Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
- Eloi Honorable Mention
- by Jez Butterworth et al., directed by James Mangold
- Feature Film
- Mainstream
- Adults
- Debatable Time Travel
- English
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny by Jez Butterworth et al., directed by James Mangold (Cannes Film Festival, 18 May 2023).
Indiana Jones and his goddaughter set out to find the missing half of Archimedes’s “clock” (or Antikythera Mechanism). With all the usual hair-raising chases, stunts, Nazis (or former Nazis), and the added twist of some actual time travel near the end.
—Tandy Ringoringo
Helena: Well, for starters, you’d have changed the course of history.
Indy: That supposed to be a bad thing?
Tags
(22)
- Time Periods
- Ancient History (3000 BC to AD 476: Bronze/Iron Ages): 212 BC
- Circa AD 1940 to 1949: opening scenes during World War II
- Circa AD 1950 to 1959: Indy’s memory of when he took the dial from Baz for his own good
-
Circa AD 1960 to 1969: home time of the story: 1969
- Timeline Models
- Single Naive Timeline: You'll find multiple hints of a single static timeline, such as the phoenix that has propellers in the cave of Dionysus. And of course: “You were always going to meet me.”
- Time Travel Methods
- Time Rifts: The dial creates time fissure in the sky and airplanes fly through it.
- Time Travel Clocks, Watches, etc.: the Dial
- Themes
- Fix History!: From Voller’s point-of-view, he’s trying to fix history by creating a perfect Arian society.
- Kill Hitler: Killing Hitler is part of the Voller’s plan for the Axis Powers to win World War II and make a Nazi Nation.
- Pleas for Help from Another Time: Archimedes built his dial “to get help.”
- Sent to Wrong Time!: They end up in 212 BC rather than in World War II.
- Time Travel Sickness, Injuries, and Mixed-Up Body Parts: minor annoyances during travel
- Travelers Must Account for Earth's Movment: Indy suggests that continental drift is going to throw a wrench into the works: “Your coordinates are based on markers that have been moving for two thousand years!”
- True Histories: Perhaps the mere appearance of Indy determined the outcome of the Siege of Syracuse.
- Real-World Tags
- Antikythera Mechanisms: The Dial of Destiny is “the Antikythera.”
- Archaeologists and Paleontologists
- Archimedes
- Hellenistic Period
- Siege of Syracuse
- Space Programs: ticker tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts
- Vietnam War: protest of the Vietnam War
- World War II: opening scene
Variants
(1)
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny by Jez Butterworth et al., directed by James Mangold (Cannes Film Festival, 18 May 2023).
Philip Kaufman (characters)
Previous Works
Indiana Jones 5
Indexer Notes
(1)
- Tasks:
1. revisit description of Proper Timeline, Anachronistic Time Traveler, Gadget Travel.
4. Consider the possibility of a complete set of real world settings; and if we don’t implement that, then define exactly what kind of settings we do tag.
5. Check out the Castle episode.