Mads Mikkelsen's Indiana Jones 5 Villain Has No Connection To Toht (Besides Nazism & Fashion)
"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" features the triumphant return of Harrison Ford as the world's greatest treasure hunter, this time trading his traditional World War II adventures for the Space Race in 1969. The Nazis haven't disappeared, though, as the film's villainous Jürgen Voller, played by Mads Mikkelson, is working for NASA while secretly threatening the world with a conspiracy related to the moon landing. Despite his employment under the U.S. government, Herr Voller hasn't seemed to have lost his penchant for Nazi fashion, his black leather jacket and conniving-looking rounded glasses remarkably similar to Major Arnold Toht's evil outfit from "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Still, Mikkelson has stated that there's no real connection between his character and Toht besides their Nazi affiliations and fashion preferences. It seems as if Voller is more of a mastermind schemer hiding in the shadows, in contrast to the brazenly evil Toht. That makes more sense in a story that's clearly inspired by Operation Paperclip — the very real intelligence program that recruited former members of the Nazi party to work as scientists under the U.S. government. NASA was particularly lousy with ex-Nazis, hiring individuals like SS member-turned-Launch Operations Center director Kurt Debus and Wernher von Braun, inventor of the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the moon.
'We tried to avoid copying him'
Mads Mikkelson told Total Film magazine that Voller is loosely based on Wernher von Braun, and talked about how "the Americans [...] opened their arms and their doors for scientists from the Third Reich. And they closed their eyes in regards to whatever atrocity they might have committed."
Voller, in other words, is a representation of the United States' own culpability in allowing and encouraging Nazi ideas to survive. He's an "Indiana Jones" villain fit for a modern age that's more familiar with the chilling idea of Nazis becoming integrated into everyday society. On Voller's comparisons to Toht, Mikkelson expressed his warm feelings for Ronald Lacey's fiendishly slimy Gestapo agent. "I love that character," said the actor, noting that "he's part of making" the black coat, hat and glasses look "iconic." He added:
"We didn't go that far with the character. It would have been interesting. [Toht] was more of a henchman, I would say. And this guy is the brain behind a lot of things. So they were not going down the same path. But I am wearing glasses. That's one thing. But we tried to avoid copying him at all, because he did it to perfection."
In other words, Voller is a completely different character despite their incredibly similar appearances. Toht was a sadistic torturer who added a layer of chaotic menace to Indy's rogues gallery, but he was also under the command of rival archaeologist René Belloq and Colonel Herman Dietrich. Voller seems to be his own master, and his methods are more cunning than the more outwardly malicious Toht, a role that admittedly sounds pretty perfect for Mikkelson.
"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" opens in theaters on June 30, 2023.