Director James Mangold recently tweeted that the editing process for the fifth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise was underway. The first film not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, and what will likely be the last in the series, has fans speculating on rumors the plot will involve the fountain of youth and or time travel. The implications of these appropriate story mechanics for Indiana Jones 5 could mean Harrison Ford will undergo the de-aging treatment, joining the fray of other actors who have undergone the quickly advancing technique.
While time travel and the fountain of youth are distinctly different concepts, they may somehow work together and call for obsessed villains potentially played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, and Antonio Banderas. Absent from the cast are Shia LaBeouf and Karen Allen. They could signal a decision to dream up an entry as far from the flavor of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as possible, considering the overall negative reception the film received. The Bermuda Triangle has also been rumored to be a part of the story, as well as setting the film in the 1960s.
While fans anticipate a trailer and further details on the movie, it is worth remembering all the adventures that lead us to what will likely be a cinematic send-off to Harrison Ford, who gave us countless movie memories, belonging to a royalty guard of Hollywood that will be remembered fondly for all time. Perhaps it is fitting the film should explore the notions of reclaimed youth and time travel in an era where such romanticized pondering couldn’t be more palpable. As the digital age continues to erase the pre-internet era, we see the unifying fields of pop culture beginning to collapse in place of popular YouTube celebrities, Twitch streamers, and Tik-Tok videos accompanied by A.I. narration. While the format of narrative feature films will unlikely disappear forever, we are seeing a democratization of content, segmenting what once would have been a harmonious movie-going audience hungry for the next Indian Jones installment into something entirely different.
This has clearly had an economic and cultural impact on society, as more major studio films are going direct-to-streaming; difficult to avoid comparison to the ’80s and ’90s direct-to-video business model, which often came with lower budget expectations. Let us seek out some time stones and travel back to where it all began with Raiders of the Lost Ark, a film made when the video store business model was just taking flight, LaserDiscs were a hot commodity for film lovers, and streaming meant nothing more than the flow of water.
Raiders of the Lost Era
Indiana Jones captures our adventurous spirit. A desire to experience exotic lands and discover new ideas, wildlife, and different cultures. Unfortunately, a major part of our imagination and desire for worldly stimuli has been hijacked by hyper-evolved digital algorithms and easily accessible virtual worlds. While anyone born before the mid-90s has the luxury to trivialize the bombardment of mobile games and social media our species has been mutated by, there are now multiple generations who have been robbed of the pre-internet experience and know only a world where social exploration and adventure happen in Roblox, Fortnite, and eventually dating apps.
Indiana Jones represents a kind of purity that predates these addictive applications that deliver dopamine hits to the brain in the form of digital code, based on usage volume and time-consuming engagement. Time traveling with Indiana Jones sounds more and more appealing as we acknowledge a world where the video store has been reduced to a vending machine at your local grocery store, and that’s if you decided to actually seek out uncompressed physical media beyond the boundaries of your streaming service.
Temple of the Dark Web
Perhaps time travel with Indiana Jones means preservation of a unified worldview. When kids’ entertainment was safely under the programming philosophies of PBS before anyone could just upload content to YouTube and click a box that said: “for kids.” Straddle up for adventure in a time when the truth was upheld with journalistic integrity, and the world wasn’t bombarded with clickbait, fake news, and email scams. As Indiana Jones 5 approaches, relish the time in which we await an installment in this particular form of adventure cinema. It sadly marks the end of an era, as Harrison Ford has stated that no other actor will be dawning the fedora once he is gone.
That is unless someone makes a really top-notch fan film that gets millions of views against the wishes of Paramount and Lucasfilm. While this may seem like the ramblings of a cranky old-timer, they are, in fact, dedicated to the wise and adventurous spirit of Harrison Ford, who may resonate with these sentiments. We surely wish the best to him and the post-production team, who are working diligently to deliver the highly anticipated final chapter in the Indiana Jones saga.
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