Harrison Ford gives 'em hell as Indiana Jones in exclusive Dial of Destiny photos

Indy hangs up his hat

Harrison Ford stars in EW's latest cover story as he gears up to crack the whip and give 'em hell one last time as Indiana Jones in Dial of Destiny (out Friday).

Though Ford says it took him a while after 2008's Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to miss the globetrotting archaeologist, eventually the 80-year-old actor got to a place where he "wanted to see him towards the end of his life."

"I wanted to see him reflect the behavior that he has exhibited over his life. I'd like to reflect on the behavior," Ford says. "I mean, we meet him, he's retiring from academia. He's been teaching disinterested students archeology, at a time when everybody's looking forward. No one wants to think about the past. There are men on the moon in a very exciting new time, but this sort of makes him feel a bit out of place."

He continues, "But we see him now, and he's disillusioned, he's lacking a sense of adventure. His personal life is in a bit of disarray, and along comes circumstances and a person in the form of the character that Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays. And he's inveigled into this last adventure."

Read the full Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny cover story, and click through for more images of Ford and Waller-Bridge in the film.

A favorite memory

Director James Mangold's favorite memory of working with Ford was something that would occur most mornings on set, when the star would get "itchy to get acting," as Mangold puts it. "You suddenly hear from some corner of the set, 'Let's shoot this piece of s---,'" he says, doing his best Ford impersonation. "And to me, [it's that and] the buoyant feeling of working with this wonderful man who I love. I mean, honestly, I really love him very much. And he's irascible, and he can be difficult, and he can be hilarious, and he can be brilliant. And it's a relationship I'll be grateful for all my life."

No Spielberg, no problem

Dial of Destiny is the first Indiana Jones film not to be directed by Steven Spielberg. When asked if it was strange making one of these films without the longtime helmer, Ford doesn't skip a beat. "Steven's in here," he says, pointing to his head. "And here," he continues, placing his hand on his heart. "And Jim [Mangold] acknowledges that he's been influenced by Steven — his work and his style, his method of work — ever since he can remember. So Steven is there, and he was — as executive producer on this film — involved in every aspect of the film."

Meet Helena

Waller-Bridge plays Helena, Indy's long-lost goddaughter, in the film. She's daring, intelligent, resourceful, and feisty, and was inspired in part by Barbara Stanwyck's con-artist character in the 1941 classic The Lady Eve, reveals Waller-Bridge. Charming on the outside but "incredibly ambitious and steely" on the inside, she says.

A physical role

Playing Helena, who is always in the middle of the action, meant getting to work with a stunt team. This was a new challenge for Waller-Bridge, one which she relished (even if she did unintentionally crash a tuk-tuk on set). "Before [this film], I think the amount of physical action I'd done had mainly been just comedic running up and down the street, and even then, I didn't know that was funny… but apparently it was," she deadpans.

Don't call him a hero

"I don't use the word hero at all, because I think it starts us off in the wrong direction," Ford says of his beloved character. "For years and years and years, I've been saying I want to play an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who happens to behave well for the benefit of others. But the job of an actor in playing a character is to tell the story through the behavior of his character and so the more details you can bring to that character, the more full the story is."