The following contains spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, now in theaters.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was the final outing for Harrison Ford as the iconic adventurer but also a chance to celebrate the legacy of the entire franchise. To do this, however, it involved playing with the concept of time in a way that alluded to the overarching theme of age while bolstering the motivations of its villain, Jürgen Voller. But for Voller, his ambitions led him to the same fate that every Indy villain met.
Voller planned to use Archimedes' famed Antikythera mechanism to travel through a time fissure to Nazi Germany to kill Hitler, lead in his place and win the war. However, like all great Indy villains, his plans backfired and led to a fiery end during the Siege of Syracuse in 213 BC. But while his demise was undoubtedly grim and noteworthy, Voller's end broke a longtime trend of truly chilling villain deaths in the Indiana Jones franchise.
Voller's Death Was Nothing Compared to Other Indiana Jones Villains
Most deaths in the Indiana Jones movies pushed the limits of PG-13, with beheadings, impalements and being devoured by fire ants as some examples. But Dial of Destiny turned the dial up to eleven with its deaths and offered some of the darkest and bloodiest moments imaginable. For example, in the movie's flashback opening, Indy tosses a Nazi off of a bike, only for him to be run over by an oncoming car. Meanwhile, innocent people who worked with Jones were gunned down for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the movie's climax offered truly violent deaths, as those loyal to Voller that ventured through the time fissure were met with massive Roman spears impaling them.
But while Dial of Destiny took home the gold in gruesome deaths, Voller got off easier by comparison. Fueled by his unwillingness to accept his miscalculation and failure, Voller's urge to return to his time led to his German bomber crashing into the coast of Syracuse. Not long after, Archimedes found his charged corpse just outside of the plane and took his watch as a souvenir. While Voller's corpse was wildly burnt and disfigured, it was still a tamer death than anything past villains faced for their hubris.
Breaking a Tradition of Villain Deaths Is Strange for Indiana Jones 5
Raiders of the Lost Ark set the stage for what would be the franchise's many twisted villain deaths. By opening the Ark of the Covenant, Belloc, Colonel Dietrich and Major Toht had their heads melted, drained and exploded. Meanwhile, Temple of Doom's Mola Ram was devoured by crocodiles, and The Last Crusade's Walter Donovan was aged to dust. Comparatively, where these deaths were fitting of the crimes they committed, Voller's fiery death felt almost too normal.
In a universe where characters like Irina Spalko had their head exploded by extradimensional aliens, to die by such a natural means as a plane crash was an odd choice for a villain like Voller. His ambition alone placed him as one of the most dangerous Indy villains ever, and his ending deserved something just as daring. With this being the last movie in the franchise, it's equally as strange that Indy's last foe suffered an ultimately quick and believable death. Nevertheless, while Voller's death didn't live up to those that came before, his villainous acts more than made up for it and undoubtedly made him one of the best enemies Indy ever faced.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now in theaters.