Indiana Jones 5 had better be amazing. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull already felt unnecessary and bringing back a nearly 80-year-old Harrison Ford for a stunt-heavy action movie comes with a lot of risks. But after a long time in development hell, Spielberg departing the project, and COVID-19-induced delays, filming began in England last week.
Right now, we don’t know anything about the plot, but a recent nighttime shoot featured two very interesting details that should point the way forward. These images were published in The Daily Mail and can be seen via the link below. They show a motorcycle chase involving a train and a stuntman wearing a latex Harrison Ford mask. Meanwhile, the train has a prominent swastika on the side.
Here’s some photos of the young Indiana Jones on set.. (it’s a stuntman in a mask!) https://t.co/9UztK9kr0v
— Mark Murphy (@thricechampion) June 6, 2021
My thinking is that these are confirmation that at least some of the movie will be told in flashback using digital de-aging technology to recreate Indy in his prime. Though we can’t clearly see the mask’s face, it appears to be of a younger Ford and the openly Nazi train means this scene cannot be taking place later than 1945.
It’s likely that the mask can be used as a lighting reference for CGI artists to substitute a digital version of the actor into the image. While it’s possible that the ‘young’ Indy scenes could simply be an opening sequence that’ll set up the main story in the 60s or 70s, if the CGI is good, I’d like to see some kind of split narrative bouncing between past and future as the hero’s treasure-hunting adventures catch up with him.
In any case, Ford will be ably supported by a cast including Mads Mikkelsen, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, and Shaunette Renée Wilson, with Logan director James Mangold helming. Also, we finally got to see the Hollywood icon in that classic costume recently and he looks great.
More on Indiana Jones 5 as we hear it.