Sure, Harrison Ford is too old to play Indiana Jones — and it’s fine

Harrison Ford has returned for his latest adventure as everyone’s favorite Nazi-combatant archaeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fatebut general excitement about the continuation of the Indiana Jones franchise has been diluted as fans debate Ford’s age and whether he can still act as a pulp adventurer. Ford is 80 years old – 20 years older than Sean Connery was when he played Indy’s father in The Last Crusade. Does audiences want to see an octogenarian play one of cinema’s most iconic action heroes? Sure, Ford spends a significant portion of the film digitally deprecating, but some fans are clearly not convinced that Ford is ready for a world-travel adventure.

The skeptics rightly point out that Ford’s physical limitations make him unconvincing as a typical action hero. But here’s the point: Indiana Jones has never been your typical action hero. The secret weapon of the Indiana Jones franchise isn’t the way it spoils tough archetypes, but the way it subverts them.

Almost every set piece in the whole Indiana Jones franchise sees Jones at a physical disadvantage. He is is almost always pampered – by Nazis, other adversaries or the environment – until he finally discovers a way to outwit them or escape. Sometimes that is by simply cheating. His most epic win in the franchise comes when he doesn’t even bother dueling an expert swordsman, and instead shoot him point blank. And let’s not forget Indy’s almost debilitating fear of snakes.

Indy’s limitations and weaknesses are the genius of this franchise and why he remains such an endearing hero. Despite Ford’s Hollywood looks and the highly choreographed set-pieces in the Indiana Jones movies, the character still has an everyman charm that makes him easier to find and even ups the ante. When Indy fights an enemy, viewers are on the edge of their seats because they know he’s not invincible. In that way, he has always been the ultimate anti-fascist hero, fighting the good fight against Nazism’s supposed supermen, despite impossible odds.

Sure, Ford can’t credibly piggyback on the underside of a truck by still clinging to the frame. Those days are over. But leaning on the character’s limited physicality means Indiana Jones is now more than ever forced to use his wits to get out of trouble.

Yes, the one from 2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had the same problem with Ford’s retirement age, and the results there were lackluster. Director Steven Spielberg did not emphasize Indy’s underdog character Crystal skull just as much as he did with previous films – instead he overcompensated by using CGI to make Indiana perform ridiculous stunts and survive even more ridiculous disasters. (A man who can barely win a boxing match against a Nazi shouldn’t be able to withstand a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator from it.)

However, the truth is that Indiana Jones has always been vulnerable to defeat, and the public has always loved it. They were terrified of him when he was under the spell of Mola Ram in Temple of Doom, and it was a special kind of magic when he brought it out with the help of Short Round. He’s a character whose strength isn’t a gun and a bullwhip, but sheer grit and perseverance, and the filmmakers behind the franchise have never been shy about that.

They even addressed these concerns about Ford’s age in Indiana Jones’ first adventure, 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. As he famously says to Marion Ravenwood, who worries about his age despite all the dangers they’ve been through, “It’s not about the year, baby, it’s about the mileage.” Let those words of wisdom quell skepticism so the public can enjoy Ford’s definitive return to the fedora.