Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 American action adventure film directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote it with David Koepp and the writing team of Jez and John-Henry Butterworth.

Set in 1969, the film follows Jones and his estranged goddaughter, Helena, who are trying to locate a powerful artifact before Dr. Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist, who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II.

Plans for a fifth Indiana Jones film date back to the late 1970s, when a deal was made with Paramount to produce four sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

[9] Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered out of competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Towards the end of World War II, Nazis capture Indiana Jones and Oxford archaeologist Basil Shaw as they attempt to retrieve the Lance of Longinus from a castle in the French Alps.

Jones seeks out old friend Sallah, now a New York cab driver, who helps him flee the country after surmising that Helena will likely sell the Dial in Tangier.

Voller reassembles the dial and intends to time-travel back to 1939 to help lead Germany to victory in World War II by assassinating Adolf Hitler and avoiding his mistakes.

[32] Lucas stressed the importance of having a MacGuffin that is supernatural but still grounded in reality with an archaeological or historical background, saying, "you can't just make something up, like a time machine".

[64] In early 2018, Lucasfilm met with screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods for an "open canvas talk" including the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises in the wake of their success with John Krasinski's film A Quiet Place (2018).

[23] Mangold considered time travel on par with the previous films: "It's no more of a wild swing in my mind than ghouls flying out of a box and melting people's heads through the sheer power of dark angels, or a 700-year-old knight existing in a cave for perpetuity.

[87] A post-credits scene featuring Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) was considered according to storyboard artist Gabriel Hardman, but the idea was discarded early on so Ke Huy Quan wasn't contacted to reprise the role,[93] with Mangold opting to not bring Shorty back due to wishing to assemble a story in the film's present that made sense and not wanting to include another adult companion for Indy, with Helena Shaw only being there to challenge him as the adventure's sole female character.

[106] Holbrook previously co-starred in Mangold's Logan,[107] in which he portrayed Donald Pierce, also a second-in-command villain; this made him initially hesitant to accept the similar role of Klaber.

[112][80] Mangold and the Butterworths wrote the role specifically for Waller-Bridge, inspired by Karen Allen's performance as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[124] Following the release of Crystal Skull, LaBeouf criticized the film and Spielberg, although Mangold said this did not factor into Mutt's absence in Dial of Destiny,[87] saying "there's only so many people you can edge into a picture".

[60] Mangold was opposed to using the StageCraft virtual production technology developed by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for Lucasfilm's The Mandalorian (2019–present), wanting to rely mainly on practical effects.

[127] Because of pandemic quarantines, a remote location scouting system was used in some instances, in which scouters were sent to prospective areas with a camera to broadcast the sites to Mangold and production designer Adam Stockhausen.

[186] On November 4, a camera operator named Nic Cupac was found dead in his Morocco hotel room; Disney stated that his death was not production-related.

This was partly achieved using new artificial intelligence software from ILM, which looked through archived footage of a younger Ford in his previous work for Lucasfilm,[200][201][202] including the original Star Wars films (1977–1983).

According to visual effects supervisor Robert Weaver, "Many times, we weren't quite getting the right balance of the eye-opening and the shape of the overall eyes, and were continually having to reference both older footage and what was shot in camera".

The transition from the pulpy cinematic language of 1940s films brings the characters from an "older world" into the "modern" 1960s, a present strongly influenced by the Cold War, nuclear power, space travel, intrigue and the lack of black-and-white morality.

[14] The Escapist's John Friscia found the trailer's nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark amusing but hoped that the film wouldn't rely on nostalgia.

[225] It was theatrically released in the United States on June 30, 2023, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, and other premium formats.

[246] In the United States and Canada, Dial of Destiny was released alongside Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, and was projected to gross domestically $60–65 million from 4,600 theaters in its opening weekend.

[247] TheWrap claimed that Americans under the age of 30 had a "much lower presence in ticket presales compared to the average summer tentpole" and that the film's tracking was also underperforming in Asian markets.

The website's consensus reads: "It isn't as thrilling as earlier adventures, but the nostalgic rush of seeing Harrison Ford back in action helps Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny find a few final bits of cinematic treasure.

[263] The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw felt Dial of Destiny "has quite a bit of zip and fun and narrative ingenuity with all its MacGuffiny silliness that the last one really didn't".

In the abstract, at least, it accomplishes that, right down to the emotional diagram of a touching finale, but only by reminding you that even if you re-stage the action ethos of the past, recapturing the thrill is much harder.

"[25] David Rooney for The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film, writing "it's a big, bombastic movie that goes through the motions but never finds much joy in the process, despite John Williams's hard-working score continuously pushing our nostalgia buttons and trying to convince us we're on a wild ride.

"[267] The Telegraph's Robbie Collin praised Ford's performance, but felt the film's action sequences were "loaded with mayhem but painfully short on spark and bravado: there's no shot here, nor twist of choreography, that makes you marvel at the filmmaking mind that conceived it".

"[269] In December 2024, while promoting A Complete Unknown (2024), Mangold expressed disappointment to Deadline Hollywood at the poor reception to the film, saying, "You have a wonderful, brilliant actor who's in his eighties.