Helena Shaw: Indiana Jones's Goddaughter in Dial of Destiny

Helena Shaw is Indiana Jones's goddaughter, and she is the daughter of Basil Shaw, the friend who is captured beside Indy on a Nazi train in 1944. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays her in Dial of Destiny, where she is billed second, directly behind Harrison Ford. The credits list the part as Helena, with a second credit, Young Helena, for the younger version.

When the story reaches 1969, Indy is an ageing professor in New York, close to retirement and low in spirits. Helena turns up looking for the Antikythera dial, the device linked to Archimedes. The Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller, now working for NASA, is hunting for the same object.

How old is she? No studio or trade coverage of the film gives an exact age, but she is plainly an adult in 1969. For the full cast around her, see the Indiana Jones cast page.

Helena begins as a hustler and ends as the person who pulls Indy out of the past. Her first move in 1969 New York is a con: she gets Indy to hand over his half of the Antikythera dial, then carries it off to sell in Tangier. Voller's men are already hunting for it, so Indy gives chase, and the pursuit runs through New York, Tangier and Greece. Teddy, played by Ethann Isidore, joins them as a young helper on the way.

Voller does get the dial in the end, and the group follows the second half to a wreck off Sicily. He wants to go back to 1939 and alter the war. Yet the dial's reading is off, and his plane exits the time fissure in 212 BC, during the Siege of Syracuse.

Indy is awed to find himself near Archimedes and would rather stay. Helena knocks him out and drags him home. In my opinion, that is where her arc turns: the dial stops being merchandise and Indy becomes the thing worth saving. For where 1969 falls against the earlier adventures, see the Indiana Jones timeline.

Helena's closest bond is with Indy, and the whole film is built on a godfather and goddaughter who start out on opposite sides of a deal. Her father Basil Shaw, played by Toby Jones, links the two of them, since Indy and Basil were captured together in 1944.

Her chief opponent is Jürgen Voller, played by Mads Mikkelsen, who lives in the US under a false name and works on the space program. Teddy, played by Ethann Isidore, is the young helper who gets pulled along as the chase moves from city to city.

The last relationship is the one she helps repair. Back in New York in 1969, Helena helps Indy make peace with his estranged wife Marion, played by Karen Allen. Readers following the older characters can read the profiles of Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, and Sallah also returns in the film.

Helena survives Dial of Destiny and ends the film alive, back in 1969 with Indy and the dial. Voller is stranded in the ancient past, and Helena, not Indy, makes the choice that brings him home. Indy recovers in his New York apartment, and Marion comes back to him.

The film closes with Indy and Marion together and Indy reaching for his fedora. It ends on a reconciliation rather than a setup for a sequel, and it was billed as Harrison Ford's last outing as Indy. No sixth film has been announced, dated or put into production by Lucasfilm or Disney, so Helena's future on screen is open. The latest on that sits on the Indiana Jones 6 page.

In my opinion, Helena's best moment is the one in Syracuse, when she knocks Indy out and hauls him back to 1969. It is the moment a companion overrules Indy's own wish about where he belongs, and it flips the usual rescue. In Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Indy is the one doing the saving.

The second pick is the opening trick in New York, where she talks Indy out of his half of the dial. It sets the terms for the whole film, since the chase to Tangier and Greece follows from one con. It could be argued that this makes her a companion who starts as a thief and ends as the emotional anchor.

The third is the quiet scene afterward, when she helps Indy face Marion. After the set pieces, the fix for a retired adventurer is a conversation, and Helena is the one who starts it. Whether you find her likable is a matter of taste, but her arc is built clearly from first scene to last.