Indiana Jones: Harrison Ford says he wanted 'emotional ending'

There's often speculation when an artist announces a "last" project that it won't be - which is why Harrison Ford is still being asked whether this really will be his last outing wearing the battered hat of legendary adventurer Indiana Jones.

But the actor is unequivocal in his reply to BBC News.

"It is my final film," he says. "And I was always ambitious with this final film."

It could be argued the movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the first for the franchise since 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, wasn't even necessary to conclude the series, since Ford is now 80 years old.

But the actor says he wanted to give this beloved character "an emotional ending" while acknowledging the passing of time.

"We've been making these films for 40 years, we can't deny the effect of age on the character, and I wanted to see that developed into a complex story," he says.

The film makes a virtue of the character's age, showing the professor of archaeology complaining as he's performing action stunts with his god-daughter Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as the pair chase an ancient dial that can alter the course of history.

The film is packed with in-jokes about the character as well as featuring Indiana Jones's greatest enemies, the Nazis, led in this film by Danish actor and former Bond villain Mads Mikkelsen.

But Ford insists he won't be tempted back: "I was not so much interested in doing the same thing over and over again, I wanted to have an emotional ending to this character.

"And I'm so grateful for the audience that we've had, I just wanted to make sure that they would be satisfied and happy with the final iteration."

That's not guaranteed - the film's world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival drew lukewarm reviews from critics. The BBC review at the time said that the film was "a depressing reminder of how much livelier his past adventures were".

It's also the first film in the series that's not directed by Steven Spielberg, although he remains an executive producer.

At one point, Dial of Destiny ranked at only 52% on American review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, although it's since risen.

But the nostalgia factor could still be a powerful lure for audiences. Those who remember the trilogy from the 1980s - Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade include Mikkelsen, who says: "Anyone I know would have killed me if I turned it down.

"I watched it first when I was 15 years old. And it was a huge inspiration to me in terms of acting, but also to a lot of my colleagues, a lot of directors."

Audiences can be reminded of Indiana Jones in all his glory in an extended flashback scene in this movie, played by the present-day Harrison Ford and altered by technology.

Ford explains that the images "are just what I looked like 35 years ago. It's not disquieting, it's not Photoshop, because it's real images."

Martin Scorsese's The Irishman also digitally altered Robert De Niro to take his character in the mafia film backwards and forwards in age, and as Dial of Destiny director James Mangold explains, the technology is continuing to advance.

"Steven Spielberg shot four Indiana Jones movies with Harrison, three of them were in the age that the opening sequence takes place in," he says.

So, he had a reservoir of Harrison's face, every expression, every lighting style. On top of that, Harrison is not a pound over the weight he was when he was 35 years old. So, the computer mapping of putting that young flesh, visage on him, is easy because the bones of the man haven't changed at all.

"And he's driving the performance. It's not just motion capture, it's a performance based on his acting, knowing he is playing himself much younger."

Emmy-winning Fleabag actress and writer Waller-Bridge took on her first action role in the character of Helena, described by the Guardian's review as "a naughty Enid Blyton heroine".

She says Ford told her to "act like you're hammered" in a punching scene.

"It was a scene where I was going to be punched and I was very tense. And he came up and was like, 'just act like you're hammered.' It was that kind of mature advice I was given daily," she jokes.

"But the stunts alone were the time of my life. They're my happy place now, being thrown off things, or tripping over things, sometimes just being strung from a ceiling. It doesn't get old."

Ford says that her action performance is "terrific - I had no idea she would be so capable and so fearless".

But Waller-Bridge has reportedly ruled herself out of succeeding Harrison Ford if its makers want to continue the franchise. Ford himself quipped to reporters at the US premiere that "Jennifer Lopez would be fantastic" when asked who should succeed him as Indiana Jones.

But the actor isn't retiring. He'll continue working in two series - the western 1923 with Helen Mirren and Shrinking, where he plays a curmudgeonly therapist.

Indiana Jones is now a closed chapter in his life, the actor reiterates, saying: "I just feel a sense of completion."

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is released in the UK on Wednesday.