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In the pantheon of Disney movies based on Disney theme park rides, "Jungle Cruise" is pretty good—leagues better than dreck like "Haunted Mansion," though not quite as satisfying as the original "Pirates of the Caribbean." 

The most pleasant surprise is that director Jaume Collet-Serra (" The Shallows ") and a credited team of five, count 'em, writers have largely jettisoned the ride's mid-century American colonial snarkiness and casual racism (a tradition  only recently eliminated ). Setting the revamp squarely in the wheelhouse of blockbuster franchise-starters like " Raiders of the Lost Ark ," " Romancing the Stone " and "The Mummy," and pushing the fantastical elements to the point where the story barely seems to be taking place in our universe, it's a knowingly goofy romp, anchored to the banter between its leads, an English feminist and adventurer played by Emily Blunt and a riverboat captain/adventurer played by  Dwayne Johnson . 

Notably, however, even though the stars' costumes (and a waterfall sequence) evoke the classic "The African Queen"—John Huston's comic romance/action film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn ; worth looking up if you've never watched it—the sexual chemistry between the two is nonexistent, save for a few fleeting moments, like when Frank picks up the heroine‘s hand-cranked silent film camera and captures affectionate images of her. At times the leads seem more like a brother and sister needling each other than a will they/won’t they bantering couple. Lack of sexual heat is often (strangely) a bug, or perhaps a feature, in films starring Johnson, the four-quadrant blockbuster king (though not on Johnson’s HBO drama "Ballers"). Blunt keeps putting out more than enough flinty looks of interest to sell a romance, but her leading man rarely reflects it back at her. Fortunately, the film's tight construction and prolific action scenes carry it, and Blunt and Johnson do the irresistible force/immovable object dynamic well enough, swapping energies as the story demands.

Blunt's character, Lily Houghton, is a well-pedigreed adventurer who gathers up maps belonging to her legendary father and travels to the Amazon circa 1916 to find the Tears of the Moon, petals from a "Tree of Life"-type of fauna that can heal all infirmities. She and her snooty, pampered brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) hire Frank "Skipper" Wolff (Johnson) to bring them to their destination. The only notable concession to the original theme park ride comes here: Wolff's day job is taking tourists upriver and making cheesy jokes in the spirit of "hosts" on Disney Jungle Cruise rides of yore. On the mission, Johnson immediately settles into a cranky but funny old sourpuss vibe, a la John Wayne or Harrison Ford , and inhabits it amiably enough, even though buoyant, almost childlike optimism comes more naturally to him than world-weary gruffness. 

The supporting cast is stacked with overqualified character players. Paul Giamatti plays a gold-toothed, sunburned, cartoonishly “Italian” harbor master who delights at keeping Frank in debt. Edgar Ramirez is creepy and scary as a conquistador whose curse from centuries ago has trapped him in the jungle.  Jesse Plemons plays the main baddie, Prince Joachim, who wants to filch the power of the petals for the Kaiser back in Germany (he's Belloq to the stars' Indy and Marion, trying to swipe the Ark). Unsurprisingly, given his track record, Plemons steals the film right out from under its leads.

Collet-Serra keeps the action moving along, pursuing a more classical style than is commonplace in recent live-action Disney product (by which I mean, the blocking and editing have a bit of elegance, and you always know where characters are in relation to each other). The editing errs on the side of briskness to such an extent that affecting, beautiful, or spectacular images never get to linger long enough to become iconic. The CGI is dicey, particularly on the larger jungle animals—was the production rushed, or were the artists just overworked?—and there are moments when everything seems so rubbery/plasticky that you seem to be watching the first film that was actually shot on location at Disney World.

But the staging and execution of the chases and fights compensates. Derivative of films that were themselves highly derivative, "Jungle Cruise" has the look and feel of a paycheck gig for all involved, but everyone seems to be having a great time, including the filmmakers.

In theaters and on Disney+ for a premium charge starting Friday, July 30th. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence.

127 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as Frank Wolff

Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton

Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton

Edgar Ramírez as Aguirre

Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim

Paul Giamatti as Nilo

• Jaume Collet-Serra

Writer (story)

• Glenn Ficarra
• Josh Goldstein
• John Norville

Cinematographer

• Flavio Martínez Labiano
• Joel Negron
• James Newton Howard

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Jungle Cruise

• Based on Disneyland's theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element.
• 1916. Dreaming about saving countless lives and having another adventure, the feisty English feminist and doctor of botany, Dr Lily Houghton, embarks on a peril-laden mission to change the world. Along with her fashionable brother, MacGregor, Dr Houghton enlists the help of the arrogant, wisecracking riverboat skipper, Captain Frank Wolff, to guide them through the serpentine Amazon River in La Quila, his swift wooden boat. Now, as the intrepid trio ventures deeper and deeper into the heart of an impenetrable green maze, searching for something that cannot be found, a centuries-old curse and the ruthless aristocrat, Prince Joachim, threaten to put an end to their ambitious plans. And, sooner or later, the jungle always wins. Is it true that the Spanish conquistador, Don Aguirre, was lost in the same God-forsaken part of the world? — Nick Riganas
• In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors travel to South America in search of the Tears of the Moon, a mythical tree whose petals can cure any illness, heal any injury, and lift any curse. After most of the men die in the jungle, the survivors are nursed back to health by a local tribe using the tree petals. When they refuse to reveal the location of the tree, the Spanish destroy the village, and as punishment are cursed to never die and never be able to leave sight of the river. In 1916, Dr. Lily Houghton and her brother MacGregor detail Lily's research on the Tears of the Moon to an association of English explorers, explaining that the petals could revitalize medicine and aid in the war effort. The Houghton's request access to an arrowhead recovered by Dr. Albert Falls that Lily believes is key to locating the tree. When the association denies their request, believing the tree to be a myth and a female scientist unqualified to join their ranks, Lily steals the arrowhead instead. She narrowly avoids Prince Joachim, a German aristocrat who also wants the arrowhead and the tree. In South America, Frank Wolff takes tourists on jungle river cruises, which he embellishes with fake dangers and corny jokes. When his boat engine is repossessed by businessman Nilo, he attempts to steal it back. Caught in the act by Lily, Frank pretends to be Nilo and arrogantly tells her that the Tears of the Moon is a myth and that she will not be able to handle the dangers of the jungle, but changes his tone when he notices that Lily is in possession of the arrowhead. Frank's deception is revealed with the real Nilo shows up, but Lily hires Frank anyway after he underbids Nilo and bravely fights off a wild jaguar attack. Frank, Lily, and MacGregor depart on Frank's boat but are almost intercepted by Nilo attempting to get his engine back, mercenaries hired by Joachim to retrieve the arrowhead from Lily, and Joachim himself attacking in a German submarine. After they make their mistake, it is revealed that the attacking jaguar was actually Frank's pet Proxima, and Lily wonders if Frank can be trusted. Joachim locates the cursed conquistadors, whose bodies have turned to stone due to them traveling too far from the river, and have been infested over time by tree roots, snakes, and insects. Joachim frees them by diverting the river, and offers to help them break the curse if they help him to retrieve the arrowhead. As Frank, Lily and MacGregor continue down the river they become closer. MacGregor reveals to Frank that he was nearly disowned by his family due to his homosexuality, but Lily stood by him. Breaking into Frank's cabin, Lily finds photos and drawings of new inventions such as the automobile, but also discovers drawings of the arrowhead and research on the Tears of the Moon. Lily accuses Frank of wanting the tree for himself, but he explains he gave up searching for it a long time ago and believed it couldn't be found. They are attacked by a tribe of "cannibals" who demand the arrowhead, but this is revealed to be another deception by Frank working with a friendly tribe. Frank apologizes and says he was unable to call off the plan, but Lily rebuffs him. Trader Sam, the tribe's female leader, translates the writing on the arrowhead, revealing the location of the tree, and that it only blooms under a blood moon. The conquistadors attack and manage to take the arrowhead; Frank recovers it and gives it to Lily but is stabbed through the chest with a sword and falls to his death. Lily runs away from the river so that the Spaniards cannot follow her. The next morning, Lily discovers that Frank has miraculously survived. He reveals that his real name is Francisco, and he is actually one of the cursed conquistadors, unable to die or leave the river. The expedition to find the tree was originally a noble one to save the leader's sick daughter, but when the natives were attacked by the Spaniards, Frank switched sides to help the villagers. After years of fighting, Frank trapped the others in a cave away from the river. He then spent time searching for the tree to lift his own curse, but had been unable to find it without the arrowhead. An injured MacGregor stays behind with Trader Sam while Lily and Frank make the final journey to the tree. MacGregor is captured by Joachim and forced to reveal the location of the tree. Frank, Lily, the Germans, and the Spaniards all converge on the tree, which begins to bloom under the blood moon. The moon passes quickly as they fight, and Lily is only able to recover one petal. MacGregor kills Joachim, and Frank crashes his boat to block the river, turning himself and the other Spaniards into stone. Lily uses the petal to revive Frank and break the curse, only afterwords discovering that due to a shift in the moonlight there is one petal left for Lily's research. Back in London, the society has offered full membership to Lily, which she rejects. She shows Frank London and gives him his first driving lesson in her automobile as well as delivering a corny joke herself.

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15 Things to Know About 'Jungle Cruise' From Our Visit to the Disney Adventure Movie Set

Who's ready for an adventure?

In Disney's Jungle Cruise , Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt take the helm for a rip-roaring river adventure that goes beyond the banks of a Brazilian port town and into the heart of the Amazon to unearth secrets borne of ancient myth and legend. If that doesn't get you excited, perhaps our report from the Hawaii-based set of the soon-to-open movie will. We've got interviews with the leads, as well as supporting characters played by Jack Whitehall and Paul Giamatti coming your way this week, but to get you all comfy-cozy for your river cruise, we've put all the highlights together in one convenient location for you before the movie opens in theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 30th.

Check out the official synopsis to get acquainted, and then dive in to 15 Things to Know about Disney's Jungle Cruise :

Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” is an adventure-filled, rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.

RELATED: Here’s What’s New on Disney+ in July 2021

• Jungle Cruise takes inspiration from the famous Disney Parks' attraction in the same way that Pirates of the Caribbean did, and Disney is hoping for the same level of success with this potentially franchise-launching first movie.
• Part world-tripping adventure, part action-packed quest for the truth behind ancient secrets and legends, Jungle Cruise really starts steaming once Johnson's rough-and-tumble skipper Frank Wolff and Blunt's progressive and independent explorer Lily Houghton meet up in a Brazilian port town.
• The core of the narrative here is definitely the adventure along the Amazon river (and beyond) but the heart of the story is the relationship between the leads.
• Romancing the Stone , Pirates of the Caribbean , and The African Queen were often cited as inspiration for Jungle Cruise .
• Complicating Wolff and Houghton's journey into the unknown is the local businessman Nilo ( Paul Giamatti ) who wants to run Wolff out of business to control everything in the town, as well as the more worldly antagonist Prince Joachim ( Jesse Plemons ), who is as well-connected as he is devious and deceitful.
• Wolff and Houghton aren't alone in their journey; they'll have the somewhat stuffy but charming McGregor Houghton ( Jack Whitehall ), Lily's brother, by their side, along with some unexpected allies.
• McGregor, a very proper British gentleman, has quite the wardrobe in this movie. Whitehall has somewhere on the order of 10 costume changes, which is more befitting a leading lady in classic Hollywood productions than a supporting male character. (He had a team tasked with following him around to keep his all-white three-piece suit crisp and clean in between takes on the muddy jungle set.) Jungle Cruise plays this up quite comedically, especially when McGregor and Wolff first meet aboard the skipper's rickety steamer ship, La Quila. As Whitehall himself said of the character, "McGregor might just be the worst person that you could have in this environment."
• McGregor also acts as the voice of reason, a counterpoint to his headstrong sister Lily.
• Whitehall's mother, Hilary Gish , read lines with him for his audition tape, playing the part of both Blunt and Johnson's characters. We're told the footage of this exists somewhere, but we have yet to see it (and would love to.) Meanwhile, Whitehall and his father Michael can be seen together in Netflix's Travels With My Father .
• During our set visit, Whitehall had to act opposite an actor in a leotard performing as a jaguar which was terrorizing the tavern. Whitehall has worked opposite real animals before, such as some rather rude horses in The Nutcracker , but on this occasion he remarked, "It's so good that this is not a real jaguar."
• The early villain of the piece, Nilo, is a well-appointed but severely sunburned businessman, played with plenty of personality by Giamatti, who had quite a bit of latitude when it came to shaping his character.
• The "really wacky" script, as Giamatti said, called for Nilo to have an animal friend in the movie. Originally this was intended to be a monkey, which can be found throughout the port town's market, but eventually they went with a cockatoo named Lover -- named Rosita in the film itself -- for the final shoot. Giamatti's rapport with Lover ended up getting the bird more time in the spotlight and even a few more lines in the script.
• While Nilo will antagonize our heroes in the first section of the movie, he's not the Big Bad of Jungle Cruise . Knowing that, Giamatti wanted to make him a little goofier, a little funnier, and a little more cartoonish.
• Johnson in particular did a lot of research into the iconic ride for this movie, including spending time with the Imagineers in the Disney Vault. He and the whole team are quite proud of the movie, especially since the adventure ride was so important to Walt Disney, who was the attraction's first skipper when Walt Disney World first opened.
• Roughly the first half hour of Jungle Cruise takes place on the Hawaii-based stand-in set for the Brazilian port town, where our set visit took place. The hotel, the market, the tavern, and all the boats and boathouses along the docks were practical creations for the set, and they're all phenomenal. If they had been left standing, they would have been quite the adventurous attraction for tourists to explore. Sadly, these sets were dismantled when the production moved to Atlanta in order to explore more of the magic and mythology (and "Adventureland" Easter eggs) that can be found in the remainder of Jungle Cruise .

Jungle Cruise opens in theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 30th.

KEEP READING: New Trailer for Disney's 'Jungle Cruise' Has Strong 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Vibes

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Jungle Cruise

July 30, 2021

Action, Adventure, Comedy

Join fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 2h 7min Release Date: July 30, 2021

Directed By

Produced by.

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June 30, 2021

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We can't wait to go on an adventure with emily blunt and dwayne johnson in jungle cruise.

August 26, 2019

Join fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE, a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton.

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Where was Jungle Cruise filmed? La Luna Rota, the River & all the Filming Locations

Jungle Cruise Locations

The Porto Velho town in Jungle Cruise

La Luna Rota Falls

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Jungle Cruise

Where to watch.

Watch Jungle Cruise with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Its craft isn't quite as sturdy as some of the classic adventures it's indebted to, but Jungle Cruise remains a fun, family-friendly voyage.

Funny, full of action, and an all-around good time, Jungle Cruise is a ride well worth taking.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Jaume Collet-Serra

Dwayne Johnson

Frank Wolff

Emily Blunt

Lily Houghton

Edgar Ramírez

Jack Whitehall

McGregor Houghton

Jesse Plemons

Prince Joachim

Movie Clips

More like this, movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

Designing the World of Disney’s ‘Jungle Cruise’

Disney’s Jungle Cruise , which floats into theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 30, tells the heart-racing—and often hilarious—story of Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt), a doctor in botany who hires skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to embark on a grueling journey up the Amazon River in search of a legendary tree that can cure all human ailments. Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra ( Non-Stop ,  The Shallows ) turned to French production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos ( The Lost City of Z , Amour ) to help bring this otherworldly journey through a verdant mystical jungle on a creaking old tramp steamer so dramatically to life.

Puzos designed a variety of vivid tableaux for the film—including a London set where the movie opens and closes and a remote village in the heart of the Amazon jungle—but perhaps most impressive was the sprawling jungle port town of Porto Velho. Built on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a visitor would be excused for mistaking the set for an authentic Amazonian village, circa 1916. Every structure—from the Porto Velho town set and Nilo’s (Paul Giamatti) jungle cruise operation and tavern to Skipper Frank Wolff’s steam cruiser, La Quila , and his home on the water—is a functional building not a mere movie set façade. Each building is replete with artifacts, furniture, books, trinkets—and this focus on authenticity helps give the film its naturalistic flavor.

“It’s an exciting challenge when you read a script and it has a description of an arrival in a city on the Amazon River with a couple of streets, a big market, a harbor with four boats, a hotel, a restaurant, a cruise company building and our hero Frank’s skipper building workshop and pontoon,” says Puzos. “You begin to divide the space and reinvent a landscape composed by many other spaces, and bend your research in a unique direction to create a cartography where every set is directly connected to the next one. And when you find an incredible location in Hawai‘i, it’s the beginning of an adventure of a lifetime. What makes this set so special is its gigantic scale, the complexity of the landscape and the visual power of the vegetation—which gave us a rich range of shooting possibilities.”

Puzos, who says the Porto Velho set took one month to scout, two months to design and four months to build, dress and landscape, says the biggest challenges his team faced were location and weather. “First of all the location was so wild, so dense in terms of vegetation, so hard to define during the survey—full of scars, holes, cliffs covered by bushes. The access was nearly impossible. We relied on drones to scout the location. When construction got up to full speed, the weather changed, and we had rain every day, flooding the sets and slowing down the construction.”

When asked for a favorite location on the Porto Velho set, Puzos says, “Every building was my favorite! In terms of architecture, the hotel was a pleasure of complexity and simplicity, following a strong pattern of Spanish/Portuguese style of colonial architecture. In terms of design, the vertical building of Frank’s workshop, standing in the water, was an iconic shape in the middle of the location. For Frank’s steam ship, I tried to visualize the journey of a conquistador constantly rebuilding his boat with debris and pieces of other boats, and constantly rebuilding his engine. In terms of colors, Nilo’s Tavern was designed like a rusted building of metal, showing all the variations of textures and colors of a piece of metal lost in the jungle, from dark rust and almost black to golden, sunny orange. In terms of fluidity, the market was designed and built for an epic action scene. This building symbolized our design: to treat the entire location like a garden, to stay fluid in the ground plan, to mix the interiors and the exteriors, and remove some roofs to see inside.

“For this set, the amount of information we wanted the audience to receive was extremely rich. It was important to define every character with a space, an idea, a building or a tool like a boat. This set helps define the story. When the audience sees the port town set, I hope they will see a tribute and an homage to a famous Disney attraction. I hope they will dream of arriving by train in the middle of the Amazon and immediately enter a world of adventures. I hope they will see a rich and charismatic city—and feel the danger of leaving it.”

For director Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise  offered the opportunity to make the type of storyline he “loved as a kid, but had never gotten the chance to make, something like  Romancing the Stone . Visually, I wanted to make a movie with a lot of scope. That would feel like you’re on an actual journey through the Amazon. And this set really helped us bring that to life.”

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Interviews on the set of disney’s jungle cruise with the cast and crew.

We had the incredible opportunity to visit the set of Disney’s Jungle Cruise as the production roared to life with intricate locations, costumes, and characters, shot on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. We watched a scene being filmed, toured the set, and interviewed members of the cast and crew, including stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. Afterwards, we could not wait to see the final film, and the wait is almost over! The film lands in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on July 30, and it’s sure to be action-packed, hilarious, and heartfelt. 

In case you missed the latest , Disney’s Jungle Cruise is inspired by the Disney Parks attraction and is an exciting adventure that takes place on the Amazon River with skipper Frank Wolff (played by Johnson) and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton (played by Blunt). Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s help to guide her downriver on his boat, La Quila. The unlikely duo encounter innumerable dangers and supernatural forces on their journey, and they are so fun to watch together! Jaume Collet-Serra directs the film, which also stars Edgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti. 

We sat down with Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson, Jack Whitehall (who plays Lily’s brother, MacGregor Houghton), Paul Giamatti (who plays Nilo, Frank’s rival), costume designer Paco Delgado, and producers Glenn Ficara and Hiram Garcia. We learned so much about the process and incredible journey during the making of Jungle Cruise! Here’s an exclusive behind-the-scenes look:

We started our visit with a tour of the set, which included the docking area shown above, a marketplace, a hotel, a tavern, Nilo’s landing, Frank’s living quarters, and of course, Frank’s iconic boat, La Quila. We learned on our tour that the film takes place around the year 1916 in Porto Belo, Brazil. The sets revealed that while Frank runs a one-man operation, lives in a modest shack, and built his boat by hand, Nilo practically owns the town and runs a large fleet of boats. Some of the sets (like Nilo’s landing) could only be accessed by water! We even got to step aboard La Quila and stand at the helm:

And here’s a closer look at La Quila during our tour, and a view of the water around the set:

After our tour, we watched a scene being filmed on the tavern set, including some incredible character work by Johnson, Blunt, Whitehall, and Giamatti. It was so exciting to watch them all in action together!

When we spoke to producers Glenn Ficara and Hiram Garcia, they noted that they jumped aboard the film two or three years previous. Ficara and Garcia read the script at the same time as Johnson, and all three loved it. Ficara noted, “I think you’ll be very surprised by the tone of the movie — by the scale, the scope, the set pieces, but most importantly the core of Dwayne and Emily Blunt.” They noted that the chemistry between Johnson and Blunt on screen will make audiences feel like the two have known each other forever. As far as the plot, Ficara and Garcia teased that what triggers the story is Blunt’s character Lily showing up to search for a legend that “may or may not exist.” Whitehall’s character MacGregor also joins Frank and Lily on the adventure and adds some incredible comedy, according to the producers. 

Ficara and Garcia were also working very closely with Disney Imagineers as the film progressed. Garcia noted that throughout the film, “There are nods to the world of Disneyland in subtle ways.” Ficara added, “It was important for us to transport the audience and transport this iconic [attraction].” They also noted that as the journey through the Amazon progresses, we’ll see some beautiful wish-fulfillment scenes for Disney fans, as well as danger, excitement, and animal encounters. “Because the ride is now over 70 years old, you have three generations of families that have all experienced it… so, it’s really deep-rooted… when you hear the name it brings back memories of you and your family going there,” Ficara said. For fans of the Disney Parks attraction, they also confirmed we will get to see the “backside of water” in the film, as well as some excellent puns delivered by Johnson. 

Costume designer Paco Delgado talked about what inspired him to create the costumes for the film. Of starting his work on the film, Delgado said, “I always think that when you design a movie, you are almost like a reader. It’s exactly the same process as a person who reads and starts to imagine things in their head. That’s the way I normally try to work.” For Blunt’s character, Delgado was excited to depict a woman in trousers in the time period that the film takes place, and took inspiration from Amelia Earhart and other female icons of the early 20th century. 

Delgado noted, “I always find that in order to be free to create, you have to have a really huge foundation. I believe that everything comes from the research.” He and his team looked at library records and photographs of the time period to see how expeditions and clothing might have looked. “Costumes and clothing are so intermingled with society,” Delgado said, and that heavily influenced his work.

Giamatti was incredibly excited to be a part of Jungle Cruise and to portray Nilo. He said of the script and story: “There’s lots of really interesting stuff going on in there. It’s got some fantasy elements in it that are very cool. And it’s surprising and I just thought it was unexpected.” For his character, he was given a lot of opportunity to explore traits and props, and even chose for his character to have a pet cockatoo. When asked about filming on a set built in Kauai, Giamatti noted, “Working here is unbelievable. It’s beautiful.”

Whitehall was equally excited to join the cast of Jungle Cruise and shared, “I love Disney. I read the script and it just instantly appealed to me. It was so much fun and it was exactly the kind of movie that I’d go and watch in the cinema. Added to that you’ve got Dwayne and Emily who I’ve been a huge fan of for a long time. And Jaume the director was great. I met him and I thought he was superb and really had a distinct idea for what he was going to do with it. So, I was on board very easily.” He explained that his character MacGregor is a very savvy, dapper gentleman who is “really dragged on this cruise by his sister and is a reluctant party on it.” He also noted, “probably not a million miles from how I would behave if I was in the situation that the character is in.” He went on to joke, “MacGregor might just be the worst person you can throw into this environment.” 

Whitehall noted that Lily is very head first, asking questions “on the way down,” while MacGregor balances that out. When asked about building the brother-sister relationship with Blunt’s character, Whitehall said, “We grew up a couple of streets away from each other in London… we instantly got on and had a natural chemistry.” As far as MacGregor’s relationship with Johnson’s character Frank, Whitehall noted, “Over the course of the movie, I think he realize[s] you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and there’s a lot more depth and surprising aspects to Frank’s character than he probably suspects when he first met him.” Regarding working with Johnson, Whitehall said, “He’s incredible. He’s exactly the kind of person you want him to be.”

Between scenes, we also interviewed Blunt and Johnson — in their amazing costumes — as a light rain drizzled over the set. Holding umbrellas, the hilarious duo answered questions about working on the film. Blunt said of taking on her character Lily, “There was something about this character… she just was so tenacious and exciting, determined, completely free-spirited. And kind of weird. A really interesting character.” She also noted, “She is very unusual and at the time she’s kind of a trailblazer.” On Frank and Lily’s scenes together, Blunt noted, “At the core of it is this relationship, this unlikely duo… there’s this chemistry between them and this rapport between them.” 

Both Johnson and Blunt are incredibly excited about the film, and grew up as Disney fans as well. “I was just so amazed because I’d always dreamed about going to [ Walt Disney World ]... I finally went and I fell in love with the ride just like I fell in love with the Park,” Johnson said. Johnson also noted that he took inspiration from the fact that Walt Disney was the very first skipper for the Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland . Blunt added, “I think that the experience for me, and I know for Dwayne as well, is just really personal and it feels really exciting. And I think that Disney films are those kind of films that are seared into your nostalgia. Certainly as a child I have such lasting memories of Disney movies. Those were the films I grew up watching, so it’s completely surreal to be now in a few of them.” Of the film itself, Johnson said, “There’s heart, there’s universal [themes], there’s fun, there’s adventure, and there’s also a good lesson with that as well.” When asked about the filming experience, Blunt said, “I’m having the time of my life.” Johnson chimed in, “It’s a dream come true.”

Visiting the Jungle Cruise set was a Disney dream come true, and we can’t wait to see the film come to life!

Disney’s Jungle Cruise is in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on July 30. (Additional fee required.) For more Disney+ news and updates, follow @DisneyPlus on YouTube , Instagram , Twitter , and Facebook . 

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Screen Rant

Jungle cruise: 10 behind the scenes facts about the movie.

Disney's Jungle Cruise is a much-loved ride, but what went into creating its movie adaptation? Take a look at these great behind-the-scenes facts.

Disney's  Jungle Cruise   has been ready to release for some time, but fans will finally get the opportunity to enjoy the film in the summer of 2021. A lot went into creating the company's potential next big blockbuster and there are numerous behind-the-scenes stories about how it all came together.

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Whether it's other productions that influenced the movie, or perhaps the way in which talent was brought on board for the project, there's a lot of interesting tidbits as to how  Jungle Cruise  came about at all. Of course, Disney has a strong legacy to live up to as well, and there's a lot of information out there in regards to how the film compares to the original Disney Parks attraction.

It Features Jokes From The Orignal Jungle CruiseRide

The Jungle Cruise attraction is famous due to the script that the Skippers deliver with all of their charm and charisma. There are some trademark jokes and storylines from the Disney park attraction , and to meet fan's expectations, some of these jokes are present in the film adaptation.

Most notably, the joke that every  Jungle Cruise  fan waits for is the "backside of water" pun, which is delivered towards the end of almost every journey. Cnet  mentions how the trailer reveals that this iconic line will also be included in the film, demonstrating Disney's behind-the-scenes work to honor the iconic ride.

Linked To "Behind The Attraction"

Disney's  Behind The Attraction  on the Disney+ streaming service goes further in showcasing how the movie and the attraction will be intertwined. And the new documentary show is actually linked to the production of the film, as well.

Not only does it feature some exclusive footage, but the docu-series is also produced by Dwayne Johnson, who is one of the stars of  Jungle Cruise.  The Disney+ show is therefore being used as both a promotional show and a way for The Rock to showcase the love that went into the production.

It's One Of Disney's Biggest Sets

During the filming of the production, Cinemablend reported that The Rock actually took to social media to reveal the set that Disney had produced for  Jungle Cruise.  It appears to be one of the biggest that the company has ever created for their shoots, showcasing their attention to detail.

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Looking to include as many real-world elements as possible, the set also looks like it's heavily inspired by the original ride itself. This is reassuring to fans who are looking for the authenticity and charm that they are familiar with from the original attraction.

The Original Version

Disney's current  Jungle Cruise  wasn't the first time that a film went into development with the same name. In 2004, it was first announced that there could be a new project from Mandeville Films based around the ride, and as AWN announced, confirmation that Al Gough and Miles Millar were in talks to write the movie came in 2006.

Later, it would be reported by  IGN that the project would be a high priority with a producing team also put in place. However, it wasn't meant to be, with the film seemingly collapsing before a new iteration of the idea was eventually announced by the House of Mouse.

It Includes Disney's Second Gay Live-Action Character

Disney made it very clear that LeFou, the famous villainous henchmen , would be one of their first official gay live-action characters and was featured in  Beauty And The Beast .  They would later go on to confirm that Jack Whitehall's character in  Jungle Cruise  would also be gay, marking their second LGBTQ+ inclusion.

According to Advocate.com , the writing team made sure to include a pivotal coming-out scene for the character, but there has also been some backlash around the decision of casting Whitehall. Indiewire mentions that some have suggested that a straight man should not have been placed in the role and that the character plays on stereotypes, rather than portraying an LGBTQ+ character in an authentic manner.

Jaume Collet-Serra's Work

The director chosen for the piece is Jaume Collet-Serra, who usually works within two very distinct genres: thrillers and horror. His filmography is certainly impressive, but it includes an array of features that certainly wouldn't appeal to Disney's family-friendly audience.

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However, it's clear from Collet-Serra's work that the director understands how to convey tension and drama on screen. And he clearly impressed Dwayne Johnson though with his passion and work ethic , with the Spanish filmmaker being brought on to work on The Rock's next major project,  Black Adam . 

Indiana Jones Inspiration

In recent interviews, the cast and crew have revealed that the aesthetic and characters are hugely inspired by  Indiana Jones .  Now another movie series in the Disney archives, it's hard to argue that many of the best scenes from the franchise have been cemented in cinema history.

Syfy.com also notes that Emily Blunt's character, in particular, is heavily influenced by Harrison Ford's original performance in the series. It's easy to see the many parallels between the two productions though, with both featuring jungle-based adventures, on the search for lost lands and hidden artifacts.

Blunt Ghosted The Rock

During the promotional tour, Dwayne Johnson also revealed to NME  how Emily Blunt was brought on board to the project in the first place. Having always been her fan, The Rock reached out to Blunt in the hope of tempting her into the cast. However, the actress ghosted his video messages.

It would take the director to really get Blunt to see his side, and clearly, Johnson won't let his co-star forget about the situation, although it all seems to have been taken in jest. Regardless it was the  Indiana Jones  comparisons that finally convinced the award-winning star.

Legacy Of Pirates Of The Caribbean

The Pirates Of The Caribbean   franchise is really the benchmark for live-action Disney projects. Not only was it influenced by the ride itself , but it also brought the live-action side of the production company to new heights. The impact of that is clear to see on  Jungle Cruise. 

Johnson and Blunt revealed to  Inside the Magic that, alongside  Romancing The Stone ,  Pirates Of The Caribbean  was something the crew constantly called back to when looking to find success with  Jungle Cruise.  It's an important part of the House of Mouse's recent film history, and a lot of lessons can be taken from it, including the reliance on practical sets and props.

Nods To The African Queen

The African Queen  is a very important film in the jungle genre and one that, according to  EW , originally influenced Walt Disney when creating the  Jungle Cruise  ride at his parks. But the Oscar-winning production has made its mark on the live-action adaptation, as well.

The  Behind The Attraction  Disney+ show even made mention that the costumes that both Blunt and Johnson wear in the final film are hugely inspired by The African Queen.  The well-respected production, therefore, has its fingerprints all over this modern take.

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‘Jungle Cruise’: The Rock and Emily Blunt Go Up the Disney River, Without a Paddle

By David Fear

Blame Johnny Depp.

I mean, listen, feel free to blame the actor for any number of things , if you want. But specifically, in terms of riot-act reading, let’s go back to 2003, when Mr. Depp slapped on a head scarf, trotted out his best Keef Richards wobble and slur, and turned what felt like a Disney Hail-Mary I.P. cash-in into a cash cow. No one expected a movie based on an amusement park ride based on creaky, age-old seafaring stories to give birth to a popular franchise; no one expected a movie about 18th century pirates to show up in the early part of the 21st century, period. (What is this, the Watchmen universe ?)

Depp is responsible for turning the Pirates of the Caribbean films into hits, even when the series slipped into diminishing-returns territory. More importantly, he helped to prove a Mouse House theorem: When it comes to licensing, exploiting and rebooting, why stop at your best-known characters? Find the right actor, and you can sell your park properties’ greatest hits as intellectual properties too. If you can hire a better-than-decent director and keep the pace frantic, all the better. The movies then direct customers back to the park, and the circle of l̶i̶f̶e̶ commerce continues. The question was not whether this was the beginning of a trend but what the next “title” would be and how soon we’d be E-ticketing to a theater near us.

The reprieve lasted longer than we thought, enough to lull us into a false sense of security. Maybe it’s unfair to blame the ghost of Jack Sparrow and the Pirates boom-bust of yore for Jungle Cruise . But dear Walt in the heavens, the shadow of that series looms large over this attempt to sell the Magic Kingdom’s vintage, colonialism-a-go-go boat ride as the next big endless-summer-movie thing. To be fair, so too does the specter of the Indiana Jones films, The African Queen, steampunk, old-school Werner Herzog, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, the entire previous filmography of the Rock, that book on Ponce de Leon you forgot to return to your library in fourth grade and every boys’ adventure ever written. Still: the wisecracking, trickster rascal? The hyper-capable and social-sexism-thwarting heroine? The mystical, supernatural villains, and their imperialistic, human bad-guy counterpart? The set pieces that update bits of ye olde derring-do, often digitally and occasionally successfully? You’ve seen this film. Only the hats, the source material’s location in the park and the size of the biceps have changed.

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Stream Jungle Cruise on Disney+

First, your lovable scamp of a skipper: His name is Frank Wolff, but feel free to call him Dwayne Johnson. This is a great example of what a movie star, a real one, does when you hire them: gives you their screen persona and molds it to fit the container without changing the essential recipe. It’s the one big difference between this and other Disney’s other big cinéma du amusement park entry, in that Depp injected everything an odd sense of unpredictability and Johnson gives us the reassuring feeling we’re watching a Dwayne Johnson movie. Except this time, it happens to be 1916, we’re deep in the Brazilian rain forests, and the star is smiling instead of seriously scowling. Wolff is a tour guide who runs his trusty boat up and down the Amazon for gullible tourists, which — yup — is distinguished by the captain’s facepalm-inspiring banter. Maybe you forgot for a nanosecond that the movie is based on the ride distinguished by a running commentary of puns ranging from bad to very bad to “make it stop, make it stop!!” Anyone who’s been to Disneyland in the past 50 years will recognize the jokes Johnson tells to his hostages (sorry, “customers”). The meta-gag is that even folks in 1916 thought these groaners were god-awful.

Meanwhile, in Merry Olde England, a young man named MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) is making a plea to ye olde stuffy historical organization to let him access an arrowhead recently found in the Amazon. This artifact, about to be tucked away in their archives, is allegedly the key to unlocking “the Tears of the Moon” — bright flowers found blossoming only on the mystical Tree of Life, and the obsession/downfall of Spanish conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre (Edgar Ramírez). He’s not the Houghton to keep an eye on, however: That would be MacGregor’s sister, Lily ( Emily Blunt ), the headstrong adventurer of the family. She’s keen to prove that the rumors surrounding the magical healing properties of this foliage are true, and thus cure all ills. Yet another party, Germany’s Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), would also like the arrowhead. There’s a world war going, you see. Having access to the tree’s bounty might give his nation the winning edge.

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We get one rousing set piece involving Blunt and Plemons competing to liberate the arrowhead from its crate — a jumble of feints and moving parts that director Jaume Collet-Serra smooths out nicely; even if you didn’t know he’s logged time putting Liam Neeson through his Action Gramps paces , you see why he got the job — before everyone meets up in South America, and everything settles into a well-worn, familiar Jungle Adventure 101 groove. It turns out that Blunt’s tart apple crisp of a comic performance pairs nicely with Johnson’s beefcake served with a side of ham. The actress, especially, seems to thrive in playing the Hepburn to Johnson’s buffed-up Bogart. (When you watch her spring into action, and see how well the movie plays to her vulnerability and her fearlessness, you remember that this is the filmmaker who also gave us Blake Lively’s alpha-female-in-peril in The Shallows. ) Blunt’s already proven to be a great physical screen performer as well as an expressive one, versatile enough to go deep or stay breezy, and even when she leans heavily on righteous indignation, there’s a verve she brings to all of this. It rubs off on her screen partner, too. She calls him “Skippy.” He calls her “Pants.” (Because she wears pants, and is also a lady.) They can almost jointly convince you this is a cruise worth taking. Almost.

Other than that, well…Plemons’ evil Saxon may worship the Kaiser instead of the Fürher, but he’s a screen Nazi by any other name, and the mustache-twirling giddiness he brings to this stock villain soon dissipates quicker than a cow leg in a piranha pool. Paul Giamatti drops by with a that’s-ah-spicy-meatball accent, a gold tooth and a vibe that scream “my summer house needs renovating, too.” One character’s interest in then-verboten alternative lifestyles doubles as both sympathetic representation and gay-panic-driven punchline, leaving you with a chicken v. egg dilemma over what came first in script rewrites. And the ride’s legacy of blithe exoticism butting up against Tarzan-grade stereotypes — to quote a bit player here, “that booga-booga nonsense” — gets dealt with in a way that suggests a box has been summarily ticked off a previous-grievances list. It wants to have your cannibal-natives cake and critique it too, at least in theory.

There are a few elements in Jungle Cruise that would constitute being labeled as spoilers, but the fact that the movie ends ready and revved up for a sequel is not one of them. Disney would very much like lightning to strike twice, and you can feel moments here — notably when Aguirre and some conquistador comrades return in a, shall we say, more “natural” postmortem state — where they’re purposefully nudging you: “Hey, remember how much you loved those early Pirates movies? So why not give this a try as well?” The ride they’re really asking you to go on, however, isn’t a reprise of their hokey upriver excursion. It’s something closer to an amusement-park attraction named Generic Blockbuster Cruise, where you slowly glide past a bunch of prefab set-ups — over there you’ll see some thrills, look out on your right for some spills and chills — and the whole thing moves inexorably forward on a track, while a skipper cracks the same corny jokes. It’s a decent enough way to kill time once if the lines are short. You won’t be particularly be rushing to jump back on the ride again.

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Jungle Cruise Ending: What Happens And What It Means For The Potential New Disney Franchise

The following contains major spoilers for Disney's Jungle Cruise .

Disney's Jungle Cruise movie is here, following a year long delay that changed it from a 2020 release to one of 2021's new movies . And whether you watched it in theaters or on Disney+, the movie is a fun adventure that is absolutely worth seeing. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are incredible together and they make the movie so much fun. Jungle Cruise is clearly following in the footsteps of Pirates of the Caribbean , a film that was also based on a Disneyland theme park attraction. The Pirates movies became a massive franchise worth billions of dollars, and it seems quite clear based on the Jungle Cruise ending that there are hopes this movie could become a franchise as well.

So just what happens at the end of Jungle Cruise , and what does it mean to this potentially brand new franchise? And just what sort of inspiration could the theme parks be for future films? Let's take a look at how Jungle Cruise ends to see where it may be going in the future.

How Disney's Jungle Cruise Ends

The quest of Jungle Cruise is all about the discovery of a mystical tree that legend tells has magical healing powers. If this tree could be found it could potentially save millions of lives. That's the goal of Emily Blunt's Dr. Lily Houghton, but we learn earlier in the film that Dwayne Johnson 's Skipper Frank Wolff is also looking for the tree for his own reasons. He's been cursed and he needs the tree to break the curse so that he can finally die.

It turns out Frank was part of the same group of Conquistadors who went searching for the tree hundreds of years before, and he was cursed along with his leader Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez). Frank hopes that the tree will set him free of the curse, which forces him to stay near the Amazon River. After living several hundred years, Frank is ready to simply find his final rest, though Lily, who realizes she has feelings for Frank, is not as interested in this possibility.

In the end, the tree is discovered, but Lily is only able to obtain a single petal from it before the tree goes dormant. At the same time, Frank blows up his ship in order to use it as a dam and block the Amazon River inside the cave. By separating Aguirre and his soldiers from the water, they become frozen in time and trapped among the tree roots. Unfortunately, since Frank is under the same curse, the same fate befalls him.

Lily ends up using the one petal from the tree to attempt to rescue Frank and it works. However, instead of dying, by choice or luck, Frank lives on rather than dying.

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And luckily, a last minute ray of moonlight creates one final petal, which Lily and her brother take back to London to prove that their theory about the tree had been true. In the final moments we see that Frank is in London with Lily, proving that the curse is truly broken and the two drive off together, and Lily has even learned to pun.

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What The Ending Means For The Future Of The Jungle Cruise Franchise

The cast and crew of Jungle Cruise have been open about the fact that sequels are very much a possibility here. Having said that, the first movie ends having simply opened the door to them, without any specific set up in the film. Frank and Lily are together. Frank's curse is broken, meaning he can travel anywhere he wants to go, and so, if adventure calls them, they can answer.

A lot of comparisons were made between between Jungle Cruise and the Indiana Jones movies, as well as Romancing the Stone , which also was a movie that got a sequel. And those comparisons make a lot of sense after seeing the movie, especially in regards to how it ends. While those movies saw their main characters go off onto new adventures, those adventures were not directly connected to what came before. Each story was complete in itself, and each new entry simply told of the next big adventure the character(s) experienced.

That feels like what Jungle Cruise is doing here. This particular entry feels complete and it seems unlikely that there would be any particular need to return and continue this story. Instead, if we do see sequels, they will likely be entirely new adventures that Dwayne Johnson , Emily Blunt , and Jack Whitehall go on together, maybe searching for other mystical objects or traveling the world in search of something else. And the Jungle Cruise itself really does lend itself to that idea.

What Disneyland's Jungle Cruise Could Tell Us About Future Movies

The movie is called Jungle Cruise and because of the cross promotional opportunities between the movie and the theme park, we can be fairly certain that any sequels will use the same name, and will likely thus involve our heroes traveling down a river in the middle of a jungle. But that's just fine because the actual Jungle Cruise attraction includes many of the world's greatest rivers already.

The story of the Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland suggests that guests actually travel down several of the biggest rivers in the world, one right after the other. The Amazon, the setting for the new movie, is actually the last river you travel down, after already visiting the Irrawaddy and Mekong rivers, then traveling down the Nile and the Congo.

As such, it would make all the sense in the world for future Jungle Cruise movies to be set in one of these other places. All the next movie would need is a reason that Frank, Lily, and McGregor would want to travel there, and then they can head down the river once more, in search of some new mystery and with all new dangers trying to stop them.

There's even more inspiration from the ride to be found, both the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom versions of the Jungle Cruise just saw significant updates that creates a bit more of a cohesive story for part of the ride. It also introduces a host of new named characters within the lore of the attraction, who could be introduced as characters in future movies, as happened with Trader Sam, or they could simply be name-dropped as part of the backstory, as was done here with Dr. Albert Falls. In fact, Dr. Falls granddaughter is now part of the ride's story , so perhaps she could appear in a future film.

Whether or not there will actually be Jungle Cruise sequels will be determined by Disney from a combination of the film's success at the box office and on Disney+. But if it does happen there are many cruises left to take.

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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Where was Jungle Cruise filmed?

City locations.

Atlanta, Kaua’i, Oxford

Location Types

Nature Scapes, Cape Cod, Beach/Oceanview, Ship Docks

Location Styles

Boat Style, Cape Cod, Exotic/Tropical, Shipping Yard/Dock

About Jungle Cruise

In the Disney film, Jungle Cruise we follow the botanist and adventurer Dr. Lily Houghton, played by Emily Blunt, as she and her brother make the journey from London, England all the way to the jungles of the Amazon as they search for a mysterious ancient tree existing only in legends. According to the stories, this tree has incredible healing abilities and Lily is determined to bring samples back home and to change the future of medicine. However, finding the Tree of Life won’t be easy and she will have to entrust the journey to a steamboat skipper named Frank, who is played by the talented Dwayne Johnson.

Along the way the group will come across obstacles and dangerous encounters, as many creatures in the forest and the jungle itself are trying to kill them. To make matters worse, they are not the only ones searching for the Tree of Life, and supernatural beings and curses will stand in their way. This action-adventure and comedy movie was released in the summer of 2021.

Disney’s Jungle Cruise was actually made based on the popular Jungle Cruise ride at their theme park. If you have ever been on the ride before then you might even recognize some of the lines from the movie, since the witty jokes that Frank makes on his tour of the jungle are actually taken from the rides and you can expect the same humor from your own jungle guide! Spoiler alert: we’ll discuss lots of fun action from the entire film!

Jungle Cruise Locations

In Jungle Cruise our main characters have to travel down the river of a lush green forest and venture into the jungle to find the legendary Tree of Life. Although the film is set in the Amazon it was actually filmed in two cities; Atlanta and the island of Kaua’i in Hawaii. These beautiful areas were the perfect Jungle Cruise filming locations, since the natural landscapes and ecosystems set the scene perfectly for the film.

The movie uses an impressive amount of CGI in order to bring the fantasy land to life, but the actors also had to travel to shoot many of the scenes. Lots of the places that filming took place required sets to be built, and although those sets might not be there today you can still stop by to see where filming took place. If you want to see some of these locations in real life then keep reading to find out exactly where Jungle Cruise was filmed.

Lily steals artifact at Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society scene in Jungle Cruise

Oxford College of Emory University

Near the beginning of our adventure in Disney’s Jungle Cruise, we see Lily and her brother at the Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society. It doesn’t take us long to notice that the society is quite misogynistic and does not include women in their ranks, which is why Lily puts her brother, MacGregor, up to the task of distracting them while she breaks into their storage to search for an important artifact. During his speech where he asks the council for financial support, he gives us a hint as to what he and his sister are really looking for; “All legends are born in truth. From the Amazon came the legend of the Tears of the Moon. A single petal from the great Tree could cure any illness and break any curse.”

Meanwhile, viewers watch as Lily breaks into the archives with skill and resourcefulness, timing her movements in order to avoid the staff who are working in the same room. After navigating the room and searching through boxes she manages to get her hands on the artifact, which is an ancient looking arrowhead, until she is spotted. This is when we first meet Prince Joachim, our main villain, and she manages to narrowly escape with the item. This is a great introduction to the main characters, and shows exactly how determined Lily is to not let anything stop her on her quest!

This well choreographed scene is significantly made using CGI. The outside of the building, for example, was created and put up on set and most of the cars and streets that you see outside are also not real. However, some of the crew and extra actors were spotted in Oxford all dressed for the setting. It is assumed that some of the scenes taking place inside the society were filmed at the Oxford College of Emory University. Come visit in person to see if you can recognize any of the Jungle Cruise locations from this scene!

Lily and MacGregor arrive in Porto Velho scene in Jungle Cruise

Kilohana Plantation Railway

After successfully snatching the artifact, we continue our journey into the jungles of the Amazon in search for the Tree of Life. Lily has to convince MacGregor to accompany her on the trip, although it doesn’t take too much convincing since he is worried about her traversing the jungle alone. However, this doesn’t stop him from complaining, saying; “If I wanted to go to a primitive backwater where I can’t understand a word anyone’s saying, I’d visit our relatives in Scotland.”

But soon enough, you see the pair exiting the train station and entering the city of Porta Velho in the Amazon. This is where they begin their search for a skipper who can take them into the jungle by boat and can finally begin their quest for the Tree of Life.

Although the scene is short, it is full of some great moments. The railroad station used in the film was actually the Kilohana Plantation Railway situated close to Lihue. This structure was perfect for the movie since, although it is a modern building, it was constructed to resemble a historical railway station with Hawaiian trains that look like those from the 1880s. Come visit in person and maybe take a ride on one of the awesome old trains which can bring you on tours through orchards, farmlands and forests!

Frank gives a jungle cruise tour scene in Jungle Cruise

Kapaia Reservoir

Definitely one of the most loved scenes in the film takes place on Frank’s steamboat when he is giving a tour to a group of unimpressed tourists. This scene will definitely remind any fans who have visited the Disneyland theme parks of the Jungle Cruise ride, and Frank does his best to entertain the crowd with some incredibly witty jokes.

One of them being; “You know, before this, I used to work in an orange juice factory, but I got canned. I couldn’t concentrate. Yeah, they put the squeeze on me too.” Although the skipper does his best to make his passengers laugh, they are definitely a tough crowd. But one thing is for sure, the audience watching in the theaters definitely enjoyed it.

During this scene, we are brought through the jungle and eventually arrive back at Porto Velho, Brazil. Believe it or not, but the city where Frank concludes his boat tour was not filmed in Brazil and does not actually exist. Instead, the film crew spent nearly six months creating the set at the Kapaia Reservoir in Kauai, Hawaii. The set was massive but was definitely worth the effort for one of the funniest scenes in Jungle Cruise. After filming was finished, the set was taken away and the area was restored to its previous use as a reservoir. It is located on private property, so if you want to visit in person you will need to contact the owners of the land.

Lily, MacGregor and Frank set off on their adventure scene in Jungle Cruise

Huleia Stream

Now that we have been introduced to all of the main characters, it is time to begin our adventure into the jungle and closer to finding the Tree of Life. Lily and Frank agree on a price and she insists that they leave for the Lagrimas de Cristal, the site where the Tree is supposedly located, right away. However, their departure from the harbor will prove to be the first obstacle on their journey and is one of the best Jungle Cruise action scenes.

Both Lily and Frank have people after them, since Frank had to steal his engine back from a man named Mr. Nilo, who he owes money, and Lily realizes that Prince Joachim is pursuing her and trying to get the arrowhead back. Cue an exciting scene where Frank expertly guides the boat out of the harbor and narrowly misses being shot by Prince Joachim’s torpedoes and machine guns. After the group is safely on their way through the jungle we hear Frank talking lovingly to his boat, which has definitely seen better days; “Look what they did to you. Poor thing. I'm so sorry. Machine guns. Who brings a submarine to the Amazon? But you still outran them. Every time.”

Throughout the film you will see some gorgeous shots of the jungle and birds-eye views of the boat as it passes through a river that winds through the forest. Some of these scenes were shot at the Huleia Stream in Kauai. This place is stunning and filled with wildlife, which is why it has been a filming location for other movies as well. You can come see it in person if you don’t mind going for a bit of a hike, and we recommend taking a guided tour through the area.

Frank and MacGregor have a heartfelt conversation scene in Jungle Cruise

Opaekaa Falls

Although the main characters in the movie are definitely Lily and Frank, the Jungle Cruise production team did a great job at developing secondary characters as well. In this scene we get to learn a lot more about Lily’s brother, MacGregor, as he and Frank sit on the shore of Ucayali Cove and have a heartfelt conversation.

While Lily is still on the boat the boys have decided to rest on the shore of the cove, and Frank complains to MacGregor about Lily’s attitude and asks him why he decides to join her on her adventurers. This is when we learn that MacGregor is actually gay, and was not accepted by his family. “Uncle threatened to disinherit me, friends and family turned their backs… All because of who I loved. I would’ve been ostracized from society were it not for Lily. She stood by me. And for that, I would follow her into a volcano.”

This touching scene in Jungle Cruise is complemented by the beautiful scenery behind the two characters as they talk. You can see breathtaking waterfalls surrounded by lush green trees and flora, and it is quite an amazing sight. This scene actually took place at the Opaekaa Falls in Kauai. You can drive to a nice lookout spot where you can get a good view of the falls from a distance. Do not try walking to them, they sit on private property.

Lily and Frank find the entrance to the Tree of Life scene in Jungle Cruise

Iguazu National Park of Misiones

Eventually, Lily and Frank discover that the entrance to the location of the Tree of Life is actually at a place called La Luna Rota, and not Lagrimas de Cristal. They change course and head there, not knowing that they are still being followed by Prince Joachim and his newfound friends who are hoping to break their curse with the petals from the Tree.

Our favorite pair of adventurers explore the falls at La Luna Rota, and Frank realizes that there is a chamber with a lever in it underneath the water. He believes that if they pull the lever then the entrance will be revealed. But there is only one problem; Frank cannot fit through the opening into the chamber and Lily is afraid of swimming. After lots of encouragement from Frank she understands that the only way that they will get to the Tree of Life is if she faces her fears and swims down into the water to pull the lever. Frank helps swim her down to the chamber, but first he motivates her by saying; “Listen… Look, I can’t do this without you. I need you. You have to trust me.”

This is one of the best scenes in Jungle Cruise, since it shows how much the two adventurers have changed throughout the movie and how much they have learnt to trust each other. This scene takes place in a beautiful place which, unfortunately, was created entirely using CGI. However, it is believed that the cove and its waterfalls were inspired by the amazing Devil’s Throat in the Iguazu National Park of Misiones, Argentina. If you ever find yourself nearby make sure that you take your own cruise to see them in person, they are well worth the journey.

With everything from ancient artifacts and mythical beings to magical trees and curses, Jungle Cruise checks off the list for a thrilling action adventure. If Disney’s Jungle Cruise ride just doesn’t do it for you then you can make your own journey into the beautiful rainforests of Kauai to see where some of the scenes from the movie were filmed. Since most of the movie was shot in the same area it will be easy to see them all, and you should jump on the chance to visit Jungle Cruise locations whenever you can.

Where Was Jungle Cruise Filmed?

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, ‘Jungle Cruise’ is an adventure film that revolves around Captain Frank Wolff, who accompanies siblings Lily and McGregor Houghton on their mission to discover the Tree of Life. On their quest, the trio must contend with various challenges posed by the jungle they have entered. The film is based on Disney’s theme park attraction of the same name and is set during the World War I era .

The movie features some stunning and breathtaking locations that not only compliment the grand scope of the adventure but also create a visually enchanting experience for the audience. If you wish to learn more about the movie’s filming sites, we’ve got you covered. Here are all the filming details of ‘Jungle Cruise.’

Jungle Cruise Filming Locations

Principal photography on ‘Jungle Cruise’ began on May 14, 2018, and was completed on September 14, 2018. After some delays, filming resumed (likely for reshoots) in 2019 and was officially wrapped up on June 3, 2019. The movie was extensively filmed on sets built in a Georgia-based studio as well as in Hawaii. Some portions were also shot on location in the two states. Let’s take a closer look at the specific filming spots of the movie!

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dwayne Johnson (@therock)

Atlanta, Georgia

Filming of ‘Jungle Cruise’ took place in the city of Atlanta mainly on soundstages at the Blackhall Studios, a film and television production facility located at 1415 Constitution Road. The studio offers nine soundstages ranging between 19,200 sq ft to 38,400 sq ft, along with various other facilities such as production offices and VFX studios.

The shooting of popular Hollywood projects such as ‘ The Tomorrow War ,’ ‘ Jumanji: The Next Level ,’ and ‘ Lovecraft Country ‘ took place at the studio property. The cast and crew also filmed some scenes at the Oxford College of Emory University in Oxford, a city in Newton County, which is a part of the Metro Atlanta region.

Kauai, Hawaii

Kauai, an island in Hawaii, is also a major filming location of the movie. A huge set was constructed by the film’s production crew at Kapaia Reservoir, located near Wailua Falls in Kauai County. The cast and crew filmed some scenes on location in various parts of the island, including the town of Lihue, the county seat of Kauai County. A few scenes were also shot near the Huleia Stream.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reel News Hawaii (@reelnewshawaii)

A portion of filming also took place in the vicinity of the Kilohana Plantation, a tropical plantation estate that is located at 3-2087 Kaumualii Highway in Lihue. The estate is a renowned tourist attraction and offers various activities such as rum safari and exquisite dining experiences. The property represents life in the early 1900s, which makes it an ideal filming location for the movie, given its World War I setting. Popular films such as ‘ Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw ,’ ‘ Avatar ,’ and movies in the ‘ Pirates of the Caribbean ‘ franchise were also shot in Kauai.

Aside from building gigantic sets, the production crew of ‘Jungle Cruise’ also procured era-appropriate boats and vehicles for the purpose of filming. “I think, first of all, when you step on a set like this… We had heard that the set was spectacular for months, as they were building it. But then, when we finally stepped on set, we stepped on set together, and we were just blown away, very inspired, had goosebumps. It was really amazing,” lead star Dwayne Johnson told Collider about the sets constructed for the shooting of the movie.

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How Disney’s Controversial Jungle Cruise Ride Was Adapted for the Screen—and What It Means for Indigenous Representation

O ver the years, a number of Disney’s theme park attractions have served as inspiration for films: The Country Bears (2002), The Haunted Mansion (2003) and, most notably, the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Jungle Cruise is the latest addition to this sub-genre. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the film—released in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on July 30, and topping the weekend box office with $90M globally, which factors in over $30M on streaming—is based on the ride of the same name. Jungle Cruise was on Disneyland’s roster when the theme park opened in 1955, and has since become an iconic attraction, operating at Disney theme parks in Orlando, Tokyo and Hong Kong in addition to the original Anaheim location.

But the popular ride has long faced criticism for its racist portrayal of Indigenous peoples. In January 2021, Imagineering—the arm of Disney that creates and constructs its theme parks— announced that it would be updating the 66-year-old ride to address “negative depictions of natives.” In July, two weeks before the film’s release, Disney shared that it was reopening the revamped attraction.

On the ride, visitors to the Jungle Cruise journey on boats through major rivers of the world, from the Amazon to the Nile, as animatronic characters emerge from corners of the jungle. A skipper, who keeps guests entertained with dad jokes and corny puns, serves as a guide. The film also ventures into the Amazon jungle, with Dwayne Johnson playing the skipper, Frank Wolff. Set in 1916, Jungle Cruise follows British botanist Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) as she enlists Frank’s help to explore the jungle to find the Tree of Life, which is fabled to have healing powers and which she hopes will revolutionize the field of medicine.

Plans for a movie based on the Jungle Cruise ride were in motion since at least 2004, and a script was already in development when Michael Green was brought on to write the screenplay in 2017. Green would complete the screenplay with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. He tells TIME that the initial script had already sourced a lot of material from the ride, but that he saw an opportunity to incorporate more elements from the attraction. Green adds that Imagineers and Disney representatives were collaborating on renovations for the Jungle Cruise well before he joined the production team. “They were aware of things they wanted to improve on, and had far-reaching plans.”

While the Jungle Cruise movie draws inspiration from the ride, it also departs from aspects of it in significant ways, with the script finding opportunities to turn racially insensitive perceptions on their heads. Here’s what to know about the original ride, how the movie differs and what all of it means in the grand scheme of Indigenous representation in popular culture.

How the Jungle Cruise ride portrayed Indigenous characters

In the Jungle Cruise theme park attraction, Indigenous peoples appeared as headhunting tribesmen with spears in their hands—next to piles of human skulls—who guides warned were attacking passing boats. One character in particular who was portrayed as primitive and dangerous was Trader Sam, who carried shrunken heads and was known as the “head salesman.” “He has a great special for you all today: just two of his heads for one of yours,” a skipper would joke to tourists on the ride. Trader Sam was also referred to as a chef who opened a cannibalistic cafe. Another area of the jungle showed a “trapped safari” scene, where men were chased up a tree by surrounding animals, with a white explorer at the top of the trunk and dark-skinned native guides at the bottom, next to the horn of a rhinoceros.

In Disney’s recent refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise ride, these racist and stereotypical features were removed. The headhunting tribe is gone, Trader Sam is replaced with “Trader Sam’s gift shop” that includes a lost and found, and the trapped safari scene now features adventurers of varied racial backgrounds grabbing onto the tree. The changes were made at the theme park in Anaheim, and Disney has said the updates will be completed by this summer at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

“Oftentimes in these scenarios, if there is Indigenous representation, we’re depicted as the stereotypical savage, or uncivilized creature,” says Daisee Francour, the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications at Cultural Survival —a nonprofit that advocates Indigenous peoples’ rights and cultures—of the headhunters and Trader Sam. Francour is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and identifies as Haudenosaunee. “It’s very dehumanizing and we’re often not even seen as people, but we’re almost portrayed more as animalistic.”

The depiction of Indigenous peoples as “merciless Indian savages” can be traced back to the Declaration of Independence , which uses that exact phrase to describe Native Americans. “That dehumanization, which we see reflected here with this theme park, is rooted in the foundation of this country,” Francour says. “And because of that foundation, it shows up in this stigma in other ways.”

The dehumanized view of Indigenous peoples carries through much of American popular culture, seen commonly in Westerns and television series like Tarzan , says Cliff Matias, the Cultural Director of the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about Native American heritage. “It’s the same narrative of these homelands of Indigenous people being rescued from the savage people, and the humble, noble explorer being victimized,” Matias, who is Taíno and identifies as Latinx, says of the depiction of Indigenous peoples in the theme park. The narrative has always been flipped to show the “European mindset of, it’s the savages who attack,” Matias says. “Hollywood has always pretty much told that story through those eyes.”

Adapting a ride for the big screen

The Jungle Cruise movie loosely follows the theme park attraction’s storyline of early 20th century adventurers exploring the jungle, reimagining some of the ride’s characters for the film. Most notably, Trader Sam appears in Jungle Cruise, played by Veronica Falcón, as a woman who is a chieftain of the Puka Michuna tribe. Green describes her character as smart and savvy, someone “who was very much in control of herself and what happens to her and her tribe.” “That was a chance to take a familiar trope of the ride and bring it into the film in a new way,” Green says.

More broadly, the Puka Michuna tribe is portrayed with an approach that aims to subvert stereotypes about Indigenous peoples. In one of the film’s opening scenes, skipper Frank tells the tourists on his riverboat about the tribespeople who are the “deadliest hunters in the hemisphere.” The passengers are attacked by a crew with blow darts, before it becomes evident that Frank had staged the ambush to add some thrills to his tour. “What we felt we could still play with is a lot of false preconceived notions,” Green says of the scene. “At the time when this film takes place, a lot of people coming from where those tourists were coming might think of those natives as backwards tribes. And we could instead be poking fun at people’s expectations of it.”

These tourists only see a glimpse of the Pika Michuna tribe while on the cruise, and are missing the “sophisticated, rich, dignified lives” of the Indigenous people, Green says. He and the team hoped to portray the local inhabitants in a more well-rounded way. “We wanted to give everyone in the film the dignity they deserve,” Green says. “If you set something in a place you want the people to be represented correctly and you want them to speak the correct languages.”

According to Disney’s press notes , the filmmakers researched the Tupi language that was widely spoken in Brazil and created their version of the language for the film’s characters. They also wanted to accurately emulate what the Amazon jungle looked like in the early 1900s, and studied the animals and flora of the time. Director Collet-Serra spoke of a cultural advisor that the team worked with to aim for proper representation.

While these efforts brought necessary changes to the film adaptation, some viewers have commented on the mixed messages conveyed by the portrayal of Indigenous characters. In NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour , Native American journalist Vincent Schilling gave a nod to Disney casting Johnson, who is Samoan, as the lead character. But Schilling also discussed a scene in which Trader Sam referred to the tribe’s clothing as “ridiculous costumes.” “I feel as though Jungle Cruise did a valiant effort in trying to represent Brazilian Amazonian tribes in a certain way that was actually fairly legitimate,” Schilling said, which was why the chieftain’s description stuck out. “You’re trying to be authentic. So is it ridiculous, or is it authentic?” Similarly, the reappearance of Trader Sam has prompted questions about why a character removed for racial insensitivity in the theme park was brought back, even in a revamped version. Other viewers have posted on Twitter about the film sidelining Indigenous characters who merely assist in the quest of the European main protagonists.

The film’s villains are obvious, as would be expected for a family movie, and they differ from those of the theme park ride. They include a German aristocrat leading a military expedition in hopes of obtaining the powers of the Tree of Life no matter the cost to the jungle, and a cursed group of conquistadors who had attacked the local tribe. Blunt’s Dr. Lily Houghton is the protagonist, but also an outsider entering the jungle with the goal of taking away something native to the land. Asked whether her character’s mission could be interpreted as exploitative, Green says that Houghton is not someone who would put herself front and center. “To my mind, she is the type of character who would credit where things came from, the people who helped her to it and would bring them into it,” he says.

Indigenous representation in TV, film and theme parks in the future

Seeing authentic and accurate representation of Indigenous peoples has lasting effects on young audiences, many of whom are the target demographic of Disney’s theme parks and films. Matias says that multiple generations of Americans have been taught while growing up, through watching TV and movies, that Indigenous peoples are savages. “They might grow up to be creators, producers, directors, writers, so if they have a little better understanding and were taught a little better history, then they might be able to form a better mindset as to what they’re writing about,” he says.

According to Francour, dehumanization of Indigenous peoples—like in the original Jungle Cruise attraction—is closely tied to depicting them as people of the past. “As an Indigenous person living in 2021, I myself am a modern person, I live in two worlds,” she says. She describes being immersed in her Indigenous community while residing in Chicago.

“I live in a big city, and I wear ‘normal’ clothes, I guess you would say, that aren’t my regalia when I go on the street,” she says. “To see this dehumanized illustration of our people as in the past tense, it just does not fully represent the diversity of who we are, then, now and in the future.”

Francour describes a growing movement of Indigenous communities and organizations that are changing past narratives by retelling stories from a first-person perspective. And, from non-Indigenous people, “there’s a growing movement of openness to connect and to consult and to collaborate with Indigenous peoples to make sure that their narratives are represented well,” she says. Francour gives the example of Disney partnering with the Sámi people for Frozen 2 with the goal of portraying the Sámi community—who were the inspiration for the fictional Northuldra tribe—in a culturally sensitive and respectful way.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunities where Indigenous peoples themselves can be centered,” she says. “We need to shift the power of who is producing this content, producing this narrative, and making sure that Indigenous people, and our leadership are at the forefront.”

Correction, Dec. 1

The original version of this story misstated the roots of the phrase “merciless Indian savages” in the founding of the United States. It appeared in the Declaration of Independence, not the U.S. Constitution.

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Jungle cruise, common sense media reviewers.

Ride-based adventure is fun, if predictable; peril, scares.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes courage, perseverance, teamwork. Characte

Lily is a pioneering botanist and adventurer -- a

Frequent peril/tension, action violence, physical

Lily and Frank banter and flirt, eventually sharin

"Oh my God," "ruddy," "fresh hell," "crusty old fa

This movie is based on/promotes a Disney ride. Lot

Adults drink in taverns, where some background cha

Parents need to know that Jungle Cruise is an action-fantasy adventure inspired by the classic Disneyland ride. Set in 1916, it follows intrepid Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt), who hires skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) to guide her and her brother down the Amazon River in search of a mythical…

Positive Messages

Promotes courage, perseverance, teamwork. Characters work together and think creatively to defeat a curse, vengeful enemies, a sociopathic villain. Characters' stories/journeys promote idea of personal growth and value of acceptance and living a nontraditional life. You don't have to be what everyone expects you to be.

Positive Role Models

Lily is a pioneering botanist and adventurer -- a Ph.D. who's never afraid of being the only woman in a room. She's brave, smart, resourceful, goes after what she wants (often bending rules to do so). Frank is knowledgeable, protective. Both are willing to put themselves in danger for their missions -- and each other. MacGregor is a dedicated brother who accompanies and supports Lily; he implies but never says outright that she was the only person who stuck by him when he realized he was gay. Native Amazonians are initially portrayed as cannibal warriors out to capture (and eat) foreigners, but ( spoiler alert ) it turns out to be for show. Still, the story exploits those stereotypes and certain others (MacGregor is fussy and high maintenance, Joachim is cartoonishly German, etc.), and Joachim's accent is played for humor.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent peril/tension, action violence, physical comedy, creepy imagery -- including conquistadores being turned to stone or coming back to "life" while made of bees, snakes, etc. Native Amazonians are killed, a villain is squashed. At one point, it's suggested that a key character has died. People get abducted, slapped, stabbed, bitten by snakes and piranhas, threatened/attacked by a jaguar. Falls, chases, explosions. Torpedo and guns fired, swords and knives brandished. A villain callously smashes bees. Amazonians are described as cannibals, but ( spoiler alert ) it's just for show. Arguments/yelling.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Lily and Frank banter and flirt, eventually sharing longing looks. Characters share a kiss. A conversation about extracting a knife borders on suggestive.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Oh my God," "ruddy," "fresh hell," "crusty old farts," "shove it up your association," "booga booga," "wimpy," etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

This movie is based on/promotes a Disney ride. Lots of merchandise tie-ins off camera.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink in taverns, where some background characters seem to be drinking heavily. Characters drink whiskey from a flask, liquor from bottles. A jaguar drinks spilled wine, gets tipsy. MacGregor brings an entire suitcase of liquor on board.

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Jungle Cruise is an action-fantasy adventure inspired by the classic Disneyland ride. Set in 1916, it follows intrepid Dr. Lily Houghton ( Emily Blunt ), who hires skipper Frank Wolff ( Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ) to guide her and her brother down the Amazon River in search of a mythical healing tree. Violence and peril are the biggest issues: Expect frequent danger, creepy cursed villains (as well as a cartoonishly evil German baddie), weapons (guns, torpedoes, swords, knives), an implied significant death (and some actual less significant ones), threatening snakes, and a jaguar that looks more vicious than she actually is. Adult characters drink from flasks and bottles, and an animal gets tipsy. One conversation about removing a knife from someone's body could be perceived as suggestive (though the double meaning will likely go over kids' heads), and there's some flirty banter and a couple of kisses. Without saying it outright, one character comes out to another, who's supportive. While main characters demonstrate impressive courage, perseverance, and teamwork, the movie's initial depiction of Native Amazonians as a tribe of angry cannibals is concerning, even though ( spoiler alert ) it turns out it's largely for show. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Action and adventure, what's the story.

Set in 1916, JUNGLE CRUISE opens with bold botanist Dr. Lily Houghton ( Emily Blunt ) stealing an Amazonian arrowhead from an elite -- and anti-woman -- British explorers' club. The artifact is supposed to lead Houghton to a mysterious location on the Amazon River where legendary healing flowers bloom on an ancient tree. Lily and her brother, MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ), head to the Amazon and hire brash skipper Frank Wolff ( Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ) to guide them on the perilous river trip. Along the way, Lily and Frank must avoid not only the natural dangers of the Amazon but also a villainous German prince ( Jesse Plemons ) who's also searching for the tree, as well as a group of Spanish conquistadores who need the flower's petals to reverse their immortal curse.

Is It Any Good?

The irresistibly charming stars help make this adventurous, occasionally swashbuckling ride adaptation amusing, if not as memorable as The Mummy or Pirates of the Caribbean . Johnson can make nearly any character likable; here, Frank's silly, punny jokes are also a fun nod to the Disney ride's vibe. Blunt, likewise, is ideally cast as the pioneering Dr. Houghton. Lily bucks social mores of the time by having a job and a Ph.D., knowing how to defend herself, and even wearing trousers (Frank calls her "Pants"). She also has a refreshingly close relationship with her brother, who's posh and fussy but is still willing to follow her into murky, life-threatening situations. Other members of the cast are underused -- like Paul Giamatti as a local riverboat mogul and Edgar Ramirez as head conquistador Aguirre -- or they overact, like Plemons' caricature of a sociopathic German villain, Prince Joachim.

The movie's landscaping and production art are vibrant and immersive, and director Jaume Collet-Serra should be applauded for making sure to organically include themes of gender, class, and discrimination against the Amazonian natives -- without being preachy. Still, the movie's portrayal of those natives is a bit cringey, even if the movie course-corrects to subvert the same stereotypes it initially seems to be perpetuating. Luckily, Blunt and Johnson cheerfully elevate the story enough to make audiences gloss over some of the screenplay's missteps and enjoy the ride.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the level of violence in Jungle Cruise . Does stylized or fantasy violence impact viewers differently than more realistic violence?

How do Lily's actions convey that she is both brave and smart? Do you consider her a role model ? What character strengths does she demonstrate?

How is drinking depicted in the movie? Are there consequences for any character's drinking? Why does that matter?

Did you notice any stereotypes in the film? Why is the initial depiction of the Native Amazonians problematic? Is it excused by the fact that the tribe is in on the joke/plan?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 30, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : November 12, 2021
• Cast : Emily Blunt , Dwayne Johnson , Edgar Ramirez , Jack Whitehall
• Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Polynesian/Pacific Islander actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Brothers and Sisters
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 127 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of adventure violence
• Last updated : April 22, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Jungle Cruise: Kauai Filming Locations You Can Visit

Have you seen disney’s  jungle cruise  movie starring dwayne “the rock” johnson and emily blunt and want to visit some of the movie sites on kauai find out how to visit some of the kauai filming locations on your next kauai vacation., this list of jungle cruise kauai filming locations was written by hawaii travel expert marcie cheung and contains affiliate links which means if you purchase something from one of my affiliate links, i may earn a small commission that goes back into maintaining this blog..

One of my favorite Disney attractions that we do every trip to Disneyland is the  Jungle Cruise . I love the puns, corny jokes, and the gags along the boat ride.

So, when I heard that Disney was making a movie based on the attraction, I was intrigued. And when I heard they were going to film part of it on Kauai, I got super excited!

Over the years, there have been tons of movies filmed in Kauai. Some of them are set in Hawaii, but others are set in Africa, Vietnam, and now the Amazon jungle.

We watched this new Disney movie as a family, and there were several times we shouted out, “that’s Kauai!” It’s always fun to recognize cool Kauai locations in movies!

So, I thought I’d share a few places on Kauai that were featured in  Jungle Cruise  that you can visit on your next trip to Kauai.

Want to skip all the planning and just access my detailed Kauai Itinerary, complete with daily schedules, kid-friendly activities, and travel hacks? Click the button below.

Jungle Cruise Premise and Characters

So, I’ve already told you that Walt Disney Pictures Jungle Cruise  is based on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise attraction with the same name. But, the movie basically just uses that as the setting and really takes it in a whole new direction.

The plot is that Dwayne Johnson’s character Frank (who plays the Jungle Cruise skipper) takes Emily Blunt’s character Lily and her brother MacGregor (played by Jack Whitehall) on a trek through the Amazon to find a tree that has magical healing powers.

But, it’s not that easy. Along the way, they have to fight off wild animals and protect themselves from a rival German expedition (these are the villains of the movie as it’s set during WWI).

There are a lot of elements that feel similar to the Indiana Jones movies, which were actually also filmed on Kauai!

Dwayne Johnson (Frank the Skipper)

At the beginning of the film, Frank is basically the Jungle Cruise skipper you see on the Disneyland attraction. He does a lot of the exact same jokes that we all know and love, plus he has a few extra tricks up his sleeve.

Emily Blunt (Lily)

She’s a smart, resourceful adventuress who is determined to find the Tears of the Moon, and she won’t take no for an answer. She’s also a feminist and wears pants in a time when that wasn’t common.

With a lot of adventure movies set in the early 1900s, the protagonist is male, so I found it super refreshing to have a woman as half of the action duo.

Jack Whitehall/ Lily’s Brother (MacGregor)

MacGregor is the quintessential English chap who insists on wearing a dinner jacket to dine on the rickey boat and wonders whether or not he’ll need his tennis racket during the voyage.

If you’ve seen Jack Whitehall’s stand-up comedy specials or his hilarious Netflix show  Travels with My Father , expect a lot of the same comedic delivery.

Top Kauai Filming Locations to See in Jungle Cruise

Where was Jungle Cruise filmed? Check out these Jungle Cruise locations on Kauai!

Kilohana Plantation Railway

I recognized the Porto Belo train station immediately as being the Kauai Plantation Railway at  Kilohana Plantation  on Kauai. It’s one of our favorite kid-friendly Kauai attractions!

In the movie, you’ll see Lily and McGregor arrive in Porto Belo via a train. Well, you can ride that old-timey train yourself! There’s a cool little train ride that goes around this historic property, and you can even hop out and feed some animals along the way.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, it’s also home to  Luau Kalamaku . This is one of the  best luaus on Kauai   for families because it’s a theatrical presentation about voyaging (and it reminds us a bit of  Disney’s Moana !)

And grown-ups might like to know that you can also do a rum tasting at Kauai Rum, which is also at Kilohana Plantation. It’s definitely worth a stop where you can see and experience it in real life!

Wailua River and Wailua Falls

Speaking of Porto Belo, they created this Brazilian town by filming around  Lihue , the biggest town on Kauai.

You’ll see Wailua River State Park and Wailua Falls as part of Porto Belo. This area was originally made famous by the 1970s TV show  Fantasy Island  (which was actually rebooted on Fox for 2021). It shows up in several Kauai movies, too.

Disney worked a bit of magic to make the Wailua area look a bit more like what the Amazon Rainforest might have looked like in 1916.

It’s super easy to visit Wailua Falls. There’s a scenic lookout with a large parking lot that’s great for capturing a selfie.  Please note that the hiking trail is on private property, and it’s illegal to trespass there.

But I think the best way to explore the area is with a  Wailua River kayaking expedition . You can kayak down the beautiful Wailua River and then explore a secret waterfall. You’ll feel like you’re in the movie!  Check latest rates and more information .

Kapaia Reservoir (one the main Kauai filming locations)

Near the beginning of this Kauai film, you see the exterior of Porto Belo, the Hotel de Fereira, Jungle Navigation Company’s docks, Nilo’s River Adventure moorings, and the tavern. This is actually the Kapaia Reservoir.

Disney actually built a massive set here to make the entire area look like 1916 Brazil. And the whole thing was created by Disney production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos. He used the Disneyland ride as his inspiration to create the shacks, docks, and jungle foliage.

Unfortunately, the Kapaia Reservoir is actually on private property, so you’ll be unable to check this one out in person.

Opaeka’a Falls

If you remember Ucayali Cove (where Frank and McGregor drink from flasks on the shore), that’s actually one of the most  popular Kauai waterfalls : Opaeka’a Falls.

You can actually tell it’s Opaeka’a Falls because of the rock formations. There are some shots of the boat mooring at the base of the falls, too.

It’s really easy to visit Opaeka’a Falls. There’s a scenic lookout that you can drive to. I know a lot of people think you can hike Opaeka’a Falls, but it’s actually on private property, so PLEASE don’t try this.

Huleia River

A few scenes were also shot near the Huleia River, which is part of the private Huleia National Wildlife Refuge. This is a popular  Kauai birdwatching spot  where you can see the nene goose, stits, ducks, Hawaiian coots, and moorhens.

It’s also a popular Kauai filming location, and you can see it featured in movies on Kauai like  Raiders of the Lost Ark ,  Jurassic Park , and  Lost World .

Because this area is usually closed to the public, the only way to explore the Huleia Valley is on a guided tour. There’s a really cool  Kauai ATV tour  at Kipu Ranch that is an awesome option!  Check latest rates and more information .

And if you want an even bigger Kauai adventure, try this  Kipu Safari Adventure . You’ll get to go ziplining, hiking, kayaking down the Huleia River, and even swim in a waterfall!  Check latest rates and more information .

Movies Filmed on Kauai FAQs

While there have been dozens of movies shot in Kauai, some of the most famous include  Jurassic Park, The Descendants, Blue Hawaii, Tropic Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Outbreak, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Absolutely! We’ve done it before, and it’s perfect for people who love films! This  Kauai Movie Adventure  takes you to a bunch of movie sites in East Shore and  North Shore Kaua i. Plus, it includes lunch at Tahiti Nui, made famous by the George Clooney film  The Descendants.

Many scenes from  The Descendants  were filmed in Hanalei. The classic Elvis movie  Blue Hawaii  was filmed at Lydgate Beach Park and the now-closed Coco Palms Hotel.  Honeymoon in Vegas  was filmed in Kapaa Town. And Lumahai Beach was featured in  South Pacific .

Yes! The Allerton Garden in Kapaa was where some of Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park were filmed.

Where Was Jungle Cruise Filmed Wrap-Up

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to recreate the  Jungle Cruise  movie on your next trip to Kauai. It’s no wonder why so many movies filmed in Hawaii choose Kauai as their  filming site . It’s so gorgeous!

If you enjoy the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland, you will love this comedy movie. Watch it before you head to the garden island and enjoy seeing all the places where scenes took place!

Looking for more  fun things to do on Kauai ? Check out the  Ahi Lele Fire Show , the  best things to do in Hanalei , and the  best Kauai snorkeling tours .

10 Best Things About Jungle Cruise

Packed with thrills, tension, and true to the spirit of the original ride, Jungle Cruise is one of Disney's best adventure films yet.

Set in 1916,  Jungle Cruise  (2021) is an American fantasy film starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall and Édgar Ramírez. The plot follows Frank (Dwayne Johnson), a skipper/scammer who agrees to take Dr. Lily Houghton, (Emily Blunt) a botanist seeking the magical powers of The Tears Of The Moon – a tree with healing powers that she hopes to harness to improve the medicine industry – on a trip through the Amazon river. The pair set sail with MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall), Lily's younger and only brother, who she has employed as her assistant.

RELATED: 10 Movies To Watch If You Liked Jungle Cruise

Jungle Cruise   works in a series of flashbacks to the 16th century, where audiences see Aguirre (Édgar Ramírez) travelling to the Lágramis de Cristal in the Amazon in hopes of finding the tree to use its healing powers in a futile attempt to save his daughter. Packed with thrills, tension, and true to the spirit of the original ride,  Jungle Cruise  is one of Disney's best adventure films yet.

10 The Satire From MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall)

Jack Whitehall's character, MacGregor Houghton, embodies everything prim-and-proper. Only embarking on the journey in his three-piece-suit and ensuring his multiple luggage cases come with him, MacGregor is a loveable character whose satire derives from being out of his comfort zone. MacGregor is one of the funniest characters in  Jungle Cruise,  from his ridiculous desire to bring tennis rackets and dinner jackets on the trip to complaining that his "eyeballs are sweating."

Giving MacGregor a run for his money as the funniest character is Frank (Dwayne Johnson), who is king of the puns and sarcasm. The opening spends a lot of time setting the tone for Frank and his scamming ways as he manufactures the sight-seeing on his cruise to his patrons.

9 A Female Action Lead In Pants

Considering  Jungle Cruise  is set in the 20th century, fans were delighted to see a strong female lead in pants – definitely the more sensible option.

RELATED: Jungle Cruise: The 5 Best Movies Based On Theme Park Attractions (& The 3 Worst)

As far as modern action movies are concerned, audiences can correctly assume that the female lead will likely fight every fight, climb every mountain, and do basically everything in a pair of heels or skimpy clothing. Which is why one of the best things about  Jungle Cruise  is Lily Houghton's wardrobe – sensible and completely fit-to-purpose. Lily Houghton is also a determined character, and arguably the bravest of the trio.

8 MacGregor Houghton's Sexuality

While it's not touched upon largely in the film, MacGregor Houghton is Disney's second live-action gay character. In a scene with Frank, MacGregor explains that he has been offered relationships by women, but that his interests lie "elsewhere." He goes on to describe how his family have disowned him because of his romantic interests, all because of who he loves, and that Lily is the only one to support him – hence him accompanying on this trip.

The scene is honest, depicting the two main characters sharing their truths, being open and accepting one another. It has caused some controversy, however, criticised for being a fleeting moment and not explored further. While a step in the right direction,  Jungle Cruise  perhaps should have emboldened this part of MacGregor's character.

7 The Not-So-Immediate Romance Between Frank And Lily

It's almost inevitable that the female and male lead will eventually get together romantically, but from the start of Lily and Frank's meeting, fans couldn't be sure. Their relationship begins as Lily is seemingly disappointed by Frank. Dr. Lily Houghton makes it abundantly clear she thinks Frank is annoying and dishonest, and the pair start the film off with a platonic, sibling-wind-up dynamic.

Since MacGregor gets separated from the two, Lily and Frank's alone time starts to develop into a romance, and Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt's chemistry and energy is infectious. Eventually, they are a couple audiences are left rooting for.

6 Escapism In Its Truest Form

Fans know when they switch on Jungle Cruise  that they are not there to watch something realistic or something they can relate to. Instead,  Jungle Cruise  is escapism in its truest form. This is a film about outlandish adventure as viewers watch the fantastical journey the three tritagonists embark upon. They must navigate through the dangerous rapids, try to keep ahead of the game as they are chased by German Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), and also attempt to avoid Aguirre as he races to find the tree and use its powers to break his curse.

5 Based On The Ride At Disney's Theme Park

Jungle Cruise  isn't the first film based on a theme-park ride as viewers have seen the likes of  Pirates Of The Caribbean  and  Haunted Mansion  – both began as ridesand  are now popular films.  Jungle Cruise  is similar to the ride in many ways: characters from the ride, such as Trader Sam and Nilo Nemilato, are featured in the film. Additionally, the film recycled some of its jokes: "I get paid by the number of people I take out, not the number I bring back." and "before I got this job I worked in an orange juice factory. Got canned. Couldn't concentrate. They put the squeeze on me too." It's great to see the film mirroring the ride.

4 Proxima's Presence

Proxima made her first appearance in  Jungle Cruise  as another one of Frank's scams. Frank is desperate to get the money Lily is offering to take her and her brother to Lágramis de Cristal. In an attempt to secure the position as skipper above anyone else, Frank successfully fights off the wild jaguar and saves everybody from an unfortunate death. Impressed, Lily agrees he can be the skipper to take them on the journey.

It's not until MacGregor goes below deck that he finds Proxima, and the two come to the correct conclusion that Frank had staged the event. Proxima, although a CGI jaguar, is an incredibly loveable character in  Jungle Cruise,  and she's Frank's favourite wild pet. MacGregor refers to her as the "big murder cat." She is a completely adorable sidekick, and an important member of the expedition.

3 The Aesthetics Are Beautiful

Flavio Martínez Labiano is the cinematographer for  Jungle Cruise,  and does a phenomenal job with the visuals and CGI for the film. Its bright and vibrant visuals make this an even more pleasurable watch for viewers, and helps to support the adventure theme of the film, and CGI is exactly how viewers received the charming big cat, Proxima.

RELATED: 10 Early CGI Films That Actually Aged Well

Much like a beloved favourite,  The Greatest Showman (2017) , the visual effects and CGI make the respective films a spirited an energetic watch.

2 A Story That Has It All

Jungle Cruise  really hit the nail on the head for themes that a lot of viewers like to watch.  Jungle  Cruise  had comedy, a bit of conflict, action, adventure, and even an emotional surge at the end of the film – when the curse is due to be broken, and Frank battles with his internal conflict as he'd like to end the curse, and chose to stop living his life after living for centuries.

Jungle Cruise  is a family-friendly watch with themes of friendship, family support, love, and stepping out of your comfort zone, making  Jungle Cruise  a pleasant and wholesome watch.

1 Heartwarming Love Story

There are scenes in  Jungle Cruise  that are particularly heartwarming, especially as the romance between Lily and Frank blossoms. It's not a red-hot romance, but a well-intentioned and family-friendly one. Through their adventure, the pair realise they must swim underwater to continue their quest to the tree.

Lily doesn't know how to swim, so relies on Frank to help her get there. It's the first and only time in  Jungle Cruise when viewers hear Lily, the otherwise brave botanist, say: "I'm scared, Frank." It later prevails that Frank had left her whilst underwater, but only in order to save her life, as he fights off piranha. The comedy comes back into play, and fans aren't left with a serious moment for long as the two begin arguing.

NEXT: 10 Perfect TV Shows To Watch On Disney+ This November

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Dwayne Johnson Turns 52: What's Next for the Superstar — Including His Return to Moana !

Asked what he’s learned from his success as both entertainer and entrepreneur, Johnson told PEOPLE “gratitude” is what guides him

Pablo Cuadra/WireImage

Dwayne Johnson is celebrating a 52nd turn around the sun! 

As the actor-wrestler, formerly known as The Rock, turns 52 on Thursday, May 2, he’s continuing to keep a remarkable number of plates spinning — as an entertainer, entrepreneur, patriarch and all-around public figure. 

The Sexiest Man Alive of 2016 recently joined an all-star line-up on the cover of PEOPLE’s special 50th anniversary issue . Asked what he’s learned from achieving success in so many different areas, Johnson said “gratitude” is what guides him . 

That’s true of managing businesses including his production company ( Seven Bucks ), small-batch tequila ( Teremana ) and new skincare line ( Papatui ). In March, Johnson spoke to PEOPLE exclusively about Papatui’s launch, saying, “I am passionate about trying to do my best to take care of myself inside and out.” 

In all endeavors, Johnson honors his roots and family every chance he gets. The name Papatui refers to his being a “ proud girl dad ” or Papa, as he told PEOPLE, while Tui was his Samoan grandfather’s nickname for him. “My favorite role is being a dad,” he said. “And then I started to realize [the brand] is all coming together in a kismet way. Papa in Samoan means ‘rock.’ ”

Dwayne Johnson/Instagram

The Black Adam star continues to be a loving family man with wife of four years Lauren Hashian , 39, and their daughters Jasmine, 8, and Tiana, 6, as well as eldest daughter Simone, 22 (who he shares with ex-wife Dany Garcia ).

Among Johnson’s friends are Jungle Cruise costar Emily Blunt , Jumanji costar Kevin Hart and country music star Chris Janson . In April, Janson, 38, invited Johnson to join him in the music video for “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get.” But the singer told PEOPLE, "The value of this friendship means more to me than music videos. It means more to me than business. It means more to me than anything.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s entertainment career continues to thrive. Following last year's conclusion of NBC's three-season Young Rock , his autobiographical sitcom, he has returned to appearing in the WWE , where it all began. 

And on the big screen, Johnson’s schedule as both actor and producer includes several sequels in the works: bringing back Hobbs for Fast X : Part 2 , Frank for Jungle Cruise 2 and the voice of demigod Maui in Moana 2 . 

The latter animated film is due in theaters Nov. 27 (while Johnson will also reprise Maui in a live-action Moana set for 2026). To tease the movie musical sequel, Johnson made a surprise appearance at CinemaCon on April 11, joining Polynesian dancers onstage and sharing that the Disney franchise "has been one of the most life-changing experiences.”

David Becker/WireImage

Johnson will next star opposite fellow Sexiest Man Alive Chris Evans in holiday action-comedy Red One , then play UFC champion Mark Kerr in 2025’s The Smashing Machine costarring Blunt. 

While it’s not yet clear how Johnson is celebrating turning 52, if it’s half as heartfelt as his honoring his mother Ata’s 75th birthday last October, he’s in for a special day.

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Howard Gives Some Behind-the-Scenes of His Surprise Interview With President Joe Biden

‘fall guy’ star emily blunt talks ryan gosling, taylor swift, and the scariest movie stunt she’s ever done, acclaimed actress also reveals plans to star in “the smashing machine” with dwayne “the rock” johnson.

Whether she’s saving her family from alien invaders in “A Quiet Place,” braving deadly Amazonian threats in “Jungle Cruise,” or taking down international drug cartels in “Sicario,” Hollywood superstar Emily Blunt has cemented herself as one of the most bankable action stars in the business. Her role is a bit different, however, in her explosive new action-comedy “The Fall Guy,” which sees Blunt playing a high-profile director and co-star Ryan Gosling playing both her stuntman and ex-boyfriend. While Emily doesn’t have any real-life directing credits to her name, she does have one obvious source of inspiration: her husband John Krasinski, who directed Emily in “A Quiet Place” and its equally celebrated 2021 sequel.

“There’s a lot to draw from,” Emily told Howard on Monday during her much-anticipated Stern Show return. “John is very enthusiastic. He’ll be the guy behind the monitor … cheering you on.”

Howard and Emily’s free-flowing conversation touched upon several different subjects, from her early career and marriage to why she’s seen the classic Julia Roberts rom-com “Pretty Woman” at least 67 times. Blunt also discussed her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Kitty Oppenheimer in this year’s Best Picture winner, “Oppenheimer,” and how the life of Sylvia Sidney — “a saucy broad” from the Golden Age of Hollywood — inspired her performance. And while Emily didn’t take home the Oscar this year, she did go viral after presenting an award alongside her “Fall Guy” co-star. Emily and Ryan have enjoyed a friendly rivalry ever since Blunt’s “Oppenheimer” and Gosling’s “Barbie” opened on the same weekend last July, and they’ve respectfully poked fun at the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon several times since then, including at the Oscars and earlier this month on “ Saturday Night Live .”

“Ryan wrote it, so that’s why it worked,” Emily noted of the duo’s well-received Oscars bit. “He knows how to write for both of us now, and that’s what we did on ‘Fall Guy’ — I know how to do shtick with him, he’s an easy person to bounce off of.”

“Oppenheimer” was such a monumental experience that Blunt is now in a group text chain with her so-called “Oppenhomies,” co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy. And while she’s also in a text group with Gosling and “The Fall Guy” director David Leitch, the actress told Howard she has her limits. “I’m never going to be on a text chain with seven people because I don’t want to read all those texts,” she confessed.

Emily Will Star Alongside The Rock in ‘The Smashing Machine’

Emily and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s 2021 fantasy-adventure film “Jungle Cruise” was a success no matter how you slice it. Not only did it make $220 million at the worldwide box office, but Emily seemingly made a friend for life in the Rock.

“I love him,” she told Howard, explaining it was surreal to work alongside him after growing up in a house where her brother idolized the wrestler turned actor. “I remember walking into my TV room and my brother was mainlining the Rock, then I’m working with him years later. It’s just so wild,” she laughed.

Though she doesn’t expect one in return, Emily makes a habit of giving co-stars a present after a film wraps. “I just think it’s important,” she told Howard. “You’ve survived something together. You’ve been in this insular world [with] these incredibly accelerated friendships. You’ve done something impossible — it’s impossible to make a film.”

But when she gifted the Rock a signed “Raiders of the Lost Ark” poster after “Jungle Cruise,” it was the last thing her co-star expected. “As soon as I started walking into his trailer with it, he was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no! Oh fuck, fuck, fuck — I didn’t get you anything!’ Like, he was so panicked,” Blunt recalled with a laugh. “But he’s given me lots of gifts since,” she continued, such as sports gear and “endless tequila.”

Emily also broke some Rock-related news on the Stern Show, announcing for the first time that the two actors will renew their onscreen relationship in a 2025 feature starring the Rock as famed mixed martial artist Mark Kerr and Emily as his wife Dawn Staples. “We’re going to do a film called ‘The Smashing Machine,’” she told Howard, confirming the rumor she’d been tapped to star in the Benny Safdie-directed biopic. “[The Rock] is gonna play one of these MMA-UFC dudes … It’s really good.”

Surviving a Scary ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Stunt

Despite embracing a slew of action-heavy roles in recent years, Emily told Howard the scariest stunt she ever endured was on the set of the family friendly Disney sequel “Mary Poppins Returns.” As fans no doubt remember, her titular character at one point descends from the clouds with her umbrella.

“It was described in the script like she starts in the clouds … and I really started in the clouds,” Emily recalled. “I thought I was okay with heights until they started winching me up there … and suddenly you’re at 65 feet in the air — and it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a lot — it’s fucking scary.”

“I thought I was going to pee my pants, I was so scared,” Blunt continued. “If I looked down, [co-star] Lin-Manuel [Miranda] was so tiny, which was scary. If I looked straight out, I was taller than the trees. So, I just waited for ‘action,’ and I was hanging, staring up, because then I had no point of reference.”

The film and its high-flying stunt were ultimately a success, but Emily told Howard she could only manage three takes. “I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m done … I will not go up there again,’” she concluded with a laugh.

Origin Story

Looking back at the origins of her incredible film career, Emily revealed that even while performing in high school plays she never dreamt of being professional actress. “I was going to go to university and be a translator for the U.N.,” she said.

“How many languages do you know?” Howard asked.

“I don’t,” Emily laughed, explaining she’d only studied Spanish in high school. “My plan was to go spend like a year in South America and become fluent in Spanish,” she continued. “I was going to be the best translator ever.”

So, how did she become a movie star instead?

It started with her drama teacher offering her an unusual opportunity. “I would do school plays, and the head of drama said, ‘Do you want to earn some money? Let’s go to the Edinburgh theater festival,’” Emily recalled. “It was this crazy play. It was a rock opera. It was bizarre,” she continued, explaining her drama teacher was the lead in that play. “It was just all shades of wrong, really — when you think about it.”

After seeing Emily perform at the festival, the drama teacher’s U.K. agent offered to represent her. “[He] said, ‘Is this something you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I hadn’t really thought about it as a career,” Emily told Howard.

‘All Too Well’ (Barbenheimer Version)

“The Fall Guy” is chock-full of action, suspense, romance, and comedy—not to mention an unforgettable scene where Blunt’s co-star Gosling is enjoying a good car cry to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well.” The moment was so magical, Blunt parodied the song when Gosling guest hosted “SNL.”

In real life, Emily and her daughters are huge “Swifties.” When she got a chance to introduce Taylor to them, she told Howard the superstar recording artist couldn’t have been any sweeter. “She was so nice to my kids,” Blunt said. “My oldest kid had just cut all of her hair off — this very short haircut that she was very self-conscious about — and Taylor Swift goes, ‘God, look at you—just like this ‘60s, Beatnik, cool kid. I love your style.’”

“I thought my child was going to faint,” Blunt continued. “It was the best thing anyone has done for my child.

“That’s so sweet,” Howard marveled. “Don’t you love when someone is nice to your kid?”

“Yes, it changes everything,” Blunt agreed. “It makes me melt.”

Despite having two famous parents, Emily said her kids were down to Earth. “They’re very level,” she told Howard. “I think they’ve been around a lot of people in this job, and I think they’re relieved often to meet children of people in this job because it’s like a secret language of understanding how weird it is that your mom is known, you know?”

“The Fall Guy” opens May 3 in theaters.