As the true finale for the long-running and beloved Indiana Jones franchise, "The Dial
of Destiny" ends on quite a memorable note.
Here's what it all means.
"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" begins in 1944.
Indy and his companion Basil Shaw infiltrate a train and are on a mission to rescue treasures
stolen by Nazis.
Some of these "treasures" are fake, but one is the real deal: half of the Antikythera,
or "Dial of Destiny," created by Archimedes and more technologically advanced than anything
else that would be made for centuries.
The film's main action occurs in 1969.
Indy is an old and jaded professor, Basil is dead, and one of the Nazis from the train,
Jürgen Voller, is a NASA rocket scientist working on the moon landing.
Having conquered space, Voller now wants to conquer time and is seeking out the Antikythera.
Also seeking it is Basil's daughter and Indy's goddaughter Helena, nicknamed "Wombat," who
reenters Indy's life after a long time away.
"Who is this man?"
"I'm her godfather"
"He's mildly related."
When Voller frames Indy for the murder of two colleagues, the aging archeologist once
again dons his fedora and embarks on a globe-trotting adventure to find the other half of the Antikythera
before the Nazis do.
Wombat is both Indy's companion and foil, with her greed and gambling debts bringing
trouble.
Young thief Teddy and diver Renaldo help out, and eventually, they find the Dial's other
half in Archimedes' hidden tomb in Sicily.
The Nazis come in hot on Indy and Wombat's trail, using information from the kidnapped
Teddy to find the tomb.
The nature of the Antikythera and Voller's plans for it are revealed: It can track rips
in time.
Voller intends to travel back to Sicily on August 20th, 1939, to kill Hitler so that
the invasion of Poland doesn't happen.
He believes that by doing this, the Third Reich can continue to gain power without their
ultimate defeat in World War II.
The Nazis take Indy hostage and fly their plane into the rift.
Fortunately, Wombat sneaks onto the plane via motorcycle and Teddy hijacks another plane
to chase them.
The Antikythera ends up taking everyone to the Siege of Syracuse in 213 B.C.
As it turns out, this is the only time and place the device can transport people to.
The Nazis are easily dispatched amidst the Greco-Roman battle.
The archeologist decides he wants to stay in the ancient past, but Wombat brings him
back home where he reunites with his old love Marion Ravenwood.
Had the calculations on the Antikythera worked the way Voller planned, the audience would
have seen an awkward scenario take place.
Beloved Nazi fighter Indiana Jones would find himself in the position of saving the life
of Adolf Hitler.
Though his goal would be to stop Voller or someone else from becoming an even more powerful
Nazi Führer.
Even considering how common "Would you kill Hitler?"
debates about the ethics of time travel are, this would be a strange plot.
However, even before the Antikythera leads them to Roman times, Indy suspects that there's
no risk of Voller successfully reaching his intended destination.
The reason?
Continental drift.
The map of the world in Archimedes' time was not the same as the map that exists in 1969.
And the ancient Greeks didn't have any concept of plate tectonics.
This prevented them from predicting how geography subtly shifts over time.
Even if Archimedes had knowledge of the future, it would seem pretty unlikely that he'd be
able to account for all of that.
The creators of "The Dial of Destiny" were clearly aware of the intrigue of time paradoxes
while equally aware of their potential to frustrate an audience.
This becomes clear the moment Archimedes finds the completed Antikythera…before he even
started building it.
However, the filmmakers thought ahead and made sure to clean up most of the mess this
paradoxical discovery makes.
As far as paradoxes go, the first has to do with the notion that Archimedes is inspired
by his own work from the future.
If he had started building the device only after Nazis began falling from the sky, then
the Antikythera would have no origin point.
Instead, the movie makes it clear that Archimedes had the idea for the Dial of Destiny before
time travel had actually occurred.
The second paradox has to do with Archimedes' possession of the device.
The ancient mathematician manages to get a hold of the dial, and if he kept it, he would
have effectively gotten the device without actually having to invent it in the first
place.
The filmmakers solve this problem when Wombat takes the Antikythera from Archimedes, telling
him that he needs to build the Dial on his own.
Do the mechanics of the rifts in time make scientific sense?
No, they do not, but looking for scientific logic in an "Indiana Jones" movie is a fool's
errand.
Magic exists in Indy's world, and so do aliens and the ability to survive a nuclear blast
inside a refrigerator.
The time travel story here isn't a much bigger stretch, and it's the only huge leap in a
movie that arguably plays things a bit too safe otherwise.
Perhaps in reaction to negative feelings over "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" getting a bit
too silly, "Dial of Destiny" generally feels a bit too restrained.
It gets overly reverent towards nostalgia and is more than content to repeat the greatest
hits from prior movies.
The time travel ending may be considered a "nuke the fridge" moment, but it is also the
one part of the new sequel that feels genuinely fresh and bold.
It works despite not fully making sense because it's both entertaining in its absurdity and
emotionally fitting for a story about an aging man so obsessed with the past that he no longer
feels at home in the present.
Indiana Jones is characterized as a man who feels out of sync with the changing world
around him.
"Those days have come and gone."
"Perhaps.
Perhaps not."
His hippie neighbors know him as the cranky old guy who tells them to keep their music down.
His students don't pay attention in class.
He's not even excited about the moon landing, which you'd assume would inspire at least
some wonder.
Though to be fair, his disinterest is vindicated by the fact his old enemies are working at
NASA now.
His only connection to the popular zeitgeist of the late '60s is in vocally opposing the
Vietnam War.
Unfortunately, he has a very tragic reason for that.
His son Mutt enlisted and was killed in action.
The grief over Mutt's death led to the end of his marriage to Marion.
Traveling back in time to the same battle he was desperately trying to make his students
care about is like a dream for Indy.
He's willing to succumb to his injuries and die in this "dream" because he's always been
in love with the past and has grown increasingly lost in the present.
He's getting on in years and endured far more near-death experiences than most people could
ever imagine, so he's had plenty of time to make peace with the idea of his death.
On some level, he also feels that by staying behind, he's making a sacrifice that helps
Helena and Teddy get home safely.
Indy's goddaughter, of course, won't tolerate Indy's attempt at self-sacrifice.
She clocks Indy right in the face, and by the time he regains consciousness, he's already
in his bed with his wounds bandaged up.
He's initially upset about having been saved against his will, claiming he has nothing
left to live for.
Wombat presents a clear counterpoint to this by inviting over others who care about him:
Teddy, Sallah, and most significantly of all, Marion.
When Indy and Marion have some alone time, the couple that broke up due to intense emotional
pain find each other again through a little physical pain.
When asked about his injuries, Indy says that "everything hurts."
Marion says the same is true for her, but points specifically to a place that doesn’t
hurt – her elbow – and Indy kisses it.
She then points to her collarbone, which gets another kiss.
Soon they're kissing passionately.
This is fan service done right: a reversal of the iconic kiss scene from "Raiders of
the Lost Ark" that also works perfectly as a romantic happy ending.
Though we can't truly say for certain that there won't be another sequel, it's all but
certain this is going to be the final "Indiana Jones" movie.
Like James Mangold's prior blockbuster "Logan," this is a movie about an old man reflecting
upon his life and finding some sense of closure.
Unlike in "Logan," this closure doesn't involve death, which means it's not an absolute franchise
ender.
But this feels like it's meant to be a definitive happy ending for Indiana Jones.
It's interesting that between this and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," Disney has released
two summer blockbusters that offer a firm sense of conclusion without killing any main
characters to give their stories a sense of finality.
With Harrison Ford now 80 years old and the studio having no interest in recasting Indy,
the only plausible future for the franchise would be spinoffs focused on other characters
in this universe.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Helena is a charismatic enough new character that she could certainly
carry a Disney+ show of her own, and there are also those constant fan demands for Ke
Huy Quan to reprise the role of Short Round as an adult.
"Hey, Dr. Jones.
No time for love!"
Even then, there are rumors that LucasFilm is now focusing exclusively on "Star Wars,"
so even the most promising "Indiana Jones" spinoff ideas are extremely unlikely.
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure”