Credit: Disney/LucasfilmThe latest (and, supposedly, last) installment in the Indiana Jones franchise retreads a familiar Han Solo plotline from the Star Wars sequels – one that wasn’t overly popular with fans.
Hitting theaters today (June 30), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) on one final adventure as he becomes entangled in a plot with his estranged goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to secure the Dial of Destiny – a mysterious device that could “change the course of history.”
Over 40 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Jones is nearing retirement in the film. He’s still as bold and daring as he was in the previous entries, but just like Han Solo in the Star Wars sequels (also played by Ford), he is, of course, slower on his feet and slightly more weary of the world.
That’s not the only similarity between the pair. Warning: the rest of this article contains spoilers, so stop reading now if you haven’t seen Dial of Destiny yet.
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One of the biggest questions audiences had about the fifth Indiana Jones film was how it would deal with the events of the fourth film. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) featured the controversial revelation that Jones had a son with former flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) wasn’t the most popular addition with fans. That’s why it wasn’t a major disappointment when Dial of Destiny director James Mangold confirmed that he wouldn’t return in the sequel, saying, “There’s only so many people you can edge into a picture.”
The way this is explained in the film is that Mutt died in the Vietnam War. At one point, Indy expresses his regrets over how he dealt with his son going to war – telling his goddaughter that he wishes he’d been able to tell him not to go as he’d lose his life. He also explains how his son’s death drove a wedge between him and his wife, Marion, which has left them estranged.
Sound familiar? That’s because Han Solo experienced something similar in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars. When he makes his debut with Chewbacca in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), audiences soon learn that he and Leia (Carrie Fisher) – once the great love story of the original trilogy – are now estranged following the loss of their son, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), to the dark side.
This plot point didn’t go down too well. Star Wars fans found fault in the decision to drive a wedge between what is arguably the franchise’s most universally-beloved ship – especially when audiences couldn’t wait to see what had unfolded between the pair after 32 years offscreen.
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While Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood don’t have the same cult shipper following as Han Solo and Princess Leia, it still seems like an odd choice to fall back on a plot device that didn’t go down too well in Ford’s other biggest franchise.
From a storytelling perspective, it’s also pretty lazy. After spending multiple films establishing the romantic dynamic between a couple, tearing them apart for the sake of making a plotline work decades later makes those earlier entries feel flat and somewhat redundant. Indiana Jones and Han Solo deserve better.
What do you think? Watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in theaters now and let us know your thoughts in the comments!