When Indiana Jones 5 premieres next year, the opening sequence of the film will feature a much younger version of star Harrison Ford.
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According to director James Mangold in a recent interview with Empire Magazine, the filmmaker wanted to harken back to past Indiana Jones films, which open with huge spectacles to draw fans in. That spectacle is a setpiece that takes place in 1944, in a castle filled with Nazis. In order to accomplish it, however, Mangold needed to turn to special effects.
“And then we fall out, and you find yourself in 1969,” Mangold said as he explained the transition into the main film. “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.”
According to the director, a ton of different techniques were used to achieve the opening sequence, including new ILM software that used older footage of Harrison Ford to match it to freshly-shot footage of Indiana Jones 5. Mangold said that the team behind the film even found the original Raiders of the Lost Ark jacket that Ford wore, and had it replicated thread-for-thread, in order to make things match up.
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“My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago,’” said producer Kathleen Kennedy in the interview. “We’re dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, ‘I’m in an Indiana Jones movie.’”
