Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Film Details
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 American action adventure film directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote it with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp. It is the sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as well as the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones film series. Featuring Harrison Ford (in his final portrayal of the character), John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen reprising their roles as Indiana Jones, Sallah, and Marion Ravenwood, respectively, new cast members include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen. Set in 1969, the film follows Indy and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II.
Dial of Destiny is the only film in the series that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg nor conceived by George Lucas, with both serving as executive producers instead. It is also the only film in the series not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures, following Walt Disney Studios’ acquisition of Lucasfilm and film rights for future sequels. Paramount retains the distribution rights to the first four films and a residual associate credit.
Plans for a fifth Indiana Jones film date back to the late 1970s, when a deal was made with Paramount to produce four sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Lucas began researching potential plot devices for a fifth film in 2008, and Koepp was eventually hired to write the film in 2016. A release date was set for 2019, which was then delayed several times due to rewrites and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, Jonathan Kasdan replaced Koepp and eventually left the project. Spielberg was originally set to direct but stepped down in 2020, with Mangold taking his place. Filming began in June 2021 in various locations including the United Kingdom, Italy, and Morocco, wrapping in February 2022. Longtime franchise composer John Williams returned to compose and conduct the film’s score.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered out of competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $381 million worldwide, becoming a box-office bomb due to a reported lack of wide appeal for moviegoers and an expensive overall budget, and resulting in a $100 million loss for the studio.
STORY
PRODUCTION
Development
In 1979, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five Indiana Jones films. In April 2008, Harrison Ford said he would return as Indiana Jones for a fifth film if it does not take another twenty years to develop, referring to the long development of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), which was released a month later. The film introduced the character Mutt Williams, played by Shia LaBeouf. Writer/producer Lucas suggested an idea to make Williams the lead character in a fifth film, but later decided against this. Lucas said that Ford’s age would not be an issue in making another film, saying, “it’s not like he’s an old man. He’s incredibly agile; he looks even better than he did 20 years ago.”
Lucas began researching potential plot devices for another film in 2008, and stated that Spielberg was open to directing it, as he had done for the previous films. Explaining the process for each film, Ford said, “We come to some basic agreement and then George goes away for a long time and works on it. Then Steven and I get it in some form, some embryonic form. Then if we like it we start working with George on it and at some point down the line it’s ready and we do it.” Lucas stressed the importance of having a MacGuffin that is supernatural but still grounded in reality with an archaeological or historical background, saying, “you can’t just make something up, like a time machine.” Speaking about the previous film and the franchise’s future, Lucas said, “we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future; Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension.” Later in 2008, Ford stated that Lucas’s concept for the fifth film was “crazy but great”. In November 2010, Ford said that Lucas was still working on the project. In July 2012, producer Frank Marshall stated that the project had no writer and said about its progress, “I don’t know if it’s definitely not happening, but it’s not up and running.”
In October 2012, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, giving Disney ownership rights to the Indiana Jones intellectual property. In December 2013, the Walt Disney Studios purchased the distribution and marketing rights to future Indiana Jones films from Paramount, with the latter studio retaining the distribution rights to the first four films and receiving “financial participation” for any additional films as well as an “in association with” credit in the film’s billing. The fifth film would become the first in the series to be co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm. With the 2012 acquisition, Lucas passed Indiana Jones 5 to new Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Lucasfilm planned to focus on the Star Wars franchise before working on a fifth Indiana Jones film.
In May 2015, Kennedy confirmed that Lucasfilm would eventually make another Indiana Jones film. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ended positively for Indiana Jones, with his marriage to Marion Ravenwood. However, Ford did not necessarily view the film as a definitive ending for Jones, wishing to make one more film that could expand the character and conclude his journey. Ford felt that Crystal Skull “ended in kind of a suspended animation. There was not a real strong feeling of the conclusion or the closure that I always hoped for.” According to Kennedy, “we all felt that if we could conclude the series with one more movie, give the fact that Harrison was so excited to try to do another one, we should do it.” Kennedy, Spielberg and Ford had discussed a couple of story ideas by the end of 2015.
CAST
- Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr., a world-renowned globe-trotting archaeologist and college professor.
- Anthony Ingruber as a younger Indiana Jones (1944). Ingruber had portrayed a younger version of Ford’s character William Jones in The Age of Adaline (2015), serving as the on-set body double before Ford’s de-aged likeness and voice was inserted over Ingruber’s using computer-generated imagery for brief parts of the 1944 sequences of Dial of Destiny. Ingruber also portrays a hotel guest attending Helena’s auction.
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw, Indy’s goddaughter. The filmmakers described the character as “slippery, charming, the girl next door, a grifter,” a “pioneer in ethical accounting” and similar to comedic characters with “machine-gun” dialogue akin to those of Ben Hecht’s plays. She is the daughter of Indy’s old friend and colleague, Basil Shaw. Holly Lawton portrays a young Helena.
- Mads Mikkelsen as Jürgen Voller, a German scientist and astrophysicist and “former” Nazi during World War II who has been hired by NASA under the name “Dr. Schmidt” to run the Apollo moon landing program, while using CIA assets for his own gain. Mikkelsen felt that Voller is a man who would like to “correct” some mistakes of the past with the film’s MacGuffin to make the world “a much better place to live in,” matching wits against Indy in a race to retrieve the artifact.
- Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, an old friend of Indy who operates as an expert frogman. Banderas claimed that his character is a rogue who is a “a good guy who dies for Indiana Jones”. He enjoyed working with Ford, Mangold and Steven Spielberg, who co-produced The Mask of Zorro, one of his previous films. Banderas also pointed out that his role as Renaldo veers more into a cameo appearance.
- John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, Indy’s old friend who aided in finding the Ark of the Covenant in 1936 and the Holy Grail in 1938. Sallah and his family have since immigrated to New York City with Indy’s assistance. He now works as a cab driver.
- Toby Jones as Basil Shaw, an Oxford professor of archaeology, ally of Indy from his days in World War II, and Helena’s father, who was obsessed over the Dial.
- Boyd Holbrook as Klaber, Voller’s nefarious and trigger-happy right-hand man in 1969. Holbrook described Klaber as Voller’s lapdog, “and a very crazy one at that.”
- Ethann Isidore as Teddy Kumar, Helena’s young Moroccan sidekick in Tangier.
- Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Indy’s estranged wife, who aided in finding the Ark of the Covenant in 1936 and the Crystal Skull of Akator in 1957.
- Shaunette Renée Wilson as Agent Mason, a CIA agent assigned to work for Voller.
- Thomas Kretschmann as Colonel Weber, a Nazi whom Voller works for in 1944.
- Olivier Richters as Hauke, a henchman of Voller. Richter takes on the role of a heavybuilt henchman that opposes Indiana, a role that was preceeded by Pat Roach in the first three films, and Igor Jijikine in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
- Mark Killeen as Pontimus, a soldier from 212 BC during the Siege of Syracuse.
- Nasser Memarzia as Archimedes, a brilliant scientist from 212 BC Syracuse and inventor of the Antikythera (“Dial of Destiny”).
- Martin McDougall as Durkin, a CIA agent working with Voller.
- Alaa Safi as Aziz Rahim, the son of a Moroccan mobster, who was previously engaged to Helena Shaw.
RELEASE
June 30, 2023
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