The iconic explorer is headed out on one last adventure in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,' out June 30.
Harrison Ford is ready to say goodbye to Indiana Jones -- but first, one last adventure!
"That music follows me everywhere I go," Ford joked of composer John Williams' iconic theme music for the beloved franchise. "They were playing it over speakers in the operating room when I did my last colonoscopy!"
Ford and director James Mangold sat down with ET's Nischelle Turner this week to discuss the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
For Mangold, taking over the franchise from legendary director Steven Spielberg was intimidating, not only as a fan of Ford's, but also as a filmmaker who grew up being inspired by Spielberg and George Lucas, who created the beloved films and franchises that the actor is best known for.
"To find myself, not only being lucky enough to be a movie director, but to be a movie director who's collaborating with his heroes on a personal level, yes, feels like an honor," he marveled. "And to have it be so warm, and such a wonderful experience, was really one of the thrills of my life."
"And mine, because I've always wanted to do this. A final chapter," Ford agreed. "For Indiana Jones, I wanted to see him at the end of his career, at the end of the road that we've established. We've taken him part of the way, I wanted to take us all the way."
Both Ford and Mangold admit that sending a octogenarian Indy on another adventure was "a big gamble," but the actor was happy to "embrace" the challenge.
"I wanted him to not run away from the age of the character, but to embrace it, to tell the story of a man who's spent his life this particular way, and what it comes to," Ford shared. "That ride wouldn't have come if he hadn't fallen so low. It wouldn't have been the ride that it is and wouldn't have ended the way that it does. And it ends in a beautiful way."
One of the biggest challenges in Dial of Destiny actually came in creating the younger version of Indy -- who is seen in flashbacks and created with the use of archival footage. However, Ford also performed all of the scenes in order to add his live-action mannerisms to the CGI-generated flashback.
"It's also him, meaning the guy doing all that is him," Mangold shared. "I think that a lot of the credit goes to the fact that we're using the real guy, you know, it's not anyone who can just drive this technology and just produce a character. What's most clear to me is watching how particular the expressions and vernacular the language of Indiana Jones is developed by Harrison. No one does all that stuff quite that way."
"It was gratifying to know that we were doing something that we both believed in, that we had a passion for," Ford agreed. "And that we did. We did it. Really, we've really worked hard... Completing the job itself was like completing the character."
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is in theaters June 30.
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