The new film, which also stars Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and Phoebe Waller-Bridge of British TV dramedy “Fleabag”, is the fifth in the series and the first not directed by Steven Spielberg. The director this time was James Mangold of “Ford v Ferrari”.
Celebrities and fans turned out on the Croisette boulevard en masse for the film. Among those walking the red carpet for the chance to see it first were British director Steve McQueen, actor Charlie Heaton, and Raoni Metuktire, a Brazilian Indigenous tribal chief and environmentalist.
Ford received an honorary Palme d’Or for his cinema career ahead of the premiere. “They say when you’re about to die, you see your life flash before your eyes, and I just saw my life flash before my eyes, a great part of my life,” he told the audience.
“I am very moved by this.”
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” received a roughly five-minute ovation. Early reviews were generally positive, with “Total Film” magazine saying there was “a nostalgic, old-fashioned feel to the film”.
In the fifth and latest instalment, set in 1969, Indy sets off to find a dial that can change time. He is accompanied by his goddaughter, played by Waller-Bridge, and must face off against Mikkelsen as a Nasa employee who is a former Nazi.
The film, due for general release late next month, sees the 80-year-old deaged by several decades using special effects that ate up a large chunk of its US$294 million (RM1.34 billion) budget.
The extended flashback, that takes up the first chunk of the film, sees a younger Indy in World War II in an action scene on a Nazi train.
The film then flashes forward to 1969 with the professor on the brink of retirement and needing a fresh adventure.
Ford first played the character – a fedora-wearing, bullwhip-wielding archaeologist and globe-trotting adventurer with a fear of snakes – in 1981. He told “Total Film” last month that this would be his last time in the role.
The newest movie’s release date had been postponed several times after it was announced in 2016. It follows 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, which received mixed reviews.
The “Indiana Jones” franchise, created by George Lucas of “Star Wars” fame, grossed nearly US$2 billion at the global box office with the first four films. It also inspired a TV series, “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”.