INDIANA JONES 5 Used New Tech to De-Age Harrison Ford and He Says "It's a Little Spooky"
It was recently confirmed that Indiana Jones 5 would feature a de-aged Harrison Ford in a flashback scene set in 1944 that will see Indiana fighting a group of Nazis. This is the opening scene of the film and when talking about director James Mangold said:
“Then we fall out, and you find yourself in 1969. So that the audience doesn’t experience the change between the ‘40s and ‘60s as an intellectual conceit, but literally experiences the buccaneering spirit of those early days… and then the beginning of now.”
We’re now learning some details about the new technology that was used to make this happen. It’s explained, “Several techniques were employed to pull the sequence off, including new ILM software that trawled through archived material of the younger Harrison Ford before matching it to the freshly-shot footage.”
When talking about seeing himself de-aged, Ford said it was “a little spooky,” but then hyped it up saying, “This is the first time I’ve seen it where I believe it… I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works. It doesn’t make me want to be young, though. I’m glad to have earned my age.”
This kind of tech has been getting better and better, it’s come a long way since Jeff Bridges was de-aged in Tron: Legacy, but you can still tell it’s digital. It sounds like that won’t be the case here with this movie. I’m excited to see this footage!
The story is set 1969, and Indiana Jones is “living against the backdrop of the space race – but the American effort to beat the Russians to the moon brings with it some uncomfortable truths for Indy.” It’s explained:
“The simple fact is that the moon-landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis. How ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it gets up Indy’s nose…” Pitching Indiana – a man always looking to the secrets of the Earth rather than the stars – into the era of the astronaut finds him even more a man out of time. “It’s not just that the model of what a hero is has completely changed. It’s not just that they’re looking for something where there’s nothing up there – it’s like Reno without the gambling, or whatever his line is. But the people that are behind it are, you know, his sworn enemies.”
The film comes from producer Steven Spielberg and it also stars Mads Mikkelsen (Another Round), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Boyd Holbrook (Logan), Shaunette Renée Wilson (The Resident), and Thomas Kretschmann (Avengers: Age Of Ultron).
Mads Mikkelsen plays the main villain of the story, Voller, who is “inspired partly by real-life Nazi-turned-NASA-engineer Wernher von Braun.” Mikkelsen talked about his character saying: “He’s a man who would like to correct some of the mistakes of the past. There is something that could make the world a much better place to live in. He would love to get his hands on it. Indiana Jones wants to get his hands on it as well. And so, we have a story.”
Disney will release Indiana Jones 5 in theaters nationwide on June 30, 2023.