Maha Yassin
Are you ready for one more adventure? Dodging bullets, jumping off plans and chasing a relic long forgotten but now the one thing everyone wants? Then hop on for the final Indiana Jones movie: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny!
The classic franchise that made its debut in 1981 with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is making a final comeback this June with no other than the one and only Indy, Harrison Ford. Ford was 39 years old when he played the adventurous history professor, and now, at 80 years old, he is back wearing his signature hat to take on one final adventure. Joined by many of the original Indiana Jones cast, some new faces and helmed by a new director, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is one of 2023’s most anticipated movies and for a good reason.
Whether you’re already an old Indy fan -like us!- or a new one, keep reading as we’ll give you a refresher for all the previous Indy adventures and discuss what we can all expect from this new movie and its incredible cast. Fortune and glory, kid! Let’s go!
Previously on Indiana Jones
As I said, this is Indy’s fifth adventure! Since 1981, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones has been going on adventures to restore lost artefacts from Egypt and the Himalayas. He faced Nazis, bandits, thieves, aliens; you name it! Throughout his exhilarating journey, Indy found love -multiple times-, had a son, and made friends and many enemies. Let’s take a quick look into all four previous Indiana Jones movies as we get ready to dive into his next adventure.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The story starts in 1936 when archaeologist Indiana Jones aka Indy, is hired by the American government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. The legend says that the Ark of the Covenant can make armies invincible, and the Nazis and the Allied Forces have their eyes on it.
Indy enlists the help of his former mentor Abner Ravenwood, whom he discovers has long died. Ravenwoods’s daughter, Marion, insists on helping Indy retrieve the Ark, and together, they travel to Egypt to trace the last location of the Staff of Ra and Ark. At the same time, Indy and Marion are looking for The Ark for the Americans, archaeologist René Belloq is also looking for it but for the Nazis.
After a lot of fighting and finally finding the Ark, Belloq is the one who is in the acquisition of it. He keeps Indy and Marion as his prisoners as he and the group of Nazis with him open the Ark to test its powers. The powers become uncontrollable and kill everyone on site except Indy and Marion, who keep their eyes shut. They return the Ark to the States and give it to the government for safekeeping.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was directed by Stephen Spielberg and based on the original story by George Lucas. The film succeeded at the Box Office and received five Academy Awards in 1982.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
For the second Indiana Jones instalment, we go back to 1935, one year before Indy goes on a search for Ark. While escaping an attempted murder by a former client, Indy, a nightclub singer named Willie, and an orphan child named Short Round end up in an Indian village in the Himalayas.
The village residents discover that Indy is an adventurer who finds missing artefacts and begs him to find their sacred lingam stone stolen from their village along with several little children. Unable to refuse an adventure, Indy and his crew accept the mission and head out to find the stone and the missing children.
The crew end up in a palace where they stay the night. At night, Indy, Willie and Short Round explore the palace to find a cult conducting a human sacrifice under the palace grounds. The cult has the village’s sacred stone, three other Sankara stones, and the children.
A fight breaks between the cult and Indy and his crew. Indy defies the cult, saves Willie from being sacrificed and escapes. Indy returns the sacred stone and the children to the village, and he, Willie and Short Round all go their separate ways.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was also directed by Stephen Spielberg, with Goerge Lucas as the executive producer and writer. It won an Academy Award and a BAFTA, both for visual effects.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Two years after the events of the first movie, Indiana Jones’s father, Henry, disappears while looking for the Holy Grail, a cup that grants immortality. His father’s financial advisor hires Indy to look for Henry and retrieve the Holy Grail.
Indy travels to Venice, and to that last place, his father is seen. He meets his father’s associate Elsa Schneider who helps him find a secret catacomb beneath the library. While looking around the catacombs, Indy and Elsa are attacked by The Order of the Cruciform Sword, whose mission is to protect the Holy Grail. Indy ends up saving their leader and, as a result, is told that his father is being kept prisoner in Austria.
Entrusting his friend Marcus with his father’s diary and map to the Holy Grail, Indy travels to Australia to save his father. He finds his father but also discovers that Elsa is a Nazi collaborator. Indy and his father are taken hostage, and to make things worse, the Nazis give his father a mortal wound to encourage Indy to find the Grail.
Everyone travels to Hatay, where the Grail is said to be in a temple. Indy find a room with many cups and is told that only one cup is the real Holy Grail, while all other will cause him to die. He locates the real cup and saves his father, but Elsa tries to run away with the cup, which causes the temple to collapse and kill her. Indy and his father escape successfully.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was also directed by Stephen Spielberg and co-written by himself and George Lucas. The film won an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Nineteen years later, after Indy’s last adventure, it is 1953; this time, he faces KGB agents. Indy and his partner Mac get kidnapped by KGB agent Irina Spalko and are ordered to find an alien corpse. After finding the corpse, Indy manages to flee the scene and returns to the US.
In the US, he finds himself integrated by the FBI and suspended from Marshall College until further notice. Mutt Williams, a young kid, approaches Indy and asks for help finding his missing mother and Indy’s former colleague Harold Oxley. Oxley found a crystal skull in Peru and was abducted alongside William’s mother.
Indy and Williams travel to Peru and can locate the crystal skull using Oxley’s notes. They are also abducted by the Soviets and reunited with Oxley and Williams’s mother, who turns out to be Marion Ravenwood. She revealed that Mutt Williams is, in fact, Indy’s son. Indy, Williams, Oxely, Marion and Mac escape from the Soviets and, while running away, end up in Akator, a mythical city.
With Mac’s help, the Soviets and Spalko follow Indy and his crew to a temple in Akator, with they find multiple other crystal skulls; when they add the last skull to the collection, an alien is awakened and asks what they seek. Spalko asks to “know everything” and is overwhelmed by the knowledge and dies. Indy and his crew escape safely, and Marion finally gets married back in the US.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the last Indiana Jones film directed by Stephen Spielberg. It was not written by Goerge Lucas this time but by David Koepp. The audience did not very well receive the movie as it won the Golden Raseberry’s Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. However, it was still a Box Office success! (Power of the franchises!).
The Final Indiana Jones Film
In the 1970s, Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas planned to have five Indiana Jones movies with Paramount Pictures. After the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008, George Lucas began to write a potential fifth instalment to the series. However, the project was delayed for years until 2016, when David Keopp was hired to write the movie.
This film is the first Indiana Jones film not to be directed by Stephen Spielberg or written by George Lucas. Spielberg was set to direct the movie originally but stepped down in 2020 in favour of James Mangold. Both Spielberg and Lucas are associated with the film still as executive producers. This film was their project, to begin with, and there is no way they won’t see it to the end!
Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny Plot
In 1969, Indiana Jones didn’t feel very good about the US government hiring Nazis to help them win the competition of making it to space first against the Soviet Union. Voicing his unpopular opinion causes him to be almost forced to retire from his position as the Dean of Marshall College.
He decides to race the Nazis hired by the US government into acquiring a mysterious dial called the Antikythera. His former partner Basil Shaw’s daughter and god-daughter, Helena Shaw, decides to accompany him on his new adventure. Racing against time, ex-Nazi Jürgen Voller and the US government, Indy starts his final adventure to retrieve the Dial of Destiny.
Old and New Faces
The cast for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reunites old Indiana Jones actors with some fresh faces that were probably fans of the franchise even before they joined it. It’s always great to see the characters we love aid Indy in his new adventure, but also adding fresh faces keeps the audiences on the edge of their seats. Let’s meet the cast of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Harrison Ford
Indy himself is coming back to a movie about him! Harrison Ford is reprising his iconic role as archaeologist Indiana Jones in this final instalment. Harrison Ford has always shown a lot of love for the Indiana Jones franchise and its fans. Being 80 did not stop the A-list star from returning for a final adventure.
During the past 42 years since Ford started playing the role of Indiana Jones, he took part in various projects, including four Star Wars films where he portrayed the cocky pilot Han Solo, two Blade Runner films and multiple other projects ranging from drama to comedy to action films.
He received many awards for his astonishing contribution to the movie industry, including the Golden Globe’s Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2002, the Lifetime Achievement Award from CinemaCon in 2013, and finally, an Honorary Palme d’Or from Cannes Film Festival in 2023.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Playing Helena Shaw, Indy’s god-daughter and fellow adventurer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an English actress and screenwriter. Waller-Bridge wrote and starred in the hit comedy series Fleabag from 2016 to 2019, for which she received three Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. She also wrote and produced the BBC’s hot crime thriller Killing Eve from 2018 o 2022.
Waller-Bridge started her career in 2007, playing various small roles in multiple TV series. She created Fleabag as a play in 2012 and later took it to BBC 2 in 2016 as a limited TV series. The series was a hit and got picked up by Amazon Video in 2016. She also did multiple voice acting roles in shows such as Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and His Dark Materials (2020).
Karen Allen
Marion Ravenwood, Indy’s first love interest and later wife from previous Indiana Jones movies, is returning with actress Karen Allen reprising her role. Allen’s career consisted of playing many minor roles in movies and being a Broadway actress for many years following her role as Marion Ravenwood.
She starred alongside Jeff Bridges in the science fiction film Starman in 1984 and starred alongside Bill Murray in his comedy Scrooges in 1988. She debuted on Broadway in The Monday After The Miracle in 1982, then played the lead in the off-Broadway play Extremities.
Mads Mikkelsen
The final Indiana Jones villain, Dr Jürgen Voller, is played by no other than Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen started his career in his home country of Denmark, where he rose into fame with roles such as Tonny in the Pusher film trilogy and TV series such as Rejseholdet (2000–2004), Open Hearts (2002) and After the Wedding (2006).
He debuted in American films and gained worldwide fame as Le Chiffre in James Bond’s film Casino Royal in 2006. He later went on to star in famous franchise movies such as Doctor Strange (2016), Star Wars: Rogue One (2016) and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).
Indy’s famous saying “Fortune and Glory” awaits the audiences as they witness Indiana Jones take his final bow on the big screen. As a fan, you get to see Indiana Jones in the theatre, wearing his famous hat and retrieve an artefact long forgotten.