Director James Mangold Explains The Ending Of ‘Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny’

Director James Mangold is explaining the ending of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

Although the fifth film in the franchise marks the last time that Harrison Ford will be playing the titular character, the ending - without giving too many spoilers away - features the actor snatching his iconic hat, which was hanging off the end of a clothesline.

So does that mean that Indiana Jones is not ready to "hang up his hat" after all? Director James Mangold weighs in on what he wants audiences to take away from that ending!

Although Hollywood seems to love a reboot, there is little chance that the 80-year-old actor will return for another movie in the franchise. Although Ford has retired from his adventures as Indiana Jones, the character, it seems, is ready for more.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, director James Mangold said that the character himself is not “giving up” and is ready for more adventures, adding, “I don’t think he’ll ever stop digging.”

“When he takes the hat off the clothesline, I think it's because, first of all, you shouldn't put hats on clotheslines,” he joked. “And second of all, no, I don't think he's done. I think that an ending doesn't mean that the characters never move again in their lives. It just means that you feel that you've entered a state of grace with their story."

Although fans will not get to see his story on-screen, Mangold already has some ideas as to where Indy will go next, now that his family is back in his life.

"I think he'll wake up tomorrow and want to do something. But whether he's going into battling Nazis through time portals again, I don't think so," he continued. "But I could really imagine him and Marion going on a road trip to some Inca dig or to some dig in Montana or North Dakota and renting a cabin. And I could see him really enjoying his life as a retired archeologist."

The idea that Indy will keep on going actually comes from Ford himself, who is nowhere near ready to retire as he prepares to film season 2 of his Apple TV+ comedy “Shrinking” alongside costar Jason Segel. “Indy and Harrison are so close together, and Harrison will never retire, and I don't think Indy will,” Mangold said.

"He retires as a teacher [in Dial of Destiny], but I don't think he will retire from being an obsessive learner, thinker about the past and the future, and science and mankind,” he added. “I think that the second he stops thinking about that, I think it's game over."

In the new movie, Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays a character named Helena Shaw. It doesn’t take the audience long to learn that Indy is really her godfather, although she doesn’t exactly have family on the forefront of her mind when they reconnect.

At one point in the movie, Helena punches her godfather so hard in the face that she knocks him out.

"It's such a brilliant cut, and it's such an excellently scripted moment. And particularly because there's so much fighting and left hooks and all that stuff all the way through the film, when she's just fighting the bad guys," Waller-Bridge told Entertainment Weekly in a separate interview. "But to have to level a punch to the hero of the film... It was glorious, because it was so funny."

At both screenings she attended, the “Fleabag” star revealed that audiences actually cheered when it happened. “Underneath, it really had heart and emotion. And that's really a testament to Jim [Mangold, director] and the Butterworths [Jez and John-Henry] for writing a moment like that,” she added. “I hope the audience understands why she does it."

The actress also revealed that she managed to perform a lot of the physical stunts required of her character throughout the film, including crashing the tuk-tuk, which was done accidentally.

"I managed to do quite a lot of the landing and jumping off bits, but none of the actual real, proper dangerous stunts. But I got to drive a tuk-tuk!" she said, adding, "I did crash it... which wasn't meant to happen." She also revealed that she got to jump out of a plane, adding, "And I got to jump into water, and roll out from under things, and jump over things. So there was a lot to do, and I was completely covered in bruises. Each one was a mark of honor for the day."

"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" is now playing in theaters.