‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Will Open With a 25-Minute Flashback (New Images Revealed)
Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Image from Total Film Magazine.
The summer movie season is approaching, and for Lucasfilm that means the release of the highly-anticipated Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The film, which hails from director James Mangold, is poised for a debut at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18 ahead of its June 30 release, and is the central focus of the latest issue of Total Film Magazine.
As part of their coverage, the magazine just released two brand-new images and a compilation of quotes from the cast and crew, who were extensively interviewed. As we’ve seen in the trailers — and guessed from the first images that surfaced from the set two years ago — the film opens with a flashback to 1944, with Indiana Jones trapped in a German castle surrounded by Nazis. Mangold confirmed to Total Film that this is no insignificant sequence, as it takes up around 25 minutes of the film. He also described the process of shooting it, which apparently was no different from any other day:
“I just shot him, and he just pretended that he was 35,” says Mangold of his “incredibly gifted and agile” leading man. “But the technology involved is a whole other thing. We had hundreds of hours of footage of him in close-ups, in mediums, in wides, in every kind of lighting, night and day. I could shoot Harrison on a Monday as, you know, a 79-year-old playing a 35- year-old, and I could see dailies by Wednesday with his head already replaced.
It wasn’t a year of effort to get to a first pass. It was an incredible technology, and, in many ways, I just didn’t think about it. I just focused on shooting what’s [approximately] a 25-minute opening extravaganza that was my chance to just let it rip. The goal was to give the audience a full-bodied taste of what they missed so much. Because then when the movie lands in 1969, they’re going to have to make an adjustment to what it is now, which is different from what it was.”
De-aged Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The main plot picks up 25 years later, in 1969, and is set against the backdrop of the space race. In the main story, we will meet Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena, Indys’ goddaughter, and the two will embark on an adventure together that will pivot them against former Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and his right-hand minion, Klaber (Boyd Holbrook); the two are working on the moon landing project for NASA. How the titular McGuffin factors into the plot, we don’t know yet.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth installment in the franchise and also the first time Steven Spielberg is not sitting in the director’s chair. The film has been advertised from the beginning as Ford’s last rodeo as the iconic archeologist; speaking to Total Film Magazine, he reiterated those thoughts, adding that it will also be the final film in the series:
“This is the final film in the series, and this is the last time I’ll play the character. I anticipate that it will be the last time that he appears in a film.”
Reports also started circulating late last year about Disney Plus exploring a live-action series for the platform. Ford, who is aware of it, confirmed that he will “not be involved in that, if it does come to fruition.” That is also the big question now, especially as rumors appeared over the past couple of months about Disney telling Lucasfilm to focus on Star Wars and not so much Indiana Jones, Willow, or other properties. We’ll see if that holds once Dial of Destiny opens in theaters.
Ford, who returns to the role 15 years after his last film as Indiana Jones, explained how he’s been trying to make this movie happen for a decade so that he could end the series on a high note:
“I had been ambitious to do this film for 10 years, and there finally came a time when we all committed to that. It was a joyous moment for me. I think it’s a rare situation that I find myself in.
I’ve been able to deliver amazing films developed by Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] over a 40-year period, and to end it not with a whimper, but a bang, has been my greatest ambition for this excursion.”
Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Image from Total Film Magazine.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will open in theaters on June 30. If you haven’t already, you can check out the latest trailer for the film here, which debuted at Star Wars Celebration:
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
