There are few 100% scientifically true facts when making movies, but one of them is this: If you want to make a truly great Indiana Jones film, it has to have Nazis. Judging from the new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny that dropped today, Lucasfilm and Director James Mangold learned that lesson from the abysmal Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, as there are plenty of Nazis in the film, including a head evil Nazi played by Mads Mikkelsen. And as all Nazis should, he gets punched in the face at one point.
Dial of Destiny sees a very aging Indiana Jones actually working as a professor once again and seeming slightly bored with it. He’s on the verge of retirement and looking to just settle down until the daughter of an old friend, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), comes to him about a mysterious time-traveling item that he and her father were searching for years ago. Of course, the Nazis are also looking for it, and now Jones and Shaw must race against time to find it and make sure the Third Reich doesn’t rise again. It’s classic pulp storytelling at its best, and with Mangold in the director’s chair it’s looking really fun.
Of course, the biggest conversation topic in the film is still the CGI work to make a young Harrison Ford (and other actors). It’s clearly playing a major role in the movie as we hop back and forth in time with two different time periods (and maybe some time travel), and it looks great. I really want to hate on the technology, but it’s hard to when the end result looks so damn convincing. We’ll have to see how it all unfolds on the big screen, but in this new trailer and the previous one, the anti-aging CGI in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is impressive as all hell. Plus, it all worked for Disney in Captain Marvel.
Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Ethann Isidore, and Boyd Holbrook all join the cast as well with John Rhys-Davies happily returning to the franchise once again. Speaking of returns, John Williams returns one final(?) time to score the movie, which is fantastic. Anyone who watches this Dial of Destiny trailer and isn’t stirred deep in their soul by the rendition of the iconic theme is clearly dead inside.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will release in theaters on June 30.
