underutilized actors, Antonio Banderas appears in the film for what ultimately may have been less than five minutes. It’s more of a cameo appearance than an actual role, but what a waste of another talented performer.

The finale is where the movie almost entirely falls apart. There is a fun motorcycle sequence, but Teddy pulls off an unbelievable feat that no child could realistically perform. When you think back to Indiana Jones finales, the original trilogy has some fantastic ones. Although Ford is 80 and cannot pull off the physicality he once did, the movie should have given him more to do than sit on a plane for nearly the entire finale. Indy does very little in the finale, both from an action standpoint and a character standpoint. Most of the action is performed by Helena, the new character who is not easy to root for. Although Waller-Bridge brings some charm to the character, she isn’t endearing enough for the audience to cheer her on.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny does not have enough of Indy’s classic charm, especially in the final act. While these movies are supposed to entertain, delight, and have you wince at the violence and cheer on the heroes, this film lacks all of it. It’s not delightful, violent, or exciting. I was more thrilled watching Extraction 2 on Netflix than I was watching this movie, which is shocking, to say the least. It takes a little too long for the movie to get to the classic dark corridors and creepy critters. The emotional moments in the film are ineffective, with Indy making a decision at the end that really does not work. Although the final act takes a huge swing with what we’ve seen from these movies, it ultimately ends up underwhelming.

The best thing about Ford’s swan song as Indiana Jones is, of course, Ford. He reprises the character to perfection. The movie does an excellent job of acknowledging his age, not pushing the believability of his action sequences too much. However, for a finale to the franchise and a farewell to the character, the emotional stakes do not feel as high as they should. Since Indy’s tragic backstory is so distant from the film’s story and the relationships depicted in the film, it doesn’t work. There are moments in the movie that may make you feel like a kid again, watching another classic Indiana Jones adventure. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny only proves that the series should have ended in 1989 with Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah riding off into the sunset.

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SCORE: 5/10

As ComingSoon’s  review policy  explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review

Jonathan Sim is a film critic and filmmaker born and raised in New York City. He has met/interviewed some of the leading figures in Hollywood, including Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Liam Neeson, and Denis Villeneueve. He also works as a screenwriter, director, and producer on independent short films.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

June 30, 2023

Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

Harrison Ford returns to the role of the legendary hero archaeologist for this fifth installment of the iconic franchise. Starring along with Ford are Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), John Rhys-Davies (“Raiders of the Los Ark”), Shaunette Renee Wilson (“Black Panther”), Thomas Kretschmann (“Das Boot”), Toby Jones (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”), Boyd Holbrook (“Logan”), Olivier Richters (“Black Widow”), Ethann Isidore (“Mortel”) and Mads Mikkelsen (“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”). Directed by James Mangold (“Ford v Ferrari,” “Logan”), the film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel, with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas serving as executive producers. John Williams, who has scored each Indy adventure since the original "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981, is once again composing the score.

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 2h 34min Release Date: June 30, 2023

Directed By

Produced by.

• Nominee - John Williams - 2024 Academy Award® for Music (Original Score)

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Harrison Ford's last hurrah in iconic role tangles with Nazis, nostalgia and aging

For a pop series in which coveting treasure invariably leads to certain doom, the prospect of a fifth and supposedly final Indiana Jones movie – with a now 80-year-old Harrison Ford in the lead, and without Steven Spielberg behind the camera – may well constitute one cliffhanger too many; a last lunge for the Holy Grail that brings the whole temple crashing down.

Forty-two years after Raiders of the Lost Ark, the series has become as nostalgic for its own blockbuster heyday as its creator George Lucas once was for the serialised adventures of his childhood; the original film's seat-of-its-pants charm, roguish one-upmanship and spooky practical effects are now as talismanic as ancient relics.

It also means the franchise, now under the aegis of Disney, has backed itself into something of a creative corner.

Having tangled with atomic-age aliens in Spielberg's flawed-but-fascinating Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), our globe-trotting hero is back to doing what his current minders, at least, think he does best: punching Nazis. As the traitorous American villain once sneered at Indy, in 1989's cheerfully self-reflexive Raiders redux, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: "The Nazis? Is that the limit of your vision?"

Directed by James Mangold ( Ford v Ferrari ; Logan ), who has the unenviable task of stepping into Spielberg's sneakers (Spielberg and Lucas remain as executive producers), the Nazi-heavy Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a sincerely mounted, often gripping action movie that also runs up against the limits of its own vision.

It's a film that wants to swing big, reckoning with an aging pulp hero out of his time, and questioning the perils of living for the past, but one whose ultimately tame execution – and, you might argue, very existence – serves to refute its thesis.

Without the playfulness of the old Paramount logo dissolve , the movie begins in gloomy media res, with Indy – played by a digitally de-aged Ford – deep behind German lines in 1944, just as the tide of the war is turning against the Nazis. He and his stuffy archaeologist colleague, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), are trying to stop a train full of antiquities bound for Berlin (seems failing to nab both the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail hasn't dimmed the Führer's enthusiasm), when they stumble upon half of the Antikythera, an ancient dial rumoured to generate fissures in time, and run afoul of a Nazi commander, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), determined to wield the mechanism for his own power.

"Whoever has it," Voller threatens, "will be God."

It's a long, muddy-looking sequence that, like too much of the movie's action, misses Spielberg's spatial dynamism and visual wit. But the film gathers some steam and personality in 1969, where we meet a now 70-year-old Indy, stuck in a cluttered New York apartment and snoozing on a recliner in front of psychedelic kids' show H.R. Pufnstuf, and about to be abruptly awoken by the downstairs neighbours blasting The Beatles. (The song: Magical Mystery Tour, of course.)

The crumpled professor is in the middle of a divorce and a thankless teaching job at Hunter College, where the bored, bubble-gum-popping students are more excited by the recent Moon landing than they are by ancient artefacts.

"Going to the Moon is like going to Reno," Indy grumbles, with every right of a guy who's seen extra-dimensional UFOs and Biblical phantasms.

The only person not looking to the future, it seems, is the now middle-aged Voller, who's been biding his time as a NASA physicist on the Apollo project, but whose real dream is to get his hands on the dial and turn back time, using his advanced knowledge to help the Nazis win the war.

Luckily, Indy's 30-something goddaughter, and Basil's kid, the spirited, whip-smart Helena Shaw (Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge), gets to it first. She's soon whisked the dial away to Tangier, where she's holding a black market antique auction alongside her teenage offsider, Teddy (a lively, if underused, Ethann Isidore).

With Indy joining them, it's an old-fashioned, international jaunt that takes our heroes across North Africa and into Europe by land and sea, with Voller and his goons – a moustachioed American stooge (Boyd Holbrook), presumably standing in for a contemporary Proud Boy – in hot pursuit.

Powered by Mangold's reliable craft and John Williams's typically baroque score, it all motors along at a pretty rousing clip, from an improbable horseback chase through a subway to a knockabout, Italian Job-inspired escape in tuktuks, with bugs, eels (the film's amusing variation on Indy's reptile phobia) and a salty Spanish sea captain (an all-too-brief Antonio Banderas) thrown in for good measure.

The lanky, mischievous Waller-Bridge is the animating spark for much of the adventure; as the mercenary, ethically dubious Helena, she's a ghost of Indy's own past, and the actor brings out a lovely, cross-generational rapport with Ford that occasionally evokes his double act with Sean Connery in The Last Crusade.

Her presence also suggests a scrambled moral complexity: In an era when Indy's old mantra, "It belongs in a museum," carries a whiff of institutional colonialism, who's to say Helena's black market capitalism is any less noble a pursuit?

Dial of Destiny is at its best when it tips its fedora towards these grey areas, when Mangold's sense of fraught American idealism – previously glimpsed in his intermittently compelling Ford v Ferrari – rises to the fore.

But while Mangold is a dependable action filmmaker with a steady command of the frame, the Indiana Jones films were never merely about great action; what he can't quite summon is the ineffable magic that the original films possessed, that strange alchemy that resulted from the synchronicity of – and sometimes, friction between – their creators.

Whether reanimating their movie-matinee childhoods in Raiders, pouring their post-divorce angst into the series' exhilarating 1984 highpoint, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or teasing out daddy issues in The Last Crusade, Lucas and Spielberg brought a deeply personal vision to their populist escapades.

Even Crystal Skull, in which Lucas's loopy digital futurism clashed with Spielberg's late-career classicism, bore out a rich creative tension, yielding one of the series' most memorable images: The aging hero framed against the modern threat of a nuclear mushroom cloud (itself a direct line to Spielberg's 50s childhood, as seen in The Fabelmans ).

Put bluntly: No Spielberg, no Lucas – no Indiana Jones.

Dial of Destiny can't help but be a simulacrum of the series' past glories; even with its admirable attempts to wrestle with time and legacy, the film's lack of imagination undoes its ambition.

Given the wild possibilities afforded by this $295-million movie's magical time-travel MacGuffin – not to mention the digital de-aging toolkit at its disposal – the big climax plays it dispiritingly safe: catnip for history buffs, perhaps, but minus the nutty lunacy of the previous films' supernatural finales. (Imagine the perverse thrill of, say, seeing old Indy watch his youthful exploits serialised on screen in 1981. No such luck here.)

By the time the movie is quoting dialogue verbatim from Raiders, it's clear that it has nothing much to add to the legacy.

Through it all, it's possible to be moved by Ford, who continues to relish Indy like no other character in his 50-year stardom.

He's still capable of summoning that wry, crooked smile and schoolboy giddiness, but here, that cavalier spirit is tempered with a sense of time and loss. There's an incredibly touching moment, midway through the film, in which Indy opens up about his regret over a tragedy he wishes he could change, and Ford plays it with the kind of rare, unguarded tenderness that's escaped so many of his other legacy franchise roles in the last decade.

Dial of Destiny may not be the send-off that Indy deserves, but in those moments – and in the weight of Ford's presence – there's a flicker of the film it might have been.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is in cinemas now.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Is Too Entertaining to Dismiss

This review was originally published in May, out of the Cannes Film Festival. We are recirculating it now timed to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ’s theatrical release.

For about 20 minutes, there he is. The opening sequence of James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny takes place during World War II, and my eyes marveled at the sight of Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, as fresh-faced as he was back in Raiders of the Lost Ark , jumping through, around, and atop a speeding German train, walloping Nazis while trying to retrieve an ancient artifact known as the Antikythera. Digital de-aging has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, but the directors who’ve used it best up until now have found ways to lean into the slightly artificial look of the technology . Dial of Destiny is the first time I believed I was seeing the real thing. This movie about going back in time turns out to be something of a time machine itself.

Of course, the film isn’t about the young Indiana Jones but about the aging Dr. Henry Jones, now on the verge of retirement from teaching archeology to sleepy Hunter College students, drinking himself silly in a grubby New York apartment. The year is 1969, man has just walked on the moon, and Indy’s been served divorce papers. Into his life enters his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), the adventurous offspring of his old colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones, whom we saw with Indy in that opening sequence). She wants to drag him along on a chase for the Antikythera, which is allegedly part of a contraption built by the Greek philosopher Archimedes to predict fissures in the very fabric of time, thereby allowing travel into the past; Helena’s dad, we’re told, became obsessed with it toward the end of his life. Also chasing after it (and, by extension, them) is Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who has since become a prized scientist in the U.S. space program. He may be former, but he’s not repentant: Voller hopes to use Archimedes’ dial to go back in time to stop Germany from losing the war.

It’s not long before we’re off to the races, hopping continents and seas in ways that might seem familiar. Not unlike The Force Awakens did with the original Star Wars , the Dial of Destiny feels at times like a remix, offering variations on elements from earlier Indiana Jones movies. Helena could be a cross between Marion Ravenwood and Henry Jones Sr. There’s Teddy (Ethann Isidore), a young thief and driver who will prompt memories of Short Round. There are moments that evoke the Ark of the Covenant, the Well of the Souls, and that creepy little tunnel in Temple of Doom with all the gnarly bugs. And instead of a tomb filled with skeletons and snakes, this time around we get an underwater shipwreck filled with skeletons and moray eels, with Antonio Banderas as a vivacious Spanish diver thrown in for good measure. Meanwhile, the process of reassembling Archimedes’ dial involves solving a variety of puzzles and retrieving objects that themselves feel like they came out of a spontaneous Indiana Jones MacGuffin generator.

Still, the damn thing is fun. Mangold may not have the young Spielberg’s musical flair for extravagant action choreography (who does?), but he is a tougher, leaner director, using a tighter frame and keeping his camera close. That may shortchange the escapist atmosphere and evocative exotica of the material (which is, after all, one of the pleasures of Indiana Jones movies), but it does bring a ground-level immediacy to the action. Mangold is also a fiend for vehicular mayhem, which probably suits this older, slower version of Indy, who fights less but often finds himself in the middle of any number of “wouldn’t it be cool if” chases: motorcycles and tuk-tuks and trains and Jaguars and horses and planes in all manner of arrangements and rearrangements, as well as one delirious final sequence that had me giggling with delight.

Sometimes I wonder if the worst thing to happen to the Indiana Jones franchise was Raiders of the Lost Ark itself, which kicked off these films but also set a standard so high that no movie has been able to match it over the years. (I still think it’s probably the best film Spielberg ever made.) The warm light of nostalgia now bathes Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade , but those films were also found wanting by many back in their day, with elements that attempted to recapture that old Raiders magic. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny might prompt similar complaints, some of it warranted. But it’s also too entertaining to dismiss. You may not lose yourself in this one the way so many of us once did with the earlier Indiana Jones movies, but you’ll certainly have a good time.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Reviewed by: Raphael Vera CONTRIBUTOR

Harrison Ford’s final portrayal of fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones and the end of the Indiana Jones franchise

Ford was digitally de-aged for the film’s 1944 opening sequence to depict his appearance during the first three Indiana Jones films.

“Dial of Destiny” is the only film in the series that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg nor written by George Lucas.

It is also the only film in the series not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures, following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm that transferred film rights for future sequels.

The film's MacGuffin, the fictional Archimedes Dial, was inspired by research that director Mangold conducted into the Antikythera mechanism. Artistic liberty was taken with the film’s dial to suit the story. The dial is named after Greek inventor Archimedes, who is believed to have played a role in the creation of the real Antikythera.

Evil Nazi plan to replay history to win WWII

I n the final days of World War II, Nazi’s are scrambling to escape with as much of their stolen treasures as they can. Indiana Jones and his partner, archeologist Basil Shaw ( Toby Jones ), are after one of those treasures and end up with a part of the fabled ‘Archimedes Dial’. An artifact that Schmidt, a Nazi physicist, believes may unlock passages through time and make the owner god.

Fast forward to 1969, and the United States is celebrating the return of the Apollo 11 astronauts from the moon. But for Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) it’s just another day of teaching a room full of disinterested college students. After class, Helena Shaw ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ) the daughter of his old friend enters his life after not seeing him for almost 18-years. She is on a quest to find the Archimedes Dial, but so are a group of heavily armed Germans working for Dr. Jürgen Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ).

“…Dial of Destiny” thrusts a retiring Indiana Jones back into an adventure that will take him to Tangiers and beyond in search of the lost treasure. Indy’s goal is mainly to keep it from being sold on the black market and put it where it belongs, namely in a museum. However, his god-daughter is not exactly as she appears and has very different plans, as does the decorated German physicist Voller (aka Schmidt) who uses the men at his command to kill anyone that stands in the way of his destiny.

Objectionable Content

VIOLENCE: Heavy. The death toll is heavy and varied including people being shot, crushed, impaled, burned, thrown from moving cars, crashing, exploding, and there is an attempted hanging. Schmidt’s henchmen are as cold blooded as the Nazis they revere and are shown heartlessly shooting bystanders and even comrades at point blank range. A young boy is shown killing one of the Nazis by drowning.

LANGUAGE: Moderate. The Lord’s name is taken in vain in the form of J*sus (1), G*d (3), G*d- d**n (1), d**n (2), p*ss (1), and h*ll is exclaimed the most throughout the film (9 times), several times comically as during an anti-war protest when it is chanted, “H*ll no we won’t go!”. Admittedly the film has a lower than average number of curses when compared to most PG-13 rated films. Helena refers lasciviously to a shirtless man as “promising”.

SEX/NUDITY: Mild. There is no sex or nudity shown and only one instance of gentle kissing. Helena is shown twice ogling men in unnecessary, throw away scenes. Indy is shirtless when he first wakes up and one of the divers is shown shirtless as he is getting into his wet suit.

WOKENESS: Moderate. In one scene they are arguing over who the Archimedes Dial belongs to, and Helena sums it up by saying everyone steals from everyone, “That’s capitalism!”. Helena is the epitome of the strong empowered feminist who can duke it out, gamble and drink with the best of them and dates gangsters. Several times Helena is shown doing stunts that border on so improbable that even a younger Indiana Jones would be hard pressed to get away with them. The concept of “my truth” is subtly touched upon by our hero, but more on that later.

There are several themes that are woven throughout the film that bear spiritual significance including that of idolatry , faith and marriage .

IDOLATRY. At its core almost everyone in the film idolizes something. Helena and her teenage sidekick, Teddy ( Ethann Isidore ), idolize money . Archimedes, as he is presented here, held mathematics in such high regard that he believed he could predict and even use nature itself. Schmidt worships power and hopes the artifact can literally make him a god as he would have mastery over time and in turn the world.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.’ — Colossians 3:5

There is an unexpected side affect of having such a passion for the temporal things of this world:

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.’ — Jonah 2:8

FAITH. As Indiana Jones says to Helena, “I’ve come to believe it’s not so much what you believe, but how hard you believe it.” Indy is suggesting here that the subject of your belief (faith) is irrelevant, that what matters more is the strength of your conviction. Following this ‘logic’ your ‘belief’ can and will create or manifest the results or reality that you desire.

Believing that you can alter your personal reality and that truth is not absolute and can be determined by your whims, is fundamental to the “my truth” mindset that many have been lied to by the world’s media and academia.

Bottom line, if you are seeking truth there is only one answer that will give you the peace, in this life, and the joy in the hereafter with God our Father in Heaven.

Jesus answered, “ I am the way and the truth and the life . No one comes to the Father except through me.’ — John 14:6

The benefit of knowing the truth was also known by Dr. Martin Luther King when he quoted John 8:32, in saying,

“Then you will know the truth , and the truth will set you free.”

Scripture further explains that,

“We are from God , and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood .’ — 1 John 4:6

MARRIAGE. During a low moment in Indiana’s life, he realizes that if he is alone, who does he have to live for? From the very beginning God did not create us to be alone.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” — Genesis 2:18

In fact, God created marriage for our happiness, as well as holiness , but that is a longer discussion for another time.

“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.’ — Isaiah 62:5

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” sees Harrison Ford’s long-overdue return to his iconic role 15-years after his last turn in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Today’s question is, are his adventures still worth the price of admission?

On the plus side, the character of Indiana Jones is easily the most developed and consistent character of the film, due in no small measure to Harrison Ford’s on-screen presence and charisma. The same cannot be said of Phoebe Waller-Bridge ’s Helena, whose transition from very unlikeable foe to dependable ally is unconvincing. Vital lines of exposition and heartfelt moments could have been used to explain her change of heart, but without those scenes the character comes off as conflicted and the tonal shifts sometimes jarring. As a character we are meant to like, Teddy ( Ethann Isidore ) should have been better developed.

John Williams returns to masterfully score Indiana Jones, and it is difficult to imagine an Indy film without him or Harrison Ford, although no new themes stood out or were noticed by this reviewer. What was noticeable was the poor CGI at times, such as when Indy is running atop the train.

Fantasy and adventure films often ask for some ‘suspension of disbelief’ to make occasional plot contrivances work, but done too often, as it happens here, pulls the audience away from immersing in the story . One cannot learn how to fly a plane after hearing someone describe all the steps needed, no more than you can play a flight simulator program and successfully take off on your own. “Dial of Destiny” needed some judicious script doctoring before actual production. Let us hope there is a ‘Directors Cut’ in the future that addresses the film’s issues.

Closing Thoughts

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” has a touching emotional payout at the end for Indy that should please many fans, but may be brought low by comparisons to the earlier films featuring a younger, naturally more robust action hero. The movie is hampered by its narrative and woke elements , but manages to bring a satisfying final chapter to the Indiana Jones franchise.

• Violence: Heavy
• Wokeism: Moderate
• Profane language: Mild
• Vulgar/Crude language: Mild
• Nudity: Minor
• Drugs/Alcohol: Mild
• Occult: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

• Non-viewer comments

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

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Raiders of the Lost Ark

In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers. In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers. In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.

• Steven Spielberg
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• 1.1K User reviews
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• 86 Metascore
• 38 wins & 24 nominations total

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The Life and Times of Harrison Ford

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Did you know

• Trivia The famous scene in which Indy shoots a marauding and flamboyant swordsman was not in the original script. Harrison Ford was supposed to use his whip to get the sword out of his attacker's hands, but the food poisoning he and the rest of the crew had gotten made him too sick to perform the stunt. After several unsuccessful tries, Ford suggested "shooting the sucker." Steven Spielberg immediately took him up on the idea, and the scene was successfully filmed.
• Goofs In the flying scenes, the map lists several countries by their modern names instead of their 1936 names. Siam did not become Thailand until 1939. Transjordan did not become Jordan until 1949.

Marion : You're not the man I knew ten years ago.

Indiana : It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.

• Crazy credits The mountain in the Paramount logo dissolves into the mountain in the Peruvian jungle.
• Alternate versions ABC edited 24 seconds from this film for its 1986 network television premiere.
• Connections Edited from Lost Horizon (1973)
• Soundtracks I am the Monarch of the Sea (1878) (uncredited) From "H.M.S. Pinafore" Music by Arthur Sullivan Lyrics by W.S. Gilbert Sung a cappella by John Rhys-Davies

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• What are all these German soldiers doing in British controlled Egypt prior to World War II.? Appeasement aside, the British might be a little worried about a large group of armed Germans being in a League of Nations mandated British Protectorate.
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• June 12, 1981 (United States)
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Indiana Jones Movies in Order Chronologically and by Release Date

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The Indiana Jones film series has made a big impact on popular culture. Almost everyone has heard of the archeologist and his dangerous adventures, even if they haven’t actually seen the movies. As well as being paid homage to and parodied a number of times in various forms of media, the series has also inspired other similar fictional treasure-hunting-themed franchises, such as Laura Croft, The Mummy , and, more recently, Uncharted.

Over 42 years, five Indiana Jones films have been released, with the latest being 2023's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Within the fictional world, however, the story takes place over a 34-year period, with the in-universe chronology and release dates not quite matching one-to-one. While on the surface, it would seem the Indiana Jones movies are a bit easy to follow, unlike Star Wars , they have no numerical numbering to give them an immediate recognizable placement in a timeline other than when you start the movie, and it shows the date.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny marked the final film in the franchise, as Harrison Ford has retired from the part. All the titles are available on Disney+, so anyone looking for a binge-worthy weekend can lay back and watch the epic five-film saga. Here's a look at the Indiana Jones films in both chronological order and by release date.

Update January 5, 2024: This article has been updated following the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , and the entire series is now available to stream on Disney+.

The Indiana Jones Movies in Chronological Order

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana jones and the dial of destiny, indiana jones and the temple of doom (1984).

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom may have been the second film to be released, but it technically takes place in 1935, before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark . Indiana Jones survives an assassination attempt and flees Shanghai with a young orphan named Short (Ke Huy Quan), along with a nightclub singer named Willie (Kate Capshaw). When they find themselves aboard a plane piloted by the bad guy's henchmen, a plane that is crashing towards the ground, Indy and his companions barely manage to make it out alive. Eventually, they wind up in the village of Mayapore in northern India.

However, it's not long before the trio runs into more problems. A sacred stone belonging to the people of the village was stolen, along with their children, and they implored Indy to help them. He agrees and travels to the palace they believe the stolen children are beng housed in, only to be welcomed with open arms. That is, until another assassin tries to kill Indy in his sleep. Managing to survive the night, Indy discovers that there are hidden tunnels under the palace, and begins to explore them. There he discovers a hellish place filled with cultists conducting a human sacrifice. Indy must save himself, his companions, and the children before a trance-like state forces him to offer himself for sacrifice.

Related: Best (And Worst) Indiana Jones Moments, Ranked

Often considered inferior to its predecessor, The Temple of Doom is darker and grimier than the rest of the films in the series and could easily be mistaken for a horror film . Nevertheless, the set pieces and production design are nothing short of spectacular, and Ford is in as fine a form as ever. The movie was so dark it, along with the Gremlins which was released the same year, that the MPAA created the PG-13 rating. This would be the final PG-rated Indiana Jones adventure, as all the following ones would be PG-13. Stream on Disney+ and Paramount+.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Raiders of the Lost ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark starts with Indiana Jones retrieving a gold idol from a trapped temple in 1936, which comprises one of the best action sequences of all time . He runs right from one life-threatening situation into another, as a rival archaeologist, Belloq (Paul Freeman), is waiting for him and steals the idol. Upon his return to the US, two army intelligence agents confront Indy, and in a debrief, he discovers that the Nazis are searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The agents recruit him to find the Ark before the Nazis do.

The first stop on his journey leads him to Nepal, where he meets an old flame, Marion (Karen Allen). She has a medallion that, once translated, will detail how to find the ark. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't take long for the Nazis to show up and attempt to steal it from her. As she flees with Indy, the Nazis continue to chase them. Upon learning from his friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), that Belloq is assisting the Nazis with a dig in Cairo, Indy realizes that his enemies have been digging in the wrong place. With Sallah's assistance, Indy recovers the Ark, but Belloq quickly seizes it. However, when Belloq and the Nazis open the Ark, they soon discover its true deadly power.

The only film in the series not to start with "Indiana Jones and the...", Raiders of the Lost Ark , is considered by many to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Not only did it solidify Harrison Ford as a movie star and more than just Han Solo, it made George Lucas and Steven Spielberg even bigger power players in the industry than ever before. The movie set the template not just for the franchise but also for various other action movies. Stream on Disney+ and Paramount+.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade

The opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , take place in 1912 (before the film continues into 1938 for the rest), when an old foe is given a backstory. A young Indiana Jones initially tries to recover a golden cross being stolen by a couple of grave robbers. He eventually catches up to them and manages to successfully put the cross in a museum. Upon returning home, Indy discovers that his dad, Henry Jones Sr. (played by the legendary Sean Connery) has disappeared while searching for the Holy Grail.

With his dad’s grail diary in hand and the assistance of Jones Sr.'s former colleague, Elsa (Alison Doody), Indy sets out on the journey to rescue his father. Together, Indy and Elsa, begin to piece the puzzle of Henry's whereabouts. However, they eventually come across two problems. The first is a secret society known as the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who are tasked with keeping the grail safe. The second is the Nazis, who are also desperate to get their hands on the prized artifact, meaning there are now two enemies for Indy to contend with.

Related: Every Indiana Jones Movie, Ranked

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade marked a return to the lighthearted tone of the first film, with the chemistry between Ford and Connery (who was only 12 years older than Ford) providing some excellent comedy. Connery's casting is a meta casting joke, as Indiana Jones was inspired by Spielberg always wanting to make a James Bond movie but being rejected and Lucas famously saying he had something better, Indiana Jones (well, Indiana Smith at the time, but the name thankfully was changed). In Spielberg's mind, it only made sense to cast James Bond as the father of Indiana Jones.

Audiences responded better to the movie than Temple of Doom , and the third film in the series is largely considered one of the best. It would also be the last film in the franchise for 19 years. Fans kept asking Spielberg about making a fourth film, and despite his intending Last Crusade to be the final film, he could not resist and returned for another adventure. Stream on Disney+ and Paramount+.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Released nearly two decades after the last Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fittingly takes place in 1957, almost 20 years from when The Last Crusade is set. Of course, instead of being another World War 2-era movie where Nazis are the enemies, this time, it is the KGB who are causing Indy all kinds of problems and dropping the famous hero in the middle of the Cold War. After being kidnapped by Soviet agents and taken to a secret bunker in Nevada, Indy is forced to help them find a mummified alien. His attempts to stop them are unsuccessful, though, and he barely manage to make it out alive. Later, he is approached by a man named Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), who claims the KGB has kidnapped more people in search of the crystal skulls.

Indy and Mutt team up and travel to Peru, narrowly dodging KGB agents along the way. They discover that the KGB want to find more crystal skulls, believing that the skull belongs to an alien life form that will grant them psychic powers if they collect enough. With powers like that, the Soviets could telepathically control the world. Indy must stop the KGB with the help of both old and new colleagues alike.

While it is widely considered the weakest film in the franchise, at the time, audiences and critics responded positively to the film as it grossed nearly $800 million at the box office and, in doing so, became the second highest-grossing release of the year worldwide behind only The Dark Knight . The movie was highly anticipated at the time of its release, as it was the return of the great action hero that fans had been waiting years to see again. The plot was incredibly secretive, and while the reaction to the film has soured as the years went on, there is still a lot to like in this film. Even if it is the weakest, it goes to show that the weakest Indiana Jones film is still better than a lot of other franchises. Stream on Disney+ and Paramount+

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The latest installment in the series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , sees the action taking place in 1969, and revolves around an elderly Indy embarking on one last adventure to retrieve a powerful artifact before it falls into the wrong hands. A flashback to 1944 at the start of the film depicts Indy rescuing his friend and colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) from his capture at the hands of the Nazis, and shows him learning of Archimedes' Dial, an ancient Syracusan mechanism supposedly capable of time travel. That means the opening sequence takes place between the events of The Last Crusade and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Twenty-five years later, Basil's daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) pays Indy a visit, wishing to learn more about the Dial, which her now-deceased father dedicated his life to studying. Indy warns Helena against this, but reluctantly helps her to retrieve one half of the Dial from the college archives. In the process, they are attacked by Nazi astrophysicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who now works for NASA and is desperate to get his hands on both halves of the Dial. Helena, who had been lying about her intentions, steals the Dial to sell on the black market. With the help of Sallah, Indy tracks down Helena to Tangier, and the pair decide to team up in order to stop Voller, whose plan, it is revealed, is to travel back in time to kill Hitler and take the position as the leader of the Nazis.

Related: Why Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Deserves Better Than Its Rotten Tomatoes Score

Despite being the first film in the series not to be helmed by Spielberg, there were high hopes for The Dial of Destiny , which was directed by James Mangold. It is fascinating that the time gap between Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny was 15 years, just four years shy of the 19-year gap between Last Crusade and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . Unfortunately, like its immediate predecessor, the film garnered a mixed response from both critics and fans. Unlike Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , however , the fifth entry in the franchise was not a financial success, only managing to make a disappointing $385 million on a $300 million budget and becoming the series' first box office bomb .

It could not exactly cash in on the "Indy is back" hype because Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had used that already. The other part was that the time gap between the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Dial of Destiny is so great that a good portion of the fanbase that started with the original film might sadly no longer be with us. For comparison, the time between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Dial of Destiny is the same as between The Wizard of Oz and Raiders of the Lost Ark . Time is a funny thing, so it is appropriate the final Indiana Jones film is a thoughtful meditation on time as a concept. The series ends not with a big action scene or riding off into the sunset but instead with a hat hanging on a close line and a hand taking it, the idea being there will always be an adventure out there. Stream on Disney+

The Indiana Jones Movies by Release Date

Indiana Jones was always a summer franchise. Both the first and the final film in the series opened in June, a nice bookend for the franchise. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom , The Last Crusade , and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull all opened on Memorial Day weekend. While the movies are the perfect summer viewing, they can really be enjoyed anytime of the year.

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Raiders of the Lost Ark

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Watch Raiders of the Lost Ark with a subscription on Disney+, Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Featuring bravura set pieces, sly humor, and white-knuckle action, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most consummately entertaining adventure pictures of all time.

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‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’ Bombs At The Box Office

The long-awaited sequel Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is finally playing in theaters. Unfortunately, Disney ‘s newly-released Indiana Jones continuation appears to have bombed at the box office.

In fact, the film only opened with $130 million worldwide, which is less than the $139 million that the box office bomb The Flash managed to earn. Furthermore, the Indiana Jones sequel is said to have cost more than $300 million to make with marketing costs, while The Flash was estimated at $250 million. Either way, both films appear to be box office bombs, with the fifth Indiana Jones film making even less at the box office so far.

Of course, this might not be too surprising. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny received mixed reviews following its debut at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. Of course, given the nature of the festival, some optimistic fans expected the film would perform better with mainstream audiences. And while there are some positive reactions from fans, it doesn’t seem to be enough to help the film out of its box office slump.

To be fair, the amount of money it’s made so far wouldn’t be bad for a moderately-budgeted film. But as mentioned, with the film having cost more than $300 million, it’s one of the most expensive movies ever made. And so it’s going to take quite a bit of money for Disney to break even much less make a profit. It’s unfortunate to hear given that Indiana Jones is one of the most iconic movie characters of all time – and this will be the last time Harrison Ford plays the role – but sometimes these things just happen.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was directed by James Mangold. The screenplay for the film was written by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth alongside Mangold. Additionally, franchise composer John Williams has returned to score the highly-anticipated adventure movie.

Harrison Ford returns to reprise his role as the titular adventurer for the Lucasfilm project. The cast for the long-awaited sequel also includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas, and Olivier Richters.

Fans can now see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in theaters. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates as we have them.

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Indiana Jones 5 Box Office Crash Reveals New Danger for Raiders of Nostalgia

Disney turned Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny into one of the most expensive movies ever made. So why do audiences seem fairly ambivalent?

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I dug Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . It feels appropriate to preface this article with that because so much of the initial critical buzz ( including on this site ) was negative enough that it colored what I found to be a sweet-natured if flawed farewell to Harrison Ford’s hero—and one with a pretty perfect ending for a franchise film where the lead actor is 80 years old. You can tell it meant something for the star and the character.

Yet the age of that star and the increasingly distant legacy he represents should be on many a studio exec’s mind after this weekend, which saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny open at number one in the domestic and global box office but still attract an aura of disappointment around its numbers. The movie, in fact, debuted on the rock bottom end of its studio’s projections for the first three days, grossing an estimated $60 million domestically.

To be sure, it’s a hefty sum of money, but also uncomfortably below 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , which opened at $100 million 15 years ago. It’s also exceedingly soft for a film that cost a reportedly eye-watering $295 million to make, and that does not include massive global marketing costs and a sure-to-be pricey world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

While Indiana Jones 5 still has the rest of a four-day weekend Stateside thanks to the Fourth of July to strengthen those numbers, as well as next weekend pretty much to itself in terms of blockbuster competition, the film’s “B+” CinemaScore historically suggests most audiences will not be raving about it to their friends before the triple-car pile-up that is Mission: Impossible 7 , Barbie , and Oppenheimer later this month. For context, The Flash earned an even more tepid “B” CinemaScore, which previewed that film’s disastrous 72.5 percent fall in its second weekend. That was additionally on the heels of an even more grisly opening weekend of $55 million.

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So the question becomes what went wrong for Indy’s last hurrah?

There will be plenty of blame to go around for the disappointment, not least of which includes the general dissatisfaction audiences had with the last film. Sure, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opened a whopping 19 years after the previous Indy flick, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , but that turned out to be a feature and not a bug back then.

For the core demographic of summer blockbusters in 2008—teenagers and young adults roughly between the ages of 15 and 34— Crusade and all the other Indy films were viewed as veritable classics. That audience and their parents showed up in droves to Crystal Skull , but its “B” CinemaScore suggests, even then, many left sorely disappointed. That perception has only worsened with time.

While no one who worked with Lucasfilm back then has ever come out and officially said it, the tenor of the marketing around Dial of Destiny seemed to suggest this would be a make-up for the 2008 film—a second attempt to say goodbye to the character. However, the perception of that mea culpa was badly damaged when Disney boldly decided to premiere Dial of Destiny at Cannes where the press at that elite festival largely tore the movie to shreds.

The irony of this is that when a larger cross-section of film critics saw Dial of Destiny with their own eyes, its reception became a lot warmer, with the film’s Rotten Tomatoes aggregated score lifting from the low 30s to 68 percent “fresh” on Indy 5 ’s opening day.

So the film’s world premiere a month before its opening did Dial no favors; it even likely muted a fair amount of the hype around the picture. Nonetheless, between the consecutive underperformances of Indy 5 and The Flash —two movies marketed on an anticipated nostalgia that comes with seeing Ford in a fedora and Michael Keaton in a Batsuit—it feels prudent to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Do younger audiences honestly still care about increasingly old properties and iconographies of previous generations?

As aforementioned, Crystal Skull did capture the audience more prone to spend disposable income on going to the movies in 2008. But even just the 13 to 25 year olds are now 28 to 40 years old, and the youngest members of the audience who saw the original Indy flick, Raiders of the Lost Ark , are at least pushing 50 today. Indiana Jones has always been a retro character, channeling nostalgia for movies and serials from the childhoods of baby boomers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. But when their generation stopped being the parents of the kids watching Indiana Jones, and Indy stopped resembling those kids’ grandparents, and instead became a call back to great-grandparents (or older), it’s worth considering if something’s been lost over the years.

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The opening weekend tracking seems to bear this out. According to Deadline , 42 percent of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ’s opening weekend audience was over the age of 45. That would be a problematic number even before the COVID-19 pandemic made large numbers of the 50-plus crowd showing up elusive unless your film stars Tom Cruise. For context, 48 percent of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ’s audience was under the age of 25, with its largest demo being between the ages of 18 and 34, who made up 58 percent of the audience. Meanwhile 61 percent of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ’s audience was between the ages of 18 and 34. That film is indeed the highest performing movie of the year with Gen-Z (young people between the ages of 11 and 26).

In other words, Indy’s most loyal audience is on the older side, and as when WB’s marketing asked audiences if they remember growing up with Michael Keaton as their Batman, a lot of Gen-Zers, the youngest of millennials, and literal kids just shrugged at seeing Ford don the fedora one last time. Many, it would seem, never saw him put it on the first time.

When contextualized with the rest of the industry, it is fair to wonder if audiences are reaching a tipping point from being inundated with movies that target our nostalgia—or at least the nostalgia of those who grew up in the ‘80s or shortly afterward in the ‘90s. Consider that the end of Ford’s original Indiana Jones trilogy and Keaton’s debut as Batman both came out in 1989. Someone born that year will soon be 35.

Meanwhile Disney’s kitchen sink approach to exploiting ‘80s nostalgia with the most popular film franchise of that era—Star Wars—has hit notorious snags as of late. It’s fair to point out that development of Dial of Destiny began back when Lucasfilm saw billion-dollar successes with Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), both of which leaned hard into nostalgia for the original Star Wars trilogy. Heck, The Force Awakens was marketed around Harrison Ford saying, “Chewie, we’re home.”

But by the end of that decade, and after three more Star Wars movies in consecutive years, the fanbase became wildly divided over the new films’ quality, culminating in the critically reviled Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), which while grossing $1 billion also earned a staggering 50 percent less than The Force Awakens of just four years earlier. Disney and Lucasfilm have pivoted for the time being to producing Star Wars content exclusively for Disney+ as a result, but that novelty has seemed to likewise worn thin, with the viewership numbers dropping dramatically between the first and third seasons of The Mandalorian .

Unlike Indiana Jones, Star Wars offers a whole mythology to get lost in, and therefore has already proven to enjoy a more durable elasticity in terms of popularity. But there does seem to be cultural barriers to even that, with the excitement for Star Wars in the U.S. failing to transfer to Asian markets in the same way Marvel superheroes have. And after nearly a decade of so much Star Wars content, it’s viewed less as sacred geek culture or seminal film history. Now, it’s just one more brand in Disney’s arsenal.

And these brands seem to be hitting a point of diminishing returns, even the seemingly unstoppable Marvel Studios has struggled in recent months with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperforming this past spring.

Is making an endless supply of more movies and TV shows for what Gen-X and older millennials are nostalgic about transferring to interest from Gen-Z and younger? In the case of Indy and the Keaton/Tim Burton era of Batman, it seems like it hasn’t.

If this is the beginning of a trend, it could be a major problem over the next few years with studios’ plans for more Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and apparently a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover (among other studio projects). Of course other than Jurassic Park, Scream, and Disney’s remakes of renaissance era animated classics, the tapping into ‘90s and 2000s nostalgia has barely begun. Then again, it’s an open question if 2000s franchises like Avatar, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and Batman ever really went away….

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…