After 40 years of whip-cracking, relic-chasing escapades,
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny brings the Dr. Henry Jones Jr. tale to a close. But how final is Indy's final hurrah? In this fifth edition of the Lucasfilm franchise, who lives and who dies?
Within the cavernous Ear of Dionysius in Sicily, Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller and his henchmen succeed in getting both the halves of Archimedes Dial, also known as the Antikythera, from our heroes: Indiana Jones, his goddaughter Helena Shaw, and her intelligent teenage associate Teddy.
The majority of MacGuffins in earlier Indiana Jones films were magical in origin, but this one was created by science, not mysticism. Dial of Destiny shows the ancient device as having the ability to find fractures in time and so enabling its owner to go into the past, departing from the actual history of the artifact. In essence, it is a time compass.
According to Voller, Adolf Hitler lost World War II instead of the Allies due to his excessive number of errors. Voller desires to change the course of World War II with the power of the Archimedes Dial. Voller intends to go from August 1969 back to August 1939, armed with his knowledge of the strategic mistakes made by the Nazis throughout the war and his newly acquired, fully assembled Dial. In order to ensure that Nazi Germany wins World War II this time, he will assassinate Hitler there and take over as Führer.
Voller and his thugs board a bomber while carrying an Indy who appears to be in critical condition. They are dressed in Nazi uniforms. When Voller appears wearing his Nazi officer outfit, Indy detects something. He's sporting exactly the same watch that Archimedes' remains were sporting when his tomb in the Ear of Dionysius was first uncovered. That grave also included engravings of a big bird with propellers. Such timepieces would be extinct for many centuries.
The geologic hypothesis of continental drift, which mathematician and engineer Archimedes wouldn't have been aware of when he created the Dial, was taken into account by Voller in Indy's time travel coordinates. That means the operation cannot be aborted because the plane is flying to the incorrect location at the wrong time.
The Nazi plane that Helena has stowed away on gets drawn into the time rift vortex and goes into the past while being pursued by Teddy's stolen tiny aircraft. The pilot whose jet Teddy stole was dozing off in the rear the entire time, which surprises Teddy. Now that he is awake, he is in a panic as he watches both planes splutter and spiral out of the vortex.
Indy was accurate. Since Voller's coordinates were so off, they were unable to go back to 1939. Instead, they had reached the Siege of Syracuse, which was a topic Indy taught at Hunter College in New York City (213–212 BC). The Roman ships and soldiers are laying siege to the Kingdom of Syracuse, which is guarded by elaborate defense devices created by their hometown kid, Archimedes, as the Nazi bomber and Teddy's jet soar over the Mediterranean. During the siege, Archimedes is present, and we can see that he is continuing constructing the Antikythera.
Voller is devastated by his failure and the knowledge that he lost his chance to alter history. The Nazi bomber is mistaken for a dragon by those on the ground, and soon incoming bolts cause devastating engine damage to the aircraft. Although Voller's (Boyd Holbrook) neo-Nazi goon Klaber fires bullets at the ancients, the jet is irreparably destroyed.
While attempting to save Indy, Helena gets into a fight with more goons and nearly falls to her death out of the opening bay doors. Helena sneaks up on Voller and kills him, allowing Indy and her to use the last parachute to jump off the crashed aircraft. When the malfunctioning aircraft crashes onto the shore, killing everyone on board, Voller and Klaber are in the cockpit.
Later, we see Archimedes and his pupils examining the ruins and finding Voller's burned body. Archimedes snatches the watch from Voller. Along with the completed Antikythera, which Archimedes has not yet finished, they also find it among the rubble. The engraving of an eagle holding propellers on Archimedes' tomb alludes to a Nazi aircraft.
As previously mentioned, there are no post-credits scenes in Indiana Jones 5. Of course, you can stay and watch the credits, but this strategy is consistent with the first four Indiana Jones films. That's not unexpected at all given that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were all produced in the 1980s. When Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released in 2008, post-credits scenes were just beginning to gain popularity, but they were far from commonplace for
Hollywood blockbusters at the time.
