This time, while the bulk of the film is set in 1969 during the Moon mission and the Vietnam phase of American history, the film actually begins like Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which was set in 1936 and It involved the Nazis searching for the Ark of the Covenant, the gold-plated box that contained the stone tablets that Moses used to write the Ten Commandments. In the current film, the action begins in 1945. World War II is on its last legs, the Nazis are losing, but they are still looking for the artifact of power that can help them turn things around. One such device is the Archimedes dial or Antikythera mechanism. It is said that this legendary device has the quality of detecting cracks in time. A brilliant Nazi scientist, Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) has its broken half and is convinced that if he is able to find the other half, he can change the course of history. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) steal equipment from the Nazis. Paying homage to the earlier films, the 1945 portions are filled with chase scenes involving cars, bikes and tuk-tuks and even a lengthy piece set atop a film train. While we know that most of this has been achieved through CGI, the director has succeeded in giving it the look and feel of a bygone era. This is also true later in the film, where Indy rides a horse across the New York subway tracks, and runs straight into an oncoming train. It was so reminiscent of 80s action movies that it gave a feeling of deja vu.
After this the film focuses on 1969. Indy is retiring as a professor of archaeology. His granddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), daughter of Basil Shaw. She is actually after the Archimedes Dial, as she plans to sell it to the highest bidder at a black market art auction in Morocco. What she doesn’t know is that a group of Nazis led by Jurgen Voller is after the artifact. Voller is convinced that he can travel through time with the perfect device and secure a better future for Germany, in which the Nazis will emerge as conquerors. After a series of adventures, Voller, Indy and Helena manage to travel back in time with the aid of the device. The twist is that they do not arrive in 1939, as Voller wanted, but somewhere far, far back…
Even at the age of 80, Harrison Ford has shown that he has what it takes to be a world-class action hero. The actor’s age has been reduced via computer graphics for the 1945 parts and the change doesn’t look half bad. His biggest asset is that he can bring gravitas to a role that is definitely impressive. We know that a body double is doing all the running around, but his charisma is such that all we see is Ford. His most tender moments come at the end of the film, where he talks with his screen wife, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Suddenly, the years end, and we see two actors in the prime of their lives, romancing each other in Raiders of the Lost Ark, repartee, dodging bullets. Phoebe Waller-Bridge starts off as Indy’s perfect antithesis, a grave robber who goes after antiques not for knowledge but for money, before getting her moral compass right. She gives the necessary comic touch to the role and is good in action too. Is he being groomed to take over Indy in the coming years? We will know only when something concrete is announced.
The film is designed with fans of the franchise in mind and gives them everything they’ve come to expect, along with a ton of nostalgia thrown in too. It’s a nice farewell to the legend of Indiana Jones and will take you back to the original trilogy again.