Indiana Jones 5 ending explained: Do they go back in time?

That's right, folks: 15 years after the much-maligned fourth entry in the franchise, Ford's titular character is back with a swan song, which our own four-star review calls an apt final journey for the central character.

The film revolves around Indy as he comes up against a new Nazi antagonist in the shape of Mads Mikkelsen's Jürgen Voller, leading up to a dramatic finale.

Ahead of the film's premiere, speculation was rife about how the movie would end, and now the film is out we know for sure the fate that awaits Indy at the conclusion of his last adventure.

If the ending of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has left you scratching your head, read on for everything you need to know about the ending. Be warned: there are obviously some very major spoilers ahead.

Indiana Jones 5 ending explained

Before we dive straight into the film's climactic scenes, we should probably start by recapping some of the earlier events.

In the film, which largely takes place in 1969, both Indiana Jones and Jürgen Voller are after the same object – the titular dial.

We learn that the dial was created by the Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse and had previously come into the possession of Indy and his old friend Basil (Toby Jones) during the Second World War (although it was then missing a crucial component.)

Towards the start of the film, Basil's daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) approaches Indy and boasts that she knows of the dial's whereabouts, which sets up the events of much of the film as the archaeologist races to stop Voller – a former Nazi now going by a different name – from getting his hands on it and the time-altering powers it supposedly provides.

By the end of the film, Voller has managed to obtain the dial in its entirety and plans to use it for a particularly evil scheme – he wants to go back to the beginning of the Second World War to kill Hitler, because he blamed him for the Nazis losing the war and wants to change the course of history such that the defeat never happens.

On board a plane, Voller enters the coordinates he wishes to travel to into the dial and it briefly looks like his plan is going to work, until Indy alerts him to a major error: because Archimedes was not aware of continental drift, the coordinates are wrong and they will actually be travelling to a very different time.

The information comes too late for Voller to change tack, and so instead of arriving in Sicily in 1939, as had been the plan, they find themselves 2,000 years earlier during the Roman siege of Syracuse, exactly when Archimedes was attempting to complete the dial.

Helena and Indy take advantage of the confusion, seeing off several of Voller's Nazi accomplices and managing to parachute out of the plane just before it crashes, killing Voller.

On the ground, Indy is clearly delighted to be witnessing history first-hand, especially when he meets Archimedes – who explains that the dial had been created specifically so that they would go back in time to save him during the siege.

Indy insists to Helena that she and her young friend Teddy should go back to the present and leave him to see out the rest of his days back in this time period.

Helena's attempts to convince Indy otherwise initially fall on deaf ears – with the archaeologist saying he has nothing to go back to – and so she eventually resorts to knocking him out and dragging him back to the present herself.

Back in 1969, Indy awakens in his bed and begins to admonish Helena for bringing him back to today - only to be interrupted by Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who arrives in the room clearly hoping to resume their relationship (it had previously been revealed they were going through a divorce, partly due to the strain on their marriage that had been caused by the death of their son Mutt Williams in Vietnam).

And so, after Indy's old friend Sallah arrives on the scene with his children, Indy and Marion have a moment alone together.

Indy asks Marion where she hurts and she responds everywhere but her elbow – beginning a recreation of the classic kiss scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in reverse.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now showing in UK cinemas. Visit our Film hub for the latest news and features, or find something to watch tonight with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

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