Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the last chance for Indy to beat a personal challenge that has been the franchise’s most consistent joke. Set in 1969, Dial of Destiny follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) on his latest adventure to retrieve the mysterious Dial of Destiny before Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and his minions get their hands on it. Indy’s goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) joins him on his mission, while James Mangold assumes directorial reins from Steven Spielberg for Dial of Destiny.
Dial of Destiny is being marketed as Harrison Ford’s final adventure as Indy, which is sure to add a lot of emotional impact due to the generational longevity of Ford’s portrayal of Indy throughout the series. While fighting Dial of Destiny‘s returning Nazis and tracking down another supernatural artifact are both familiar territory for Indy, he also has some unfinished business on a personal level. With Dial of Destiny being Ford’s last adventure as Indy, the movie should give Dr. Jones the chance to overcome his biggest phobia.
Indiana Jones Should Overcome His Fear Of Snakes In Dial Of Destiny
Since the Indiana Jones franchise kicked off with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has held a deep fear of snakes. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade showed the origin of Indy’s snake phobia, which occurred when a teenaged Indy (River Phoenix) falls into a tank full of snakes on a circus train. Ever since, any time Indy even sees a snake from a distance, he immediately becomes paralyzed with fear.
Naturally, the nature of Indy’s archeological treks has made his snake phobia a recurring problem, snakes often been found in the kinds of ancient tombs where the artifacts he pursues are located. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull even mines a major joke from Indy’s fear of snakes when he has to hold onto one in order to be saved from a dry sandpit. While the recurring humor of Indy’s fear of snakes has added both levity and stakes to the Indiana Jones series, Dial of Destiny represents a perfect chance to finally turn the tables on that.
Snakes Would Be The Perfect Challenge To End Indiana Jones’ Story
Indy has had to work through his fear of snakes in multiple situations before, but he has never truly beaten it. That can finally change with Dial of Destiny. Putting Indy into a kind of do-or-die situation involving snakes could finally force him to truly confront the personal Kryptonite that is his snake phobia in a way that he has avoided in every previous Indiana Jones movie. In turn, that would be the ultimate pay-off for all the long-running jokes about Indy being so petrified of snakes, with Indy beating his fear of snakes.
Indy has experienced more than his share of scary situations throughout the Indiana Jones series, from the opening of the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark to facing the heart-ripping cult leader Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That said, Indiana Jones’s fear of snakes is a far more entrenched phobia, which takes much more time and effort to beat. With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the perfect way to conclude Indy’s story would be for Indy to achieve a great personal victory by overcoming his fear of snakes for good.
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
