Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny
Cert: 12A
★★★
It moves at a fair crack but Harrison Ford’s final adventure as the whip-wielding archaeologist gets a little exhausting.
Over a frantic 154 minutes, director James Mangold puts the 80-year-old star through a raft of action scenes that are supposed to echo classic scenes from his original films.
To prevent the latest superpowered ancient gadget from falling into the hands of the latest batch of Nazis, poor Indy must team up with another Tuk Tuk driving kid, squeeze into burial chambers, fight goons on the top of a moving train and wrestle snakes (well this time its eels).
Whenever the pace slackens, we hear the opening fanfare of John Williams’s iconic score. I’m guessing “De de duh duh,” is supposed to send us those who grew up on the original trilogy back to our salad days.
After a while, it sounds as gratingly insistent as a modern jingle for a used car buying service. At least, Ford’s charisma is still firing on all cylinders. Indy may be moaning about “crumbling vertebrae” but the veteran actor more or less carries this $300million blockbuster on his own.
It begins with a digitally de-aged Ford (the tech still isn’t quite there) clashing with Mads Mikkelsen’s Nazi scientist in a rip-roaring sequence set in 1944.
After rescuing his English sidekick Basil Shaw (Toby Jones in the Denholm Elliot role), the pair discover half of The Dial Of Destiny, a mysterious device which was split into two bits by its inventor Archimedes.
Then we cut to New York in 1969 to find our hero swigging breakfast bourbon in his underpants in a grotty New York flat. He’s miffed about his downstairs neighbours blasting the Beatles and isn’t too impressed when he gets handed a retirement gift later on in the day.
When you have unearthed the Ark Of Covenant, a carriage clock was never going to cut it.
But a final treasure hunt beckons after a reunion with his annoying, con artist goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
She wants to get her mitts on the Dial Of Destiny to raise some cash and Mikkelsen’s German boffin (now a US rocket scientist) wants to use it to goose-step back into his past.
This sparks another round of globe-trotting, Nazi-punching and bickering with a mismatched partner.
A romance with the Fleabag star would have been unseemly but her duff wisecracks fail to channel any of the sparky generational comedy Ford enjoyed with Sean Connery in The Last Crusade.
At least it delivers on the action and the adventure. The Dial Of Destiny is a fitting way for an old daredevil to hang up his hat.
The lowdown on the movie
By Jackie Annett
The fifth and final movie in the epic saga sees Harrison Ford return to our screens - here’s our guide to all you need to know.
What’s the film about?
The film opens to scenes in 1944, where adventurer Indy stops Jürgen Voller, a Nazi, from obtaining a mysterious dial known as the Antikythera.
Viewers are then trasported 25 years later, when Jones is unhappy that the US government is using former Nazis to help beat the Soviet Union in the competition to make it to space.
He is about to be forced into retirement from his teaching position because of his views but his goddaughter Helena Shaw helps him with his quest to find the Antikythera.
Who are the stars?
Harrison Ford is joined by John Rhys-Davies and Karen Allen who return to their roles as Sallah and Marion Ravenwood from earlier films in the franchise.
New cast members include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Boyd Holbrook and Mads Mikkelsen.
Harrison Ford recently said co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge who is better known for starring in and writing Fleabag and Killing Eve, was one of the reasons to watch the film.
“I’m very proud to say this one is fantastic and Waller-Bridge is one of the reasons. Indiana Jones movies are about mystery and adventure, but they’re also about heart. I’m really, really happy that we have a really human story to tell, as well as a movie that will kick your ass.”
While the other four films in the franchise have been directed by Steven Spielberg, this time around its James Mangold who recently tweeted: “I understand wariness. I live it. I don’t know if I’ll make you happy but we will knock ourselves out trying to make something good.”
Where is the show filmed?
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was filmed in various locations including the UK, Italy and the US.
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway was used for a scene in which there’s an escape from a Nazi prison camp.
Meanwhile a street in Glasgow doubled for an American parade and Coliemore Harbour in Dublin, Ireland, was also used during filming.
