In an interview with Collider, Mangold revealed that, for him, the similarity between Logan and Dr. Jones is that they’ve both reached points “where the shtick they’ve been doing isn’t working anymore.” The world has moved on, and they’re struggling to keep pace. He elaborated on this quality thusly:
“[I]t would apply to both movies that you’re finding Indiana Jones in his seventies in the time of modernism, rock and roll, moon landings, triangulation, Red Scare, nuclear fears, the Vietnam War — that’s a different world than the clarity and simplicity of the ’30s, of a free world united fighting Nazis. It’s a very different environment. And similarly, finding Hugh [Jackman’s] character of Logan in a time of diminishing returns when his power isn’t as great as it was, that, to me, brings vulnerability to the character, it brings a journey to the character.”
Logan’s fade is more physical. His regenerative abilities are rapidly diminishing; at a certain point, he’s going to take a flurry of punishment from which there is no return. Obviously, Indy’s racked up a load of mileage, but, particularly at the outset of Mangold’s movie, we wince at his irrelevance in an academic world where he used to be revered. Enamored undergrads aren’t mooning over his lectures anymore, while his colleagues bid him half-hearted adieus. Aside from his dingy apartment and a local watering hole, Indy is a man without a country.
“Dial of Destiny” is less successful as an action movie, but Mangold works wonders with the character. You don’t leave the theater yearning for another go-round with Indy, but you may be curious to see Mangold take a crack at a final “Dirty Harry” movie. The man has a way with swan songs.