Summary

• Historian Michael Taylor critiques Indiana Jones & Dial of Destiny's ending for historical inaccuracies during time travel to ancient times.
• The film mixes historical fact with fantasy, but falls short on an accurate portrayal of the Siege of Syracuse.
• Despite the fantastical nature of the film, accurate historical details would have enhanced the experience.

Historian Michael Taylor reveals why Dial of Destiny's ending, Indy and Helena end up on a Nazi aircraft, which gets transported by the titular Dial back to the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. During the flight, the plane is targeted by the warring armies of Rome and Greece, who are fighting a naval battle below them.

Speaking with Insider on their series How Real Is It?, Taylor revealed how Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's time travel ending doesn't depict the Siege of Syracuse in a historically accurate way.

Starting at 0:37, the historian explains how the ships used in the battle, as well as some tactics employed by Archimedes, are not true to life, indicating the whole thing is a fantastical rendition of the time period. Check out what Taylor had to say about the movie's ending below:

So we have here a time travel scenario where Indiana Jones has been transported back to the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. A plane flying over this siege while the Romans are trying to capture the Greek city of Syracuse during the Second Punic War. One thing that Indie gets wrong is that Harrison Ford calls these ships Triremes. At this point, the Romans are almost certainly deploying Quinqueremes. A bigger ship, has more rowers, more power, and as a result has more deck space where you can actually put bigger catapults. So if you're doing a naval siege, which is an aspect of the Siege of Syracuse, you're going to want Quinqueremes.

The sort of giant bolts penetrating the plane, that's not necessarily unrealistic. I would be very surprised if any Roman catapulter, ballista could range as far as they're shown in that scene...shooting a plane out of the air.

So, famously, the Syracusian defense in the Siege of Syracuse was overseen by Archimedes, the scientist and engineer. He also has rigged up a series of cranes, and some of these cranes have a chain and a grappling hook. Archimedes' cranes are supposedly quite effective at swinging around, getting this grappling hook at the end of the chain onto a ship, and in some instances, capsizing the ship. That story, of course, also, over time, improved with the telling, including the fanciful notion that he rigged up a series of mirrors or reflective shields to set Roman ships on fire. That seems to be physically impossible.

The whole scene is fanciful and doesn't strike me as terribly historical. So I give it a 3 [out of 10].

Why Dial Of Destiny's Historically Inaccurate Ending Makes It More Disappointing

Indiana Jones Always Mixed History With The Fantastical

Throughout all the Indiana Jones movies, there has been a healthy mixture of historical fact as well as historical fiction. Oftentimes, this comes in the form of history that remains true to life while also including something supernatural or sci-fi as a key twist to what's going on. The most famous example of this comes from the first movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, which used the Ark of the Covenant as a key object while building around the real history of the time period it was said to have been associated with.

However, Dial of Destiny marks the first time the history of an ancient relic has been shown in full, with the Siege of Syracuse happening within the film itself. Because of its presence in the film, it lends itself to being scrutinized, indicative of just how fictitious the history presented in the movie really is. Taylor's observations make the film's ending a little more disappointing, as it seems the time travel aspect of the film does not have a strong foothold in historical reality.

Although Indiana Jones artifacts have fictional powers, allowing more leeway for historical fiction in the movies, Dial of Destiny's time travel still would have been more satisfying in a more accurate setting. While its mistakes aren't detrimental to the final sequence as a whole, having extra, accurate details about the time period simply would have made it a more satisfying finale.

Source: Insider/YouTube