What does the Indiana Jones franchise have to do with Star Wars? Well, from a pure story point of view, absolutely nothing, unless those crystal skulls were sent from Coruscant. But from a business point of view, they are both Lucasfilm properties, so if the ExCel Center in London is already packed full of movie-loving dorks and their lightsabers at Star Wars Celebration, maybe throw a bone to the few who brought an Indy whip, too.
To that end, the first full trailer of James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is here, on the internet, after making its debut at the London pep rally. This is the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, the first not directed by Steven Spielberg. In addition to the return of Harrison Ford as the noted archaeology professor with a horrible attendance record, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, and Toby Jones appear in the film. John Rhys-Davies is also back as Sallah. The film is set in 1969. (Do the math on this and you’ll see it makes sense.)
The trailer opens with Old Man Indy sleeping in a lounge chair and not-quite-fitting in with the modern world, as “Sympathy For the Devil” from The Rolling Stones plays on the soundtrack. That tune will, of course, morph into John Williams’s rousing Indiana Jones score, and if that doesn’t get your blood pumping please call a funeral director, because you are probably dead.
Waller-Bridge, we learn, is Indy’s goddaughter, and her father was once a fellow archaeologist/adventurer that discovered, then lost, the Dial of Destiny, which is some kind of time machine. Trying to retrieve it made him lose his mind, but now it seems she’s found new clues about its location—but so have hiding Nazis? It all leads to Indy riding a galloping on a horse through a subway tunnel, and Sallah shouting “give ‘em hell, Indiana Jones!”
Two tickets, please, and the largest bucket of popcorn that is sellable by law.
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was a bit of a heartbreaker back in 2008, though it did earn $787 million at the global box office. James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg, but he has, somewhat stealthily, been one of the most sturdy directors in recent years. “Walk the Line,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Knight and Day,” “The Wolverine” and “Ford v Ferrari” is an incredible run. Not all monster hits (“Knight and Day” certainly underperformed) but these movies are all pretty spectacular. Mangold wrote the script along with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp.
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