Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny: Did It End The Franchise On A High Note? 

Part III was where it should have ended. There are some people who like the fourth movie but the praise for the third is almost unanimous.

Indy ended with The Last Crusade.

"A day without music is a mistake" - John Williams, the greatest film composer of all-time without exception

I’ve only ever seen the first 3 Indy movies and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles show. Even after all these years, I’ve actually never seen Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, and I didn’t bother checking out Dial Of Destiny

I say this in defense of Crystal Skull: Indy, although older and grumpier, is still more or less the same character as he was in the Original Trilogy. And the Movie ended on a pleasant note, with him becoming Dean, marrying Marion and having a Son who may or may not inherit the Fedora at some point in the future.

No. Nobody asked for this, and nobody wanted it, as the box office proved. Last Crusade was a perfect ending, but Crystal Skull also ended on a high note for Indy. This didn't.

The comment 'Speilberg wanted to pass the torch' is hopelessly naïve. He was attached to the film, he saw what the script was like and did not want to be attached to it so left - managed to keep his dignity in doing so which sadly the rest attached to this lost.

By this point, the Raider ran a horse into the sunset with his father. And became the wise Teacher who got a second chance at happiness with his first love got married had two Heirs Short Round and Mutt to look after his legacy and got a new job. It makes you wonder how was this movie ever going to top off both those endings that gave both sides of Indiana Jones the Happy Ending he deserved why did they need to water all that down to having Marion show up to the very end of the film to mourn their son off the screen and we'll never know if Indy gets a second chance with Marion since they are going through a divorce is just an awful way for the good Doctor to end his career.

"Written as an homage to Marion Ravenwood". What nonsense. Shaw wasn't fit to tie Marion's shoes.

They spent all that time making Indy look younger, but he still sounds like an 80 year old man. I'm really curious why they didn't adjust his voice at all, they have to have the tech to do it now

"Having Helena point out the process of capitalism". No, that's not what she did. She spouted nonsensical BS.

Last Crusade was definitely the perfect ending. From the double meaning title, to the ride into the sunset at the end. But, I did enjoy Dial of Destiny and it was the most invested I've seen Harrison in a movie in quite some time. But ultimately I feel Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny were not needed. I enjoyed the flashback sequence a lot and I'm glad it was included, and extended.

A *HIGH* note?!? The only thing *high* is anyone who thinks that Dial of Destiny isn't the absolute low point of the franchise. I was hoping that Indy would use the time travel device to go back and make sure the series ended with Last Crusade.

You know what, you could've had Short Round in the movie, replacing Helena, & it probably could've worked. But NOPE! Oscar winning actor, Key Huy Quan, wasn't even contacted. Lucasfilm is simply out of touch & I'm not sure there's a way to come back.

I hold the theory Indy died at the end after she punched him. Everyhing else afterward was a fever dream

Indiana Jones 5 killed the franchise and Part 4 is where it ends in my opinion.

“Helena knocks him out” with her gigantic physical striking power.

I did enjoy this more than Crystal Skull, but didn't actually like the decision to kill off Mutt and didn't really understand why Phoebe Waller-Bridge had to be in this. I get that every Indy film has female that tags along but she wasn't like daughter figure or a love interest. Her character just felt shoe horned in and maybe just to lighten the load for Harrison Ford.

The de-aging effects are awful. Harrison Ford could have been de-aged to how he looked in Air Force One or The Fugitive, which aren't that far off of The Last Crusade. Last Crusade was in 1989, The Fugitive is 1993, which is 4 years. Air Force One is 1996, which is 7 years. Last Crusade took place around 1937 or 1938, and the opening is in 1944. That's 7 years. That could have worked. Instead, Harrison Ford is de-aged to how he looked in Raiders and in Blade Runner. My mind was playing mental gymnastics all the way through that opening flashback, which took 15 years to sit through as it was. And because my mind was pre-occupied with figuring out the math between years, it was not into this movie at all. So, for the most of the movie, my mind was doing these complex equations with "Oh, look, images on the screen!" every now and then. Ultimately, I think this was the worst movie I saw in 2023.

I liked Dial Of Destiny but, unlike the first three, it felt like a story about aging and letting go that should have spent more time on character and cut the chase scenes down. Also the disappointing box office might have been partly because it was damned hard to find in theaters.

No, no it did not. Dial was disastrous. The time travel was Terrible....and I love time travel.

My expectation was "If its better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I'm happy" and I think it achieved that much, and had a decent enough sendoff for Indy. Given that they should have stopped at Last Crusade, I kind of needed to adjust expectations.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It was a good ending.

The beginning goes on for too long and the effects stick out like a long thumb

This movie felt like expensive fan-fic 🤑

No a thousand times. No respect or love for Indy was present at all. He was a walking doormat.

I think the movie is well made however is not the ending Indy deserves, it wasn't bad but it also wasn't great, indy deserves more than this movie for a swan song.

neither this or kingdom of the Crystal skull was that bad, hell I actually liked Crystal skull but I did roll my eyes quite a bit with this movie however when it was over I actually said out loud "it wasn't that bad"!

Should have ended with the last crusade. They literally rode off into the sunset.

Completely agree! While on paper kingdom of the Crystal Skull has a good ending, the execution felt off. I wish they would have cut the whole CIA bit, the bugs scene (already did that in Temple of Doom and to a lesser extent Raider). Loved the third act. It felt deeply George Lucas to me. I think so much of its poor reception is just the milieu it was released in. I think it will age well and I enjoy watching it on my Indy marathons.

All it had to do was be better than KotCS, and it was way better.

The answer is no. It did not end on a high note. It ended on the lowest note imaginable. The dreaded brown note.

The note was so high it produced the legendary "brown noise" for this franchise

Thank you for enjoying the movie. 👍😁 I loved it too 👍.

Although, I will admit that the climax -- that was worth the price of admission. That was so bonkers that I'm glad I at least saw it.

Good video. Haven’t seen but it’s on D+ now so I’ll prepare tongue my eyes out

The franchise ended on a high note with “Indiana Jones and the LAST Crusade!”

7:10 , Primary Protagonist Valler? Isnt he a Antagonist?

If I want to watch an actor return to a pulpy badass reflecting on his life as mortality becomes apparent and dealing with a lot of pain from the past helped out by a female sidekick directed by James Mangold, I'd just go ahead and watch "Logan" again. Simple as that. Ford was too old and Indy does not have enough emotional sway to make the narrative it wants to push in the same way Logan had.

10:00 I regularly travel on the Yorkshire Moors Railway, and it’s 1000 times better than it is in the movie! Disney ruined a spectacular location, with video game special effects.

lol...Helena Shaw getting her own movie will go over like Caddyshack 2.

I appreciate that you and other people saw the same film I did.

Indiana Jones has been my favorite movie character, the original trilogy are among my favorites, so my expectations for this film were incredibly high. While I don't think Dial of Destiny is the best Indy movie, I don't consider it the worst. I like this movie better as a sendoff for the character. Dr. Jones, you will be missed, and fondly remembered by the true fans

It was wonderful. If you were there when it began then you were happy to say goodbye. Bravo Dr. Jones....

It’s fine guys. It ok to dislike it, but it’s not a disaster and I’m getting real tired of every conversation around a new movie in a franchise devolving into red rage arguments about the state of society. You either like it or not and can we leave it at that. Please.

It killed a franchise.

I'm sharing something deep here. I never had a father figure growing up. Indiana Jones was fictional but as a kid was like the cool uncle or father figure I had. He was suave, cool, smart and amazing adventures! So I was Afraid...no terrified of all the rumors and reshoots for the film. I decided not to watch this film especially with Disney at the helm😡 till now... For what it was it was...alright. I didn't like how Indy took the back seat especially for it beibg his last adventure. I didn't hate Crystal Skull either. I liked how we got to see a child of Indiana Jones cause c'mon...we know he has to have other kids around the world due to his uh... adventures 😅. Over all as a kid I always did feel The Last Crusade was the end...the other films are nice adventures for me (speaking for myself) but I was also fine with The Trilogy ending as it was...for Dr.Henry Jones J.R...i mean Dr.Jones...Indiana Jones🔥👏

I still don't understand why they didn't go the "Young Indiana Jones" route. It's been done before. (River Phoenix and Sean Patrick Flanery did an amazing job as Indy.) Lucasfilm should've cast a whole new Indy. (lots of sequel potential there). Harrison Ford could've easily done a small cameo and just jump to a flashback with a new Indy. LUCASFILM really needs a new President.

Was very let down on the last one 😞

I think the first 20 minutes are the best Indiana jones movie. Then the movie actually started. It was so awesome this opening sequence

Thank you Steve for the positive review. I loved the opening flashback, I loved the maguffin, and Indy traveling into history was a perfect end to the series! 🤠

I would have liked the last Indie film to be like the Last Crusade but this time Indie is in Sean Connery's position.

It ended more on a quiet note. Plus, (spoilers) real "subtle" that they killed off Mutt because he was played by Shia LaBeouf. 😒🙄 Mutt could've still be in the time-line & movie (as a small cameo), just have him be played by a different actor now that Mutt is older. Like Chris Pratt, since there were rumors of him playing Indiana Jones in a reboot, so instead replacing Harrison Ford's iconic character, he could play his successor/heir to the Jones' legacy.

Third best in the series. I really liked it. 1 3 5 2 4 is my order of liking them. The secibd and especially fourth movie, comes far behind the others. I grew up as a kid, when the first Indy films came out.

Short Round instead of Antonio, and don't off him.

I enjoyed it 👍

It seriously missed the Spielberg charm

It was not bad. It wasn't. However was it needed that's the question.

Yup, the movie was perfectly fine. Now let's get on with our lives!

I wouldn’t say it ended on a high note, but it did end on a positive one. Good movie, if not nothing remarkable.

Yes.🥰

The top third of the thumbnail looks like he’s Freddy Kreuger

The problem in Dial of Destiny, it’s not a perfect movie, the problem is the Helena Shaw and Teddy Kumar characters. Frankly they’re not particularly interesting and their stories and what they want to do and how these two characters fit in, that did not work for me. But overall, I enjoyed the picture as a cautionary tale, about artifacts that maybe should be better off remain lost. I just wish that Marion, Sallah, and Short Round took Helena’s and Teddy’s roles instead.

The fact that an Indiana Jones movie lost money, tells you everything

Kotcs gave it a happy ending with everything resolved. This new film made it all end on a sour note.

I actually liked Crystal skull and it wasn't that bad! But as soon as they said the name Kathleen Kennedy or was all over

Let me see you some time. No, no, it didn't.

Goodbye!

Series should’ve ended way back in 1989 😊

I really enjoyed the movie. Better than the Crystal Skull (though I liked that one as well). I really wished that Short Round was in it. I feel he could have appeared as one of Indy's contacts. Morion's role was too brief. But overall an enjoyable entry

This makes Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 💀 more tolerable. This series should have rightfully ended with Last Crusade-riding off into the sunset 🌅

This is not where it ends, remember Indy lives to be 93

It’s a film with good ideas, but a script that needed a few more drafts. Teddy and Helena are not a great pairing for Indy as they aren’t interesting or dynamic enough to give him anything to play off of. It should have been Banderas’ captain and John Rhys Sala on an adventure with Indy.

JONES - Indiana Jones! -The Awesomeness Continues?!? ✊😊👊😆🍁👌👍🍁

Listen…I’m a diehard Indy fan and have been for as long as I can remember. So maybe, to some, that makes me a bit biased. Yes, the original trilogy is flawless (for the record, Temple of Doom is my favorite of the entire series and even Last Crusade has shown some weak spots over time). Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had way too much going on in it, and suffered from CGI environments, poor attempts at humor, and that damned Spielberg color pallet. I was stoked for Dial of Destiny, despite all the hubbub of the time travel elements that kept trickling out during production. Also, the Peanut Gallery making old man Indy jokes can go fart….🙄 I enjoyed the hell out of the film when I saw it in theaters. I’m so glad that they didnt kill him off. I thought the de-aging worked really well in the opening adventure….granted, they forgot to de-age Harrison Ford’s voice, but whatever. Suspension of disbelief I guess. As for the story….it’s a bit too much crammed into the film at times. Waaaaaay too many characters and familiar faces popping up in glorified cameos. Too many characters makes it too confusing and difficult to concentrate….I also think the character posters for folks like Mason, Renaldo, Basil and Teddy were a bit much and put too much emphasis on characters who werent around that much. I absolutely could not stand Helena Shaw though. She was just an unlikable character…which I guess is a testament to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s performance. She was just mean to Indy throughout and came off as thinking she’s more clever than she really was. I guess it also doesn’t help a fan like me worrying about the film introducing a character who might “take up the mantle”…Mutt Williams suffered from that for me as well, on top of how poorly and thinly written his character was. My other main problem with the film, which I guess is my BIGGEST problem with the film….why did it have to cost almost $300 million?! Why do movies - especially an Indiana Jones movie - have to have such inflated and ridiculous budgets? Whatever happened to making a Indy film “the cheap and dirty way” like Raiders and, to an extent, both Temple of Doom and Last Crusade were? That old motto that Lucasfilm and Spielberg had of “if we can’t do it for real, let’s not do it” should have maintained through these last two sequels. Hell, even Crystal Skull had CGI gophers and a gopher hill. 🤦🏻‍♂️. I get it though…releasing a summer blockbuster tentpole film that cost $60-$100 million in the age of Marvel and other cartoony, CGI filled drivel would be the death knell for younger audiences with shortened attention spans (and deep pockets to go see the same movie upwards of 10 times in the theater). All in all, it’s a fine film and a solid capper to a brilliant character and an enduring series of films that have been a part of my life since at least 1984 when I was 2yrs old. Yes it has problems and I’ve got some issues with it, but for being Ford’s final performance as Indy, I’ll take it.

Yeah I'm calling BS @1:37 Spielberg decided not to direct this movie because he KNEW it was gonna bomb hard. He remembered how badly he fkd up on Indy 4 and wisely decided not to repeat such an idiotic mistake. I mean, honestly, an 80 y.o. action hero?? Whatever clown thought that was a good idea deserves to be fired.... out of a canon!

Lighten up. It’s Harrison Ford. He can do no wrong.

Is that a legit question? No. It defiled Indy.

I didn't think it was great. Steven Spielberg's direction and George Lucas' story sensibilities were very much missing. Michael Kahn's editing was very much needed! This movie needed to be tighter and less bloated. I liked the time travel story / plot, but all the storylines and plot points felt jumbled. On the positive side, Harrison Ford was fantastic, seeing Salah and Marion again was nice, and John Williams score was great. Its an average sequel, but its also Indiana Jones, so there is fun to be had in moments.

Thank you, I also enjoyed the movie. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The new Xbox game also looks great.

This is hysterical 😂😂😂

I’ve only seen this movie once and it was enough for me. It’s too long, and though I love John Williams, the reuse of music from the previous movies was distracting as hell. I noticed straight-up copy-and-paste from “Crystal Skull” for some of the action scenes.

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Crystal Skull, too... probably more than Holy Grail. One point though: it's The Antikythera MECHANISM. Antikythera is the place it was discovered - it isn't 'an antikythera'. THAT bugged the living hoohah outta me throughout the movie. Ah well. Hollywood, eh?

Despite the negative comments on here, this video is very positive on Dial of Destiny, and argues it ended the series on a very high note.

Didn’t see it, & don’t care to. This franchise for me anyway, ended in 89 with Last Crusade.

Like the "Star Wars" sequel Trilogy, I enjoyed it when I watched it, but I can't bear to watch it again.

Thankfully I haven't seen this cinematic abortion and never will.

So the young man that was Ford's body double was the actor that should have played a young Han Solo in that movie interesting 🤔

Spoilers Alert: it did not...

Probably the only person who would simp for this movie. This movie didn’t deserve the hate.

Getting the band back together my butt. At no point are they all together, at no point do they "make music", at no point do we get to see Short Round, and Mutt is killed off screen. Indiana Jones doesn't solve any of the problems, he is an unnecessary character in what is meant to be his own movie and it is fleabag who takes the protagonist role, drives the plot forward, beats the bad guys, rescues Indiana from them, then rescues him from himself while magically treating his gunshot and transporting him back to the future. Time travel through mystical means might make since in an Indy movie if you try real hard to make it work, but Archimedes is an ancient scientist and the concept of him inventing a technological device to time travel is too absurd even for a Monty Python sketch.

14:13 Sorry, i thought the sequence looked terrible. Like a PlayStation 3 Cutscene from an Uncharted Game. Great for a game cutscene's purpose but terrible in a movie with a $ 300,- million budget. And this: 14:57 was NOT filmed in Sicily. It's painfully obvious, that these are scenes from a reshoot done in a volume.

Everything after the Last Crusade was a mistake. However I want to point out that I thought Shia LaBeouf's character what's the best part of kingdom of the Crystal Skull it was a bad movie with bad writing but Shia LaBeouf was the one redeeming Factor

How can you have a time mechanism from 212 BC and the only way to use it is by airplane? Doesn’t make sense.

Your analysis was too kind on this worse Indy entry.

Great ending... They saved h*tler from getting killed by the bad guy's. Steven Spielberg should be proud

I enjoyed it, but KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL is the better sendoff.

You know the franchise will continue in someway right?

its simple you cant make an Indiana Jones movie without: Spielberg Lucas practical stunts. In camera effects. Harrison Ford being 30-50. Shooting on location.

If you think it did….then your higher than the people on the streets of Kensington Philadelphia