Disney is dialing up the fever for Indiana Jones.
A new action sequence from Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny debuted during the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Wednesday. It featured Harrison Ford back in action as the iconic hero archaeologist for filmmaker James Mangold. Starring opposite Ford are Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore and Mads Mikkelsen.
And Ford introduced the footage himself via a recorded message that played on the Colosseum’s big screen. “Hello, CinemaCon,” said the action hero, who added that “playing Indiana Jones all these years has meant the world to me.” He then went on to say that the films are filled with adventure and heart, “and for some reason, snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?” Classic Indy.
Ford then thanked theater owners for their support and said that the entire Indiana Jones team is “thrilled” for everyone to experience their new film on the “biggest and best screens.” Disney’s head of theatrical distribution Tony Chambers teed up the Ford intro. “We are cranking up to 11 with a high-stakes adventure,” Chambers noted before praising Mangold’s “amazing job” of directing the new installment. “This is a big-screen, must-see movie event.”
The minutes-long clip was a thrilling chase sequence through narrow streets with Ford behind the wheel of a mini motorized cart as he faces off with Waller-Bridge’s character, and they both seek to evade a gang of gun-toting bad guys that are hot on their respective trails. Through the swerving and death-defying maneuvering (Waller-Bridge punches, leaps and jumps cars and at one point is seen hanging out of the back of a car window in full action star mode), the two are bickering back and forth about the dial.
The preview footage comes just weeks ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where it’s showing out of competition, and it follows a splash at the Star Wars Celebration in London earlier this month when a new trailer and six minutes of the film were shown.
At the time, The Hollywood Reporter reported the scenes were littered in classic Indy moments with tuk-tuk races around dusty Moroccan streets, Jones riding a horse through a New York street parade and jumping out of a burning plane with Waller-Bridge (who describes him in the film as an “aging grave robber”), and a scene with a giant rolling boulder. Keeping the film series’ ongoing Nazi theme alive, the story revolves around an ancient device being chased by both Jones and a villain played by Mads Mikkelsen, who says: “Hitler made mistakes, and with this I will correct them all.”
The anticipated final installment of the franchise will open in theaters June 30. Directed by Mangold, the film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel, with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas serving as executive producers. John Williams, who has scored every Indiana Jones outing since the original Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, has once again composed the score.
CinemaCon, the official convention of National Association of Theatre Owners, is being held inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas from April 24-27.