Indiana Jones returns with more history

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

English (Theatres)

Director: James Mangold

Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, and John Rhys-Davies

Rating: 4/5

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’, the fifth and final instalment of the legendary franchise, is a blast into the past as Harrison Ford reprises his role as the protagonist, racing against time to fathom ancient myths and prevent their misuse.

The film, helmed by James Mangold, starts off in the backdrop of WW2 drawing to a close, with Indiana Jones and fellow archaeologist Basil Shaw (George Lucas) staving off the Nazis and walking away with one part of the Antikythera, the Dial of Archimedes.

Twenty-five years down the road (1969), with Shaw dead and Jones aged, the quest for the other half restarts, this time with Ben’s daughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) on Jones’ side. With the German physicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) also in hot pursuit of the dial, the rest of the plot follows Jones and Helena’s bloody adventures to try and shape history, alongside Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore), a talismanic teenager on their side.

Despite being 80-years-old, Harrison Ford delivers a powerful performance with characteristic style. Humour, typically a generational clash in most of these films (remember the iconic Ford-Sean Connery camaraderie), retains its punch, with Ford delivering many a ‘pensioner’s one-liner’ that win the crowd over.

Waller-Bridge is impressive in her franchise debut as a feisty young woman while Mads Mikkelsen fits the bill as a narcissistic antagonist. The reprisal of John Rhys-Davies and Karen Allen’s roles as Sallah and Marion Ravenwood respectively, even if as cameos, adds to the sense of nostalgia that fans have developed around the franchise over the years.

However, with the franchise past its prime and popular appeal, the makers have tried to compensate topicality with fantasy. While realism was never its strong suit, the time travel is too good to be true, even for Indy. However, with the Hat in one hand and whip in the other, fighting Nazis and chasing age-old artefacts and scenes tailor-made to rekindle old memories, ‘The Dial of Destiny’ is quintessentially Indiana Jones in its tone and tenor.