Indiana Jones is back once again to find ancient artifacts and punch Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and the film's 1969 setting may reveal some major plot clues about the upcoming film. Disney has been extremely secretive about Indiana Jones' (Harrison Ford) upcoming fifth, and final, adventure. Set in the summer of 1969, a time of celebration, shock, and change, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is aiming to conclude the franchise with a bang.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will feature at least one flashback to Indiana Jones' younger years, but the majority of the film will take place in 1969. The film's central set piece involves Indiana (on horseback) being chased as New York City hosts a parade celebrating Apollo 11's successful mission to the moon. This scene might thematically link the astronauts to Indiana. Likewise, glimpses of ancient Roman statues and underwater skeletons in the Dial of Destiny's first trailer could link the film to the real-life 1969 discovery of the Marsala Ship. The world's oldest known warship wreck could be key to finding the Dial of Destiny.

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The Film Begins With A World War II Flashback

De-aged Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Set in 1944, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny begins with Indiana (played by a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford) infiltrating a Nazi-occupied castle. The franchise's prologues are usually separate adventures, but Dial of Destiny may be different. In the first trailer for the film, lead villain Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) is shown in a castle-like setting with Nazi iconography. The events here could be what drives him throughout the film, with Mikkelsen describing his character as someone trying to "correct some of the mistakes of the past" (via Empire). It would add another layer to Indiana's distrust of NASA's ex-Nazis if he had a personal history with one of them.

There Is Something Hidden In The Ocean

Indiana Jones on a boat in Indiana Jones 5

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny rejoins Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. at the end of his academic career. In the trailer for Dial of Destiny, he is seen giving a lecture involving an image of an early submarine design. This is just one of several nods toward the ocean, suggesting that something (be it a treasure or a clue) is hidden in the ocean. Roman soldiers apparently being on the set of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could indicate a time travel narrative, however, flashbacks to the Dial's origins are more likely.

The fifth Indiana Jones film was partly shot in Sicily and promotional images show Indiana on a boat, this could mean that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will feature a real-life archeological discovery. Indiana's trip to Sicily could flip the Indiana Jones franchise's ending trope and tie him directly with the discovery of a real historical object. In 1969 the world's oldest known warship wreck was discovered off the coast of Sicily. Dated between 264 BC and 146 BC, the Marsala Ship was used by the Carthaginians in one of the Punic Wars to fight the Roman Empire. The ship was risen by Honor Frost and her team in 1971.

The Dial of Destiny Has Nothing To Do With The Moon

indiana jones klaber

Now that the central MacGuffin of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has been revealed, it is hard to imagine how a Roman relic relates to the space race. Instead, it is more likely that Voller, who is based on real-life Nazi-turned-Nasa engineer Wernher von Braun, wants to use the Dial for another nefarious purpose. Maybe in a time machine, maybe not. Instead, the 1969 setting may provide more of a clue about the plot's thematic elements. Dial of Destiny's characters may be compared on a thematic level; with space-faring astronauts of the 1960s representing a different kind of hero to the pulp-inspired archeologist of the 1930s.

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The Apollo 11 parade is the stage for a major set piece that sees Indiana pursued by Nazi "lapdog" Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) (via Empire) and an unknown third-party, which continues down into a subway station. Indiana Jones, a veteran explorer more at home in dusty tombs than an office, is a stark contrast to the space suit-clad astronauts that the parade is celebrating. The audience won't experience the change from the 1940s to the 1960s, and the heroes that embody those decades "as an intellectual conceit, but literally" as the "buccaneering spirits of those early days" transition into "the beginning of now." (director James Mangold via Empire).

Voller believes he has found something "that could make the world a much better place to live in" (via Empire). Co-writer Jex Butterworth however says "it's not just that they're looking for something where there's nothing up there... But the people that are behind it" that worries Jones. This could imply that rather than looking for something related to the space race directly such as an ancient fuel source or an artifact on the moon; it is the involvement of ex-Nazis that motivates Indy to get involved and find the Dial first.

Dial of Destiny takes place in 1969 - the year of Woodstock, Stonewall, and the Manson Murders; and a year of change in America and around the world. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny occurs at the height of this era and this setting reveals some major plot clues about the upcoming film. The time period will influence the film thematically, pit him against an old foe in a new position of power courtesy of the space race, and send Indiana underwater to find a real-life shipwreck. Indiana Jones may be about to set off on his last adventure, but he will live on forever as an icon of cinema.

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