James Mangold, the director of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, recently confirmed he originally planned a different ending from what was released theatrically. Mangold repeatedly denied rumors about alternate endings being shot throughout much of the film’s production.
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 18: (L-R) James Mangold, Harrison Ford, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge attend “Indiana Jones and The Dial Of Destiny” photocall at Carlton Pier on May 18, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney)
In an interview with Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier, Mangold initially explained that when he came on to the project the film felt like a reboot of the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
He explained, “When I came on the movie, they had been playing with a bunch of different things which were basically just reduxes of what had happened in the first movie.”
“Just more apparitions and ghosts and I felt like I was just watching the first movie over again when I envisioned what was in the existing scripts,” he elaborated. “And I felt like what Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] and Larry Kasdan and David Koepp as well had done successfully in the other films, was to keep kind of pulling up a rock on a different aspect of history and metaphysics and not going back to the same thing. In a way I didn’t want to do the kind of ‘Is it a Death Star again?”
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm’s IJ5. ©.
From there, Mangold detailed one of his original ideas for the ending of the film was to have Indiana Jones return to Nazi Germany in 1938.
He revealed, “When we did start writing, it was my theory that at first that we would end up back in Nazi Germany in 1938.”
However, he went on to explain why he felt that did not work, “As we got there, it started occurring to me that a) that’s what the audience is going to be anticipating, and therefore not very surprising to them, and b) we’d be plunged just back into the opening of the film only with a 79-year-old Indy running around.”
“I felt we needed something more shocking, something bolder, and something that also affected Indy,” he continued. “If he had gone back to Nazi Germany, he would simply be a hero trying to stop Voller from doing his plan. If he ended up where he does end up in the film, he was going to be facing bigger questions about his own life and what he studied all his life. And I thought that was going to be more interesting. And also, usually bolder is better if you can do it.”
Doctor Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) in Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
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Mangold’s admission that there were more endings considered for the film fuels the idea that the early rumors from Overlord DVD, The Daily Mail, and WDW Pro were indeed true.
Overlord DVD previously shared back in June 2021, “Two endings are supposedly being considered in this script. I guess they’ve been written and they are going to shoot both of them. Both endings allegedly have old Indiana Jones dying at the end of this movie.”
“But in one of the rumored endings, young Indiana Jones dies alongside old Indiana Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge swoops in like a vulture, picks the hat up, and takes his place moving forward,” he adds.
Then a separate rumor from The Daily Mail in September 2021 claimed, “Phoebe Waller-Bridge is being tipped to replace the veteran actor as a female version of the fictional professor of archaeology in the adventure movie franchise.”
An anonymous source told the outlet’s Katie Hind, “It would be a huge statement, and a great role for Phoebe.”
Another source stated, “The gossip on the set is that this character will slot into the leading role.”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge on the set of Lucasfilm’s IJ5. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Overlord DVD shared a follow-up to his initial rumor in November 2022 and claimed there were actually six endings. He detailed, “We’ve been told out of the six endings they tested the best one gets a 35% approval from test audiences.”
Overlord DVD also noted, “We’ve been told that Bridge put the hat on in every ending.”
Furthermore, he said, “All my spies actually said was Phoebe Waller-Bridge puts on Indy’s hat, takes Indy’s whip, and in a brave and stunning display of girl power she becomes the besest Indy evar at the end of all six version of the movie.”
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Mangold denied the rumors of Indiana Jones being replaced in December 2022. He posted to X, “One more time. No one is ‘taking over’ or replacing Indy or donning his hat nor is he being ‘erased’ thru some contrivance— and he never was, not not in any cut or script — but trolls will troll — that’s how they get their clicks.”
James Mangold on X
He continued, “And please don’t exhaust me pointing out how once in a while a troll is ‘right’. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now & then. All one has to do is look at set photos & interviews & u get enough info to make wild guesses about a movie plot.”
James Mangold on X
Mangold concluded his thread, “The diff between trolling a-holes & everyone else is they r trying to make $ off your feelings about other films & culture war politics. They push contoversial guesses as coming from “sources” to gin up clicks. Let it go. END.”
James Mangold on X
Later in that same month, the film’s composer John Williams revealed that the film was indeed going to shoot another ending.
He said, “So, we have just about completed the film. We have maybe another ending to shoot and to record. Maybe in a couple weeks.”
Last night, John Williams told his audience that they are shooting a new ending to Indiana Jones V in a couple weeks.
Thanks to @doomcock for the find. Added captions for you.@wdwpro1 @ValliantRenegad pic.twitter.com/FZUOpjOpX7
— Jonas J. Campbell (@JonasJCampbell) December 14, 2022
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Mangold would react to Williams’ comments claiming he was mistaken. he wrote on X, “John was mistaken. Maybe read Twitter too much.”
He then denied the idea that they were shooting new endings, “We’re not shooting new endings. Never did. The film is 99% finished & being rated by MPAA.”
“This imagined zany ending w/ Indy being erased & replaced is a fever dream of wounded folks angry about other films I did not make,” Mangold concluded.
James Mangold on X
When pressed for more details, Mangold posited that Williams was “joking, mistaken or misinformed.” He also added that an alternate ending was “not happening.”
James Mangold on X
However, he would later claim that Williams was “fully informed.”
He wrote on X, “I agree that he’s one of the greatest composers in the history of film. And also one of the most lovely people on earth. And he’s fully informed.”
James Mangold on X
By June 2023, more evidence emerged from Harrison Ford indicating that the ending was reshot.
Ford told Spanish-language outlet Espinof, “We did a little work on the ending, which is the last thing I shot with Karen Allen, who has been in a substantial part of the whole thing, but appears in this story only briefly, at the end, but with a very strong, emotional hook. I felt nostalgia, a sense of accomplishment. I’m proud of the film, happy with the film.”
“Every good thing, you know, there comes a right time to go on to something else. I really enjoyed the process of making this film. I’m very happy with it. So I left the set that day content,” Ford concluded.
Indiana Jones: ¿Qué fue lo último que rodó Harrison Ford como Indiana Jones? pic.twitter.com/XR9qnc3grj
— Espinof (@espinof_com) June 13, 2023
Mangold appeared to contradict Ford’s comments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter claiming that the ending was shot “pretty early” in production.
He said, “Yeah, Jez and John Henry [Butterworth] came up with that. When we came up with the idea of Marion coming back at the end, that idea came to Jez and John Henry pretty early and was pretty brilliant.”
“And we shot it pretty early, because we shot Karen’s scenes in the second or third month of production, and the power of her coming in really landed,” Mangold shared. “I mean, it landed more when I could see the whole journey in getting to that scene and bringing those two together.”
He concluded, “But Karen literally came to set and worked two days. She landed and just dropped in, and the chemistry between her and Harrison was, of course, immediate. It’s something they had developed over many years.”
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm’s IJ5. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Karen Allen would then relay to Variety what her experience was like on the film’s production.
She shared, “I think I was [shooting] for two days. But they wanted me to come out early and have plenty of time to play with the costume designer. We had decided to put me in a gray wig that had been built for me, but James and I hadn’t seen it.”
“So I came out about two weeks early,” Allen said. “It was nice, because I hung out on the set a bit and got to watch them shooting and got to meet everyone. You know, Phoebe was there, and John Rhys-Davies, and Harrison, and that lovely young man, Ethann [Isidore]. It just gave me a chance to move back into that world a little bit without just jumping onto the set to shoot.”
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm’s INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Then in July, WDW Pro shared specific details about an alleged ending that saw Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character take not only Indiana Jones’ hat, but the franchise as well.
WDW Pro detailed, “Indiana Jones was going to be lying on the grass with Archimedes there … but he was going to convince Phoebe Waller-Bridge to leave him there, and save Teddy and the others, go back through time. They could not take him with them and he would give her his hat, tell her it’s time for her adventures, yadda, yadda, yadda.”
“She, and Teddy, and the other gentlemen that are there then attempt to escape through a very significant action sequence and they go through the time rift,” he continued. “And then you find that she after going back to the original date that she would have learned her lesson in the final scene where she is no longer out to make money off of these artifacts, but instead she is working to get them to museums where they belong.”
“And then there was going to be a second appearance where after that fades out, Indiana Jones is back with Archimedes in the past and it turns out that he had a clever plan an entire time,” he relayed.
“And that was that he tells Archimedes that he will explain the Dial of Destiny to him and tell him all kinds of secrets if only he will write one special message on there,” WDW Pro said. “And he has him do so in a language Indy knows. The message is something to the effect of tell her you love her and tell him he’ll die if he goes to war.”
“And then it was going to go for the very last scene to Indy when he takes the Dial of Destiny from Basil. It goes to where Indy takes the Dial of Destiny away from him when he’s supposed to destroy it and then he sees that message in a language that he understands and he gets kind of wide-eyed and shocked and that was going to be the end of the film,” he shared.
WDW Pro finished, “It left the audience hanging as to whether or not he was successful in saving his marriage and saving Mutt based on the message that was sent.”
(L-R): Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in Lucasfilm’s INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of James Mangold’s most recent comments confirming they did indeed have at least one alternate ending planned?
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