If you want to watch the Indiana Jones movies in order, you got two options: by release date, or chronological order. To travel by release (i.e. as they hit theaters), here’s the five-stop movie itinerary:
Indiana Jones movies ny release order
The first four movies are on Disney+, and will be joined by Dial of Destiny once it concludes its 2023 theatrical run.
Now, if you’re up for a little adventure (and if you’re not, you’ve come to the wrong series, pal), whip up a knapsack of popcorn and let’s snake our way through the Indiana Jones series by its chronological timeline.
The first entry isn’t a movie at all, but the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Sean Patrick Flanery steps into the Indy role, and this George Lucas-created show reveals what the budding icon was up to from 1908 to 1920. Expect all the hallmarks of the franchise: Riddles and artifacts, passport-stamping escapades, run-ins with historical figures, a tenuous father-son relationship, and even Harrison Ford, who puts in a cameo. The series is available on Disney+ as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, edited into 22 feature-length entries.
Then we leap into the movies with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, set in 1935. This is the one with Indy’s sidekick Short Round and the opening set in Shanghai before going deep into the jungle caves of India as Dr. Jones is roped into saving village children from a human-sacrificing cult.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is set one year later in 1936, and takes us to Egypt, the former kingdom of Nepal, the Mediterranean Sea, and exotic America as Indiana chases the famed Ark of the Covenant, featured in best-seller Book of Exodus.
The Last Crusade has a prologue that’s set in 1912, before jumping forward to 1938, where we travel to Italy, Nazi-infested Austria, and Turkey as Indy, his pops Henry, and old pal Sallah search for the Holy Grail.
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull plants its future flag with a 1957-set story. This atomic age-inflected adventure features nuclear explosions, possible aliens, and the return of old flame Marion Ravenwood.
And finally, Dial of Destiny takes us to 1969, after an opening sequence set in 1944. See the list below for Indiana Jones movies and series in chronological order. —Alex Vo
