‘Indiana Jones 5’ Shows Harrison Ford De-Aged For 25 Minutes

Actor Harrison Ford is looking younger and younger these days!

In the fifth installment of the "Indiana Jones" franchise, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," the 80-year-old actor has been de-aged for a scene that is approximately twenty-five minutes long!

Fans knew that the new “Indiana Jones” movie would feature a scene that involved a de-aged Harrison Ford, but no one had any idea just how long it would be! In a new interview with Total Film Magazine, director James Mangold not only confirmed that the scene does make it to the final cut of the movie, but it’s also approximately 25 minutes long!

The film de-ages Ford to about the age that he was in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which hit theaters in 1981. It was the first entry in the “Indiana Jones” franchise, closely followed by 1984’s “Temple of Doom,” 1989’s “Last Crusade,” and 2008’s “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

Mangold said that, despite his age, Ford was “incredibly gifted and agile” while filming those scenes, which made it easy for him to “pretend that he was 35.” However, Mangold also gave credit to the new VFX technology that was created specifically for this film to de-age Ford.

“But the technology involved is a whole other thing,” Mangold told the magazine. “We had hundreds of hours of footage of him in close-ups, in mediums, in wides, in every kind of lighting, night and day. I could shoot Harrison on a Monday as, you know, a 79-year-old playing a 35-year-old, and I could see dailies by Wednesday with his head already replaced.”

“It wasn’t a year of effort to get to a first pass,” Mangold continued. “It was an incredible technology, and, in many ways, I just didn’t think about it. I just focused on shooting what’s [approximately] a 25-minute opening extravaganza that was my chance to just let it rip. The goal was to give the audience a full-bodied taste of what they missed so much. Because then when the movie lands in 1969, they’re going to have to make an adjustment to what it is now, which is different from what it was.”

In February 2023, Ford appeared on “The Late Show” and told host Stephen Colbert that the de-aged face in the movie is actually his real face. He explained how Lucasfilm combed through decades-old footage of the actor from his previous roles in “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” to create his younger self.

“They have this artificial intelligence program that can go through every foot of film that Lucasfilm owns,” Ford said. “Because I did a bunch of movies for them, they have all this footage, including film that wasn’t printed. So they can mine it from where the light is coming from, from the expression.”

“I don’t know how they do it. But that’s my actual face,” Ford continued. “Then I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make [it]. It’s fantastic.”

Additionally, the “What Lies Beneath” actor told Empire that seeing himself de-aged was “a little spooky,” adding, “This is the first time I’ve seen it where I believe it… I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works. It doesn’t make me want to be young, though. I’m glad to have earned my age.”

Although he's glad to have earned his age, there will be no jokes about it in the new movie. In a February 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ford admitted “There were a lot of old jokes in the script.” However, he quickly added, “We took them all out.”

“There is a moment where he observes himself in this situation and says, ‘What the f— am I doing in here?’ But I hate what I call ‘talking about the story.’ I want to see circumstances in which the audience gets a chance to experience the story, not to be led through the nose with highlights pointed out to them,” Ford added. “I’d rather create behavior that is the joke of age rather than talk about it.”

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy also spoke to Empire about the technology, saying, “My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago.’”

“We’re dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, ‘I’m in an Indiana Jones movie,’” she added.