Sallah: “I miss the desert. I miss the sea. And I miss waking up every morning wondering what wonderful adventure the new day will bring to us.”
Indiana: “Those days have come and gone.”
Sallah: “Perhaps. Perhaps not…”
The fifth, and final, film in the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny had a lot to make up for after the lukewarm reception to the previous Indiana Jones film; Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Dial of Destiny is a film that has the passing of time firmly embedded within the story. Indiana Jones, like actor Harrison Ford, is in his late 70s; the director James Mangold does not attempt to shy away from this. The film opens with a prologue set during the fall of the Nazi regime in 1944, with a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford, before fast-forwarding 25 years to the moon landings of 1969 and a retiring Indiana Jones. The world has moved on, leaving Jones behind. It is the arrival of Indiana’s goddaughter Helena, searching for the mystical Antikythera mechanism, that rekindles his thirst for adventure.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena makes a suitably feisty foil to Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones. Her character evolves from treasure hunting purely for materialistic reasons to appreciating the historical value of artifacts. Ethann Isidore played Helena’s young sidekick Teddy, echoing Ke Huy Quan’s role of Short Round in Temple of Doom. However, Teddy lacks a sense of wonder at his experiences and the film never fully explores his emotional reactions to the events in the story.
The Nazis return as the villains, providing an uncomplicated foe. This ties in with the actual moon landings, when real Nazis scientists were recruited into US research programs as part of ‘Operation Paperclip’. Also; punching Nazis is always fun. As Helena says, when dropping a cargo hold full of Nazis out of a plane; “Sorry! You’re a Nazi!”
The character of Sallah, played by John Rhys-Davies , is also used to reinforce the passing of time. Now a grandfather, Sallah has emigrated to New York and adapted to life there. This is a marked contrast to the Nazis seeking to regain the power they once had.
One thing that is missing is the horror element. There are no melting faces or death from sudden ageing. Ironically, Dial of Destiny is possibly the most family-friendly of the Indiana Jones films. However, this also means that there is a lack of bite to the film and that none of the villains meet a suitably karmic death, as in the earlier films.
Ironically, for a film about time, Dial of Destiny is also the longest of the Indiana Jones films, but this is to its detriment. Some of the scenes felt overly long and there were a couple of some sub-plots that could have been excised with only a negligible impact on the overall story. Some of the characters felt underused. Shaunette Renée Wilson’s Mason is a fantastic character that I wanted to learn more about, but this did not happen.
Although the dialogue didn’t feel as punchy as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, there were occasional neat quips. It just didn’t feel as quotable as the earlier films. This is a film that would have benefited from further editing to tighten the story and polish the dialogue. That said, there is a neat twist at the end and the film ended with an emotional beat that landed perfectly.
Overall, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is not the best Indiana Jones film, but neither is it the worst. It is a fun film, as well as a fitting end to the adventures of Indiana Jones.
