Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 American action-adventure film directed by James Mangold and written by Mangold, David Koepp, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. It is the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones film series. Harrison Ford and John Rhys-Davies reprise their roles from the previous films, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen joining the cast. Set in 1969, the film follows Jones and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Dr. Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist, who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II.

Plans for a fifth Indiana Jones film date back to 1979, when a deal was made with Paramount Pictures to produce five Indiana Jones films. Lucas began researching potential plot devices for a fifth film in 2008, and Koepp was hired to write the screenplay in 2016. In 2018, Jonathan Kasdan replaced Koepp but later left the project. Originally set for release in 2019, the film faced delays due to rewrites and the COVID-19 pandemic. Steven Spielberg was initially set to direct but stepped down in 2020, with Mangold taking over. Filming began in June 2021 in various locations including the United Kingdom, Italy, and Morocco, wrapping in February 2022.

Franchise composer John Williams returned to score the film, earning nominations for Best Original Score at the 96th Academy Awards and Best Score at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Williams won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for "Helena's Theme".

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered out of competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 30, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It grossed $384 million, becoming a box-office bomb due to being one of the most expensive films ever made.

Plot

Towards the end of World War II, Nazis capture Indiana Jones and Oxford archaeologist Basil Shaw as they attempt to retrieve the Lance of Longinus from a castle in the French Alps. Astrophysicist Jürgen Voller informs his superiors the Lance is fake, but he has found half of Archimedes' Dial, an Antikythera mechanism built by the ancient Syracusan mathematician Archimedes which reveals time fissures, thereby allowing for possible time travel. Jones escapes onto a Berlin-bound train filled with looted antiquities and frees Basil. He obtains the Dial piece, and they escape just before Allied forces derail the train.

In 1969, Jones, who is retiring from Hunter College in NYC, has been separated from his wife Marion Ravenwood since their son Mutt's death in Vietnam. Jones' goddaughter, archaeologist Helena Shaw, unexpectedly visits and wants to research the Dial. Jones warns that her late father Basil became obsessed with studying it before relinquishing it to Jones to destroy, which he never did.

As Jones and Helena retrieve the Dial half from the college archives, Voller's accomplices attack them. The CIA assists Voller, now working for NASA as "Dr. Schmidt". Helena, revealed as an antiquities smuggler, absconds with the Dial to auction it on the black market. Jones is framed for two colleagues' murders, forcing him to escape through the Apollo 11 moon landing parade, then an anti-war protest.

Jones seeks out his old friend Sallah, now a New York cab driver, who helps him flee the country after surmising that Helena will likely sell the Dial in Tangier. There, Jones disrupts Helena's illegal private auction, but Voller and his henchmen arrive and steal the artifact. Jones, Helena, and her teenage accomplice Teddy Kumar chase them through the streets in a tuk-tuk. The CIA intercepts Voller after the U.S. government disavows him for going rogue, but he and his cohorts murder the agents and steal the CIA helicopter.

Jones, Helena and Teddy trail Voller to Greece and team up with Jones' old friend Renaldo, a professional diver. Guided by Basil's research, they dive to the Antikythera wreck and retrieve a "graphikos" tablet containing directions to the Dial's other half. Voller arrives and murders Renaldo and his crew, but Jones' group escapes and heads to Sicily, pursued by Voller.

Inside the Ear of Dionysius cavern, Jones and Helena find Archimedes' tomb, the Dial's second half, and a 20th-century wristwatch on Archimedes' skeletal arm. Voller appears and captures Jones, wounding him. Helena and Teddy escape and chase Voller. Voller reassembles the dial, intending to time-travel back to 1939 to help lead Germany to victory in World War II by assassinating Adolf Hitler and avoiding his mistakes. At an airfield, Voller activates the Dial and locates a time fissure in the sky. Jones is held captive on Voller's stolen plane while Helena stows away through its landing gear. Teddy follows in another plane.

While approaching the fissure, Jones realizes that continental drift could have altered the timeline coordinates. Rather than 1939, the group arrives at the Siege of Syracuse in 214 BC. The warring armies shoot down Voller's plane, believing it to be a dragon. Jones and Helena parachute out just before it crashes, killing all aboard, while Teddy lands safely. Archimedes finds Voller's body and wristwatch in the wreckage. He gives Jones the Dial but keeps the watch. Jones and Helena learn that Archimedes created the Dial to bring allies from the future through fissures that lead only to 214 BC to save Syracuse and lift the siege. As the fissure begins to collapse, Jones wants to remain behind, feeling he has nothing left to return to. Helena, fearing a time paradox and unwilling to give up on him, knocks Jones unconscious. Back in 1969, a recovering Jones awakens in his apartment and reunites with Helena, Teddy, Sallah and Marion, with whom he reconciles.