Steven Spielberg Saw “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” & Loved It

April 27, 2023

If there was one person above all that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold was hoping to impress, it was Steven Spielberg. Mangold took the Indiana Jones reigns from Spielberg, the first director ever to do so, to steer Harrison Ford on his last adventure as the swashbuckling archeology professor and adventurer. Mission accomplished, Mr. Mangold. Spielberg saw Dial of Destiny, and he loved it.

“I just had that experience two nights ago,” Spielberg said at the Time 100 Summit about what it felt like for him to watch an Indiana Jones by somebody other than him. “Bob Iger had a screening for a lot of the Disney executives, and I came to the screening along with the director James Mangold. Everybody loved the movie. It’s a really, really good Indiana Jones film. I’m really proud of what Jim has done with it. When the lights came up I just turned to the group and said, ‘Damn! I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will offer viewers a final, thrilling adventure and a chance to glimpse a key moment from the past. Mangold utilized de-aging technology to film a portion of the action, revealing a previous Indy adventure that’s central to the present-day story. That set-piece involves Indy on a train where a certain Dial of Destiny was present. The action is then mostly set in the late 1960s, with Indy drawn back into action for one last time by his goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who aims to find that dial. It’s an object, Helena says, “that could change the course of history.” This being Indy, adventure awaits, even if he’s long past his prime.

The pursuit of the Dial of Destiny sets Mangold’s film into action. Ford and Waller-Bridge are joined by the great Mads Mikkelsen as the villain Jürgen Voller, Boyd Holbrook as his henchman Klaber, Antonio Banderas as Indy ally Renaldo, Thomas Kretschmann as Colonel Weber, Toby Jones as Basil (Helena’s father), and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah.

The Dial of Destiny is the fifth film in the franchise, following Spielberg’s four previous Indiana Jones films; Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989), and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hits theaters on June 30.

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