‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Ending Explained: Indy’s Last Quest – Armessa Movie News

As some background, the driving force of the entire film is all centered around the pursuit of the Archimedes Dial, a device that allows its user to find points in the world where they can travel through time. Jones had half of it following a prior adventure that he had held onto for decades. Of course, as is wont to happen in these films, some goons came knocking looking to use it for evil ends. Led by the nefarious Nazi in disguise Jürgen Voller, played by the always magnificent Mads Mikkelsen, they are intending to travel back in time to kill Hitler in the hopes that his death will galvanize their side enough to win the war. It then falls to Jones, his intrepid goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and her scrappy young friend Teddy (Ethann Isidore) to stop them. This will require taking a bit of a jaunt through time that is where things get pretty goofy. With Jürgen, Jones who sustained a gunshot wound, a stowaway Helena sneaking up to rescue, and the rest of the Nazis in one plane plus Teddy in another, they end up a little off the beaten path with what may be their greatest challenge yet.

‘Dial of Destiny’ Sends Indiana Jones Through Time Itself

As it turns out, since the dial was first constructed, the planet has changed, so its calculations were off. This means that Jürgen misses his target by, oh, just a few thousand years. Specifically, they get sent to when Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia) himself was still alive. Complicating matters even further is that a battle is playing out, and the two sides collectively identify the plane the characters are in as a threat. They begin trying to take it out and succeed in doing so. Luckily, Jones and Helena managed to jump out just before it crashed to parachute safely to the ground. It is then that they come face to face with Archimedes, and they have a quick little chat. The result of this is that Jones, seemingly delirious from his gunshot, says that he wants to stay. Helena protests before punching him in the face. When Jones awakens, he is back at his apartment in his own time. Helena informs him what happened while he was unconscious before a familiar face comes in: Karen Allen’s Marion.

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While she had been occasionally referenced throughout the film, we had yet to see her in the flesh until now. At the end of the prior entry, we had seen the two get married. However, we learned that they had since split after the death of their son Mutt, who we were told perished in Vietnam, and Jones subsequently seemed content to drink himself to death. This also was part of what motivated him to want to stay behind in the past as he didn’t really see anything to come back for. When Marion walks in, all of this melts away. While the rest of the characters go out for ice cream, they have a moment alone where they seem to pick right back up where they left off. The familiarity they have with each other brings with it a lot of pain, but it is still overflowing with love. After wishing to leave it all behind, Jones finally found his reason to both come back and stay. The last shot of the film is the outside of this apartment where his hat is hanging up, seemingly representing that he has finally ended a life of adventuring to spend his life with Marion. Except we get one more cheeky gag as the hat is subsequently grabbed, a reminder that Jones will always carry that part of his past in him. But does it mean something more? Well, that is all a matter of interpretation.

Is ‘Dial of Destiny’ the End for Indiana Jones?

This bittersweet moment could be read as being a leaving open of a door for another sequel. However, in addition to hoping this is not the case, this feels rather unlikely considering the theme of the film building up to this was all about letting the past go. The grabbing of the hat feels less like a teaser than a cute little joke to end on. Jones will still always be Jones, but there is the sense that he has finally come to peace with his past. Though he and Marion spent much time apart, they are going to take one more shot at being together. More than the treasure that he found over his life or the discoveries he made in his expeditions, this was what he had been searching for in this final adventure. It isn’t the most well-told story by any means, with much of the film still woefully caught up in a narrative mess, but the ending does do its best to clean up all this clutter. While the film leaves much to be desired in terms of everything that precedes it, this final farewell to Indy still is a fitting one for our old friend.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is in theaters now.

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