Why Klaber From Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Looks So Familiar

There is a lot in the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" that will be familiar to longtime fans of Harrison's Ford's adventuring archeologist. As always, he'll have his fedora, his bullwhip, and his revolver. As always, we'll wonder how it is that a man who is barely ever on campus has managed to hold down a tenured college professorship for so long. And once again, even in the film's setting of 1969, Indy will be fighting his favorite old adversaries: Nazis, albeit surreptitiously recruited to aid the United States in the space race (which, unfortunately, isn't too far from what actually happened).

Then there are the familiar faces, well past Harrison Ford's own mug. Jonathan Rhys-Davies will be reprising his role as Dr. Jones' friend and ally Sallah. But the cast also includes a slew of actors completely new to the world of Indiana Jones, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, and Mads Mikkelsen. If "Dial of Destiny" has a big bad — and it would need to, like every Indiana Jones movie — then it's Mikkelsen's Jürgen Voller, the Nazi scientist hired by NASA who is secretly using the Apollo moon landing for his own nefarious gains. And next to him, like every good villainous mastermind, is his right hand man, Klaber. 

Klaber is also a familiar face, played by Boyd Holbrook. But what other projects exactly is he familiar from?

Born in Kentucky, Boyd Holbrook was discovered while working as a carpenter at a local theater, after which he established himself as a model, then an actor. After making his film debut in a small role in 2008's "Milk," Holbrook took several other parts, large and small. In 2012, he appeared alongside Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton in History's period western miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys" in the role of William "Cap" Hatfield, son of Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield (Kevin Costner). 

"Hatfields & McCoys" was, naturally, a retelling of the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud that took place in the years following the Civil War along the Kentucky-West Virginia border. Holbrook, interestingly enough, was born and raised in Prestonsburg, not far from that same border where much of the violence took place. Ironically, however, the series was shot not near and around Holbrook's hometown, but in far off Romania. Though the series did stretch the truth on a few occasions, it appears that certain elements of Holbrook's memorable portrayal of Cap Hatfield — wall-eyed and ruthless — was in fact accurate. 

Boyd Holbrook continued to take parts large and small, including a bit role in 2012's "Gone Girl" as Amy's (Rosamund Pike) brief neighbor in the Ozarks campground she flees to after faking her own death. In 2014, he starred in Netflix's "Narcos" as the real-life Drug Enforcement Administration agent Steve Murphy, who along with fellow agent Javier Peña (played in the series by Pedro Pascal), helped bring down Colombian cocaine cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) in 1993. 

The story of Escobar's rise, and of Murphy and Peña's attempts to bring him down, ended at the end of Season 2 with Escobar's death during a shoot-out with Colombian special forces. Season 3 picked up the story, though shifted its focus to Mexico and Peña's attempt to bring down the infamous Cali cartel. Though Pascal returned to the show to play Peña, Holbrook did not. Neither returned for "Narcos: Mexico." This, however, was not due to any bad blood or failed contract negotiations between Holbrook and Netflix. Rather, it was simply that, as he told Variety, his character Murphy was not really involved in the DEA's efforts against that particular cartel.

"Logan" is, in many ways, the perfect way to say good-bye to Hugh Jackman's time as Wolverine in the "X-Men" franchise. And though Jackman is now confirmed to be reprising the role for "Deadpool 3," he has also confirmed that the events of "Logan" remain intact in franchise canon. As much a tragic western as it is a superhero movie, "Logan" deals with all of quandaries that arise when a seemingly unkillable mutant like Wolverine starts to age, facing the prospect of his own mortality even while he desperately does what he can to make the world just a little safer for his kind. 

Standing in the way of this is Donald Pierce, played by Boyd Holbrook. Revealed to be a cyborg, he is also the head of the Reavers, a criminal cybernetic gang trying to capture the young mutants Logan is trying to save. Director James Mangold praised Holbrook's performance of a villain who could easily have been played over-the-top, even campy. Mangold wanted something more naturalistic, and it would seem that Holbrook provided it.

"Boyd Holbrook is just a fabulous actor," Mangold told Digital Spy in 2017. "I wanted this film to feel intimate and real and truthfully acted, and I wanted very much to break away from the kind of bloated feeling I've gotten from a lot of comic-book movies."

Boyd Holbrook also played a key role in B.J. Novak's 2022 black comedy mystery film "Vengeance." While comedy might seem something of a change of pace for Holbrook, he was also quick to point out that the movie deals — albeit in a somewhat light-hearted way — in more serious themes about the infamous, often mischaracterized divisions between "red states" and "blue states." When Novak's character, Ben Manalowitz, receives a call in New York City requesting he fly to Texas for the funeral of a casual romantic encounter named Abilene (Lio Tipton), it is Abilene's brother Ty Shaw — played by Holbrook — who makes the call, under the mistaken impression that the Ben and Abby were in a far more serious relationship.

Ty also convinces journalist Ben to seriously investigate Abby's death, thinking she was murdered. Holbrook's portrayal of Ty essentially functions to humanize a demographic Ben perceives as irredeemably opposite to him. In an interview with the actor, we here at Looper referred to him as a kind of metaphor for the universality of the human condition, regardless of whatever the coastal divide may or may not be. Holbrook seemed to agree with that assessment.

Most recently, Boyd Holbrook can be seen playing the role of the Corinthian in Netflix's "The Sandman." It says quite a bit that Holbook's character stands out amid such a wide and fantastical array of characters traversing the divide between dream and reality, but then again, it's kind of difficult to forget a character whose eyes are made of teeth. And that doesn't even mention the kind of horrendous behavior the Corinthian gets up to Netflix's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantastical comic book series. 

Put short, the Corinthian is the embodiment of everybody's worst nightmare's made real and set loose in our reality. He revels in acts of abominable cruelty and likes to eat his victims' eyes. His atrocities are so legendary that he is even invited as the keynote speaker and guest of honor at a serial killers' convention, though it is here that Lord Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) finally tracks him down and defeats him, along with giving the other attendees full clarity about the scope of their own serial murders. 

By the time "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" premieres, Holbrook will have played villains in at least two well-known fantasy-adventure franchises. Holbrook has admitted that he felt the pressure of expectations in this regard. Then again, it reunited him with his director from "Logan," James Mangold, who took over directing duties from Steven Spielberg in "Dial of Destiny."