does indiana jones time travel

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ending explained: your biggest questions answered

We break down the twists and turns of that wild Indy 5 ending

The Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ending certainly goes wild, with that titular Dial taking the plot in a very unexpected direction. With so much going on, you might have missed a few key details – but that's where we come in. 

With the movie now in US theaters, we've broken down the major twists and turns in the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ending and explained exactly what happened, answering your biggest and most burning questions in the process. 

Dial of Destiny sees Harrison Ford return to his iconic role for one last adventure, while newcomers to the cast include Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy's goddaughter Helena Shaw, Mads Mikkelsen as the sinister Dr. Voller, Antonio Banderas as Indy's pal Renaldo, and Toby Jones as Helena's father, Basil Shaw. 

It should go without saying, but the following contains major spoilers for Indiana Jones 5. Turn back now if you haven't seen the movie yet! For everyone else, destiny awaits…

Indiana Jones 5 ending explained

The Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ending gets pretty complicated once time travel enters the equation. After tracking both halves of the Antikythera down across the globe, Indy (Harrison Ford), Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and Teddy (Ethann Bergua-Isidore) are discovered by Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and his henchmen. 

Indy gets shot, but it's not a fatal wound. He's taken captive by Voller and co. and ends up at an airbase. Voller then explains his sinister plan: he intends on using the Dial to go back in time to August 20, 1939, in Munich, Germany. There, he will kill Adolf Hitler and replace him, with Voller believing that he himself could win the Second World War instead. 

Meanwhile, Helena sneaks onboard the plane carrying Indy, while Teddy steals a plane of his own. 

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As the Nazis set the Dial to travel back in time, Indy, watching items in the plane move across the ground, comes to a realization: Voller hasn't accounted for continental drift (that's essentially the term for the continents shifting as tectonic plates move). Since Archimedes had no way of knowing about continental drift (it wasn't observed until the 20th Century), he couldn't have factored it into the Dial. That means Voller's calculations are off, and his coordinates are wrong. Voller wavers, then at the last moment tries to stop the plane – but it's too late. 

The plane emerges through the portal into… ancient Sicily. The siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, to be specific. In real life, that's when Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier. Things go differently for him in the movie, though, as it's revealed that he built the Dial specifically to bring help from the future to stop the siege. 

Helena and Indy manage to escape Voller's plane together with a parachute, while the Roman fleet shoots it down with giant bolts. The impact kills everyone onboard, and Archimedes comes across Voller's badly burned body and takes his watch (which could well be the very same watch Indy and Helena found in his tomb). He also finds the completed Antikythera. 

Indy and Helena get away from the action, but Indiana reveals that he plans on staying behind. He's been studying history his whole life, but, if he stays, he'll get to actually live it. Helena isn't pleased with this, though – then Archimedes joins the fray. He and his companion save Indy and Helena from a Roman soldier, then Archimedes hands back the Dial. Indy tells Archimedes he plans on staying behind, but Helena still objects. The argument ends with Helena punching her godfather in the face, knocking him out. 

Later, Indy wakes back up in the right time period. "You're meant to be here, Indy," Helena tells him, to which he replies: "For who?" But then, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) enters the apartment. She and Indy were going through a divorce following the death of their son, who was killed in action in Vietnam. 

"Someone told me you were back," Marion says. "Are you back, Indy?" The duo then repeat the "Where doesn't it hurt?" moment from Raiders of the Lost Ark, in a romantic reconciliation. 

The film ends with Indy's famous hat hanging outside the apartment – though, right before the screen goes to black, Indy's hand shoots outside to grab it again. 

What is the Dial of Destiny?

The Dial of Destiny, AKA the Antikythera, is a time-traveling device built by the mathematician Archimedes, who lived in ancient times. Archimedes split it into two parts, however, but left a clue to the location of the hidden second half. When fit back together, the Dial can be used to locate fissures in time and visit the past.

But, it comes with a catch. It turns out Archimedes built the dial only to bring himself help from the future during the siege of Syracuse, Sicily when his home was under attack from invading Roman forces. That throws a wrench into Voller's sinister plans, to say the least. 

You may be surprised to learn that the Antikythera is in fact a real, historical device  –  though it (probably) wasn't used to go back in time. The Antikythera mechanism was discovered in 1901 on a Roman shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera, much like in the movie. The device, now seen as the first analog computer, was a clockwork model of the solar system which could be used to track and predict astronomical positions and events. No one knows for sure who invented it in real life, though Archimedes is one of the possible candidates.

Who is Archimedes?

Archimedes is a major character in Dial of Destiny, but he was also very much a real person. As depicted in the film, he was an inventor and mathematician from Syracuse, living from 287 BC to 212 BC, who was lightyears ahead of his time. His inventions helped to defend Syracuse during the siege. 

But, unlike his fictional counterpart, Archimedes was actually killed by a Roman soldier during the siege of Syracuse. We're going to assume that's because he didn't really invent time travel and so couldn't call Indiana Jones for help. 

Why does Voller want the Dial?

Dr. Voller goes to great lengths to get hold of the Antikythera, beginning in the flashback at the start of the film. He plans on using it to travel back in time to Munich, Germany on August 20, 1939, where he intends to kill Adolf Hitler. But, Voller isn't doing this for the good of humankind – instead, he plans on replacing Hitler, believing he understands why the evil dictator lost the Second World War. Voller intends to lead the Nazis himself and win the war, but, thankfully, his plan fails and he is killed when his plane is shot down in the siege of Syracuse.  

What is continental drift?

Put simply, continental drift is the movement of the continents across the planet, caused by shifting tectonic plates. As Indy points out, this wasn't observed until well after Archimedes's time, so there's no way he could account for it with the Antikythera. The movements of the continents over millennia means that Voller's calculations are all wrong – but it doesn't matter anyway, because Indy and Helena discover that Archimedes built the Antikythera solely with the intention of getting help in the siege of Syracuse. That means Voller couldn't go back to Nazi Germany even if his calculations were perfect. 

Does Indiana Jones die?

Indy is shot by Voller and spends much of the third act wounded. When all is said and done in Syracuse, Indy tells Helena that he wants to stay behind. After all, as an archaeologist, he's studied ancient history all his life – and now he gets to experience it firsthand. Helena is seriously against this plan, though, insisting that Indy returns home, but he's just as stubborn. For a moment, it really looks like Indy is going to stay behind, getting his own bizarre happy ending – and effectively killing him off, since he wouldn't exist in the present day anymore. 

Ultimately, though, Helena punches her godfather in the face, knocking him out, and gets him home offscreen. We have to say, we never thought we'd be this happy to see Indiana Jones get punched. 

Who is Helena Shaw?

Helena is none other than Indy's goddaughter, but since he hasn't seen her for some time, he doesn't recognize her when she shows up. She's the daughter of Basil Shaw, who was driven mad by his quest for the Dial. When Helena reconnects with Indy, she's actually looking for the Antikythera to sell it at an illegal auction. 

What happened to Basil Shaw?

Basil was a friend of Indy's, seen in the opening flashback and in another flashback later in the movie. After he and Indy stumbled across one half of the Antikythera on the Nazi train, Basil became obsessed with the Dial and believed it could be used for time travel. His fixation on the Dial led to Indy taking it (or one half of it, anyway) from his friend – which is also the last time he saw Helena, until she reappeared much later. 

Who was that at the end?

At the end of the movie, when Helena tells Indy he's where he's meant to be, he heartbreakingly asks, "For who?" Cue the entrance of one very special person in particular: it's none other than Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood! She first appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark; in that film, she and Indiana Jones were revealed to have had a relationship in the past, though he left her heartbroken. They reconnected in the course of the movie, but she wasn't seen again until Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . In that movie, it was revealed that she and Indy actually had a son together – Shia LaBeouf's Mutt (real name Henry). 

Indy and Marion got married in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but in Dial of Destiny, we learn that they're in the process of divorcing following the death of their son. Marion's return, though, seems to be an emotional happy ending for the adventurer. 

What happened to Indiana Jones's son Mutt?

Mutt does not appear in Dial of Destiny, though he's seen in photographs. Indy explains to Helena that his son died after enlisting in the army, so presumably Mutt was killed in action in Vietnam. Tragically, Indy says Mutt only signed up to annoy him. 

Does Short Round appear? 

Despite all the attention Ke Huy Quan has been getting lately – and those heartwarming moments with Harrison Ford – Short Round does not have any type of role in Dial of Destiny. We're still holding out hope we'll see him again someday, though.

Will there be an Indiana Jones 6?

The Dial of Destiny ends on a very final note – even if Indy grabbing his hat might suggest he's still up for the occasional adventure or two. We can safely assume we won't be seeing those escapades, though, since there is no sequel set-up, no post-credits scenes, and Harrison Ford has been very clear that this is his final time playing Indiana Jones. Instead, we'll have to content ourselves with imagining Indy out there on all his future adventures. 

That's a wrap on the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ending explained. For even more on the movie, check out our other pieces through the links: 

• Our  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny interview with the cast and director
• Harrison Ford and James Mangold's favorite Dial of Destiny memory
• Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall look back on over 40 years of Indiana Jones
• Our  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Cannes interview 
• Why  Harrison Ford doesn't want to reflect on his old movies
• Mads Mikkelsen is desperate to play a zombie
• Mads Mikkelsen recalls meeting Harrison Ford   
• Does Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny have a post-credits scene?
• Kathleen Kennedy reveals the Rey and James Mangold Star Wars movies are linked

I'm an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

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‘Indiana Jones 5’ Director James Mangold Explains the Fate of Shia LaBeouf’s Character and the ‘Wild Swing’ Ending

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments, including the ending, of “ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ,” currently playing in theaters .

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Except, Mangold says, he realized he didn’t want do to that.

“I couldn’t find a way to wrap my head around going back to the past and stopping Mads from doing his nefarious deeds to continue the Third Reich,” Mangold told Variety in early June. “It lacked wonder and was going to turn into kind of a cat and mouse thing. I felt like we’d be better off if that’s what people are anticipating, but that we really pull the tablecloth out from under the dishes at the last minute.”

The moment is foreshadowed early in the film, when we see Indy lecturing a class of indifferent college students about how Archimedes invented a series of ingenious mechanisms to repel the invading Roman navy. Mangold saw in the ending a chance to give Indy the opportunity — after a lifetime spent seeking out relics of bygone eras in history — to actually witness that history first hand.

“He’s suddenly in the midst of it,” the director said. “I also thought it presented us with a kind of audacious turn which I thought was a staple of these movies.”

Putting a Nazi warplane alongside a fleet of Roman triremes is certainly a big swing, but Mangold thought it of a piece with the climaxes of 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

“It’s no more of a wild swing in my mind than ghouls flying out of a box and melting people’s heads through the sheer power of dark angels, or a 700-year-old knight existing in a cave for perpetuity,” Mangold said. “These are all beyond the scope of all physical belief.”

More importantly, it provided Indy with a chance to express an almost existential grief. We learn in “The Dial of Destiny” that Indy’s son, Mutt Williams — first introduced in 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” as played by Shia LaBeouf — was killed in the Vietnam War, and the anguish over that loss shattered Indy’s marriage to his beloved Marion Ravenwood ( Karen Allen ). As an injured Indy looks over the battlefield, he tearfully tells Helena that he doesn’t want to go back to his home in 1969. He believes he has nothing to go home to.

“That seemed to me to be right emotionally,” Mangold said, “that a disillusioned hero could end up at this wonderful tumultuous moment in world history and — with his son gone and his wife gone — that he’d picture himself staying in the place he loves best, which is this imagining these worlds.”

The decision to kill off Mutt evokes some baggage that has nothing to do with “The Dial of Destiny.” Two years after the release of “Crystal Skull,” LaBeouf told the Los Angeles Times that the movie “dropped the ball” and that “there was a reason it wasn’t universally accepted.” In 2016, LaBeouf went even further, telling Variety that “I don’t like the movies that I made with Spielberg,” and that he found working with the filmmaker to be disillusioning: “He’s less a director than he is a fucking company.” 

But Mangold said LaBeouf’s scorched earth interviews did not factor into his decision about Mutt’s fate.

For Mangold, that was getting to explore what it meant for Indy to look back a lifetime of regret and loss and find himself ready to disappear into history, quite literally. But he also never entertained the possibility of fulfilling Indy’s desire to stay behind.

“Unless we established him healing and setting up shop and remarrying and finding a beautiful Sicilian house to live in — I guess there was a way of doing it, but I didn’t imagine it,” he said. “I felt like he had to come home. He had to clean things up. He had to own what happened to him and Marion, and the amount of loneliness and disappointment in himself he’s carrying about his inability to navigate that between them.”

With Indy intractably set on remaining stuck in antiquity, Helena cold cocks him to get back on the plane and through the time fissure so they can all return to 1969. In the next scene, he wakes up in his New York City apartment, and discovers that Helena has called Marion and convinced her to come back to see him again. 

Asked about working with Karen Allen , Mangold broke into a wide grin.

“She’s so wonderful,” he said. “She’s such a beautiful soul. And I can’t imagine how hard it was for her because she’s stepping into a movie that had been shooting for a long time. But it was really moving to me.”

The film ends with a reprise of the famous scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” when an injured Indy cajoles Marion into kissing the parts of his body that don’t hurt . In “The Dial of Destiny,” the roles are reversed, with Indy tenderly apologizing for the heartache he’s caused Marion, and kissing the parts of her she says don’t hurt.

Mangold credits the Butterworths for coming up with the callback. “I thought it was just brilliant,” Mangold says. “I didn’t know what to do. It just seemed like a gift the second they showed me this idea. It’s one of the great encapsulations of their relationship and a memory that everyone knows the second they hear that, ‘Where?’ They remember that movie.”

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How Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’s Time Travel Works

This time, it's the years AND the mileage!

• The Time Travel In Indiana Jones 5

Who's Time Traveling?

From when to when, the purpose of their trip.

• How Time Travel Happens In Indiana Jones 5
• Can History Be Changed As A Result Of Time Travel In Indiana Jones 5?
• What Are The Consequences Of Time Travel In Indiana Jones 5?

Give ‘Em Hell, Indiana Jones!

Warning: spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny are in play. If you haven’t seen Harrison Ford ’s final Indy adventure just yet, you’ve been warned. 

Welcome back to the CinemaBlend Time Travel Lab, dear readers! This is the place where from here to there in the then and now is one of our specialties, and I’m glad to be continuing the good work that was revived when we explained how The Flash’s time travel works . Our latest case study is a wild one, as we’ve got a rogue traveler trying to change the outcome of World War II, with good old Indiana Jones along for the ride.

Yes friends, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the topic of discussion today. So spoilers will be as plentiful as the Nazi goons that Harrison Ford wipes off the map. Don’t worry, our time travel archives are always open for business, and our official review of Indiana Jones 5 is also available, should you need something to read up on in the meantime. But from this point forward, it’s time for a date with destiny! 

The Time Travel In Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

For a franchise that’s seen voodoo, a well of souls, and even the Holy Grail in the mix, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mixes things up a bit with time travel. And it definitely fits, based on what happens as a result.

A whole mess of characters get to go on this time-bending adventure. But our main passengers are Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), his goddaughter Helena Shaw ( Phoebe Waller-Bridge ), and their nemesis Jürgen Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ). Also, a bunch of Nazis who become canon fodder, because this is an Indiana Jones movie.

1969 is our home base in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , with August 20th being the day in question. While Jürgen Voller’s intent was to go back to August 20th 1939, his efforts overshoot the mark…into 212 BC.

You know how some people want to go back in time and kill Hitler? Well in Indiana Jones 5 we’ve got a Nazi who wants to do just that…because Voller thinks he’d be a better Fuhrer than old Adolf. That's a motivation we hadn't heard before. Who would have thought it’d take a bad guy to put a fresh spin on this old chestnut?

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How Time Travel Happens In Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

Welcome to the Antikythera, or “Archimedes’ Dial,” which invokes a similar naming dilemma as whether you should call Nicholas Flamel’s alchemic miracle the Sorcerer’s Stone or Philosopher’s Stone. Though much like the Time Turner that made Harry Potter’s time travel possible, the famed Grecian mathematician’s Indiana Jones MacGuffin, the Antikythera helps its user go back in time. 

Now you can’t just go anywhere in time, like in Back to the Future , another franchise shepherded by Executive Producer Steven Spielberg . Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s titular device is, in theory, supposed to detect “fissures” in the fabric of time. Were one to find such a fissure and cross through it, they would wind up in another point in time, on the same day, in the same location on the map.

Franchise producer Frank Marshall laid out Indiana Jones’ approach to time travel quite aptly with one key phrase: “it’s math and time.” All one has to do is set the Antikythera to the date in question, and the device calculates the coordinates of the relevant fissure. Those openings just happen to open at high altitude, so an aircraft will be required to get to where you’re going. And you’d better be quick, as those fissures only stay open for a short window of time; no pun intended.

However, there’s two outstanding factors that make Jürgen Voller’s little mission a failure. The first is that Archemedes didn’t know about Continental Drift theory, so the coordinates the dial spits out are invalid without some extra calculations. And the second is, per Helena Shaw’s observation in Indiana Jones’ latest expedition, Archimedes always intended the Antikythera to bring its user to the Siege of Syracuse.

Archimedes’ dial was a “forced deck” intended to scare the Romans into fleeing Syracuse. Like the man himself said, Indy was always destined to arrive at that moment. 

Can History Be Changed As A Result Of Time Travel In Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny?

In theory, one could change history in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s time travel adventure. Helena Shaw is vociferous in this belief, as she tries (and succeeds) in stopping a dejected Indy from staying in the past. Also, thanks to those markings at Archemedes’ tomb in Sicilly depicting an aircraft as a Phoenix, as well as the presence of a ‘60s wristwatch on his remains, some might see that as a change.

However, taking into account the “forced deck” nature of the Antikythera, and Archemedes’ specific programming for it to bring the users to him, a new angle presents itself. This isn’t “changing” history, but rather an outlier in time where a natural barrier was exploited, creating the reality we’re in now. 

Whether you call it an “inevitable intersection” or a “fixed point in time,” this was always going to happen in the Indiana Jones franchise’s timeline. History could be changed, but I haven’t seen enough evidence to suggest that it would stick.  

What Are The Consequences Of Time Travel In Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny?

There aren’t all that many consequences involved in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s time travel. Not unless you count Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr. having a different outlook on life, and trying to make things right with estranged wife Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Again, this whole trip was set up by Archemedes, and the world’s chain of events don’t deviate. 

If anything, the largest change is that a whole bunch of Nazis died all spicy like, thanks to Roman warfare. Which, as we stated before, seems par for the course in the Indiana Jones adventures. So is that really a consequence, or is that just a feature at this point? 

Well, I think this latest trip into time has been a rousing success, don’t you? Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny closes out the famed franchise once and for all, and all we got out of it was this fedora someone had lying around. 

Well, I get to keep that, as our contract with Tempus Fugit Insurance clearly states that any artifacts procured during CinemaBlend time travel excursions go straight…to the museum. I’ll have to think very carefully about what I nab next time, as we’ll once more be heading into some uncharted waters the next time we meet.

It hasn’t been decided which temporally charged adventure should be tackled next, as the various variants of me need to meet and decide. Much like The Terminator’s time travel , the future isn’t set, but rather decided over martinis. Until next time fellow travelers, don’t forget the olives, or the Continental Drift, when venturing forth into the seas of time.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ending: Explaining that time-travel twist

Can you change the past?

In a series that has used the actual Holy Grail as a MacGuffin, the fact that Indiana Jones 5 ended up being about time travel made sense. Given that it was the final movie though, fans were worried that Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) would be killed off.

Did that end up being the case? We're about to head into some major spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , so look away now if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Indiana Jones 5 ending explained: Does Indy die?

Indy and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) manage to make it to the second half of the dial first, which is buried with Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia) at the Ear of Dionysius in Sicily. When they uncover his skeleton, Archimedes is holding a watch – which, obviously, wasn't around in his time.

Before they can question that further, Voller arrives and Indy gives him the other half of the dial after Voller threatens Helena. Indy gets shot when Helena's ally Teddy arrives and tries to get the dial back, before Voller and the Nazis leave with Indy.

Helena and Teddy follow them to an airport where Voller intends to use the dial to travel back in time to August 20, 1939. He wants to kill Adolf Hitler and take over the Nazis, rewriting every mistake he feels that Hitler made which led to them losing the war. Helena manages to sneak onto the plane, while Teddy steals another plane to follow.

As predicted, the dial knew of a temporal anomaly in the sky that will allow anybody who passes through it to travel to a specific place in time. Voller believes that destination will be August 20, 1939, but before they travel through, Indy realises that Archimedes could never have known about continental drift when he made the dial.

The calculations are clearly off and when they go through the temporal anomaly (with Teddy close behind), they find themselves at the Siege of Syracuse in 213BC. Unsurprisingly, the Romans start attacking the "dragons" (planes) in the sky which Archimedes clearly expected to arrive.

If you're surprised that Indy's story didn't take him back to Germany, that was entirely the point.

"I felt we needed something more shocking, something bolder, and something that also affected Indy. If he had gone back to Nazi Germany, he would simply be a hero trying to stop Voller from doing his plan," director James Mangold told io9 in December 2023.

"If he ended up where he does end up in the film, he was going to be facing bigger questions about his own life and what he studied all his life. And I thought that was going to be more interesting."

Back to the movie, Voller's plane is irreparably damaged and while Indy and Helena manage to escape, Voller and the other Nazis – including lead goon Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) – are on board when it crashes, leading to their deaths.

Indy, struggling with the gunshot wound, tells Helena to go and get on Teddy's plane (which has safely landed) before the temporal anomaly closes. He's more than happy to be left in the past, something which he has studied for his entire life.

Archimedes comes to greet Indy and Helena, taking the watch from Voller's corpse which we saw earlier in his tomb. He tells Indy, "You were always going to meet me", and it appears Archimedes didn't get the dial wrong.

It was a "stacked deck" (a reference to a card trick) that was always supposed to lead Indy to 213BC, so the two could meet. Thanks to Indy arriving with the complete dial, Archimedes now knows how to complete it. (Don't think about it too much, it's time travel.)

Indy is still determined to stay in the past, but Helena warns him that he will "muck it all up" if he stays behind. He's stubborn though so Helena is left with no choice but to knock Indy out.

He wakes up back in his New York apartment in 1969, still annoyed that Helena didn't let him stay in the past to die. She tells him again that he'd have "changed the course of history" if he did, and Indy soon forgets about it when Marion ( Karen Allen ) shows up.

Teddy and Sallah also arrive, but swiftly leave with Helena to allow Indy and Marion to chat. They recreate their Raiders of the Lost Ark kissing scene ("where doesn't it hurt?") and appear to be on the way to reuniting, following their separation after Mutt's death .

In the final scene of the movie, we see Indy taking his fedora off the clothesline on his balcony just as the credits roll. Some might think it's a sign that he's coming back for another adventure , but sorry guys, Harrison Ford has been pretty clear this is the end .

According to Mangold, it was never a consideration to kill off Indy . "To me, there really is no attraction to just getting thousands of people in a theatre and hitting them in a head with a hammer... Death is not an ending," he said.

Ford added that he's satisfied with how Indy's story wrapped up : "Most of his problems have been solved, dealt with. He's back to the form that we like to see him in, I think. And I think it's a wonderful last scene... I really like it."

And what better way to go out than by Indy actually visiting the past?

For more Indiana Jones 5 coverage, check out:

• Indiana Jones 5 review • How long is Indiana Jones 5 ? • Is Karen Allen's Marion in Indiana Jones 5 ? • When will Indiana Jones 5 be on Disney+? • Does Indiana Jones 5 have a credit scene? • Why Indiana Jones 6 won't happen • Indiana Jones 5 reveals the fate of Shia LaBeouf's Mutt • The 'true' story behind Indiana Jones 5

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

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The case for and against Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s bonkers ending

But frankly, it’s mostly the case against

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Like every Indiana Jones movie after 1984’s Temple of Doom , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is here to remind you of Raiders of the Lost Ark . It has all the hits: world-hopping archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) reluctantly facing snakes and dutifully facing Nazis. Plus: John Rhys-Davies playing an Egyptian! The film is so dead-set on nostalgic thrills, it’s easy to forget that director James Mangold, alongside writers David Koepp and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, are very consciously telling a story about an Indiana Jones at the end of his career, and have a genuine interest in taking him somewhere new for what’s intended as his final bow .

This means Dial of Destiny ’s last act might come as a complete surprise for viewers, even though the film teases it as a possibility throughout. It’s perhaps the most jarring Indiana Jones moment since — well, the ending of the previous Indiana Jones film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . If nothing else, it carries forward a rich tradition of unforgettable endings to Indy’s adventures. It also feels like it’s contrary to the spirit of every Indiana Jones movie before it. Let’s talk about it.

[ Ed. note: Spoilers for the entirety of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny follow.]

How does Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny end?

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny follows Indy and many other less savory folks as they race to find the Antikythera , the Greek name for the film’s eponymous Dial of Destiny. Also called the Archimedes Dial after its inventor, the Greek mathematician Archimedes, the Dial is allegedly a compass of sorts, one that points to anomalies in space and time.

Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), the film’s villain, is a former Nazi scientist who got into the U.S. government’s good graces by helping with the moon landing and pretending to have been reformed. Secretly, he’s after the Dial in the hopes that he can use it to travel back in time to World War II and lead the Nazis to victory. What actually happens is stranger than that.

The Dial works as advertised, leading Voller to a rift in time at the center of a storm. But Voller’s calculations are wrong — the portal doesn’t take his plane full of secret Nazis back to the war, but to the Sicilian city of Syracuse circa 212 BCE, when the city was under siege by the Romans. It’s the battle where Archimedes dies.

The final fight in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny involves Indy and his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) defeating the Nazis while avoiding the Romans. In the end, the heroes succeed, but Indy suffers a grievous injury. Helena wants to save him and bring him back to the present, but Indy is moved by the living history around him, and after meeting Archimedes himself, says he wants to die there in the past.

Helena, smartly, knocks Indy out and brings him back to the present of 1969, where he can be hospitalized and saved.

The case for Dial of Destiny’s ending

In an interview with Uproxx , director James Mangold notes that the artifact in an Indiana Jones movie is like Chekhov’s gun — the ancient object discussed in the first act has to go off in the third and show its power. It also, he argues, must tie into Indy’s personal journey, and help him resolve whatever he’s struggling with.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is set at a point in Indy’s life where he doesn’t feel like he belongs anymore. Mankind has made it to the moon, his son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ) died off screen in Vietnam, his marriage with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) is over, and he’s about to retire from his long career as a professor. There is a strong thematic resonance in the idea of Indiana Jones yearning to hide in the past, and wanting to remain there when he miraculously ends up in an era he devoted his life to studying.

Trouble is, it’s incongruous with the Indiana Jones movies before it.

The case against Dial of Destiny’s ending

Even though the same two people — Steven Spielberg and George Lucas — shepherded every prior Indiana Jones movie, each film is a wildly different flavor of pulp throwback. One thing is consistent, though: The artifact at the center of each story blurs the line between fact and fiction, lying on the threshold of history and myth.

“Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth ,” Indy tells his classroom at the start of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . It’s a clever line that sums up both Indy’s biggest drive and his biggest blind spot: He resolutely believes that history is discoverable and explainable, even as he’s continually encountering things that defy explanation, and growing as a person because of it.

In Dial of Destiny , Indy is skeptical of the Dial’s abilities, but it doesn’t ultimately force him to confront something he doesn’t understand. In fact, it tempts him with a version of the world he already knows.

While it is jarring and a bit silly to see Indiana Jones talking to Archimedes, Dial of Destiny ’s script does set the moment up thematically, and a solid argument could be made for it within the logic of the film. Take a step back, though, and the ending becomes a metaphor for the ways a franchise gets hollowed out as sequel after sequel pile up, and the story gets further away from its center.

The Indiana Jones movies were always throwbacks to pulp adventure serials. They were in 1981 when Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered, and they were in 2008 with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — a film that, while derided, was designed to evoke ’50s sci-fi the way the previous films in the franchise evoked movies like the 1939 adventure Gunga Din . While Dial of Destiny is all about a compass, it doesn’t lead its viewers anywhere but to other Indiana Jones films. It bends the franchise into a navel-gazing ouroboros. Superficially, as Mangold says, it’s a story about moving on. But it isn’t — it’s a regressive story about Indy choosing a world he knows, and history he knows. And it’s about the franchise itself retreating into self-parody. Much like Indiana himself, this final installation of the series is stuck in the past — and shows no indication of what a problematic message that is.

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The Ending Of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Explained

The following contains major spoilers for "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

Across five films and 42 years, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has traveled the world and back. However, the franchise's fifth and final film, " Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ," sees the daring archeologist go further than ever before. After the sinister astrophysicist Dr. Jürgen Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ) attempts to travel back to 1939 in order to kill Hitler and take over the Nazi army, a critical miscalculation hurls the plane through a time fissure to the year 212 BC. Indy and his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) parachute to safety and find themselves face to face with the legendary Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia). Presented with the miraculous ability to meet one of his heroes, Indy decides to abandon his life in the year 1969 and stay in the past with Archimedes.

However, Helena insists that Indy still has work to do and argues that he must return to his own time. She finally resorts to knocking her wounded godfather out and nursing him back to health in the present. As Indy recovers in his New York City apartment, Helena arranges a heartfelt reconciliation with his estranged wife Marion (Karen Allen). This quiet conclusion may seem like a lackluster final send-off for the legendary adventurer, but director James Mangold grants Indy a peaceful farewell in the twilight years of a tumultuous existence.

What you need to remember about the plot of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

The fifth chapter in the Indiana Jones saga begins with a trip back in time. We catch up with fedora-wearing treasure hunter in the year 1944 as he escapes a Nazi train filled with stolen antiquities. Fast-forwarding to the year 1969, we're shocked to see that Indy has not only lost his thrill-seeking spirit but his zest for ... everything. He now spends his days yelling at the hippies next door and sleepwalking through his classes at Hunter College. Just days away from retirement, there seems to be little left in the formerly fearless man's life to look forward to.

Fortunately, a new quest falls into Indy's lap when Helena pops up in one of his classes. She claims to be searching for an ancient dial known as the Antikythera possibly used by Archimedes to predict fissures in time. Helena tricks Indy into handing over a piece of this powerful artifact, then dashes off to sell it at auction in Tangiers. Also obsessed with the dial, Dr. Voller steals the valuable antique and draws Indy into a deadly mission to protect his goddaughter and keep the dial out of Nazi hands. Though initially reluctant to get involved in Helena's mess, Indy finds himself falling back into old habits and reuniting with friends from past adventures.

What happened at the end of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny?

Dr. Voller may be able to crack the code leading to the other half of the dial's location, but he makes a crucial mistake when plotting his course through a time fissure. Due to continental drift, the vortex transports his plane back more than 2,000 years to the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. Dr. Voller scrambles to reverse his course but the Roman soldiers mistake his plane for a dragon and he finds himself drawn into the battle. Watching from a nearby beach, Indy stares in awe as a legendary war plays out before his eyes, offering secrets to the past any archeologist would dream of discovering. Claiming that his entire life has led to this moment, Indy decides to stay behind and share knowledge with Archimedes. However, Helena insists he still has work to do in the present.

After forcing her godfather to return to his own time, Helena offers a half-hearted apology before slipping out the door to give Indy a moment alone with his estranged wife Marion. Earlier in the film, Indy tells Helena that his son Mutt died in the Vietnam War and his marriage began to crumble in the aftermath of this tragedy. Reunited, the grieving parents embrace each other and take early steps down the path to recovery. As the credits roll, Indy reaches out the window and grabs his iconic hat from the clothesline outside, indicating a return to form for the intrepid archeologist.

Archimedes never traveled through time and Indy shouldn't either

Having determined that the other half of the Antikythera lies in the undiscovered tomb of Archimedes, Indy, and Helena trek through a deadly cave to a hidden crypt. While Indy grabs the dial from the mathematician's skeletal remains, Helena notices an anomaly on the tomb's exterior. A phoenix with modern-day propellers has been carved into the coffin and Archimedes has been buried wearing a 20th century wristwatch. The explorers take this as proof that the illustrious inventor used the dial to travel through a time fissure into the future. We later learn that Archimedes recognized the dial's power for destruction and resisted the temptation to break the barriers of time. Rather than peer into the future, he has merely taken the watch from Dr. Voller's corpse and observed propellers on the wreckage of his downed plane.

Helena argues that Indy's presence in the past will jeopardize the events of recorded history. She refuses to give the inventor a completed version of his own dial, insisting that he finish building it himself. Though disappointed to lose this opportunity to commune with a time traveler, Archimedes appears to understand the wisdom of Helena's argument. He subsequently breaks the dial in two and takes the watch to his grave along with the secrets of its origins. Archimedes likely understands that altering the past will have catastrophic effects on the future, such as Dr. Voller's revised plans for World War II.

Indy still has something to live for

Indy — with his job, marriage, and son all lost — believes he has nothing left in 1969. However, Helena disagrees. Her own father, one of Indy's closest friends, passed away years ago, and the young woman he affectionately calls Wombat needs a father figure. Indy could finally resume his duties as godfather and begin to recover from the pain of Mutt's death. While visiting Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), Indy meets his old friend's grandchildren, who both love to study ancient history. The seasoned archeologist could share his knowledge with these eager students and guide Helena in her own expeditions.

The film concludes with a return to Indy's New York City apartment in 1969, but this time the tiny home overflows with friends and family. Helena's protege Teddy (Ethann Isidore) has been grocery shopping with Marion and Sallah bursts through the door with his two grandchildren ready for ice cream. After decades of excitement and danger, Indy finally has an opportunity to relax in the company of those he loves. The final scene shows a hand grabbing his signature fedora from a balcony clothesline, implying that he has rediscovered his passion for life. However, this does not necessarily mean he will soon dash out the door to hunt for another lost artifact. Instead of traveling back in time to relive his former glory, Indy can concentrate on guiding future generations of archeologists and historians. He does not need death-defying adventure for that life to have meaning.

What has the director of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny said about the ending?

When discussing the film and its quiet ending with Inverse , director and co-writer James Mangold cited the concept of time as his intended theme. "My Indy is a 70-year-old Indy, and so I wanted not just time in the sense of travel, but time in the sense of, I can't undo the mistakes of my past. I can't be the guy I was then because the world has changed around me. Time and all its facets that catch up with us as we get older." The film does feature digital de-aging effects and an impressive sequence that follows a younger Indy at the peak of his physicality, but how many times can the aging professor continue to outwit death? Mangold's movie succeeds in taking audiences back to the handsome professor's heyday, but the film industry and the world have dramatically changed along with the franchise's iconic star.

When describing what he envisions for his hero's final chapter, Mangold told Entertainment Weekly , "I don't think he's done. I think that an ending doesn't mean that the characters never move again in their lives. It just means that you feel that you've entered a state of grace with their story." "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" feels like a perfect swan song for the beloved swashbuckler. We leave him in a home filled with love and surrounded by multiple generations who will benefit from his wisdom and experience.

What the end of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could mean for the franchise

The final moments of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" could easily be interpreted as a launchpad for another sequel film. However, if another installment ever does materialize, it will do so without the presence of its central star. In an interview with Total Film , Harrison Ford confirmed, "This is the final film in the series, and this is the last time I'll play the character. I anticipate that it will be the last time that he appears in a film." Variety recently reported the possibility of a spin-off series for Disney+, but producer and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy swears there are no firm plans as of yet.

With Indy out of the picture, the introduction of Helena Shaw presents an interesting angle for possible future iterations. James Mangold created the role with Phoebe Waller-Bridge in mind, believing the English actress possesses the same captivating energy as the saga's first heroine, Marion Ravenwood. Despite this exciting premise, Mangold has made it clear he's not interested in creating future follow-ups, telling Variety "The amount of lore and Easter eggs and fan service starts to become antithetical to any of this stuff at a certain point. It isn't storytelling anymore. It's large-scale advertising." The Indiana Jones saga may continue, but Mangold's film signals a fond, but firm farewell for the director and the world-famous leading man.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's alternate ending

This warm, but subdued conclusion feels like a bit of a departure from the action-packed denouements of the original Indiana Jones trilogy. When developing the story, James Mangold originally considered a more traditional final act. "Dial of Destiny" flirts with a return to 1939 and a plot to kill Hilter, an ending that would mirror the film's bravura opening sequence. However, Mangold rejected this narrative direction, telling Inverse , "But the more I sketched that out in my mind, the more that became kind of just a spy movie at the end. I couldn't find a way to emotional resonance."

Mangold's revised conclusion implies relative peace for Indy's twilight years. Continuing the adventures might be tempting, but there's no lasting closure in simply repeating the same quests again and again. We will always have five rousing chapters in the Indiana Jones saga available to revisit whenever we long for a treasure hunt around the globe. However, returning time and again to the same narrative well will only bring diminishing returns. Mangold's finish allows us to say goodbye to Indiana Jones with a promise that our beloved swashbuckler still has happy years ahead of him. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly , Mangold explained that he imagines Indy traveling the world with Marion and "enjoying his life as a retired archeologist." That sounds like a perfect conclusion.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Is a Beautiful Ending For Harrison Ford

Dial of Destiny gives a fitting sendoff to our hero.

The following story contains major spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

As it turns out, spending all your time living in the past does eventually affect your brain. After discovering that Archimedes dial is real, the evil Nazi doctor Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelson) kidnaps Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge)—as well as good ol' Indy. His bizarre plan begins with an attempt to travel back to 1939. Voller wants to kill Adolf Hitler and lead Germany to war himself, knowing the events that transpire in the future. Failing to account for continental drift, however, the time portal accidentally sends them back to the year 212 BC—during the Siege of Syracuse in Italy. The plane is shot down and Voller dies, but Jones and Shaw parachute down from the aircraft.

Also at the battle? Archimedes, who is inventing the very same dial that got them there. In a twist of fate, Jones suggests to Shaw that he wants to stay behind in the past. This way, he could become a part of the ancient history he has studied over the course of his entire life. Shaw informs him that if he stays, he would alter history as they know it. The time paradox would essentially render all of Indy's work meaningless, and she would potentially return to a present unlike the one she had left. Needing a little more convincing, Shaw just sucker-punches Indy and takes him back home to 1969.

In the end, Jones wakes up back in his apartment and finds Marion (Karen Allen) taking care of him. As they embrace, the film pans to a clothesline outside, where Indy has hung his hat out to dry. At the last second, he grabs the hat through the window and brings it inside. It's a symbolic gesture for the end of Indiana Jones's story , but one that suggests his adventurous spirit still lives on. After all, Harrison Ford stated that this will be his final Indiana Jones film—and that he hopes the character will retire alongside him. Thankfully, Dial of Destiny is a fitting end, and one that playfully jabs at the complex time-travel plots of other franchises. If we're lucky, Indy can live out the rest of his days in peace.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Ending Explained: Does Indy Survive His Final Adventure?

We have top men working on it right now. top. men..

Let's make this simple: You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . The answer is there are not. The fifth and seemingly final Indiana Jones movie has no scenes after the credits start rolling.

Full spoilers follow for the film beyond this point!

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ends the saga of Dr. Henry Jones Jr. after 40 years of whip-cracking, relic-chasing adventures. But just how final is Indy’s last hurrah? Who lives and dies in this fifth installment of the Lucasfilm franchise?

We’re going to unpack everything that happened to Indy, his friends, and his enemies at the end of the James Mangold-directed film, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, take Indy’s advice to Marion at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and “Don’t look at it! Keep your eyes shut!”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Ending Explained

Within the cavernous Ear of Dionysius in Sicily, Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and his henchmen succeed in acquiring both halves of Archimedes Dial, aka the Antikythera, from our heroes: Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), his opportunistic goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and her clever teenage associate Teddy (Ethann Isidore).

Whereas most past Indy movie MacGuffins have been supernatural in nature, this one is the product of science, not mysticism. Deviating from the actual history of the artifact, Dial of Destiny depicts the ancient mechanism as being able to locate fissures in time and thus allow its user to travel into the past. It’s basically a time compass.

Voller believes the Allies didn’t win World War II; Adolf Hitler lost it because he made too many mistakes. Voller wants to use the power of Archimedes Dial to reverse the outcome of World War II. Armed with his knowledge of the Nazis’ strategic errors throughout the war and now possessing a completely assembled Dial, Voller plans to time-travel from August 1969 back to August 1939. There, he will kill Hitler and become Führer himself to ensure Nazi Germany wins World War II this time.

With a seemingly mortally wounded Indy as his captive, Voller and his goons board a bomber and don their Nazi uniforms. Indy notices something when Voller emerges in his Nazi officer uniform. He’s wearing the same watch that the remains of Archimedes was wearing when they discovered his tomb back in the Ear of Dionysius, a grave that also happened to bear carvings of a large bird with propellers. Such watches wouldn’t exist for many centuries to come. 

Indy realizes that Voller factored continental drift into his coordinates for time travel – a geologic hypothesis that the mathematician and engineer Archimedes would not have known about at the time he built the Dial. That means the plane is headed to the wrong point in time but it’s too late to abort the mission. 

Pursued by Teddy’s stolen small aircraft, the Nazi plane — which Helena has stowed away on — is pulled into the time fissure vortex and travels into the past. During this, Teddy is startled to find that the pilot whose plane he swiped had been asleep in the back the entire time. He’s now awake and freaking out as both planes sputter and spiral out of the vortex. 

Indy was right. Voller’s coordinates were wildly off and they did not travel back to 1939. Instead, they have arrived at the Siege of Syracuse (213–212 BC), which just so happens to be a subject Indy taught at Hunter College in New York City. The Nazi bomber and Teddy’s plane fly over the Mediterranean where they witness Roman ships and soldiers laying siege to the Kingdom of Syracuse, which is protected by elaborate defense mechanisms engineered by their hometown boy, Archimedes. Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia) is present during the siege where we see he’s still building the Antikythera.

Voller is distraught at having failed, realizing he’s missed his chance to change history. Those on the ground think the Nazi bomber is a dragon and soon the aircraft sustains fatal engine damage from incoming bolts. Voller’s neo-Nazi henchman Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) rains gunfire down on the ancients but the plane is irrevocably damaged.

Voller is distraught at having failed, realizing he's missed his chance to change history.

Helena tries to save Indy but ends up tussling with more henchmen, and she almost plummets to her doom out of the open bay doors. Helena gets the drop on Voller and shoots him, allowing her and Indy to leap from the doomed plane using the last parachute. Voller and Klaber are in the cockpit when the failing plane crashes into the shore, killing all on board.

We later see Archimedes and his students exploring the wreckage where they observe Voller’s burnt corpse. Archimedes takes Voller’s watch. They also discover the completed Antikythera among the wreckage, something Archimedes has yet to complete at this point in time. The eagle with propellers engraved on Archimedes’ tomb is a reference to the Nazi bomber.

We see a Roman soldier spot Indy and Helena’s parachute descending nearby and he proceeds to investigate…

Does Indiana Jones Die in Dial of Destiny?

Indy and Helena land and disentangle themselves from their parachute. Indy is bleeding from his gunshot wound and wants her to just let him die here in the past. Teddy lands his plane nearby. The vortex is closing fast and they only have minutes left before they can take off and try to return to 1969.

With his son Mutt dead (killed in action in Vietnam) and his marriage to Marion poised to end in divorce — not to mention he’s been wrongly accused of murder back in New York! — Indy is a broken old man with nothing left to live for, just as much an old relic as the artifacts he’s spent decades chasing. He wants to stay here in the past, to die in a period that’s always fascinated him and that he has long taught about. He can become part of history instead of just being a student and teacher of it. To paraphrase his Raiders adversary Belloq , Indy has only been passing through history but the Siege of Syracuse is history.

That inquisitive Roman soldier confronts them, ready to kill them both, but Archimedes and his students arrive and slay the Roman. Indy and Helena quickly deduce they are in the presence of the legend himself, with each of them geeking out in their own way.

Indy and Helena use their knowledge of ancient languages to speak with Archimedes, who carries with him the Dial from the wreckage and Voller’s watch. Indy makes his case to let him stay here in the past and help Archimedes, but Helena pleads with Indy that he’s not meant to be here but in 1969 with those who need and love him. She also warns him that if he stays he’ll alter the course of history. Finally, when appealing to his emotions no longer works Helena just knocks Indy out with a helluva punch. The screen cuts to black.

Indy wakes up in bed back in his apartment in New York City. His wounds have been bandaged and he’s in his pajamas. The Archimedes Dial lies nearby. Then Indy sees Helena. She did not sell the Antikythera after all, despite her intitial intentions, her character having grown less mercenary through her adventure and reconnection with her estranged godfather.

As the shot irises out on Indy's hat, his hand shoots out and snatches it as the classic John Williams theme song kicks in.

But Helena hasn’t been taking care of Indy on her own. The front door opens and in walks Marion (Karen Allen), who hasn’t been in the movie until now, carrying groceries. Indy can’t believe she’s back. They are joined by Teddy, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), and his young grandchildren. Helena knows Indy and Marion need time alone so she takes everyone else out for ice cream.

Indy and Marion haven’t spoken to each other in some time. The death of their son in Vietnam fractured them, with each dealing with their grief in ways that drove them apart. Indy is broken, literally and figuratively, but his last adventure in Dial of Destiny has provided him with a chance at redemption and renewal. Marion heard he was back, but Indy being back has a double meaning. Is he back to being the man he once was, back to the world of the living?

What plays out next between them is a callback to a memorable scene between them in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the original version of the “it’s not the years, it’s the mileage” scene , Marion asks him where it doesn’t hurt and he points to his elbow, forehead, eyebrow, and then finally his lips, each touch followed by a tender kiss from Marion. But instead of physical wounds this time it’s emotional wounds and it’s Indy comforting Marion with a kiss to her elbow, forehead, eyebrow, and then finally her lips.

The film cuts to Helena and friends leaving the walk-up and venturing off into the city for ice cream when the camera rises up to the fire escape outside the open window of Indy’s apartment. His iconic fedora is pinned to a clothesline. As the shot irises out on the hat, Indy’s hand shoots out the window and snatches it off the line as the classic John Williams theme song kicks in and the end credits roll.

Indiana Jones’ globe-trotting adventures may be behind him but his spirit has been restored and he’s healed the rift with the love of his life, Marion. Indy has realized that it’s time to embrace the present and look to the future instead of dwelling in the past.

Does Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Have a Post-Credits Scene?

As noted above, Indiana Jones 5 doesn't have any scenes to wait for after the credits. You of course can still stick around and watch the credits, but this approach is in keeping with the prior four Indy films. Certainly, that's not surprising considering Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were all made in the 1980s. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was made in 2008, which was right around the time post-credits scenes started to become a thing (Iron Man came out that same year), but they were by no means a regular occurrence for Hollywood blockbusters at the time.

For more whip-cracking coverage of Dr. Jones’ final ride, read IGN’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review , discover what Harrison Ford and his Dial of Destiny castmates say are the greatest moments in the Indiana Jones franchise , find out why Ke Huy Quan’s Short Round isn’t in the film , or dig in on Indiana Jones' Story So Far .

Note: This story was originally posted on June 29, 2023. It was updated with the latest information on June 30, 2023.

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Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny's Timeline Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" finally gives fans of the franchise the final pieces of the series' twisted timeline — though not before twisting once more toward the distant past.

The story begins in 1944, showing Harrison Ford's titular archaeological hero's time serving the United States military during the Second World War. The film then jumps ahead decades to its primary "present," which begins exactly on July 24th, 1969. Despite not being explicitly mentioned in the film, we can determine this date precisely via context clues — primarily that Dr. Jones wakes up to the commotion of the impending success of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. "Dial of Destiny" spends the vast remainder of its runtime in the days that follow, with Indy and his new companions racing against the villainous Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) for the eponymous MacGuffin.

At the start of the film's final act, however, as Voller attempts to drag the entire company back to 1939 in order to assassinate Adolf Hitler and create a power vacuum in the Nazi party, he mistakenly leads them to 214 BCE — specifically, sometime during the Siege of Syracuse. After several explosions, plane crashes, and historical fractures, Indy and his goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) escape back to 1969.

All things considered, the timeline of "Dial of Destiny" is relatively straightforward, especially for what winds up being a time travel film. Where longtime fans may start to struggle is in trying to place the film's events in the already tangled history of the "Indiana Jones" franchise .

Where does Dial of Destiny fit in with the rest of the franchise?

To keep things as simple as possible, we're just going to deal with the five films theatrically released by Paramount and Disney with Ford in the title role. This means no novels, comic books, and — woefully — no "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (a TV series that holds up surprisingly well in 2023).

Indy's OSS days at the top of "Dial of Destiny" take place several years after "The Last Crusade," which is itself the most chronologically recent of the original three installments ("Temple of Doom" being the oldest). The next major point in the timeline would be "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which took place in the late 1950s.

Sometime after the events of that film, Indy's son Mutt (played by Shia LaBeouf) defiantly enlists to fight in the Vietnam War. It's revealed in "Dial" that he was ultimately killed in combat, his death subsequently driving a devastating wedge between Jones and former flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). All told, there's roughly a decade between the fourth and fifth installments in the series, which almost lines up with the real-life distance between the films' respective releases. The year 1969 will ostensibly serve as the endpoint for the franchise, barring any spin-off TV shows or movies likely dependent on the film's box office performance.

Fact-checking 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny': Is the Antikythera mechanism real?

Harrison Ford takes his final adventure as the swashbuckling archeologist in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," a mission to track down the titular dial that "could change the course of history," his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) says.

In the movie (available now to buy digitally), it turns out the mysterious device known as the Antikythera mechanism can predict the location of naturally occurring fissures in time and allow time travel.

But is the Antikythera mechanism real or fiction? Is it based on a legend like the Ark of the Covenant from "Raiders of the Lost Ark"?

"All the 'Indiana Jones' movies are built on a fusion of fantasy and reality, an extrapolation of what might have been to what may be impossible," says "Dial of Destiny" director James Mangold. "And I thought the Antikythera mechanism was a great relic."

Is the 'Dial of Destiny,' aka the Antikythera mechanism, real?

The Antikythera mechanism is not only real but a "mind-blowing" artifact, says research engineer Tom Malzbender. Working for Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in 2005, Malzbender conducted high-tech photographic imaging of the device at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, where three of the main fragments are on display.

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The fragile 2,000-year-old-plus antiquity has broken into more than 80 pieces and would not survive handling, much less an Indiana Jones adventure.

"It has the consistency almost of a wafer cookie − like if you even lifted it, stuff would fall," says Malzbender. "But it's probably the most significant technological artifact of the ancient world ever found."

The relic's wild discovery is remarkably similar to the tale told in "Dial of Destiny." A sponge diver discovered an ancient shipwreck off the tiny Greek island of Antikythera in 1901. The diver was horrified by the sight of a “heap of dead naked people" on the sea floor, wrote mathematician and researcher Tony Freeth, a founding member of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, in a 2009 Scientific American essay.

The underwater excavation that followed revealed a treasure trove of marble statues (mistaken for real people) and artifacts that would have wowed Indiana Jones.

Ranked: Every 'Indiana Jones' movie (including 'Dial of Destiny')

A phone-book-size calcified lump recovered from the site fell apart to reveal the astonishing Antikythera mechanism, which dates to around 70 B.C. and features Greek inscriptions and bronze gear wheels.

"Gears like these should not have appeared in ancient Greece, or anywhere else in the world, until many centuries after the shipwreck," Freeth wrote. "The find generated huge controversy."

Can the Antikythera mechanism be used for time travel?

Research has shown the Antikythera mechanism was once housed in wood with a crank on the side to engage the elaborate gears, dials and pointers.

"The mechanism calculated the dates of lunar and solar eclipses, modeled the moon’s subtle apparent motions through the sky ... and kept track of the dates of events of social significance, such as the Olympic Games," Freeth wrote. "Nothing of comparable technological sophistication is known anywhere in the world for at least a millennium afterward."

Alexander Jones, director at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, says ancient users could turn the crank to see the positions of the sun, moon and known planets in the future − as well as the past by turning the crank in the other direction. But linking the Antikythera mechanism to time travel is pure "Dial of Destiny" fiction.

The Antikythera mechanism "has been romanticized into this time-travel device here, which it was not," says Jones.

Did Archimedes create the Antikythera mechanism?

"Dial of Destiny" purports that famed Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes created the Antikythera mechanism. But Jones, along with other experts, is "skeptical" that Archimedes was the sole creator, if he even worked on the mechanism. There is no conclusive proof pointing to any creator.

"We just don't know," says Jones. "Archimedes is one of the Greek world's top mathematical and scientific minds who had a founding role with the gear technology seen (in the Antikythera mechanism). There are smart people who believe he's behind it. I don't think so."

Archimedes played a legendary role in defending his Hellenic hometown from a Roman invasion during the Siege of Syracuse around 213 B.C. He gets prime Hollywood screen time in "Dial of Destiny," played by actor Nasser Memarzia in the film's depiction of a Roman naval attack.

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Historians and scientists have argued whether the war machines displayed onscreen, such as the ship-destroying "Archimedes' Claw," actually existed or were embellished through time.

Archimedes' Death Ray, which supposedly needed only mirrors and sunlight to set Roman ships ablaze, is an even more contested invention. Among the many studies debunking the possibility of this sci-fi-worthy weapon, Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters" devoted three episodes to the death ray − concluding with the infeasible "busted" tag each time.

"But Archimedes was famous for being the one man keeping the Roman navy off for so long," says Jones. "Not forever. The Romans eventually got in and he was killed in the city's capture of Syracuse."

Will Indiana Jones Time Travel in 'Dial of Destiny'?

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One of the more controversial plot points of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the inclusion of extraterrestrials towards the end of the film. Fans of the series felt this was stretching credibility and felt out of place. This was perhaps misguided when you consider that Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) had previously uncovered the Ark of the Covenant, which melted the face off of a group of Nazis, and the literal Holy Grail, two items that are rooted more in myth than fact.

It's for this reason that news of time travel as a plot point in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny shouldn't be sneered at, but leaned into. Indy is a larger-than-life character, and the series is about adventure—so why not fully embrace the concept of science fiction and build a story around it? At least, that's the belief of Frank Marshall , the storied producer who co-founded Amblin Entertainment and has been a long-term creative partner of Steven Spielberg . He also happens to be very connected to the Indiana Jones franchise, as he worked on Crystal Skull and is married to Kathleen Kennedy , the head of Lucasfilm , which is the studio producing the latest installment of the franchise.

In an interview with SFX Magazine , Marshall spoke about the time travel plot device featured in Dial of Destiny, explaining why he felt it was a natural fit. Not only is time undoubtedly a factor in the film—considering we will see a much younger Indy from the 1940s before catching up to a veteran, grizzled Dr. Jones in the late 1960s, but a time travel plot leans nicely into the story of the Nazis looking to go back and right what they consider to be a wrong. Marshall explained:

"The Dial of Destiny is perfect for us because it’s about time. It’s math and time. We always try and have some sort of archeological connection and there was certainly that – there’s a mythology to the Dial of Destiny that exists. It turned out to be the perfect thing for this movie. It works in the plot because it is scientific. Well, I guess it’s scientific! It really works for what we are doing and it sets up a whole lot of great plot points. The question is, if you can control time, like in Back to the Future, would you change things? And what would that mean? That’s a big question for everybody, and certainly is in the movie."

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“There’s a Mythology To It”

When asked about why the Nazis were involved once more in a head-to-head with Indy, Marshall explained, "It’s a plot point that drives the story. Mads Mikkelsen's Voller wants to go back and change time, change what happened, and obviously it turns out to be in Nazi Germany. The Nazis are kind of a thread we’ve had through all of the movies. I think it definitely works this time."

In addition to Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw, Toby Jones as Basil Shaw, Mads Mikkelsen as Jürgen Voller, Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, Shaunette Renée Wilson as Mason, Thomas Kretschmann as Colonel Weber, and Boyd Holbrook as Klaber, while Ethann Isidore and Olivier Richters are cast in undisclosed roles.

With tickets now on sale, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny whips into theaters on June 30. Check out the official teaser for the upcoming film below:

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Indiana Jones 5 trailer hints at a wild time-travel rumor

Turning a big dial that says “Destiny” and looking at the calendar.

The movie we’ve been calling “ Indiana Jones 5 ” finally has an actual title, a release date, and an action-packed trailer. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will be out on June 30, 2023, but what exactly is happening in it? We know it’s about the space race in the ‘60s, which allows Indiana Jones’ age to more closely match Harrison Ford’s, but we also see him digitally de-aged .

Could Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny be a time-travel movie? It’s a far-fetched theory, but the evidence is piling up.

Let’s start with the strongest evidence: The Dial of Destiny itself. We don’t know what the artifact looks like or does, but its name merges two time-related concepts. Clocks can have dials, of course, and destiny brings to mind the concept of fate and changing the past.

Then there are the comments made by Mads Mikkelsen in Empire’s first look at the movie. Mikkelsen says his Nazi villain, Voller, is “a man who would like to correct some of the mistakes of the past.” If the Dial of Destiny can correct mistakes, does that mean it can manipulate the very fabric of time?

For more evidence, we have to do our own time traveling back to October 2021, when set photos were published by The Daily Mail. They show Indy wearing a parachute, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his goddaughter Helena next to him. That’s typical Indy fare, but another picture included a group of Roman soldiers. Could Indy travel thousands of years into the past?

The trailer also made waves because of the “ Raiders -era” Indiana appearing in certain shots. Many fans assumed these were simply flashbacks, but it’s also possible we’ll see the young Indy and the older Indy on-screen simultaneously.

We see Nazis in the Dial of Destiny trailer, even though it’s supposed to be set in the 1960s.

Time travel may seem completely out of the left field for Indiana Jones, but the franchise has always dabbled in magic and miracles. We know you’ve probably tried to erase Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from the mind , but the oft-maligned fourquel put sci-fi in the spotlight with a plot focused on aliens. Time travel is arguably the next logical step.

In what’s being billed as the last Indiana Jones adventure, a retrospective — whether through flashbacks or actual time travel — is more than warranted. As Indy himself says in the trailer, “I don’t believe in magic, but a few times in my life, I’ve seen things. Things I can’t explain. I’ve come to believe it’s not so much what you believe, it’s how hard you believe it.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres in theatres June 30, 2023.

• Science Fiction

Is Indiana Jones 5 a Time-Travel Movie? Here's the Evidence

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From the pitch-perfect trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , it seems that the latest movie will share more in common with SyFy's 12 Monkeys than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . At the very least, this is an old World War II legend about "Die Glocke," German for "The Bell," which was an artifact the Third Reich uncovered that had something to do with time.

Since the start of filming, Indiana Jones 5 was plagued by rumors involving time travel, bolstered by set photos showing Roman soldiers fighting. After World War II, a conspiracy theory arose about a device that looked like a bell. It was either a time machine or an antigravity machine or a flying saucer and such. While not likely based on anything in history other than pulp fiction in the immediate post-war years (which the Indiana Jones films are directly inspired by), it does make for good drama. It's possible that James Mangold is sending Indy on a time heist. Though if he needed inspiration, he shouldn't watch Ant-Man do his thing, but 12 Monkeys. The show tied the bell legend to its own series mythology. And while it's great to see Indy punching Nazis in the face again , there seems to be a lot of them in the trailer.

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How 12 Monkeys 'Die Glocke' Episode Teases Indiana Jones 5

The showrunner for Picard Season 3, Terry Matalas, is the co-creator of 12 Monkeys and an Indy super-fan. In reaction to the trailer, he suggested on Twitter that Indy would be going after Die Glocke like the characters in the series did. Yet, in Season 4, Episode 6, "Die Glocke," the bell is the McGuffin, not the method of time travel. For The Dial of Destiny , it's a strong bet that whatever Mads Mikkelsen's pardoned Nazi scientist Dr. Toller needed to do required some sort of space-age technology. Yet, if time travel is involved, when the plan is executed doesn't matter so much.

The 12 Monkeys episode was one worthy of Dr. Jones. Emily Hampshire -- best known as Stevie from Schitt's Creek -- sings Pink's "U+Ur Hand" to Hitler. Amanda Schull's Cassie cosplays in some lingerie to distract an army of guards before she guns them all down to steal the bell. The inimitable Barabara Sukowa out-Germans an SS commander, then delivers an Emmy-worthy "Holy shit" line delivery. The Monkey Squad ends the episode by doing what every time traveler should when they cross paths with the Chancellor of Germany from 1933-1945. They blow him up.

This particular adaptation of Die Glocke legend is unique to 12 Monkeys , but it could parallel the journey Indy takes in the movie. In fact, the legend is so obviously an Indiana Jones premise, it makes sense they held back the trailer and title this long.

RELATED: Indiana Jones 5 Fans Can't Get Enough of Harrison Ford's Nazi Punching

The Dial of Destiny Could Send Dr. Jones Back Through Time

As for what "real" theory Die Glocke is based on, it's a vague collection of innuendo and nonsense, perhaps only persisting in cultural memory because it's great fiction. Matalas and company just kept its powers vague, tying its purpose directly to 12 Monkeys ' perfect series finale . The Indiana Jones universe is many things, but not one where "how does this work , exactly?" is ever a valid question. If time travel appears in The Dial of Destiny , it could be a classic B-movie contraption or a more conceptual experience like the end of Interstellar . 12 Monkeys was too meticulous for it, but Indiana Jones can just go straight to "magic."

It's Harrison Ford's last outing as Indiana Jones. So, with Lucasfilm's expertise in digitally creating younger versions of their actors, this is the film to employ the device. Any time travel will be more about the character than the science or the magical rules. No matter what vile plot the maleficent Dr. Voller dreams up, the story will almost certainly be about that thing at the end of humans' lives when they wonder if they could correct past mistakes.

Fans who find next summer too long a time to wait can get some slight Nazi-punching satisfaction from 12 Monkeys , currently on Hulu. Whether it holds any clues to where Indy is headed in The Dial of Destiny or not, the show still has that same heartfelt adventure feel.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny debuts in theaters in June 2023.

• Movie Features
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Indiana Jones weaves his way into Apollo 11 history in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'

The fedora-wearing, whip-bearing archeologist enters space history in the fifth and final movie of the franchise.

Indiana Jones changes the course of space history in his fifth and final big screen adventure. The fedora-wearing, whip-bearing archeologist (played by Harrison Ford) crosses paths with four of NASA's most famous figures , sort of, in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," now playing in theaters. (Warning: Spoilers follow, but this article stays clear of the film's major plot points.) After a brief prologue, the movie opens in the summer of 1969. Specifically, it is Wednesday, Aug. 13, 1969, a work day for Dr. Jones, but a day off for millions in Manhattan, where the Apollo 11 astronauts are set to be celebrated with a ticker tape parade.

But things do not go to plan for Indy, who quickly finds himself being chased (on horseback, no less) through the same city streets as the parade is proceeding. It is not long before he catches up with the convertible carrying Neil Armstrong , Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (actors Jefferson King, Bryn Thomas and Luke Cloud in uncredited roles), bringing the festivities to a screeching halt. In pursuit of Indy are a team of henchmen accompanying Jürgen Voller, a.k.a. Dr. Schmidt (Mads Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who led the team that built the rocket that took the astronauts to the moon . If that sounds like another figure from NASA history, it should — but then again, maybe not (more on that below).

Welcome Apollo 11 astronauts to... Glasgow

Without having a time machine to transport the cast and crew back to 1969, the production team had to find the next best place to re-stage the Apollo 11 ticker tape parade. That location turned out to be in Scotland. "We needed a location for the chase and parade sequence through Midtown east and up towards Hunter College, and the scale of the buildings in Glasgow were really great for that," said production designer Adam Stockhausen in an interview conducted with Lucasfilm.

The team looked at period footage and photos of the real parade for inspiration on how to dress the streets and what vehicles to include in the parade. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot signs, banners and pennants that are an exact match for actual decorations that lined the streets of Manhattan more than 50 years ago. According to the film's production notes, action vehicles supervisor Alex King was keen to include the 1952 Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton that carried Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins through the ticker tape parade up Broadway. But only three versions of the car were ever made, so King was forced to procure a similar Chrysler, remove the roof, and paint it black. There were other differences, as well. In the movie, the Apollo 11 crew and their families are accompanied by a float with a large moon globe and a balloon shaped like a rocket . Neither were part of the real parade, though the dancers in red, white and blue outfits were indeed there. "We added a few of our own things, parade floats and pieces that weren't in the original, but the skeleton of it is really from the actual parade," said Stockhausen.

Making the transformation even more impressive was the time in which it was done. The team spent just three weeks dressing Glasgow's main artery, St. Vincent Street, which was then closed to the Scottish public for seven days as the filming took place. "You can't walk into a downtown metropolitan area and just take it over for three months," Stockhausen said. "You have to do your work in as compressed a period of time as you can possibly manage and then get out and let people get back to their lives. So, there was an incredible intensity for everyone to rush in and do all this dressing, put up all these signs , put up all this bunting. It was go-go-go." The team's pace was, in a way, an inadvertent tribute to the real parade, too. As opposed to being held up by an archaeologist on the run, the astronauts' motorcade sped through the streets, surpassing their schedule. So much so, that spectators were still arriving after the procession had come and gone. The mayor's office attributed the rush to NASA officials, who were concerned that the astronauts would fall behind schedule. After the parade (which they completed 30 minutes early) and visits to City Hall and the United Nations, the Apollo 11 crew were booked to appear at another ticker tape parade in Chicago and then a state dinner in Los Angeles the same day.

Voller vs. von Braun

Indiana Jones' other brush with space history is found in the back story of his "Dial of Destiny" foe, Dr. Voller. "Our villain [was] modeled after Wernher von Braun , who was a famous Nazi rocket scientist who came to this country and helped us with our Apollo program and our rocket program at NASA," said director James Mangold. "[He] is a character that I thought was very interesting to show, even from a historical basis, how some pretty brilliant Nazi minds had managed to make a home in America and a life for themselves and embed themselves in the system that reveals itself in our movie." Although not explicitly stated in the film, Voller's history aligns with Operation Paperclip, the real program that brought more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians from post-Nazi Germany to the United States to work for the government. Von Braun and his 130-member rocket team was included in that count. Like von Braun, Voller's focus is on his research and not the politics surrounding it. "He's a man who is very, very passionate about his job, the science of what he's doing and less so with the ideology of what he's doing," Mikkelsen told Entertainment Weekly .

For his part, the actor did not play into the stereotype of a crazed rocket scientist. "We wanted him to be a man who kind of blended in once he moved to America because he's predominantly a scientist," Mikkelsen said in a Lucasfilm interview. "Voller's pragmatic. He's a restrained character. He's a man you would pass on the street." To be clear, none of the actual Operation Paperclip members, von Braun included, ever turned against the United States. Nor was the real von Braun part of the Apollo 11 ticker tape parade in New York City. In fact, von Braun may exist in the Indiana Jones universe. In " Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods ," a Dark Horse Comics limited series, the German rocket scientist is cited by name.

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Time travel

Two planes fly through a fissure in time.

Time travel is the concept of being able to move back into the past or forward into the future.

• 2 Behind the scenes
• 3 Appearances
• 5 Notes and references
• 6 External links

History [ ]

In an account attributed to Merlin , the wizard was able to travel through time with the powers of the Omphalos and Stonehenge . [1]

In 214 BC , during the Siege of Syracuse , the Greek mathematician Archimedes was working on a dial that would allow him to locate fissures in time and possibly travel into the past or the future. One half of the device was finished when his assistant informed him about a dragon flying in the sky. Confused, Archimedes headed outside and saw a giant flying machine burning and crashing on the beach. Archimedes went closer to investigate and took a small mechanical device from the corpse of one of the people who had died in the crash. A man and woman then appeared in front of him, holding a device identical to the one he was working on. Archimedes asked the strangers how far they traveled, and the man replied "Two thousand years". The strangers then had a brief argument, for the man was injured and the woman wanted him to return to their time so he could be healed, but the man was reluctant. The woman punched the man, knocking him unconscious, and the strangers departed in another, smaller mechanical dragon. Realizing that time travel was real, Archimedes split his device into two pieces. One was captured by the Romans and ended up at the bottom of the sea when the ship that was carrying it sunk in a storm. The other was buried with Archimedes in his tomb . [2]

Around October 1913 , while staying in England with his father , Indiana Jones was briefly displaced from his present and experienced the aftermath of the fall of Camelot to the invading Anglo - Saxons . [3]

While Jones was on a London bus in 1916 , his journey was interrupted by a German air raid. When Jones asked aloud if the craft he spotted was a zeppelin , Vicky Prentiss , the bus conductor, sarcastically claimed it was a 21st century time traveler newly arrived to check on their welfare then urged Jones to get moving as the bombs started to drop. [4]

Two decades later, in 1934 , after he had returned the Crystal Skull of Cozan to its temple in British Honduras , Jones struck his head while fleeing a giant anaconda then found himself perceiving the city back when it was inhabited. There, he witnessed the sacrifice of a slave girl by the native Cozanians in the Skull's presence. Jones found that he had little interaction with his surroundings so could not prevent the slave being stoned to death. Back in the ruins of the city, Jones noticed a rock at his feet which was covered in hair and fresh blood. He later sought out a fellow Princeton University professor for advice. [5]

By 1944 the Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller was searching for Archimedes ' dial . During an evacuation of a castle in France , a group of soldiers led by Voller and Colonel Weber discovered a hoard of precious antiquities, including the dial and the fabled Spear of Destiny . After loading the loot on a train the Nazis departed, hoping to bring their prize to Adolf Hitler . However, Voller discovered the Spear was fake, and tried to convince Weber about the dial's power, but the Nazi officer dismissed his theories as rubbish. The dial was eventually stolen by the American archaeologist Indiana Jones and his colleague Basil Shaw . [2]

Jones kept possession of the dial until 1969, when neo-Nazis led by Voller set out to reunite the two halves in order to assassinate Adolf Hitler so that a more competent Führer could win World War II for Nazi Germany. Voller and his men battled Jones and Shaw's daughter Helena for possession of the dial, ultimately resulting in Voller reassembling the dial and attempting to travel in an airplane through a time fissure to 1939 with the captive Jones and the stowaway Helena. However, what nobody realized was that the dial was only ever meant to allow travel to 214 BC. The group arrived at the Siege of Syracuse, closing the causal loop and resulting in Voller's death. Helena forced Jones to return to 1969 with her, ensuring that history would not be further altered by their presence. [2]

Behind the scenes [ ]

In the Readers of the Lost Ark letters section of issue 28 of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones comic book series, when asked by a fan on why they didn't make a time-traveling gem to allow Indiana Jones to travel from the 1930s to 1985 and team up with the Avengers only to then return to his own time and discover that he was gone merely for five minutes, the Marvel Comics writers in charge of the series opined that Indy already had enough headaches to add time travel and a meeting with the Avengers to his list. [6]

In an interview with The Indy Experience in 2004 , Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx author Max McCoy revealed that he had intended to include time travel in a larger sequence for his novel but creatives at Lucasfilm Ltd. pushed against the story mixing genres with science-fiction. [7] The sequence involved Indiana Jones returning the Crystal Skull of Cozan to the Temple of the Serpent only for the temple's exit to take him out to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in the then-contemporary 1990s. The removal caused the book to lose some chapters in the finished version of the story, but McCoy still added a few references to the phenomenon by having Jones talk about space and time with Albert Einstein . [8]

In 2008, Indiana Jones creator George Lucas was quoted by Total Film as saying that simply inventing an object like a time machine wouldn't work for the MacGuffin of an Indy adventure as any supernatural artifact could only work with an historical or archaeological context. [9] However, in 2023, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny —on which Lucas served as an executive producer—found a way to use the historical Antikythera mechanism as the basis for a MacGuffin said to be capable of locating fissures in time . [10]

When brought into the development of the film, writer/director James Mangold felt that the existing screenplays for the fifth film were too derivative of previous entries, seeing that as a problem which had affected the Star Wars series: "Is it a Death Star again ?" He instead opted to start a new script which explored the themes of time, past and present, which resulted in the time travel plot of the final feature. An idea that was considered was ending the film with a climax set in 1938 's Nazi Germany but Mangold decided that it would be both too predictable for the audience and a repetition of the earlier 1944 prologue sequence so developed the 214 BC Siege of Syracuse finale instead. [11]

Appearances [ ]

• Young Indiana Jones and the Ghostly Riders
• Indiana Jones and the Dance of the Giants
• Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Sources [ ]

• Judge's Survival Pack

Notes and references [ ]

• ↑ Indiana Jones and the Dance of the Giants
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• ↑ Young Indiana Jones and the Ghostly Riders
• ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – " London, May 1916 " → Love's Sweet Song
• ↑ Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx

• ↑ Interview with Max McCoy at The Indy Experience
• ↑ "Is Indiana Jones allowed to time travel?" a START WRITING interview with author MAX McCOY! on YouTube
• ↑ "TF Interview: George Lucas ". Total Film . United Kingdom . May 2008. See here .
• ↑ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• ↑ The Shocking Ending of Indiana Jones 5 Wasn't Always What's in the Movie at Gizmodo

External links [ ]

• 1 Indiana Jones
• 2 Mutt Williams
• 3 Marion Ravenwood

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There are clues that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could be the first movie in the series to involve time travel. Fifteen years after his last appearance in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure as Indy, with James Mangold stepping into direct for series regular Steven Spielberg. Set in 1969, Dial of Destiny follows Indy on an adventure with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to retrieve the mysterious Dial of Destiny. Indy and Helena will also find themselves once again battling Nazis, led by Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen).

As was the case for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , the full nature of Indy and Helena's quest along with the dial itself has been only vaguely teased in Dial of Destiny 's trailers , a wise move to build excitement for Indy's long-awaited return to the big screen. Despite this, there might be more significant hints lying out in the open of Dial of Destiny 's adventure being very temporal in nature. Here are indications that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could involve time travel as key concept.

5 Indiana Jones 5's Dial Of Destiny Can Change The Course Of History

Dial of Destiny 's trailer does not overtly reveal the properties of the artifact in question, but there could be one hint about it in Helena's line that it is " a dial that could chance the course of history. " At face value, it is easy to assume that she is referring to the dial's discovery as a world-changing event. However, there could be a more literal interpretation to this, with the dial of destiny potentially granting its user the power of time travel.

Every artifact Indiana Jones has pursued has held major supernatural properties, from the Ark of the Covenant, the Shankara Stones, the Holy Grail, and the Crystal Skulls of Akator. So it stands to reason that the Dial of Destiny is unlikely to be a mere historical trinket Indy and his enemies are after. The name " Dial of Destiny " also carries an ambiguous aura, and the " destiny " it references could refer to it conferring the power to change the past — and with it, the course of history.

4 The Flashbacks To A Younger Indy

Dial of Destiny has also shown flashbacks of Harrison Ford as a younger Indy. He appears to be roughly around the age range he was in between Raiders of the Lost and The Last Crusade, and Harrison Ford is very impressively de-aged . It would be easy and logical to attribute these glimpses of a younger Indy as being from his past adventures not seen on-screen previously. With that said, there could be more going on here, with not only Dial of Destiny but Indy himself revisiting past events in his life.

The Indiana Jones movies have never been concerned with showing flashbacks, the only major exception being the prologue of a teenage Indy (River Phoenix) in The Last Crusade . Kingdom of the Crystal Skull took a "tell, don't show" approach to explaining Indy's military history since The Last Crusade . As a concept, time travel could enable Dial of Destiny to not only make a major flashback to Indy's past but allow Indy himself to be a part of it with the dial's potential time-travel powers. Indy's past will also be crucial to Dial of Destiny 's 1969-based story in another way.

RELATED: Crystal Skull Already Retired Indiana Jones (But Indy 5 Can Work With It)

3 Indiana Jones 5 Mentions The Nazis & Hitler

The Nazis have been recurring villains throughout the Indiana Jones franchise, with Dial of Destiny being Indy's third battle with the Nazis , but the context is bound to be quite different more than two decades after World War II. In Dial of Destiny 's trailer, former Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller states, " Hitler made mistakes, and with this, I will correct them all. " The idea that a relic as simple as the dial could correct or have any impact on the atrocities of the Third Reich is puzzling on the surface, but Voller's idea could be easier to grasp if the dial has the power to alter history.

The mistakes of Hitler that Voller references could lie in strategic errors that Hitler and the Nazis made in battling the allies that led to Germany's defeat in World War II. If Voller were to use the dial to travel back in time to correct Hitler's errors in overseeing his conquest of Europe, it could be to rewrite history to lead to the allies' defeat and Hitler eventually conquering the world. Such a plot by Voller and other Nazi despots would make the stakes of Dial of Destiny the highest of the franchise.

2 Indiana Jones 5 Set Photos Tease Roman Gladiators

Another clue pointing to time travel is an element of Dial of Destiny 's plot can be seen in set images from the film. For example, one collection of Dial of Destiny set photos shows actors dressed as what appear to be Roman gladiators. While there is no explicit context to the images in question, the age of the Roman Empire is much further back in history than the Indiana Jones franchise has ever ventured and certainly well removed from Indy's lifetime.

While it could be easy to attribute Roman gladiators to a flashback scene in Dial of Destiny , the Indiana Jones franchise has not traditionally included such flashbacks to ancient times associated with the artifacts of the movie. Not doing so has enabled the Indiana Jones films to maintain an aura of mystery and wonder about said artifacts. For Dial of Destiny to break that tradition, it could indicate that Indy or other characters might travel back in time to visit the Roman Empire directly, with the Dial of Destiny as their mechanism.

RELATED: Indiana Jones Complete Movie Timeline Explained

1 Crystal Skull Already Stretched The Indiana Jones Franchise's Plausibility

While the concept of time travel might seem like a sudden left turn for the Indiana Jones franchise, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has already helped lay the groundwork for it. By having aliens and flying saucers as its MacGuffin, King of the Crystal Skull introduced sci-fi elements wrapped into the Indiana Jones franchise. It also made quite a leap into the unbelievable with Indy's rather infamous " Nuking the Fridge " scene.

While all those elements would contribute to the mixed reception of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , they also make something like time travel much more easily integrated into an Indiana Jones movie. To be sure, any time-travel properties of the dial are likely to be as enveloped in metaphysical and historical lore as the Crystal Skulls of Akator are in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . But, in any case, Dial of Destiny taking Indy through the doorways of time is far more tonally consistent with the Indiana Jones franchise , thanks to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull .

With Indiana Jones having ventured to all corners of the Earth and uncovered priceless artifacts from ancient cultures, Dial of Destiny certainly has a tall order to live up to that legacy. Bringing in a sci-fi concept like time travel and interweaving it with spiritual or metaphysical elements like past Indiana Jones movies could be just the right move for Dial of Destiny to pull that off. As a way to revisit and pay great respect to the past, not unlike The Flash itself is doing this summer, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could tell a very epic and emotional Indiana Jones story.

Key Release Dates

Indiana jones and the dial of destiny.

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny viewers stumped by huge plot hole

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny viewers have been left stumped by a major “plot hole” in the new Harrison Ford sequel.

The film, the fifth entry in the adventure franchise, sees Dr Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr (Ford) come up against an old Nazi adversary ( Mads Mikkelsen ) in 1969.

Spoilers follow for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ... you have been warned!

Most of the plot of the film revolves around the hunt for the two pieces of Archimedes’ dial, an ancient device that could supposedly be used to “read fissures in time”, potentially allowing the user to travel back in time, by locating the right fissure at the right time.

By the end of the film, the villainous Jürgen Voller (Mikkelsen) has acquired the dial, and follows it towards a wormhole located somewhere in the sky. He flies through the wormhole in an airplane with Indiana Jones on board, expecting to arrive back in Nazi Germany, where he will change the course of history and win the war for the Nazis.

The plane does indeed get transported back in time – but instead arrives in ancient Greece, during the Siege of Syracuse in 213-212 BC.

It is ultimately revealed that the dial was invented by Archimedes to help direct people from the future to his location in the past, during the ancient battle.

However, while the ending clears up some of the questions posed earlier in the film – namely, how Archimedes’ entombed body was wearing a modern-day wristwatch – the nature of the time travel still seemed to leave open a large plot hole.

Given that the dial was simply a device for reading the “fissures” in time, as opposed to creating them, it remains unexplained how Voller was able to locate a portal to Archemedes’ exact time and location, just hours after the device fell into his possession. The most logical explanation would be that the “time portals” are constantly opening up all over the world, round the clock – which poses further questions as to why no one had ever noticed them, or travelled through them.

One person shared his confusion on Reddit. “I’m not sure I really understand the time travel,” they wrote. “So archimedes was working on his dial when the Romans attacked. During the attack, the Nazi plane came out of the sky and murdered the enemy army. So archimedes knew in the future, the dial would be found and this would happen. So he built a device that allowed the user to find a worm hole to that exact moment in time?

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“But like why is there a time hole to that exact moment? Are there just time vortexes to any point in history? How did archimedes even know there was a time hole to the time of this attack. Idk maybe I don’t understand it.”

Another viewer wrote that the film featured “plot holes the size of 18-wheelers”.

In a three-star review of the film for The Independent , Geoffrey Macnab wrote: “Tonally, the film wavers. It pulls in too many different directions at once. On the one hand, this is an exercise in affectionate nostalgia.

“On the other, like its predecessors, it’s an old-fashioned matinee adventure in which characterisation is deliberately broad. Certain episodes are knowing and ironic, while others seem painfully naive.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is out in cinemas now.

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Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Review: A Classic Franchise With Modern Problems

T he best part of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the beginning, a lengthy sequence set in 1945 involving Indy trying to steal back the Spear of Destiny from Nazis. Using de-aging technology, Harrison Ford is back in the saddle as a middle-aged explorer with the voice of an 80-year-old man, but above all, it's just plain fun. Sadly, it doesn't keep the energy going and becomes a slog, thanks to an insufficient plot and too much runtime.

Right after the flashback sequence ends, it jumps the story forward to 1969 and a topless Harrison Ford struggling to move around his rundown apartment. It's a jarring juxtaposition that sets up the rest of Dial of Destiny , which never uses the word "old" but makes it clear that Indiana Jones‘ best days are behind him.

Mads Mikkelson's Nazi from the opening scene is back in New York, having become an advisor for the United States government thanks to the real-life Operation Paperclip, but he's clearly still evil. The final star of the film, Phoebe Waller -Bridge, is Helena Shaw, Indiana Jones god-daughter, and the three become entwined in a series of chases and close escapes to retrieve Archimedes' timepiece, i.e., the Dial of Destiny.

The plot follows the classic template established in Raiders of the Lost Ark : chase an artifact, travel via a map with a red line, find another artifact, have a tense encounter, and repeat. It sounds rote and by the numbers, but it's a classic adventure movie formula that for the most part, still works. The largest problem this time has nothing to do with Indiana Jones, or any of the stars for that matter, all of their star-power isn't able to elevate a dull story.

Despite a glimmer of hope for the future of Indiana Jones, and the excellent ending, it's not worth the slog to get there.

Directed by James Mangold, known for Logan and in charge of both an upcoming Star Wars movie and Swamp Thing , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a drastically different film from everything else in his filmography. Stepping in after Steven Spielberg left the franchise had to have been intimidating, which may be why Mangold makes rookie mistakes for directors given a big-budget franchise: it's too long.

A middle sequence involving diving could have been removed entirely, dropping the number of chase scenes to four because, as it stands, I was checking the time at that point and wondering when the film was finally going to get to the point. To its credit, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , as with the previous films, gets weird at the end, but its sadly a short part of the film, and for how wild a twist it is, nothing is really done with it.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny plays things too safe, and it moves with the gait of an old man, short sprints and long periods to catch its breath, repeated over and over until it just ends. Thankfully, the ending is well worth it for franchise fans, including a beautiful callback to the first movie. And yes, the absence of Mutt (Shia Lebeouf) is addressed; it makes sense and helps add to the image of Indy as a hard-luck hero with nothing going right for him.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as Helena Shaw, going by this film, is not likely to continue the franchise afterward, but if she is, it's going to be in good hands. She's a horrible action star, which makes her perfect for a franchise where the hero routinely gets beat up and loses on a regular basis.

Yet despite the glimmer of hope for the future of Indiana Jones, and the excellent ending, it's not worth the slog to get there. A runtime of two hours and 34 minutes makes it the longest film in the series by 30 minutes, and with fewer action setpieces, it's the most boring in the franchise. The most famous pulp adventure franchise, and its hard-working stars, deserved a better send-off.

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Beryl maps show path and landfall forecast of tropical storm that could become a hurricane again

By Cara Tabachnick , Emily Mae Czachor

Updated on: July 7, 2024 / 9:32 AM EDT / CBS News

After hitting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Tropical Storm Beryl  was churning across the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and is expected to regain hurricane strength before it makes landfall in the southern Texas Gulf Coast on Monday morning.

The storm blew past the Cayman Islands and Jamaica earlier in the week, initially making landfall over the island of Carriacou in Grenada while tearing through the Caribbean , strengthening at times to a Category 5 hurricane — the  strongest rating .

What is Beryl's projected path?

Tropical Storm Beryl is moving through the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and is forecast to regain hurricane strength before it approaches South Texas and Northeastern Mexico late Sunday, according to the hurricane center. It is forecast to make landfall in Texas on Monday morning. 

A portion of the Texas Gulf Coast could see a total of up to 15 inches of rain beginning Sunday and into midweek, the hurricane center said, along with life-threatening storm surge and powerful hurricane-force winds.    

Tropical storm conditions were expected to begin late Sunday, followed by hurricane conditions on Monday, the hurricane center forecast. 

"Beryl is forecast to bring damaging hurricane-force winds to portions of the lower and middle Texas coast late Sunday night and Monday," the hurricane center said, adding that storm preparations "should be rushed to completion before tropical storm conditions begin late Sunday."  

A storm surge warning was in effect for an approximately 300-mile stretch from the Padre Island National Seashore north to High Island, including Corpus Christi Bay, Matagorda Bay, and Galveston Bay. Texas coastal areas could see storm surges of up to 6 feet above ground, the hurricane center forecasted.    

"The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline," the hurricane center said. 

Beryl had made landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Friday as a Category 2 hurricane, just northeast of the resort town of Tulum, before weakening to a tropical storm.

As of Sunday morning, Beryl was centered 220 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, and 225 miles south-southeast of Matagorda, Texas. It was headed northwest at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. A Category 1 hurricane has minimum sustained winds of at least 74 mph.   

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Texas Gulf Coast from Baffin Bay north to Sargent, a town about 70 miles southwest of Houston. A hurricane watch was in place from Baffin Bay south to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. Tropical storm warnings were also in place for portions of the northeastern coast of Mexico.

Hurricane center senior specialist Jack Beven told the Associated Press that Beryl is likely to make landfall somewhere between Brownsville and a bit north of Corpus Christi.

Beven told the AP the official forecast has Beryl gaining 17 to 23 mph in wind speed in 24 hours, but noted the storm intensified more rapidly than forecasters expected earlier in the Caribbean.

"People in southern Texas now need to really keep an eye on the progress of Beryl," Beven said.

Where is Beryl bringing rain and flooding?

Hurricane conditions were possible in South Texas on Monday, preceded by tropical storm conditions on Sunday. 

"Heavy rainfall of 5 to 10 inches with localized amounts of 15 inches is expected across portions of the Texas Gulf Coast and eastern Texas beginning late Sunday through midweek. This rainfall will likely produce areas of flash and urban flooding, some of which may be locally considerable. Minor to isolated moderate river flooding is also possible," the center said. 

Beryl became the  first hurricane  of the 2024  Atlantic hurricane season  on Saturday and rapidly strengthened. It first reached Category 4 on Sunday, wavering back to Category 3 before returning to Category 4 on Monday and then becoming a Category 5 later Monday night. It is the first major hurricane east of the Lesser Antilles on record for June, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

Brian McNoldy, a tropical meteorology researcher for the University of Miami, told the AP that warm waters fueled Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year.

Beryl has also set records  as the first June hurricane ever to hit Category 4, the farthest east a storm has ever hit Category 4, and the first storm before September to go from tropical depression to major hurricane in under 48 hours, CBS News weather producer David Parkinson reported.

Beryl was also the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin and was only the second Category 5 storm recorded in July since 2005, according to the hurricane center.

Brian Dakss, Alex Sundby and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at [email protected]

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