The first three Indiana Jones movies saw Dr. Henry Jones Jr. coming into contact with powerful religious artifacts, i.e. the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Sankara Stones in The Temple of Doom and the Holy Grail in The Last Crusade. Then The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came along and went full sci-fi by having Harrison Ford’s character witness an alien from another dimension. 15 years later, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is bringing time travel into the franchise, and producer Frank Marshall addressed how the 2023 new movie release will explore this concept.
The Dial of Destiny trailer released in April teased the use of time travel with a line of dialogue from Mads Mikkelsen’s Jürgen Voller, the main antagonist: “Hitler made mistakes, and with this, I will correct them all.” Sure enough, Marshall explained to SFX Magazine how the dial can be used to change the timeline, but don’t go thinking this particular artifact will stand out like a sore thumb compared to its predecessors. In his words:
The Dial of Destiny is perfect for us because it’s about time. It’s math and time. We always try and have some sort of archaeological connection and there was certainly that – there’s a mythology to the Dial of Destiny that exists. It turned out to be the perfect thing for this movie.
While the origins of the dial will be saved for the movie itself, it should be pretty clear that it getting in the hands of a former Nazi is bad news. Although The Dial of Destiny opens with a World War II-set action sequence featuring a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford, the main storyline takes place in 1969, when Jürgen Voller has been recruited to NASA’s moon landing program. As could be inferred, Frank Marshall made it clear that Voller intends to use the dial to go back and change the timeline so that Nazi Germany won the war. As for whether using the dial qualifies as this franchise delving back into sci-fi, which was among the polarizing elements of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the producer had this to say:
Well, yes and no. It works in the plot because it is scientific. Well, I guess it’s scientific! It really works for what we are doing and it sets up a whole lot of great plot points. The question is, if you can control time, like in Back to the Future, would you change things? And what would that mean? That’s a big question for everybody, and certainly is in the movie.
One has to wonder if the temptation to alter time will also impact our main protagonist. After all, with such an eventful life, there are surely things Indy would like to change from his past, but fingers crossed he’s wise enough to know that it’s not worth the risk to reality. What we will see the fedora-wearing and whip-wielding archaeologist do is team up with his goddaughter, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena, to find the dial, while Jürgen Voller will be aided in his mission by Boyd Holbrook’s Klaber. The Dial of Destiny’s cast also includes John Rhys-Davies, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Shaunette Renée Wilson and Thomas Kretschmann, among others. James Mangold directed the feature and co-wrote the script with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens in theaters on June 30. Use your Disney+ subscription to stream the first four movies ahead of its release, and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage on the fifth installment.
