Film review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Indy get your whip (2024)

It’s not the years. It’s not even the mileage. It’s the math. With Harrison Ford having turned 80 last summer, the days of “one last crusade” for the intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones were clearly numbered. It was now or never.

And despite some grousing from critics after its premiere at the Cannes film festival, it’s good that Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny made it into the now column and not the never. (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? That one’s a “never.” Temple of Doom too, I imagine, though I haven’t rewatched it in more than 30 years.)

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But, through a mystical combination of CGI trickery, more than the usual number of stunt doubles and Ford’s own inestimable mix of surliness and charm, the latest film succeeds at intermittently recapturing some of the magic of the original. I’d call that a win.

It opens with Indy doing what he’s always done best – fighting Nazis. An extended prologue set in the closing days of the Second World War finds a digitally de-aged Dr. Jones on the trail of the Lance of Longinus, the spear said to have pierced the side of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion. (Alliterative Artefacts are the Best of the Bunch; Consider it a Certainty!)

With him is Toby Jones as Basil Shaw, a name that makes the actor about 3.14 times more bookish and British than he already seems. Against him, the remnants of the Third Reich, led by Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who is that most dangerous beast, a Nazi with ambition. “You didn’t win the war,” he delights in telling Americans decades later. “Hitler lost it.” Clearly he thinks he could have done better.

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The lance they’re fighting over turns out to be a fake – I guess it belongs in a museum, in Niagara Falls? – but during the tussle they stumble on an even greater treasure, the Antikythera mechanism. This is actually a real historical artefact, manufactured by Greek scientists circa 100 BC – around the time of Archimedes – and discovered more than 120 years ago in an ancient shipwreck off the coast of the island that gives it its name.

It’s a fascinating device, not much bigger than a laptop, but containing an intricate series of gears and pointers that can predict eclipses and other astronomical events. An early analogue computer, its technological equal doesn’t appear in the historical record for more than a thousand years. It belongs in a – oh, wait, it’s already in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. All good then.

But in this movie, the so-called Dial of Destiny is suspected of having even greater powers. Cut to 1969 New York, where Indiana, having just retired from his teaching job, receives a visit from Basil’s daughter (and Indy’s goddaughter) Helena, played by Phoebe-Waller Bridge.

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Following in her father’s footsteps, she’s anxious to track down the MacGuffin and unlock its secrets. Of course, Voller – who for some reason has been modelled on repentant Nazi turned NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun – is also trying to get his mitts on the thing.

And so the chase is on, through a bewildering series of locales including the New York subway, the dusty streets of Tangiers, and a wedding in Sicily, each scene involving the theft of a vehicle and a subsequent stunt-laden escapade that goes on just a little longer than needed.

Oh, and speaking of unnecessary elements, there’s a street urchin played by Ethann Isidore, who’s fine as far as he goes but can’t hold a candle to Ke Huy Kwan’s turn as Short Round in The Temple of Doom.

Besides, all the needed witty back-and-forth banter is covered off by Ford and Waller-Bridge, neither character quite certain how much faith to put in the other. (What I wouldn’t give if one of the film’s many callbacks were to have her try out his line from Raiders: “Trust me.”)

John Rhys-Davies returns as Indy’s Egyptian (!) buddy Sallah, his opening line – “Sorry I’m late, Indy. Bridge traffic.” – somehow giving off the same energy as “Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.” from all those years ago. And Antonio Banderas shows up as Renaldo, a ship’s captain who seems to have such a history with the archaeologist that I had to double-check that his character hadn’t popped up in an earlier film. (He hadn’t.)

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Together, Jones and his comrades work to outsmart (or at least outrun) the Nazis, who are also getting on in years and slowing down a little. All on the way to a conclusion that may strain credulity until you remember that past chapters have involved a 900-year-old Grail-guarding knight of the First Crusade, and aliens.

It’s arguable that the Indiana Jones movies might have been best left as a trilogy, with Indy and his father riding off into the sunset at the end of The Last Crusade. But given the mess that was Indy 4, it’s nice to see the series go out on a more palatable note. I’m happy to watch Ford’s fantastic, I’ve-just-found-what-I’m-looking-for grin, just one more time before he hangs up the hat and bullwhip for good. And to see him punch a few more Nazis.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens June 30 in theatres.

3.5 stars out of 5

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