Dial of Destiny (2023): Cast, Plot, Ending and Where to Watch

Dial of Destiny begins in 1944, when Indiana Jones and his friend Basil Shaw are held by Nazis aboard a train packed with stolen treasures. The Nazis want a piece of the Antikythera dial, a device linked to Archimedes, and the scientist Jürgen Voller finds half of it. Indy escapes with the other half.

The story then jumps to 1969. Indy is an aging professor at Hunter College in New York, close to retirement and low in spirits. His goddaughter Helena Shaw, Basil's daughter, turns up looking for the dial, and Voller, now working for NASA, is hunting for it too.

The film opens on the moving train in 1944, with Harrison Ford digitally de-aged for the sequence, so the stakes and the object everyone wants are clear from the first set piece. If you are new to the series, the Indiana Jones movies in order guide shows where this film sits, and the Indiana Jones movies hub covers the whole saga, including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom.

In 1969 Indy is retiring from teaching in New York when Helena tricks him into handing over his half of the dial. She takes it to sell in Tangier. Voller lives in the US under a false name and works on the space program, and he sends his men after the dial.

Indy follows Helena, and the chase runs through New York, Tangier and Greece. Along the way they pick up a young helper named Teddy. Voller gets hold of the dial, and the group tracks the second half to a wreck off Sicily.

Voller wants to travel back to 1939 and change the course of the war. His plane flies through a time fissure, but it lands in 212 BC, during the Siege of Syracuse, because the dial's reading was off. Indy is amazed to meet Archimedes and wants to stay in the past. Helena knocks him out and drags him back to the present.

Back in 1969, Indy recovers in New York and Helena helps him make peace with his estranged wife Marion. The film closes with the two of them together and Indy reaching for his fedora.

Dial of Destiny held its world premiere at Cannes on May 18, 2023, where the festival honored Harrison Ford with an honorary Palme d'Or. The film reached US theaters on June 30, 2023, according to The Numbers. UK and Australian release dates were reported as June 28, 2023, two days earlier.

The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia. It runs 155 minutes, which makes it the longest film in the series so far, ahead of the 127 minutes of The Last Crusade.

On money, Box Office Mojo records $174 million domestic and $209 million international, for roughly $384 million worldwide. The Numbers lists the production budget at $300 million. The full series comparison is on the Indiana Jones box office page.

Dial of Destiny ends with Voller stranded in the ancient past and Indy and Helena back in 1969 with the dial. Voller's plan was to go to 1939 and change the course of the war, but his plane lands in 212 BC, during the Siege of Syracuse, because the dial's reading was off. He never leaves.

In my opinion, the key beat is who makes the choice. Indy is amazed to meet Archimedes and wants to stay in the past, and Helena knocks him out and drags him back to the present. It could be argued that this flips the usual pattern, where Indy rescues others and pulls them out of trouble. Here the younger character does the rescuing, and the film is clear that she is doing it for him.

The setting helps the idea land. Syracuse is also one of the Sicilian locations the crew used, so the ancient battlefield and the real coastline share the same ground. Voller wanted to rewrite history, which makes him a Nazi scientist chasing the same kind of cosmic power the villains wanted in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1936. Indy, by contrast, spends the final act wishing to disappear into the past he has studied his whole career. That wish is the emotional core of a film that opens with him low in spirits in 1969.

The last scenes settle the personal story. Indy recovers in his New York apartment, Marion comes back to him, and he reaches for his fedora. Marion is the character Karen Allen first played in Raiders and again in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so the reunion pays off a thread that runs across three films. Compare that with the endings of the earlier adventures, which end on the artifact or the quest. The Last Crusade ends on a father and son completing a search for the Grail, while here the relationship is the finish line.

The film closes on a reconciliation, not a setup for a sequel, and it was billed as Harrison Ford's last outing as Indy. As such, it works as a closing chapter, which is a different job from the quest finale of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. As of November 3, 2026, no sixth film has been announced, so the status of Indiana Jones 6 is still open.

Dial of Destiny was filmed in England, Scotland, Sicily and Morocco, with sound stage work at Pinewood Studios. Principal photography began in England on June 4, 2021 and wrapped on February 26, 2022.

In England, locations included Bamburgh Castle and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. In Scotland, Glasgow was dressed as 1969 New York, and the production also used Glencoe, Biggar and Leaderfoot Viaduct. In Italy, the crew shot in Sicily at Syracuse, Cefalù, Trapani and Castellammare del Golfo. In Morocco, filming took place in Fez and Oujda.

The location list changed during development. Filming was first planned for India, then Nepal, before the production moved to Morocco because of COVID-19.

Dial of Destiny has about 2,350 visual effects shots from Industrial Light & Magic and others. Ford and Mikkelsen were de-aged for the 1944 opening using ILM software and CGI.

• Ford hurt his shoulder rehearsing a fight scene in June 2021.
• Ethann Isidore made his film debut as Teddy.
• Cannes honored Ford with an honorary Palme d'Or at the world premiere.
• Filming was first planned for India, then Nepal, before moving to Morocco because of COVID-19.
• Principal photography ran from June 4, 2021 to February 26, 2022.