Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

image for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

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Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 11 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  • a review of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 6 July 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 10–11 Parental guidance recommended due to violence.
Children aged 12 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Frequent action violence
Length: 154 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In 1944, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is fighting the Nazis with his friend and ally Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), a fellow archaeologist. They have gone to recover the ‘Lance of Longinus’ which is amongst a collection of stolen ancient artefacts held by the Nazis, in particular, a Dr Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). They discover that the lance is a fake but they do find half of ‘Archimedes Dial’, also known as an Antikythera, which can show fissures in time. While both Indy and Shaw are captured by the Nazis, they eventually manage to escape with the Dial.

Twenty five years later, in 1969, Indy is visited by his god-daughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), also an archaeologist and daughter of his now deceased friend Basil. She is very interested in the Dial and persuades Indy to retrieve it from the University archives where he had kept it. Helena wants it for mercenary reasons but it is also wanted by Voller, who reappears on the scene with a gang of thugs to retrieve the Dial. Voller is living under an assumed identity as a Dr Schmidt, working for NASA on the moon landing project. NASA is assisted by agent Mason (Shaunette Renee Wilson), who tries unsuccessfully to keep a check on Schmidt and his men. Voller intends to travel back in time to re-write the outcome of WWII.

The chase is on, not only to obtain the Dial but also to discover the missing half. Indy and Helena eventually join forces to fight Voller and his men. Their perilous journey takes them to Tangier, Greece, Sicily and eventually back in time to ancient Greece in 212 BC, where they meet the famous mathematician himself.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Action Adventure; Science Fiction; Characters in constant peril; World War II; Historical characters.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, including:

  • War scenes of explosions, gunfire, people being shot, lots of guns and shooting, knives, destruction of buildings, soldiers with rifles, dogs chasing and snapping, streets on fire, planes dropping bombs.
  • Many scenes of people being punched (including a woman), having a gun pointed at their head, pushed out of cars, trains and planes, and other such fighting. Some dead bodies are seen and some blood but no gore.
  • Several characters are shot dead.
  • Several car chases where people are run into, property is knocked down, cars and motorbikes crash, etc.
  • In one scene, Indy is shown with a noose around his neck and nearly hangs when a soldier kicks the stool from under him.
  • Basil is seen with blood around his mouth.
  • Indy bangs on a neighbour’s flat with a bat and shouts at them to turn down the music.
  • Two characters are shot dead in the university. Indy finds them and finds that they are in fact dead.
  • Indy is captured on several occasions, has a hood put over his head and has his hands and feet tied.
  • During a protest march, several shots are fired as the Nazis chase after Indy.
  • Rahim, a Moroccan mafia chief, brandishes a scimitar.
  • Indy uses his whip on one occasion to stop a brawl, but guns are pulled on him.
  • Helena tries to strangle Schmidt on one occasion with an iron bar.
  • A young Moroccan lad called Teddy, a friend of Helena’s, is abducted by Schmidt’s thugs. He’s thrown into the back of a van. A very large thug handcuffs himself to Teddy after he tries to escape and, while crossing a bridge, Teddy pulls them both over into the water. Teddy manages to escape but leaves the thug to drown.
  • The plane carrying Schmidt back through time is shot down by a spear from an ancient battleground where ships are seen on fire. The plane crashes and characters are shown dead.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Nothing further noted, though the scenes and images mentioned below may also disturb children in this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Many intense scenes with ominous music.
  • Indy rides on a police horse which is being chased by a motorbike. The horse runs down a metro stairway and onto a train track. A train is heading towards them but Indy pulls the horse away just in time.
  • The planes have to fly through an intense thunderstorm to enter the time portal. They then go into a tailspin and dive to Earth.
  • Indy is seen with a bandage wrapped around his chest and shoulder.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Indy jumps on a motorbike and is fighting with the rider. Indy gets pushed to the road and his head is very close to coming into contact with it.
  • Indy talks about how his son died in the Vietnam War, although he tried to prevent him enlisting. His wife never recovered from the loss and their marriage fell apart.
  • An underwater scene is quite scary. Indy and Helena deep dive to find a boat full of skeletons. Hundreds of eels emerge from a skull when it’s disturbed and they swarm all over them.
  • Indy and Helena enter a cave which is also quite scary. They enter a cavern which is covered in scorpions which crawl all over them. Helena screams. They then enter an area where there’s a large pool and Helena is unable to breathe. They have to jump into the pool to counteract the effect of the atmosphere, but the pool crashes down.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Coca Cola.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • No nudity but Indy is seen in just boxer shorts.
  • Indy and his wife kiss tenderly.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Drinking at various venues, at bars, at an auction, on a ship.
  • One of the characters smokes.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Arse
  • For God’s sake
  • Pissed off
  • What the hell
  • Damn
  • My God
  • Jesus.

In a nutshell

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a fast-moving action-adventure/Sci-fi movie with some very intense scenes. There is a lot of violence, with several characters being shot at and killed, and a little blood but no gore. The action doesn’t stop and the 154 minutes seem to go by quite fast. Nonetheless, the film is too long and too intense for young viewers and is more suited to older children and adults. It is therefore not suitable for children under 10 and parental guidance is recommended to 11.

The main messages from this movie are that good triumphs over evil; and to be true to what you believe in.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Heroism
  • Bravery and courage
  • Teamwork
  • Resourcefulness
  • Strong female character who is flawed but comes good.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • A lot of the action in the movie is unrealistic and children need to know that they shouldn’t try and copy what the hero does as the outcomes will be very different to what they see.
  • The line between good and evil is somewhat blurred by the fact that the ‘goodies’ have to resort to violence quite often to save their own or others’ lives. Could there have been other ways of solving their predicaments?
  • Helena is initially only motivated by money and greed. Why do some people only see money as an end in itself?