‘Indiana Jones 5’: Harrison Ford will drastically “rejuvenate” in the new film

The passage of time is no longer anyone’s enemy. And much less one of the most famous and admired adventurers in the history of cinema. Indiana Jones, the famous archaeologist treasure hunter, played by Harrison Ford, returns to the big screen with ‘Indiana Jones 5’ and does it as if it were the first day. Literally. How is this possible?

As reported a few months ago, exclusively, the magazine Empire in its ‘Indiana Jones 5 Issue’, the opening sequence of the new tape, will see its protagonist rejuvenated to his ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ age. If there is one trait that characterizes this franchise, (besides the whip and the hat), it is that all the films have a powerful start that immerses its viewers fully in the action of the story.

James Mangold, project manager, it was clear from the beginning that he needed to preserve the traditional essence of Spielberg and George Lucas to make it work. That passion for adventure, so characteristic, that the creators impregnated the saga. How to do it? How to match sequences like the one with the big rock that chases Indy in ‘The Lost Ark’? Or the epic flashback to the crusades starring River Phoenix? What to say about the opening show of ‘The Cursed Temple’… Or the explosive tests of ‘La Calavera de Cristal’…

In short, the start was challenging and Mangold seems to have risen to it. Thanks to an advanced technique of “de-aging“, the filmmaker transports us to 1944, where Indiana is once again faced with the Nazis. Later, the clock will advance to 1969, where we will see the action take place in the “present” of history.

“I wanted the opportunity to delve into this George and Steven style.and give the audience an adrenaline rush,” the director commented. “Suddenly, we travel to 1969. So the audience does not experience the change from 40 to 60 as an intellectual conceptbut literally live the spirit of the first days… and then the beginning of the now.“

Several techniques have been responsible for effectively developing this sequence. First, the use of a software in charge of analyzing and processing archive material from the Harrison Ford of the past, (to later link it with the current one). Later, he recovered the original ‘Lost Ark’ jacket and painstakingly replicated it so the actor could wear it again. “My hope is that as much as the technological aspects are admired, people will think, ‘Oh my gosh, they’ve found original material. This was recorded 40 years ago’,” commented producer Kathleen Kennedy. “We launch the viewer into an adventure, into something that Indy is looking for. Suddenly you get this feeling: ‘I’m in an Indiana Jones movie.

For Ford, coming face to face with a rejuvenated version of himself must have been a shocking experience as well. The interpreter himself has emphasized the realistic nature of the technique used: “This is the first time I’ve seen this and I believed it,” he commented with Empire. “It’s a bit sinister. I don’t know if I want to know how it works, but it works.”

Recently, the actor also spoke in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert about this sophisticated technology and stated: “It’s my real face at that age. They have used an Artificial Intelligence program that has reviewed all the film material Lucasfilms has,” he explained.

Recorded material has even been used that was never released or used in the production company’s films. Everything to create this rejuvenated version of the actor in the most accurate way possible.

“As I’ve done a lot of movies with them, they have all that stuff (even the unpublished stuff),” commented the actor. “They could extract the way the light hit me, the expressions… It’s my real face. They put some stitches on my face and I said the text. So they did. It’s fantastic.”

However, the gift of eternal youth does not seem to captivate this seasoned actor, who claims he does not feel any need to return to those years. “It doesn’t make me want to be young, anyway,” he affirmed to Empire. “I’m glad I gained age.As a certain archaeologist once said: “It’s not the years, it’s the kilometers traveled.”

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate’ is scheduled to premiere on June 23, 2023. We will still have to wait a bit to be surprised with the new adventures in which we will see the legendary Indiana immersed.