Disney and Lucasfilm are set to release a brand new entry in the Indiana Jones franchise: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, directed by James Mangold.
This is the first new Indiana Jones movie since 2008. It will apparently not only be the last time Harrison Ford dons the fedora and whip, but the last Indiana Jones film ever. With the final film on its way to theaters, let’s take a look back at the first four Indiana Jones movies and rank them from worst to best.
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Oh Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, why on earth were you made? I do admit, rewatching this movie made me realize it isn’t as bad as I remember, but it’s still the worst movie of the franchise by a long shot.
What’s mind-boggling is the fact that most of the pieces from the original trilogy are in place. Steven Spielberg directed, John Williams came up with a great score like he always does and George Lucas came up with the story. Everything is there to make a good Indiana Jones film, but it just doesn’t have the right feel.
Maybe it’s that having Soviets as the bad guys just isn’t as satisfying as seeing Indiana punch out Nazis. Or maybe it’s the generally dull side characters, most notably Indiana’s long-lost son Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf. After spending half the movie getting second guessed by this incapable greaser, Indiana blows a gasket when he finds out that Mutt is his son. I’d be pretty aggravated too if I found out my son willingly goes by the name Mutt.
Another pitfall is that the main plot revolves around aliens. Yes, the other movies involve unrealistic elements like voodoo magic, immortality and the power of god. Still, aliens seem a little far-fetched for this world. The end of the movie sees main villain Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) place the crystal skull on a skeleton made of the same material. An inter-dimensional portal then opens and sucks in all the Soviets. Before Spalko joins them, all the alien skeletons in the room combine into one flesh-and-blood being that gives Spalko all the knowledge she so desperately wanted, killing her. The Peruvian temple turns into a space ship and disappears before the group’s eyes.
There are entertaining parts of this movie, such as the jeep chase scene in the jungle where Mutt and Irina have a fencing match. This part gets a lot of criticism for the CGI monkeys and Mutt tarzaning through the jungle with them, but it reminds me of the speeder chase in Return of the Jedi and I think it works. The return of Marion Ravenwood is also great since she is easily the most iconic female lead from the original trilogy. We also find out that Indy left her a week before their wedding. Not a good look, Indy. But they tie the knot at the very end in a touching ceremony.
All in all, this movie is a bit goofy but I don’t think it warrants the trashing is usually gets and it is worth a watch.
4. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
The latest and final installment in the Indiana Jones series is all about Indy growing old, and it’s a big step up from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What would being an old guy look like for an archeologist and adventurer like Indiana Jones? How would life have moved on around him?
Dial of Destiny asks these questions under the thoughtful direction of James Mangold, aided by Harrison Ford’s deep familiarity with the character. The movie kicks off with an action-packed fight on a runaway Nazi train, which gives the audience a big old dose of classic Indiana Jones nostalgia before launching us into the main story of the film. Sure, de-aging actors remains a little awkward, but Dial of Destiny makes one of the most admirable attempts at it we’ve yet seen.
From there we catch up with Indy when he’s in his 80s, and it’s immediately clear a lot has changed in his life since we last saw him in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He and Marion Ravenwood are estranged, his students are way more interested in the moon landing than digging up dusty old relics, and his neighbors are waking him up with newfangled rock ‘n roll music. The movie really takes off once Indy’s goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) shows up to trick him into giving her one half of Archimedes’ dial, which is said to locate rifts that allow time travel. Dial of Destiny avoids the mistakes made with Mutt by having Helena be just as interesting and well-developed as Indiana Jones himself, due in no small part to a magnetic performance by Waller-Bridge.
Many of the beats that follow feel familiar, such as the globe-spanning race with Nazis to secure a mystical artifact. But Dial of Destiny exercises an admirable amount of self-restraint when it comes to relying on nostalgia; it gives us lots of references, but often stops short of the obvious throwback line that would leave viewers groaning in embarrassment. And when the action hits, it really hits well. The tuk-tuk chase in the streets of Tangier is thrilling and funny by turns, the descent into a hidden tomb feels like classic Indiana Jones, and the ending time travel set piece is fantastic.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the rare legacy movie that actually feels like it justifies its existence. There was never any way it was going to best anythihng from the original trilogy — those films are classics! — but it’s a surprisingly great finish to the series.
– Daniel
3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The second and arguably the weakest of the original three movies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984 and is actually a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was so because writer and co-creator George Lucas did not want Nazis to be the villains again. He opted instead to set this film in India and pit Jones against a cult of worshipers of the Hindu goddess Kali. The main objective for Indy in this movie is to recover a sacred rock and free children who were stolen from a nearby village by the cult.
The first half of this movie is fairly weak, with much of the adventure consisting of buildup while Jones and his companions Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) survive a plane crash and trek through the Indian jungle. Kate Capshaw’s character has been heavily criticized, but similar to Mutt, the poor reception probably had more to do with the lines and situations written for her than Capshaw’s performance.
The rubber really hits the road when the group finds the Pankot Palace, where they are initially greeted and later almost murdered by the cultists. Eventually they make their way underground to find the titular Temple of Doom, where the cultist leader Mola Ram rips people’s hearts out of their chest and runs a forced labor mining camp. If dark arts and voodoo magic are the sort of thing you like in a villain, then Mola Ram is your guy. The sequences in the last half of this movie are fairly gruesome compared to your typical Indiana Jones action.
The best part of the film is when Jones is mind controlled with voodoo magic but broken free by Short Round, prompting an action-packed escape from the temple where all the child laborers are set free and the big mine cart chase happens. Mola Ram also has one of the best death scenes of any movie villain ever, where he gets torn apart by crocodiles after falling into a giant crevice.
Although the supporting characters are not as strong as in Raiders and the first half of the movie has pacing issues, Temple of Doom is still a great action flick and its flaws are heavily outweighed by the movie’s strengths. Today it is remembered as a solid piece of one of the best movie trilogies of all time.
2. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is the one that started it all. Its adventurous storytelling, coupled with Ford’s charm, spawned the entire franchise. A franchise that probably should have just stayed a trilogy, but I digress.
This film takes place in the mid 1930s and sees Jones tracking down the long lost Ark of the Covenant, which contains the broken tablets of the ten commandments and untold biblical power. On the same pursuit is French Archaeologist Rene Belloq and a group of nefarious Nazis eager to capture the same prize for Adolf Hitler. Along the way, Indy makes pit stops in Peru, Nepal and Egypt while reconnecting with his old girlfriend Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).
This movies features some of the most iconic shots in cinema, like the giant boulder set piece, the fist fight next to the plane and the climactic unsealing of the Ark where dozens of Nazis get zapped by holy lightning. Harrison Ford was in his prime and in the middle of a run of stellar performances which included the original Star Wars trilogy, Blade Runner and Witness among others. Ford’s onscreen chemistry with co-star Karen Allen is delightful; her character is much more than a damsel in distress.
The movie’s exciting plot and practical effects action sequences solidify it as a must-watch classic.
1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The final installment in the original trilogy was released in 1989 and it is the crown jewel of the Indiana Jones films. The (not so) Last Crusade starts off with a flashback that gives some unnecessary but fun backstory as to why Indiana does what he does. Twenty years prior to the events of the film, a young Indiana (played by the late River Phoenix) steals a Spanish gold cross from the 1500s, but is thwarted by an unnamed adventurer before he can put it in a museum. The man wears the same thing that Indy does on his adventures, and he gives the young Indy his fedora and tells him that even though he lost today, he doesn’t need to like it.
The story jumps ahead to 1938, when Indy is tasked by a rich guy named Walter Donovan to find the Holy Grail, the chalice that Jesus Christ supposedly drank from during the last supper. The Grail also apparently has healing powers and could possibly give the gift of immortality. In addition to finding this prized artifact, Indy needs to also track down his father Henry (Sean Connery), who went missing on his own pursuit of the Grail. On the way, he finds a clue in Venice, Italy with the help of a woman named Elsa, who Indy of course has a romantic encounter with. However, he is betrayed by Elsa when they finally track down Henry. Elsa and Walter both turn out to be Nazi conspirators out to get the Grail for Hitler.
Several precarious situations play out with the duo of Ford and Connery proving to be awesome and hilarious. Indy constantly tries to get his dad to keep up as they get into a dog fight in the sky, a tank fight on the ground and a book burning in Berlin where Adolf Hitler himself unknowingly gives Indy his autograph. Eventually everyone makes it to the Grail’s location in the Syrian desert, where a 700-year-old knight has been guarding it the whole time. Donovan and the Nazis are there and shoot Henry in the gut as a way to force Indiana to retrieve the Grail for them. Donovan dies of rapid aging after drinking from the wrong Grail and Elsa dies after trying to leave the temple with the artifact. Indiana chooses the right Grail and saves his dad, but the Grail is buried in the temple when it collapses.
All in all, the Last Crusade is a really fun movie with great action, witty dialogue and great supporting characters like Sallah, Henry, Marcus, Donovan and Elsa. Even though the movie just kind of ends after the Grail gets buried in the temple, there’s something really satisfying watching Indiana and his companions ride off into the sunset on horseback.
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