It’s happening: the filming of Indiana Jones 5 is underway, and it’s already very revealing.
Eschewing the normal iron clad lockdowns that high profile movies normally take, set photos are leaking like a hole-y grail (sorry, bad Dad Joke). They come straight from the U.K. set of the fifth (and still untitled) Indiana Jones film. (You can see the full 20-photo gallery below.)
Quick on the heels of previously tweeted set images, this new batch gives us the first glimpses of Harrison Ford back in Indy’s iconic costume (complete with COVID-protocol mask).
More telling? The vehicles. All are World War II era, including a Nazi train, and several are stamped with swastikas and SS logos.
Even more revealing? A motorcycle stunt driver wearing a prosthetic Harrison Ford mask. What’s revealing about it is that it’s not of Ford’s current age. Instead, the mask is in the mold of “prime era” Indiana Jones, from the 1930s and early 40s.
So what does that mean?
Clearly, some portion of the new film involves an extended flashback. Seemingly, practical makeup will be used to create this illusion along with, more than likely, some form of Deep Fake technology (whether applied to Ford himself or to a younger stuntman or stand-in).
My hunch: this sequence will be the opening adventure prologue to the film’s main story, one that will primarily be set in the late 1960s or early 70s.
That prologue will likely establish something important from the past, possibly a valuable artifact that got away that will resurface decades later in this story’s mid-century plot.
Theorizing more specifically, Mads Mikkelsen‘s villain character will probably be established in this prologue (also younger) who Indy will be foiled by, only to cross paths again many many years later. Nothing is known about Mikkelsen’s villain, but by the looks of this he’ll be a Nazi who somehow escapes post-World War II justice. (Mikkelsen has been spotted in nearby London, so it appears he will be a part of the flashback sequence being filmed here.)
Go ahead and take a look at the extensive photo gallery below and see for yourself if that theory doesn’t add up.
Of course, early production photos can be deceiving. Take, for example, this snapshot from the first day of filming Raiders of the Lost Ark. If this had been leaked, we’d have been wondering why the hero is a Nazi.
Co-starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Ford V Ferrari helmer James Mangold, Indiana Jones 5 will open next summer in theaters on July 29, 2022.
Click on any image for larger gallery
