‘That music follows me everywhere I go’: Harrison Ford embraces the end of his run as Indiana Jones

Harrison Ford is ready to kiss Indiana Jones goodbye.

After more than 40 years with the iconic character, the 80-year-old actor knows Indy perhaps better than any of his other memorable roles. He’s played the swashbuckling archaeologist across five releases now, with the last — ahead of Dial of Destiny, of course — hitting theaters more than a decade and a half back.

Ford’s impressive cinematic resume means that Indiana Jones doesn’t necessarily stick out from the competition, when the likes of Star Wars and Blade Runner are considered, but the franchise is still an indelible part of Ford’s legacy. He noted, in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, that the character — from his mannerisms to that iconic, addictive theme — still follow him everywhere, even after all these years.

Any casual cinemagoer could pick the Indiana Jones theme out of a lineup, but no one knows that music quite like Ford, who joked that the music “follows me everywhere I go. They were playing it over speakers in the operating room when I did my last colonoscopy!”

Past jokes, Ford and Dial of Destiny director James Mangold gushed over the final Indiana Jones project, and the efforts they put forward to bring the franchise to a fitting conclusion. Indy’s last outing, in 2008’s Cave of the Crystal Skull, wasn’t received overly well by audiences, and hopes are high that Dial of Destiny provides a more fitting conclusion to one of cinema’s most phenomenal franchises.

By Ford and Mangold’s estimation, it does. Both called the experience of tackling a big franchise conclusion “an honor,” with Ford adding that he’s “always wanted to do this. A final chapter.”

“For Indiana Jones, I wanted to see him at the end of his career, at the end of the road that we’ve established. We’ve taken him part of the way, I wanted to take us all the way.”

Ford’s, and thus Indy’s, age was also a major factor in the final Indiana Jones chapter. Ford discussed the challenge of returning to such a physically demanding role as an octogenarian, and seems content with the results as they play out on screen. His refusal to “run away from the age of the character,” instead embracing Indy’s age and incorporating it into the story, made for a wonderful full circle, and one that — particularly in conjunction with those de-aged scenes — felt like a proper, fitting conclusion.

You can catch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny when it arrives in theaters on June 30.