We Have to Talk About the Ending of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Ghosts melting Nazis. Rocks healing villages. Immortality is real and so are spaceships. Indiana Jones movies are often defined by their shocking, genre-breaking endings, and the new one, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is no different. Things get… pretty crazy there at the end, so let’s talk about it and see how we all feel about the latest Indy adventure.

This, of course, means diving into the film’s biggest, most revealing spoilers—so only continuing reading if you’ve seen the movie or don’t care.

To recap, after Indy (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) find the second piece of the Dial, it’s stolen by Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and he sets off to see where it takes him. He binds Indy and brings him along (which is an odd choice, to be quite honest) while Helena and Teddy (Ethann Isidore) follow in pursuit.

Voller’s plane finds the tear in time he believed the Dial was directing him to; his aim is to return to Germany before World War II, kill Hitler, and assume command of the Nazi army. However, Indy mentions that Archimedes didn’t account for continental drift and that Voller’s calculations are off. They aren’t going to Nazi Germany. Instead, the plane goes through the tear and emerges in Sicily, around 200 BC, in the middle of a giant battle.

There, the soldiers on both sides believe the plane from the future is a dragon and attack it with spears and such. The Nazis attack back with guns as Helena, who had stowed away, rescues Indy and escapes before the Nazis crash and die. Then, Archimedes himself finds the crashed plane, takes Voller’s watch (which explains how he had it when Indy found the grave, as well as the carvings alongside), and then sees Indy and Helena’s parachute.

Indy and Helena realize that the Dial wasn’t a device for traveling anywhere in time. It’s a “stacked deck” (a reference to Helena’s magic from earlier) that was always going to bring them back to this moment to aid Archimedes and his people in the war. Indy is so shocked at being in a place and time he’s studied his whole life that he tells Helena he wants to stay. At which point she apologizes and knocks Indy out.

Back in 1969 (how they got back to New York so quickly is a bit of a grey area), Helena has called Marion (Karen Allen) to come help Indy and the two beautifully reunite. The last image is of Indy’s hat being hung up, before he snags it off the line. He’s not done just yet.

So. Yeah. It’s a lot. And I love it.

Look, say what you want about it being odd to have time travel in an Indiana Jones movie, but I go back to the first paragraph of this article. Unexplainable, supernatural science fiction has always been a part of this series. And this time, unlike in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it’s once again driven by an actual historical item. If anything, my biggest problem personally with the ending is that so much of the perspective is from inside the plane and not on the ground. It makes what is obviously a very epic scene feel a little more contained.

But I knew it had me when I thought for a second that Helena was going to leave Indy there. This is the last Indiana Jones movie, right? What better way to pay tribute to the famous archeologist than to literally make him an ancient artifact of the past? Of course, that would have subsequently screwed up a bunch of stuff—in movie time-travel fashion—so that doesn’t happen. But that I even thought for a second it was possible was really, really cool.

Also, the fact that Indy and Helena get to meet and converse with Archimedes is very satisfying. Each is such a fan. Such a student of his work. It’s almost like what it would be like if one of us got to meet Harrison Ford. This person is Indy and Helena’s idol and the idea they’d ever be able to meet him in person was impossible. But it happens and they each handle it very well.

From there, as I mentioned, the fact that Indy is still unconscious when they get back to New York seems somehow almost more unbelievable than time travel, but I’ll allow it. And the final surprise of Marion returning, after a whole movie of Indy pining for her, was beautiful. Calling back their classic Raiders scene? Perfect. And yet, as cool as that final shot is of Indy not quite hanging up his hat… isn’t this the last movie? Shouldn’t the hat have stayed hung up? I guess, even though we probably won’t see it, Indiana Jones has still got some life in him.

Oh, and now is a great time to mention what doesn’t happen in Dial of Destiny. Months ago, there were rumors that the movie had time travel in it (which is correct) but that Indy died and Helena used the Dial to go back and complete all his adventures—which is just beyond absurd, and obviously not what happens. But those rumors were based on one little fact: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny definitely ends up being about time travel. But instead of changing history, it respects it.

What did you think about the ending of Dial of Destiny? How did you read it? Let us know below.

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