Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | 2023 | PG-13 | – 1.6.5

Why is “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “sequences of violence and action, language and smoking.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a kissing scene, a couple of shirtless men, many scenes of risky activity with people being shot and killed, falling to their deaths, as well as drowning, a couple of battle sequences with people fighting with swords, explosives and guns, discussions of changing history, a discussion of the death of a child and the end of a marriage, several arguments, and at least 1 F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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In this latest installment of the adventurous archeologist, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) comes out of retirement to join his goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in searching for an artifact that is said to be able to control time. Also with Antonio Banderas, Karen Allen, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters, Ethann Isidore, Mads Mikkelsen and Martin McDougall. Directed by James Mangold. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in German, Spanish and ancient Greek with English subtitles. [Running Time: 2:34]

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man kisses a woman on the elbow and clothed shoulder, and they then kiss tenderly and hold each other as the scene ends.
► A shirtless man on a boat prepares for a dive (we see his bare chest, abdomen and back), and a woman sees a shirtless man on a boat and remarks with interest. A shirtless man wearing boxer shorts (we see his bare chest, abdomen, back and legs to the lower thighs) is startled awake by neighbors playing loud music (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman wears a cropped top that reveals her bare abdomen.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A man shoots a woman in the back as she runs away, and then shoots a man in the head as he leans over her (we see blood spurt). A man with a large knife moves toward another man on top of a speeding train, the two men fight, they drop down and wrestle as they speed through a tunnel, one man is held over the side as they speed through another tunnel, one man draws a gun and the other uses a whip to knock it out of his hand; one man uses the whip to choke the other and a third man shoots one of the men and he is kicked off the train.
► Several people in a helicopter are sprayed with something (probably mace or a sedative) and they fight with gunmen onboard: one woman is shot in the abdomen (we see blood on her clothes) and she dies, and a man in the helicopter is pushed through an open door to his death. A man on a boat is shot in the knee, then the shoulder (we see bloody wounds) and again off-screen and is killed (we see him dragged away later).
► A woman runs away from armed men in an archive room, locks a man in and runs outside; the man topples several heavy shelves, pinning two men under them, he runs away, finds two dead bodies and checks for signs of life (we see he has blood on his hand), and he continues running. A woman on a roof evading gunmen jumps to another roof and gets away as a man is taken away in a van with a bag over his head. A man and a woman speed away from men threatening them and they are shot at, they nearly back into two camels, a man with a knife jumps onto the vehicle they are riding in and the woman punches him in the face knocking him off, and cars join the chase; the vehicle rolls down a long flight of steps, a vehicle is nearly struck by an oncoming bus, the woman climbs on the back of a car and grabs a man in the car by his tie choking him, and another man in the car is thrown out and he rolls on the road.
► A man punches the driver of a vehicle in the face, pulls him out of the car as two German officers get into the car and the man speeds after a train as two motorcycles chase him: one motorcycle is flipped over on the road (it explodes) and the man driving the car jumps onto the other and fights with the two men riding on it, one man is slammed into a tree, a large mounted gun is fired and the attacking man jumps onto the back of the speeding train and punches guards. A man holds a gun on another man as they stand on top of a train and he is struck by a pole and knocked off the train. A bridge is blown up in front of a speeding train and the train derails as two men jump off the train and land in water below. Many men in a room draw guns and threaten each other, one man picks up an artifact and he is picked up by another man whose weapon discharges; a man uses a whip to lash around the room and the men with guns shoot out the window behind him, a woman is grabbed, her sleeve is torn and she and the man with the whip run away.
► A battlefield sequence shows bombs exploding and flames burning in an area where German soldiers drag a man with a bag over his head into a building; he is accused of being a spy and impersonating an officer and we later see the man with a rope around his neck and a soldier tells him, “Tell us your story or die,” kicks the chair out from under the man’s feet and a bomb crashes through the roof of the building, falls through the floor and explodes throwing the soldiers in the blast (the hanging man falls when the beam the rope is attached to breaks).
► Soldiers climb outside a train and along the roof as it speeds, and a mounted gun shoots at planes flying overhead; when the gun is struck, it misfires and several people are shot and fall off the train as two men run along the roof. A woman on a boat takes a lit cigarette from a man and gives it to another man to use to light an explosive; it blows up and the man, woman and a teen boy speed away on another boat. People walk through caves and across a rickety bridge over rapids; a man handcuffs himself to a teen boy after he tried to run away and he and the boy fall into the water, they are swept under the surface, the boy unlocks the cuffs and attaches one end to an underwater grate leaving the man to drown and he swims away. A man is shot in the arm (we see blood on his shirt) and taken away in a van; a woman and a teen boy on a motorcycle chase the van.
► People prepare to dive deep in the ocean to find an artifact and they jump into the water attached to breathing tubes; we see skeletons among a shipwreck and we see large eels swimming around them and one eel snaps at a skeleton and we see what could be a spurt of blood in the water; a box is revealed when rubble crumbles and when it is pulled away from the grip of a skeleton, many eels come out and around a man, and he uses a flare to get them away from him. A man is led at gunpoint through a large crowd and starts a protest chant, punches the men holding him, runs through the crowd, steals a horse from a police officer and rides away chased by a man on a motorcycle; they ride into a subway station, the horse charges along the tracks toward an oncoming train, and jumps through a divider in front of another train and onto a platform without being struck. A plane readies for takeoff and a teen boy jumps starts another plane and a woman on a motorcycle chases the first plane; the woman jumps onto the landing gear and boards the plane as the hatch closes and the teen boy follows in the other plane; a portal opens in the clouds and the planes fly into it, the planes spin around and the people inside the planes are thrown, the planes’ engines stall and they nose dive toward the ground, one plane restarts its engines and it is struck by large arrows shot at it from the ground, a man is struck and falls from the plane, a woman opens a hatch under several soldiers and they fall out (presumably to their deaths), one man grabs the woman’s foot and holds on until he is shot and falls, another man and a woman parachute to the ground and the plane crashes and explodes in the distance (we later see a dead man with blood on his head and a dead man charred and bloody at the crash site). A man is shown dead on a boat and we see blood on a gunshot wound.
► Guard dogs bark and track a man through the woods, we later see him with blood on his mouth riding in a train after being punched, and a gun is held to his head as he pleads. A man is chased through a train by armed men and the man punches another man in the face. A teen boy is grabbed by men and put into the back of a van; a man and a woman steal a car and chase the van through narrow roads. A woman punches a man hard in the face knocking him unconscious. A man and woman climb a sheer rock wall as the man complains of the ailments of aging, they make their way through a cave and encounter many very large beetles and centipedes in one section; they each yell and run away, swatting the bugs off their clothing, they enter a chamber and they cough from methane gas in the area. We see the remains of a person in a tomb.
► A man pours liquor on a tablet and lights it on fire; we see wax melt away from the surface of the tablet. We see a funeral parade through a village. A teen boy bumps into another teen boy in a crowd and picks his pocket after the boy mocked what he was wearing. People diving deep in the ocean are panicked when men on the surface cut their air lines; they use their life vests to surface and cough, but are OK.
► A man with a large knife argues with a woman and threatens to cut off her head. A man quizzes an African-American man about where his people are from, belittling him and the man indicates that he was born in a town in New York. A man tells a German officer, “Berlin is in rubble and your Führer is in hiding”; he adds, “You lost.” An artifact is unwrapped and we are told that it is the sword that “Took Christ’s blood.” A man asks another man, “Are you still a Nazi?” A man talks about his son going to war and being killed. A man reads a document that indicates an uncontested separation. Two German soldiers are suspicious when they see a man wearing an officer’s uniform and it has a bullet hole in the back. A man says another man has lost his mind. A man says that he is trying to save history. A man driving a truck backs into a car behind him after being redirected to avoid a parade route. A woman conducts an auction for an artifact and men argue over its ownership. A man accuses a woman of selling her soul. A man says that he was helpless to console his wife. A man says that he was shot 9 times in his life, once by a woman’s father. A man says, “History is a long list of blunders.”
► A shirtless man wearing boxer shorts (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) is startled awake by neighbors playing loud music, and he grabs a baseball bat and pounds on the neighbor’s door telling them to turn down the music. Two men argue bitterly. A man and a woman argue in a club and the man grabs the woman’s arm.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 F-word, 3 scatological terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (stupid blue-eyed boys, fake, Nazis, wombat, trigger-happy cracker, mobster, Pandora’s Box, dull as dishwater, bugger), exclamations (sig heil, blew it, shut-up, oh dear, oh come on, eureka), 1 religious profanity (GD), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. for God’s sake, he will be God, my God, Jesus). | profanity glossary |

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny SUBSTANCE USE

 – Men are shown drinking and singing on a train car, a man drinks in a bar and a woman joins him, a man says to stay away from his brandy, people drink shots of liquor, a man and a woman drink from a flask, and people drink and smoke cigarettes in a club. A man smokes cigarettes in several scenes, and a woman smokes a cigarette.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Changing the course of history, Nazism, World War I, archaeology, Archimedes, Dionysius, moon landing, retirement, fissures in time, stolen antiquities, longing for home, adventures, capitalism, grief, death of a child, gambling debts, Pandora’s Box, water displacement.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny MESSAGE

 – Chasing adventures cannot change history but can change one’s life.