Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Revealing mistake: Throughout the dive boat interior scene - after they dive on the wreck - various hanging items are swinging around randomly to give the impression the boat is rocking on the water. However, none of the key light shadows - from the exterior sunlight - move at all, indicating the boat is entirely static in a studio.

Revealing mistake: When Hauke breaks the neck of one of the American soldiers in the plane, it is very obvious that he only rests his hands on the soldier's head without twisting his neck. (01:10:14)

Big Game

Revealing mistake: During the parade, after the red convertible skids, Indy's horse rears. When it turns around, check Indy's face and you'll notice that it's Harrison Ford's stunt.

Sacha ★

Revealing mistake: During the flashback scene, when young Indy jumps on top of the train and runs on the roof of the carriages, it's a very obvious and lame animation with unrealistic movements.

Sacha ★

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the AA machinegun on the train goes berserk and destroys everything, Indy hides behind some crates. For several shots, Harrison Ford is replaced by a lame CGI, which transforms his head into a videogamish, lifeless face.

Sacha ★

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When young Indy jumps from his car to the motorbike and fights against a German - and the following scene where he rides on the bike towards the train - his body and especially his face are a blatant CGI creation with unnatural movements, dead eyes, and waxy, lifeless expressions (most noticeable in theater screenings). (00:05:53)

Sacha ★

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Mistakes

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the villains are following Indy through the caves, the old wooden bridge completely breaks and falls apart. However, when they make their escape across the same bridge, it's intact with only a couple of wooden slats broken.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: You can see a goon holding it up when they come back.

He's just holding it steady, the mistake is right and there's a picture online to prove it.

Sacha ★

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Quotes

Sallah: I miss the desert. I miss the sea. I miss waking up every morning wondering what wonderful adventure the new day will bring to us.
Indiana Jones: Those days have... come and gone.
Sallah: Perhaps...perhaps not.

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Trivia

Trivia: This is the first movie in the Indiana Jones series not directed by Steven Spielberg, nor with a story written by George Lucas.

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Questions

Question: Maybe I missed some dialogue, but why exactly did Voller think the fissure they were flying towards would take him to his desired date in 1939? I get that the dial detects fissures in time, but why would he think that particular fissure was the one he needed to travel through?

Phaneron ★

Answer: There is a bit of dialogue en route to the airport when Voller sets the instrument that says, "the first hand sets the destination," as in the time you want to travel back to. This would make the device completely absurd in principle if true (that's why I wanted to mark it as a plot hole/stupidity). Since it's supposed not to open portals but just detect them, it can't be that there are infinite portals for every moment in time you can choose to go back to (and they even close). The sky, while vast, is not infinite. We then find out that it is a trick since it is set to actually bring you to just one destination, but they don't know it yet.

Sammo ★

Answer: We're supposed to accept that the dials are pointing to the rift in the sky, which is what makes this plot decision so ridiculous. There's no common reference point (magnetism wouldn't be discovered until and used in compasses for another 2,000 years), and the dial is 2-dimensional. Thus, you could turn your body 90 degrees and aim it down, and there's no indication from the movie that the dial would in any way turn to face the previous rift.

I think, technically, the fact that there's no common reference point is addressed when Voller mentions that the coordinates given are 'Alexandrine coordinates'... which I think might be another anachronism since all I can think it means is the ones used by Ptolemy in his Geography, which was hundreds of years after Archimedes' time. The dial is 2-dimensional, but there are 3 hands. It can be argued that when all 3 align, it does show that the direction you are headed is definitely correct, including the height you are pointing at. I definitely think it's entirely implausible, but the way the unknown mechanism works, attuned to something that does not exist such as time rifts, is kind of a lesser problem. Even if it is supposed to work by some mathematical principle, and then acts as some dowser rod.

Sammo ★

Not true. The Chinese were using compasses around 200 BC, and Vikings are believed to have had them as well.

Answer: As they approach the rift, all three of the dial's hands are suddenly pointing towards it. If that is no clear indicator, then what is?

Daniel4646

The dial pointing towards it only indicates that they are heading towards the fissure. How does that give Voller any certainty that this is the exact fissure he needs to travel through in order to reach his desired destination, especially considering it ended up not being the one he needed? Were there coordinates in Basil's diary that indicated where the exact fissure would open? I only recall the date of August 20 (?), 1939 being written down.

Phaneron ★

Only the time is written in the diary (the date you mention is next to August 20, 1969, which would be then supposedly when the finale of the movie takes place). For the coordinates, you need to have the device, which, apparently, allows you also to input with firsthand your desired destination. Voller couldn't know that to concoct his plan, though, since he did not have the diaries at the beginning of the movie.

Sammo ★

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