Indiana Jones 5: James Mangold explains “the real end scene of the film” – excluded
The director of Dial of Destiny returns for us to the third act and an astonishing and moving sequence.
Warning, big (big) spoilers to follow at the end ofIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, read no further. You have been warned!
This time that’s it, it’s really the end for Indiana Jones. With The Dial of Destiny (read our review), Harrison Ford definitely hangs up the whip in an XXL adventure that takes him to the four corners of the world. And James Mangold’s film allows itself a fantastic gap in its third act with a journey through time unprecedented in the franchise. Met in Cannes, the director explained this choice at length, and its consequences on the characters: “ With the screenwriters, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, it was unclear exactly how to end the film. It occurred to me that it was im-possible, following the rules of the Indiana Jones, to have a relic that does not reveal the nature of his power. Which doesn’t cause Indy to wonder. In each film, there is always something crazy and magical that comes up against the skepticism of Indiana Jones. It’s as if he had doubted the existence of ghosts throughout the film and that, suddenly, they were there. He no longer has a choice: he must accept this new reality. »
Mangold clarifies that he did not want that time travel exists on a logistical or metaphysical level, as we have seen in many films. I wanted something more moving. I love the idea that we don’t end up where Mads Mikkelsen’s character wanted to go.
“The day this idea came to me, I knew it made sense in relation to the story of the film.”
We had to go somewhere, and the most logical thing would have been for them to come back to 1939 and Indy to thwart Mads’ plans. But it seemed unmanageable to me, and I didn’t want us to continue the same quest, I wanted to take a turn. Besides, I don’t think the audience could really care about Hitler’s victory or defeat, because in the logic of the film, you can’t change the past. And so the playwright in me thought that was way too much information, and probably not the most interesting and surprising avenue. In the film, three time periods are evoked: 1944, 1969 and therefore the year 213 BC. It seemed to me both unexpected and perfectly appropriate that when the plane emerges from the temporal rift, we land at that time. And that we come face to face with the reality of that time. »
Which eventually leads Indiana Jones to that scene on the beach with her goddaughter, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who begs him to go back with her and not stay in the past. ” For me, this is the real end scene of the film. So yes, there’s a little sequence at the very end in the present, because it’s important to end the story more quietly – and I didn’t want the audience to find me too abrupt or cruel. But this passage on the beach is the turning point of the film. ” For what ? “ Because beyond the performance of Phoebe, the writing and the crazy contradiction between the fantastic circumstances and this scene of pure love, I believe that everything is played out in what the character of Phoebe represents. Not even symbolically: she’s a cynical, modernist young woman who swears by money and success, and who spent the film trying to use everything that came her way to her advantage. She fought against her idealistic godfather hero. And at that precise moment, she tells him that in fact she needs him, that she can’t lose him. But through her, it’s us, the public, who tell her that. For a good part of the film, we adopted Helena’s point of view. Except if we don’t stray from it, then we’re dead inside. What is born in her is an Indy-inspired idealism, a belief in something bigger.
“And because I realized Logan, everyone thought I was going to kill Indiana Jones. In fact, it’s the exact opposite!”
Helena says to him: ”I need you to continue. I know it’s hard, I know your knees hurt, I know the world has changed, but we still need you.” Helena risked her life to save Indy, she’s already made the choice to become an idealist. And that’s when she shares this with him: ”I evolved, I changed, I became more like you. So damn, don’t get cynical like me, besides hiding in a fantasy, 213 BC!” And it all becomes a very deep human love story, something we can all understand: the impossibility of continuing without someone. »
Find our interview with James Mangold and Harrison Ford in the issue of First currently on newsstands, with Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part 1 In front page.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is currently in theaters. Trailer :
