Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 2023 is a 2023 American action adventure film directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote it with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp. It is the sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as well as the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones film series. Featuring Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen reprising their roles as Indiana Jones, Sallah, and Marion Ravenwood, respectively, new cast members include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen. Set in 1969, the film follows Indy and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II.
Dial of Destiny is the only film in the series that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg nor conceived by George Lucas, with both serving as executive producers instead.
PLOT
In 1944, Nazis capture Indiana Jones and Oxford archeologist Basil Shaw as they attempt to retrieve the Lance of Longinus from a castle in the French Alps. Astrophysicist Jürgen Voller informs his superiors the Lance is fake, but he has found half of Archimedes' Dial, an Antikythera mechanism built by the ancient Syracusan mathematician Archimedes which reveals time fissures, thereby allowing for possible time travel.
Indy escapes onto a Berlin-bound train filled with looted antiquities and frees Basil. He obtains the piece of the Dial, and the two escape the train just before Allied forces derail it. In 1969, Indy is retiring from Hunter College in New York City. Marion has recently left him and filed for legal separation due to Indy's depression after their son Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War.
Indy's goddaughter, archaeologist Helena Shaw, unexpectedly visits and wants to research the Dial. Indy warns that her late father, Basil, became obsessed with studying the Dial before relinquishing it to Indy to destroy, which he never did. As Indy and Helena retrieve the Dial half from the college archives, Voller's accomplices attack them.
The CIA assists Voller, now working for NASA as "Dr. Schmidt". Helena, revealed as an antiquities smuggler, absconds with the Dial to put it up for auction on the black market. Indy is framed for two colleagues' murders, forcing him to escape through the Apollo 11 moon landing parade, then an anti-war protest. Indy seeks out his old friend Sallah, now a New York cab driver who helps him flee the country after surmising that Helena will likely sell the Dial in Tangier.
At a Tangier hotel, Indy disrupts Helena's illegal private auction, but Voller and his henchmen arrive and steal the artifact. Indy, Helena, and her teen sidekick Teddy Kumar chase them through the streets in a tuk-tuk. The CIA intercepts Voller after the U.S. government disavows him for going rogue, but his cohorts murder the agents and steal their helicopter. Indy, Helena, and Teddy trail Voller to Greece and team up with Indy's old friend Renaldo, a professional diver. Guided by Basil's research, they dive to an ancient Aegean Sea shipwreck and retrieve a "graphikos" tablet containing directions to the Dial's other half. Voller arrives and murders Renaldo. Indy's group escapes and heads to Sicily, pursued by Voller.
Inside the Ear of Dionysius cavern, Indy and Helena find Archimedes' tomb, the Dial's second half, and a 20th century wristwatch on Archimedes' skeletal arm. Voller appears and captures Indy, wounding him. Helena and Teddy escape and chase Voller. After reassembling the Dial, Voller reveals his plans to travel back to 1939 to assassinate Adolf Hitler and help lead Germany to victory in World War II. At an airfield, Voller activates the Dial and locates a time fissure in the sky. Indy is held captive on Voller's stolen plane while Helena stows away through its landing gear and Teddy follows them in another plane.
Whilst approaching the fissure, Indy realizes that continental drift could have altered the timeline coordinates. Rather than 1939, the group instead arrives at the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. The warring armies shoot down Voller's plane, believing it to be a dragon. Indy and Helena parachute out just before the plane crashes, killing everyone else aboard, while Teddy lands safely. Archimedes finds Voller's body and wristwatch in the wreckage.
He gives Indy the Dial but keeps the watch. Indy and Helena learn that Archimedes created the Dial to bring users from the future through fissures that lead only to 212 BC. As the fissure begins to collapse, Indy wants to remain behind, feeling he has nothing left to return to. Helena, fearing a time paradox and unwilling to give up on him, knocks Indy unconscious. Back in the present, a recovering Indy awakes in his apartment and reunites with Helena, Teddy, Sallah, and Marion. Marion and Indy reconcile.
