Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

There is a rule in Star Trek films that the even numbered ones are usually considered better than the odd numbered ones. With Indiana Jones it seems to be the other way round. Everyone loves Raiders of the Lost Ark, except for some epic chase and action sequences, the Temple of Doom doesn’t seem to be the favourite of many fans though I always think of it in London when I got through Bleeding Heart Yard for some reason! The Last Crusade challenges and for some people surpasses the first film whilst Crystal Skulls should have been called Numbskulls.

Given this latest and likely last Indiana Jones film is the fifth instalment, does it mean it’s any good?

Harrison Ford is his typically wonderful self in the The Dial of Destiny, and as often has been the case, he elevates whatever film he is starring in. After the nightmare of the Cold War in the previous film, we are back in safe territory here with a fantastic introduction set towards the end of WW2 and thanks to the magic of CGI, Indiana is shown as a younger man doing what he does best, confounding, escaping and beating Nazis. This is when he first encounters the fiendish Jurgen Voller who is really played well by Mads Mikkelsen. The protracted introduction has everything you could want from an Indiana Jones adventure: chases, explosions and an epic fight sequence on top of a runaway train. As Denholm Elliot is no longer with us, the great Toby Jones more than fills in as Indy’s companion, Basil Jones, a diminutive, eccentric but staunchly heroic English academic who helps Indiana beat the odds.

We then jump forward to what passes as the present day. The Beatles are playing and the moon programme is in full swing. Indiana Jones is in New York and retiring from university teaching position. His students can barely stay awake in his classes, it seems history, archaeology and Indy isn’t as cool as he was in the 30’s and 40’s. . Basil’s daughter Helena who is portrayed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge turns up at one of his lectures and its shortly revealed that Indy is her godfather, but hasn’t seen her for years.

Helena reminds him of a mysterious ancient dial that he found on that runaway train during the war and which is now in two parts. Indiana is soon in a fight and a race to find it before Voller, who has changed his name and is now working on the American space programme. The dial was designed by Archimedes thousands of years before. If its two halves are brought together, its owner will be able to leap across time.

It turns out that Voller doesn’t want to go back in time to kill Churchill or anything like that but in fact wants to return to Munich and assassinate Hitler who seemingly wasn’t evil enough to be a true Nazi leader. With a fine upstanding man life Voller, just imagine how much destructive Nazi Germany could be.

From hereon-in the film is made up of a series of chases and fights linked by plot twists of various levels of improbability. The action is often very inventively staged and we have everything from Indy riding a horse on the New York subway to a shipwreck full of eels. As someone mentions, eels are like snakes and we all know how Indiana Jones feels about them. Unusually for Indy, the film is not directed by Steven Spielberg but instead by James Mangold and it runs at breathtaking speed with innumerable call-backs to earlier films which the audience I was with at least really enjoyed.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena is a major part of the film and I must say, I’m not stuck on her for several reasons. She is a little disconcerting, intellectually brilliant but also a mercenary and con artist, really the type of person Indy of old would have had no time for and aside from all of that, her character even as it is seems a little bit out of place in the film, leaving Indy for dead, joking when one of his friends is killed.

I must be about the only person in Britain to say so as she is widely lauded but I don’t think much of her as an actress either. The industry and media seem to love her but when I see her in something, I kind of make sure I don’t watch it but in this case the draw of Indiana Jones made that impossible.

I think the Roger Ebert sites says something along the lines that the film is never boring without every being exciting and to a degree I understand the sentiment though it’s kind of what I expect from Indiana Jones having watched it for 40 years. Nevertheless there were sequences that were exciting to me and funny too and I remember thinking how life will be a little poorer for never having a new Indiana Jones chase to experience. I’m sure most fans will really enjoy Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Harrison Ford’s age isn’t ignored and is almost integral to the plot.

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST SEQUENCE

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It has what I think is an amazing last sequence when the Dial of Destiny is put to use for the first time in two thousand years and whilst the revelation of the alien mothership in Crystal Skull seemed all a bit George Lucas, the Dial od Destiny has a neat twist where Archimedes invention when activated takes them back to Archimedes. It’s not a true time-portal device in a useful way but was made by the great man to garner help from the future to save his city when it is being overrun by Romans. It only has one setting and it takes you to Archimedes and the siege of Syracuse.

There are some breath taking scenes of ancient Greeks and Romans and indeed Nazis fighting each other. Indy being at deaths door so to speak decides that he wants to spends his last days here amongst the history and ancient civilisations that he loves alongside one of the greatest men in history. I really liked that and that is how I would be and indeed wrote a trilogy along similar lines (see below)

Sadly that’s not how it played out and he is told that his presence may have changed history and he replied along the lines of ‘that’s a loss, some history’!

If Indiana Jones is now history, then it’s a part I will always look forward to re-visiting.

If time-travel history is your thing then you might like these first three books that I wrote.

(The Promise, The Messenger, Forever and Until).