Details can make a world of difference. When handled correctly, a tiny, well-thought-out detail can add a whole new level of enjoyment to a project. If ignored though, it can speak to a larger level of indifference. And this weekend, while rewatching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I noticed a perfect, beautiful little detail that made me like the movie even more. It also made me think about a similar scene in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and how it made me like that movie even less.
I feel the need to be upfront here. The details in question have to do with puppet shows. So, yes, we’re getting super specific, more than a little bit random, and damn near borderline obsessive. I am fully acknowledging that. But the thought is, in this super-specific, random, obsessive detail, maybe you can begin to see a bigger picture. One where Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was working on a level Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was not.
To briefly avoid major Dial of Destiny spoilers, let’s start with The Rise of Skywalker. Early on in the film, Rey and the crew end up on Pasaana and experience a huge event called the Festival of the Ancestors. There, Rey spots a bunch of children watching a puppet show, which makes her briefly think about the future of the galaxy, and then the story moves on.
On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with this brief scene. It’s well-shot, the costumes and creatures are beautiful, and overall it’s irrelevant to the plot. However, when the film came out, I couldn’t help but think about how this was a missed opportunity. Remember at the end of The Last Jedi how the kids were beginning to learn the legend of Luke Skywalker? A legend, we believed, would travel across the galaxy and inspire millions.? Well, it’s a thread that’s mostly lost in The Rise of Skywalker for reasons unknown and it would have been so easy, so perfect, so subtle for this puppet show to be that. Kids watching a story about Luke Skywalker instead of some randomness. Putting a Jedi and an AT-AT on the stage instead of the alien and the fire in the film could have illustrated that the events of the previous story were actually resonating, without impacting the story itself.
So yeah, it’s a missed opportunity. Not something you can technically hold against the film but, when juxtaposed with a similar scene in a similar movie, it speaks to a larger issue. This leads us to Dial of Destiny, another Lucasfilm franchise-capper that also has a puppet show in it. (We have to talk about spoilers here, so if you haven’t seen the film be warned.)
Near the end of act two, Indy, Helena, and Teddy find themselves in Sicily looking for the tomb of Archimedes. While Indy gets supplies, Teddy pickpockets a kid watching a puppet show. And, you might not notice it until you watch the movie again, but the puppet show is dramatizing the Siege of Syracuse. Yes, the ancient battle from the end of the movie. The puppet show even has a dragon flying over the battle which, after watching the film, we know is actually the plane Indy travels in to go back in time. Ancient people didn’t know what a plane was and thought it was a dragon, so it became a legend.
Again, this doesn’t matter to the plot of the movie. It’s just Teddy being Teddy and setting up how he gets separated and then kidnapped. But in this seemingly pointless scene, Dial of Destiny is taking a very brief, subtle opportunity to both seed for the audience what’s to come and to give repeat viewers a little wink at the foreshadowing. It’s a very nice touch.
Did Dial of Destiny have to do that? Could the puppet show have been literally anything else? Of course. But by choosing to make that detail important, it shows a level of thought that maybe The Rise of Skywalker didn’t have. And, in my opinion, that speaks volumes to the overall quality of both. Honestly, while I prefer Dial of Destiny to Rise of Skywalker, neither lives up to their original iterations. But at least one is working hard to understand and respect its audience by making even the smallest things meaningful.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now in theatres. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is on Disney+.