Harrison Ford Admits Lucasfilm Reworked Ending Of ‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,’ Appears To Confirm Leaks James Mangold Previously Denied
Actor Harrison Ford, who reprises his role as Indiana Jones in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny film, recently admitted that Lucasfilm did indeed rework the ending to the film.
It was rumored back in June 2021 by YouTuber Overlord DVD that “Two endings are supposedly being considered in this script. I guess they’ve been written and they are going to shoot both of them. Both endings allegedly have old Indiana Jones dying at the end of this movie.”
“But in one of the rumored endings, young Indiana Jones dies alongside old Indiana Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge swoops in like a vulture, picks the hat up, and takes his place moving forward,” he adds.
A separate rumor from The Daily Mail in September 2021 claimed, “Phoebe Waller-Bridge is being tipped to replace the veteran actor as a female version of the fictional professor of archaeology in the adventure movie franchise.”
An anonymous source told The Daily Mail’s Showbusiness Editor Katie Hind about the rumor, “It would be a huge statement, and a great role for Phoebe.”
Another source stated, “The gossip on the set is that this character will slot into the leading role.”
Overlord DVD would follow-up his initial rumor claiming that the film actually had six endings in November, “We’ve been told out of the six endings they tested the best one gets a 35% approval from test audiences.”
“We’ve been told that Bridge put the hat on in every ending,” he added.
Overlord DVD then clarified, “All my spies actually said was Phoebe Waller-Bridge puts on Indy’s hat, takes Indy’s whip, and in a brave and stunning display of girl power she becomes the besest Indy evar at the end of all six version of the movie.”
Mangold denied the rumors of Indiana Jones being replaced writing on Twitter in December, “One more time. No one is ‘taking over’ or replacing Indy or donning his hat nor is he being ‘erased’ thru some contrivance— and he never was, not not in any cut or script — but trolls will troll — that’s how they get their clicks.”
He added, “And please don’t exhaust me pointing out how once in a while a troll is ‘right’. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now & then. All one has to do is look at set photos & interviews & u get enough info to make wild guesses about a movie plot.”
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“The diff between trolling a-holes & everyone else is they r trying to make $ off your feelings about other films & culture war politics. They push contoversial guesses as coming from “sources” to gin up clicks. Let it go. END,” he concluded.
Mangold’s denial of the rumors was previously called into question when the film’s composer John Williams revealed that Mangold and Lucasfilm planned to film a different ending.
Williams said, “Here are three pieces from Indiana Jones 5. I felt we would be finished with Indiana Jones after four. You know Harrison Ford. You all know who Harrison Ford is. And Harrison is 78 years old, but he’s much younger than am. Well, I thought, ‘Aw if he can do five of them, I have to try to do the final five also.”
He then states, “So, we have just about completed the film. We have maybe another ending to shoot and to record. Maybe in a couple weeks.”
Last night, John Williams told his audience that they are shooting a new ending to Indiana Jones V in a couple weeks.
Thanks to @doomcock for the find. Added captions for you.@wdwpro1 @ValliantRenegad pic.twitter.com/FZUOpjOpX7
— Jonas J. Campbell (@JonasJCampbell) December 14, 2022
Mangold attempted to refute Williams’ comments writing on Twitter, “John was mistaken. Maybe read Twitter too much.”
He then declared, “We’re not shooting new endings. Never did. The film is 99% finished & being rated by MPAA.”
Mangold concluded, “This imagined zany ending w/ Indy being erased & replaced is a fever dream of wounded folks angry about other films I did not make.”
When asked for clarification on Williams’ comments, Mangold answered, “Joking, mistaken or misinformed. Not happening.”
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However, when further pressed on the issue, Mangold claimed Williams was “fully informed” just after claiming he was either “joking, mistaken, or misinformed.” He tweeted, “I agree that he’s one of the greatest composers in the history of film. And also one of the most lovely people on earth. And he’s fully informed.”
It now appears that it was Mangold who was mistaken or he was intentionally trying to mislead people.
Actor Harrison Ford admitted to Spanish-language outlet Espinof, “We did a little work on the ending, which is the last thing I shot with Karen Allen, who has been in a substantial part of the whole thing, but appears in this story only briefly, at the end, but with a very strong, emotional hook. I felt nostalgia, a sense of accomplishment. I’m proud of the film, happy with the film.”
“Every good thing, you know, there comes a right time to go on to something else. I really enjoyed the process of making this film. I’m very happy with it. So I left the set that day content,” Ford concluded.
Indiana Jones: ¿Qué fue lo último que rodó Harrison Ford como Indiana Jones? pic.twitter.com/XR9qnc3grj
— Espinof (@espinof_com) June 13, 2023
In a video on WDW Pro’s channel, Midnight’s Edge founder Andre Einherjar reacted to Ford’s comments and noted that fans need to hold Mangold accountable for disparaging them.
He said, “Hold him accountable for it. Retweet his earlier statements and don’t let him get away with it. Simple as that. Now of course, no one should do anything more than that. When you blatantly lied and you have unfairly maligned and attacked your own audience and you were lying in doing so then I see no problem with reminding them of that fact especially when the movie fails as it is going to.”
WDW Pro added, “Matt Kadish and Doomcock, they deserve apologies at this point. They reported correctly.”
It’s unclear what the exact ending for the film will be, but an alleged leaked ending by Reddit user LunekJones claims that Indiana Jones, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena, and Mads Mikkelsen’s Doctor Jürgen Voller end up in in the distant past during the Roman siege of Syracuse. Voller and his compatriots end up dying in a plane crash over the battle while Indiana Jones and Helena are able to escape.
Upon landing they encounter Archimedes who retrieves the Dial of Destiny from Voller’s corpse and ensures that it can only be used to travel back in time to him in Syracuse during the siege. He also takes possession of one of Voller’s watches that gives him knowledge of the device.
LunekJones explains, ““As Helena tells him that Archimedes has ‘rigged’ the dial, in making sure it only sends back to Syracuse on the day of the siege so that they could save him, we understand it’s thanks to this jump in time that he found his knowledge about watches and on how to complete the dial.”
From there, LunekJones details that Indiana Jones does not want to return to his present, but would rather stay in Syracuse because he believes there is “nothing for him in 1969.” In contrast, Helena attempts to convince Indy to return to the present believing if he stays in the past “he would change the course of history.”
Indy apparently is unconvinced by Helena’s arguments so she resorts to punching him and knocking him out.
When Indy awakes he’s back in 1969 in New York City in his bed. He then “reproaches [Helena for] having brought him back to the present although there is nothing for him there.”
However, Helena counters that there is something for him to continue living for and Marion shows up in his apartment with a number of groceries. The film earlier made it clear that Marion and he were either divorced or on the brink of divorce as divorce papers were pinned to Indy’s fridge held up by a picture of Marion.
The two eventually appear to reconcile whatever contrived issues the film gives them to have them embrace in a kiss with the plot synopsis explaining “they re-enact the boat scene from Raiders in reverse before Indy kisses her.”
Finally, the film reportedly ends with a shot of Indiana Jones’ hat on a drying line outside the apartment with what appears to be Jones’ hand eventually grabbing it off the line as the camera zooms onto the hat in a small circle similar to old Warner Bros. cartoons.
LunekJones details, “The screen reduces into a small circle like in the Tom & Jerry cartoons, circling the hat and appearing to end there… just before we see Indy’s hand (can’t be sure 100% sure it was his now that I think back about it but it makes sense that it was) getting the hat back inside. The end !!”
What do you make of Ford appearing to confirm the rumors that they reshot or reworked the ending of the film?
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