With the release of a new Indiana Jones movie, there is one question on most people’s minds: is this another Crystal Skulls? Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls was the last entry in the franchise and was pretty much universally considered a disappointment. From fumbling a story about Indy connecting with his long lost secret son, to poorly conceived and executed CGI set pieces, Crystal Skulls was wholly unsatisfying. Indy’s relationship with his son, played by Shia LaBeouf just didn’t quite connect, and the movie failed to address Indy’s age in any meaningful way. So does Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny acquit its self better than it’s predecessor and give the quintessential cinematic action hero the send off he deserves?
Now let’s get this out of the way right now, does Dial of Destiny live up to Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? No. Of course not. Those are two of the most iconic action adventure movies in the history of cinema and Dial was never going to be in that conversation. But I also don’t think it’s trying to. This time around, they turn Indiana Jones’ age, the greatest potential liability of the movie, into the thing the movie is about. Harrison Ford is an octogenarian after all and to address the age of the character would strain credulity to the breaking point.
The movie opens with a flashback sequence that takes place in Indy’s prime, with a de-aged Harrison Ford. You can see the seams of the de-aging but it serves the purpose of returning us to Indy’s glory days without taking the audience out of things too much. When we catch up to Indiana in 1969, he’s old. He’s lost his son in Vietnam, he’s getting a divorce, he’s retiring from his teaching position. He feels like the world has left him behind and he’s lost his sense of purpose. This is the entire point of the movie and the reason for making it, to strip an iconic action hero down to a relatable figure processing loss, reckoning with his mortality and his place in the world. Everything he believes gave his life purpose is seemingly gone and he’s lonely. That is until his long lost, freewheeling, archaeologist goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) drags him back into the fray.
Helena Shaw is delightful. She’s a strong, highly intelligent, resourceful, witty, playful foil to Indy. She’s the breath of life that he needs in his life and she challenges him. They’re relationship works in a way that Indy’s relationship with his son in Crystal Skulls just didn’t. There was something forced and a little off about the father son dynamic they tried to create in that movie. Helena and Indy’s relationship makes more sense and feels right. Indy is her godfather but it isn’t really a mentor/sidekick dynamic. They’re on much more equal footing and come to respect each other through the course of their adventure. It is through Helena that Indy comes to see that he still has a purpose and a place in the world. She shows him that he can still venture out on those glob trotting adventures, solve puzzles, and best the baddies. More importantly, she shows him that there are still meaningful connections and a place in the world for him. He has friends and family who care about him. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny works in a way that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn’t because it wrangles with themes of grief, age and mortality. There is a depth of character to Indiana Jones here that is poignant, resonant and relatable. Indiana Jones finding a renewed purpose, his place in the world and most importantly, those connections that give us purpose is about as satisfying a sendoff as we could hope for.