Harrison Ford proves that he and Indiana Jones do not belong in a museum in this fun and bittersweet send-off
It's always nice to see a beloved old relic dusted off and brought back to life to be venerated all over again but more of Harrison Ford’s CGI de-aging later. The man who has been Indiana Jones on and off for over forty years returns to crack the whip and lose - and then reclaim - his iconic fedora one more time and thankfully his last outing is quite the old-fashioned thrill ride.
Ford insisted on killing off his other most famous character with a light sabre to the solar plexus but in this affectionate and very human farewell to the archaeologist adventurer, he manages to take his leave with gnarl and grump but also a huge amount of grace.
This fifth instalment was never going to have the Saturday afternoon cinema magic of the first three Indy flicks (we will politely overlook the misfiring Kingdom of The Crystal Skull) but with a classic globetrotting saga, taut and inventive action sequences, and crackling chemistry between the leads, there is still life in this artefact.
80-year-old Ford is the same age as US President Joe Biden, and he really leans into his years. At one point, while clambering up a crumbling wall in an underground vault, Indy mutters something about "swallowing the blood of Kali" and he’s more likely to run from trouble than headlong into it. Indy aches in the places where he used to play.
As is customary, we get a bravado opening sequence. Set on a train somewhere in Europe in 1944, fleeing Nazis are looting and pillaging as they retreat from the advancing allies. But here’s the de-aged (and very uncanny valley) Ford as dashing American spy Indiana Jones, back to bash the boche and snatch a mythical and paranormal doohickie which Hitler reckons can reverse the course of the war and provide a new frontier in psychic warfare.
This is the titular Dial of Destiny, which was built by Archimedes in antiquity, and which he then split into two halves - with one half hidden god knows where. Along with Indy is a game Toby Jones providing amiable and bumbling support as the terribly English Professor Basil Shaw. He’s Penfold to Indy’s Danger Mouse. In hot pursuit is Nazi psychist and psychopath Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who is determined to secure Archimedes’ fancy timepiece.
Fast forward to 1969 and we find Doctor Jones on his last day in work. World weary and grumpy, he gives out to his hippy neighbours for playing The Beatles too loudly and scowls at the moon landing fever that has gripped the world. A decidedly tame retirement awaits among his books of lore until his long AWOL goddaughter Helena Shaw (a firecracker performance from Phoebe Waller-Bridge) turns up with a proposition.
Meanwhile, turns out Voller never took a one-way ticket to Bolivia in 1945 and is now a quasi-Wernher von Braun who has hoodwinked NASA and is key to the US moon-shot. He is also still hunting the Dial of Destiny with the intention of bringing Nazism back.
This the first Indy movie without Steven Spielberg behind the lens but director James Mangold knows his action chops and we are treated to a several breakneck chases on various modes of transport, including Indy galloping through the New York subway on a police horse and a loopy hairpin car chase through the baking streets of Tangiers.
Two parts send-off and one part send-up, this is a greatest hits package for sure and it's all the more enjoyable for it. Composer John Williams is back to flick his baton, bugs crawl, eels slither ("They look like snakes!" Indie "They do not look like snakes!") and Mangold manages to bring back something of those old thirties’ movie serials.
And is that a touch of John Fowles The Magus in the third act? It’s a breezy two-and half-hours of gleeful escapism with a frankly batty ending that will leave scholars of timeslip narratives happy. Ford’s fond farewell may not dial up anything to top those three original Indy flicks, but you’d have to tip your fedora in giddy delight.
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny is in cinemas this Friday
