James Mangold defends mystical Indiana Jones elements

James Mangold has defended the mystical elements in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'.

The 59-year-old director has helmed the latest movie in the franchise that features Harrison Ford's Indy and his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they try and find a device that will change the course of history but has rejected suggestions that the plot is too outlandish.

Discussing the film's time travel elements, James told ComicBook.com: "Well, certainly myself and my co-writers on the picture, we discussed it a lot.

"But it's not really so controversial, these movies have a very elegant form. The relic always defines the third act and the power of the relic defines the magic of the movie.

"So whether you're talking about the Ark of the Covenant or you're talking about the Holy Grail, or at all, we can talk about all of them, but whatever goes down in the third act is usually some kind of reaction to the magic and power and mysticism possessed by the relic itself. And usually pretty mind-blowing."

Mangold continued: "And I think that has become a staple of all the movies, that each movie ends up culminating with a kind of event, a kind of magical, inexplicable event that forces this doctor, this scientist to suddenly have to wrestle with how he's going to explain this with simple logic."

The 'Logan' director also explained how watching the franchise's original film 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' inspired him to get behind the camera.

James said: "I mean, on the simplest level, if you go back to the 17-year-old sitting there, I knew I wanted to be a movie director, although seeing 'Raiders' was only galvanising that feeling. But if you told me that I'd be making a movie with those people on the screen, that would blow my mind."