‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Proves Harrison Ford is Still Charming At Any Age

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny doesn’t live up to vintage Indy adventures, but contains enough fun set pieces and Harrison Ford charm to far surpass 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Let’s be honest, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark set the gold standard for fun action adventure movies. It’s a great interpretation of the old adventure serials that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were aiming for when they cooked up the idea of Indiana Jones, and it became instantly iconic thanks to the charismatic performance of Harrison Ford. 

Since Raiders, we’ve seen three more Indiana Jones movies of varying quality from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to the poorly-received 2008 sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but none have quite matched the fun we got from that first movie.

Then, of course, we have the world of movies clearly inspired by the adventures of our legendary archeologist including 1999’s The Mummy, which also suffered sequels of diminishing quality, the Nicolas Cage led National Treasure movies, the Lara Croft adaptations—both the Angelina Jolie duo and the 2018 Alicia Vikander version, and more recently the flop Uncharted adaptation.

With such a legacy, it was easy to see why audiences were a bit apprehensive when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was announced. We know that Ford loves this character, but after Crystal Skull, people just didn’t want to be set up for another movie that was at best a mere shadow of the fun Indy used to deliver and at worst a soulless cash grab filled with mediocre special effects and increasingly convoluted plot lines.

Thankfully, Dial of Destiny has more in common with the OG Indy movies than 2008’s disappointing entry. Though it doesn’t reach the heights of the 1980s originals, it’s certainly on par with a National Treasure or the better entries in the crop of films that borrow the Indy formula.

Ford returns as the legendary Dr. Jones, this time hunting down the Archimedes Dial, a device that can bend time. Writers Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp, and director James Mangold are not trying to convince us that Ford is not 80 years old, and setting the film in 1969 further highlights the difference between him and the modern world in which he’s living. People are obsessed with space and the future, not as interested in relics from the past.

After a surprise visit from his estranged goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), he’s thrust into a globe-hopping adventure involving Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) who seeks to use the Archimedes Dial. Indy, Helena, and her sidekick Teddy (Ethann Isidore) have to try to stop Voller and his henchman Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) from using the dial to change the course of World War II and take over the world.

Ford might be an octogenarian, but there is absolutely no question that he is a true movie star. His charm and magnetism know no bounds and the emotion he can deliver in a closeup instantly draws us into the character. Even if you don’t have nostalgia for Indiana Jones, you’re going to care about this guy and root for him to win because he’s just so incredibly charismatic.

Like so many movies these days, this film is hindered by its extended runtime. The prologue feels exciting in a way that instantly reminds us of those classic Indy adventures, but there are other times when scenes start to drag a bit. Raiders clocked in at 115 minutes with Temple of Doom and Last Crusade also clocking in around the 2-hour mark, but at 154 minutes, it’s clear that some of the fat could have been trimmed a bit with Dial of Destiny. 

The most refreshing thing about the movie is that it feels like the primary objective was telling a fun story, which is surprisingly rare for big-budget sequels these days. Movies of this scale featuring characters beloved since the 1980s are almost always filled to the brim with nostalgia-milking and “I clapped because I know what that is” moments, but Dial of Destiny shows incredible restraint in not making every single scene a series of memberberry callbacks. Sure, these moments are in there, but more attention goes to the globe-hopping quest for the MacGuffin than creating a montage of images you remember from your childhood.

So overall, Dial of Destiny doesn’t touch classics like Raiders but taps into the immeasurable charm of Ford to give our beloved archeologist a fun sendoff that far surpasses Indy’s 2008 adventure. 

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