8 Reasons Why Indiana Jones 5 Is (Probably) A Brilliant Idea

8. Harrison Ford Cares Again

It's not the years, it's the mileage, right? Well, to a point. Harrison Ford is 74 now, and will be 77 by the time Indy 5 is finally released; that's an awful lot of years. Nobody wants to have a septuagenarian hobbling away from a stilted rolling boulder, and Ford already looked past it as the action-adventure archeologist back in The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (which was almost a decade ago now). This is admittedly the biggest hurdle the movie has to jump, although this early on we don't know what's being expected of Dr Jones - perhaps he'll be something of a Han Solo parallel, with small bits of action interspersed a performance more focused on the character's wit.

Oh yeah, don't forget that as much of Indy's appeal is in his cocksure swagger as it is his ability to take more punches than Apollo Creed against Ivan Drago and not suffer any physical or mental damage. But even that's up in the air - Harrison Ford is notorious for caring about two things; flying planes and not talking about whether Han Shot First. But when you get down to it, Ford actually does care - he's described Blade Runner 2 as the best script he's ever read and while the the key reason he signed on for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was so he would never have to do another one, he regardless delivered a heartfelt performance and has on several points commented on how happy he was to use Han Solo's death to push things forward.

He was under no obligation (that we know of) to make another Indiana Jones - although the paycheck probably isn't that bad, he's doing this movie in his twilight years because, on some base level, he wants to.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.