Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star John Rhys-Davies has offered his thoughts on his character’s fate following his final adventure. First appearing opposite Harrison Ford’s swashbuckling archaeologist in 1982’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rhys-Davies would later reprise his role as the Egyptian excavator Sallah for 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He also made a brief appearance in 2023’s Dial of Destiny, though sadly his character was denied the opportunity to join Indy in his quest for the second half of the Antikythera mechanism.
During a recent panel appearance at 2024’s MegaCon hosted by Collider, Rhys-Davies explained where he believed Sallah ended up after his final movie appearance. Comparing his character to the real-life Syrian archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad, who gave his life protecting the antiquities from the ancient city of Palmyra, Rhys-Davies likes to believe “that’s the sort of man that Sallah might have become.” Check out his comments below:
I’ll tell you how I think Sallah ends up. I think he ends up like that wonderful fellow Waleed [Khaled] al-As’ad, who is the keeper of the museum in Palmyra. And when ISIS came, or I think it was ISIS, he refused, he’d hidden all the treasures, and he refused to give them out. And they said, “If you don’t, we will kill you”, and he refused. And I think he was 82 years old, and he was forced to kneel, and they beheaded him. That’s a man protecting his culture. That’s a man protecting history. And I believe that’s the sort of man that Sallah might have become.
Sallah Deserved A Better Ending Than The One He Got
Despite appearing in only two of the four Indiana Jones movies to come before The Dial of Destiny, expectations were high when it was first announced that Rhys-Davies would be reprising his role for the franchise’s fifth and final outing. Serving as a key figure in what are arguably the two best Indiana Jones movies in the entire franchise, many fans hoped that Dial of Destiny would provide both Ford and Rhys-Davies with a fitting send-off worthy of their characters’ enduring legacies.
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Yet, while many audiences and critics would consider Dial of Destiny an improvement over 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, others would bemoan the decision to sideline Sallah in favor of putting a greater narrative emphasis on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena Shaw. Depicted as a New York City cab driver who immigrated to America following World War II, Rhys-Davies’ presence in the movie ultimately amounted to little more than a cameo and denied him the one last grand adventure he craved so much.
Even prior to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s release, Rhys-Davies admitted to British newspaper The Mirror that he felt his character was underused in the movie. It was a critique that many viewers would also come to echo on seeing the finished product for themselves. Yet, while Sallah’s final onscreen appearance may have come as a disappointment for fans of the character, at least Rhys-Davies’ speculation about his fate provides him with a far more fitting and ultimately heroic ending.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth entry in the Indiana Jones franchise, directed by James Mangold and starring Harrison Ford in his final portrayal of the titular character. The film will see Jones in 1969 on an adventure with his goddaughter, Helena Shaw, as they find themselves in the middle of an uneasy space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, with the former enlisting the help of former Nazis with ulterior motives.
- Release Date
- June 30, 2023
- Director
- James Mangold
- Cast
- Boyd Holbrook , Thomas Kretschmann , Mads Mikkelsen , Harrison Ford , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Shaunette Renée Wilson
- Runtime
- 2 hours and 2 minutes
- Writers
- Jez Butterworth , John-Henry Butterworth , David Koepp , James Mangold
- Budget
- 295 million
- Studio(s)
- Lucasfilm
- Distributor(s)
- Disney
- prequel(s)
- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark , Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom , Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Franchise(s)
- Indiana Jones
