.gif)
Anaconda (film)
Encyclopedia
Anaconda is a 1997, adventure
-horror film
, directed by Luis Llosa
, starring Jennifer Lopez
, Ice Cube
, Jon Voight
, Owen Wilson
, and Eric Stoltz
. It centers around a film crew for National Geographic who are kidnapped by a hunter who is going after the world's largest giant anaconda
, which is discovered in the Amazon Rainforest
. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, it was a box office hit. It was followed by the sequel Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
.
about a long-lost Indian tribe on the Amazon River
known as the Shirishama tribe, director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez
) and members of her crew, including cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube
), production manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer
), sound engineer Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson
), visionary Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde
), anthropologist Professor Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz
) and captain of the boat Mateo (Vincent Castellanos
), comes across stranded Paraguay
snake hunter Paul Sarone (Jon Voight
) and helps him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they are searching for, but Sarone acts strangely and the crew suspects something.
While trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp
, which got in his scuba gear and leaves him unconscious. With that, Sarone takes command of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true objective — hunting down and capturing a record-breaking Green Anaconda he had been tracking.
Mateo is the first of the crew to be killed by the anaconda, that strangles him to death outside a boat where a poacher (Danny Trejo
) was killed at the beginning of the film. The rest tries to find him while Gary sides with Sarone, saying if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive. Ironically, Gary is killed next when they attempt to capture the anaconda. The survivors knock out and then tie up Sarone. When Denise attempts to kill Sarone, he gets the edge and chokes her before dumping her body in the river where she drowns. The anaconda returns and kills Westridge before the snake itself is shot dead and Sarone incapacitated by the newly awakened Cale. Danny punches Sarone, knocking Sarone into the river.
Later on, Terri and Danny, two of the surviving members of the crew, are captured when Sarone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and then uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, larger anaconda. The anaconda wraps around Terri and Danny and begins to suffocate them. They are caught in a net by Sarone, but the snake breaks free. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and break free as Sarone himself is killed by the snake. The snake becomes trapped in a smoke stack, which Danny ignites and burns the snake alive. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the snake appears one final time. Danny beats the anaconda with an axe
until it is finally dead.
Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale, who begins to revive, on the boat. As they float down the river, they accidentally locate the natives for whom they were originally searching. They realize Sarone was right and begin filming their documentary as the movie ends.
. It was also nominated for six Razzie Awards at the 18th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Jon Voight), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star ("the animatronic anaconda") and Worst Screen Couple (Voight and "the animatronic anaconda"). Despite the initial negative reception, Anaconda has since become a cult classic
with a dedicated fan base. Roger Ebert
awarded the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars calling it a "...slick, scary, funny Creature Feature, beautifully photographed and splendidly acted in high adventure style."
in 2004, which was released to theaters, two made-for-television movies, Anaconda 3: Offspring and Anacondas: Trail of Blood
, both produced in 2008. Even though no characters from the first film appear in the sequels, they are referenced by the character, Cole, in Hunt for the Blood Orchid when he says he knows a friend who knows a friend that took a crew down to the jungle and they were all eaten by snakes. There is a possible fourth sequel in the works.
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
-horror film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, directed by Luis Llosa
Luis Llosa
Luis Llosa is a Peruvian film director. He is the cousin of the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa.-Selected filmography:* Crime Zone * Sniper * Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon * Fire on the Amazon...
, starring Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
, Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, Jon Voight
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....
, Owen Wilson
Owen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
, and Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
. It centers around a film crew for National Geographic who are kidnapped by a hunter who is going after the world's largest giant anaconda
Giant anaconda
Reports of giant anacondas date back as far as the discovery of South America when sightings of anacondas upwards of 50 meters began to circulate amongst colonists and the topic has been a subject of debate ever since among cryptozoologists and zoologists.Anacondas can grow to sizes of and...
, which is discovered in the Amazon Rainforest
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, it was a box office hit. It was followed by the sequel Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is a 2004 horror-thriller film and sequel to the 1997 film Anaconda. It was directed by Dwight H. Little and was released in the United States on August 27, 2004. The plot of the movie entails a group of explorers looking for a sacred flower that they...
.
Plot
Shooting a documentaryDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about a long-lost Indian tribe on the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
known as the Shirishama tribe, director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
) and members of her crew, including cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
), production manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer
Kari Wührer
Kari Samantha Wührer is an American actress and singer, mostly credited as Kari Wuhrer, sometimes as Kari Salin.-Early life:...
), sound engineer Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson
Owen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
), visionary Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde
Jonathan Hyde
Jonathan Hyde is an Australian-born English actor, well known for his roles as J. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line in Titanic, Egyptologist Allen Chamberlain in The Mummy and Sam Parrish/Van Pelt, the hunter in Jumanji. He is married to the Scottish soprano Isobel Buchanan...
), anthropologist Professor Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
) and captain of the boat Mateo (Vincent Castellanos
Vincent Castellanos
Vincent Castellanos is an American actor.- Filmography :*Sister's Keeper - Vincent*Fascination - District Attorney*Eulogy - Adult Film Actor*The Master of Disguise - Art Dealer...
), comes across stranded Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
snake hunter Paul Sarone (Jon Voight
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....
) and helps him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they are searching for, but Sarone acts strangely and the crew suspects something.
While trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
, which got in his scuba gear and leaves him unconscious. With that, Sarone takes command of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true objective — hunting down and capturing a record-breaking Green Anaconda he had been tracking.
Mateo is the first of the crew to be killed by the anaconda, that strangles him to death outside a boat where a poacher (Danny Trejo
Danny Trejo
Dan "Danny" Trejo is an American actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, most notably in roles as an antagonist, or anti-hero.-Early life:...
) was killed at the beginning of the film. The rest tries to find him while Gary sides with Sarone, saying if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive. Ironically, Gary is killed next when they attempt to capture the anaconda. The survivors knock out and then tie up Sarone. When Denise attempts to kill Sarone, he gets the edge and chokes her before dumping her body in the river where she drowns. The anaconda returns and kills Westridge before the snake itself is shot dead and Sarone incapacitated by the newly awakened Cale. Danny punches Sarone, knocking Sarone into the river.
Later on, Terri and Danny, two of the surviving members of the crew, are captured when Sarone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and then uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, larger anaconda. The anaconda wraps around Terri and Danny and begins to suffocate them. They are caught in a net by Sarone, but the snake breaks free. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and break free as Sarone himself is killed by the snake. The snake becomes trapped in a smoke stack, which Danny ignites and burns the snake alive. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the snake appears one final time. Danny beats the anaconda with an axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
until it is finally dead.
Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale, who begins to revive, on the boat. As they float down the river, they accidentally locate the natives for whom they were originally searching. They realize Sarone was right and begin filming their documentary as the movie ends.
Cast
- Jennifer LopezJennifer LopezJennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
as Terri Flores - Ice CubeIce CubeO'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
as Danny Rich - Jon VoightJon VoightJonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....
as Paul Sarone - Eric StoltzEric StoltzEric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
as Dr. Steven Cale - Jonathan HydeJonathan HydeJonathan Hyde is an Australian-born English actor, well known for his roles as J. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line in Titanic, Egyptologist Allen Chamberlain in The Mummy and Sam Parrish/Van Pelt, the hunter in Jumanji. He is married to the Scottish soprano Isobel Buchanan...
as Warren Westridge - Owen WilsonOwen WilsonOwen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
as Gary Dixon - Kari WuhrerKari WührerKari Samantha Wührer is an American actress and singer, mostly credited as Kari Wuhrer, sometimes as Kari Salin.-Early life:...
as Denise Kalberg - Vincent CastellanosVincent CastellanosVincent Castellanos is an American actor.- Filmography :*Sister's Keeper - Vincent*Fascination - District Attorney*Eulogy - Adult Film Actor*The Master of Disguise - Art Dealer...
as Mateo - Danny TrejoDanny TrejoDan "Danny" Trejo is an American actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, most notably in roles as an antagonist, or anti-hero.-Early life:...
as Poacher - Frank WelkerFrank WelkerFranklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
as the Anaconda (voice)
Reception
Anaconda received mixed reviews when it was released. The film maintains a 39% "rotten" rating according to Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. It was also nominated for six Razzie Awards at the 18th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Jon Voight), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star ("the animatronic anaconda") and Worst Screen Couple (Voight and "the animatronic anaconda"). Despite the initial negative reception, Anaconda has since become a cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
with a dedicated fan base. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
awarded the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars calling it a "...slick, scary, funny Creature Feature, beautifully photographed and splendidly acted in high adventure style."
Sequels
The film was followed by three sequels, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood OrchidAnacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is a 2004 horror-thriller film and sequel to the 1997 film Anaconda. It was directed by Dwight H. Little and was released in the United States on August 27, 2004. The plot of the movie entails a group of explorers looking for a sacred flower that they...
in 2004, which was released to theaters, two made-for-television movies, Anaconda 3: Offspring and Anacondas: Trail of Blood
Anacondas: Trail of Blood
Anacondas: Trail of Blood, also known as Anaconda 4:Trail of Blood, is a 2009 made-for-television horror film and sequel to Anaconda 3: Offspring. Written by David C. Olson and directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy, it is the fourth and last film in the Anaconda series and picks up where the third film ended...
, both produced in 2008. Even though no characters from the first film appear in the sequels, they are referenced by the character, Cole, in Hunt for the Blood Orchid when he says he knows a friend who knows a friend that took a crew down to the jungle and they were all eaten by snakes. There is a possible fourth sequel in the works.