The makers of DIAL OF DESTINY on the art of crafting Indy action
TUK-TUKS? WHY did it have to be tuk-tuks? Indiana Jones has commandeered some pretty unusual vehicles over the years. A mine cart. An elephant. A fridge. But it’s not until upcoming instalment Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny that we’ll finally get to see him behind the wheel of a motorised rickshaw, attempting to navigate chaotic streets and even steps while inside the kind of vehicle usually seen irritating people around Leicester Square. The high-velocity sequence, in which Harrison Ford’s Indy and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena pursue Nazi villain Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) through the Moroccan city of Tangier, recently brought the house down when shown at Star Wars Celebration, getting raves for its crunching physical stunts and witty beats.
“We’d be sitting there behind the eight-ball,” says co-writer Jez Butterworth of the process of dreaming up the movie’s action with his brother John-Henry, “and the thing that would get us out every time was just how much fun it is to think about Harrison doing these things. We’d think, ‘What awful situation do we want to put him in and watch him get out of?’ He does it better than absolutely anyone, I think, in the history of cinema.”
The chase, which unfolds almost exactly halfway through Dial Of Destiny, is an intricate dance with many moving parts. Besides our heroes, who at one point spill into separate vehicles while going at speed, there are motorcycle goons, Voller’s henchman Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) in another car, and Helena’s poor fiancé, who presumably has no clue what the tuk-tuk is going on. For the writers, keeping track of it all proved tougher than assembling the Staff Of Ra. “They’re so hard to do,” says
Butterworth. “I’d rather write you a three-act tragedy than write you three action sequences. It’s got to feel like you’re not just rehashing something. It’s got to feel as fresh as can be.” Adds John-Henry: “They�
