The Indiana Jones franchise has always opened with an action sequence, usually taking audiences back to a previous time in the intrepid adventurer’s life when he is getting himself into a scrap in the name of getting his hands on an artifact. It seems that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will be continuing the trend but this time will be de-aging Harrison Ford to turn back the clock several decades. Now James Mangold has explained the reason behind the need to have a younger, de-aged Indy in the opening sequence and how it plays directly into addressing the character’s age now. Discussing the movie with The Hollywood Reporter, Mangold said:
“It reminds the audience of the contrast between a hero in his physical prime and a hero at 70. We’re not relying solely on the audience’s memory of the previous films. It reminds everyone what he’s done, what he’s survived, what he’s accomplished. By showing him in his most hearty and then finding him at 70 in New York City, it produces for the audience a kind of wonderful whiplash of how they’re going to have to readjust and retool their brains for this guy. His past is a live memory for the audience, hanging over a man who is now living with anonymity in a world that no longer cares or recognizes the things he felt so deeply about. You’re left with a multilayered perception of his character, both what he was and what he is, and how the world is different between the first 20 minutes of the movie.”
Harrison Ford Did Not Want Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny To Be Fully of “Old” Jokes
While Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will address how Indy is no longer the adventuring hero he once was, but the one thing it won’t do is make a bunch of lame jokes centered on the character’s advancing years. This is something that Harrison Ford made sure of himself by instructing all of the “old age wise-cracks” be removed from the script. He previously said:
“In [Dial of Destiny] there were a lot of old jokes in the script. We took them all out. There is a moment where he observes himself in this situation and says, “What the f--k am I doing in here?” But I hate what I call “talking about the story.” I want to see circumstances in which the audience gets a chance to experience the story, not to be led through the nose with highlights pointed out to them. I’d rather create behavior that is the joke of age rather than talk about it.”
Although there is no doubt that the movie will contain its fair share of wise-cracks in various forms, it seems that they won’t be taking aim at the age of the movie’s lead. So far the trailers for the final outing of Indiana Jones have hit all the right notes, and in a summer full of big blockbuster movies, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks like it is going to bring the franchise to a close in style.