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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

2021, Adventure/Action, 2h 7m

What to know

Critics Consensus

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. Read critic reviews

Audience Says

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

Where to watch jungle cruise.

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

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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.

Rating: PG-13 (Adventure Violence)

Genre: Adventure, Action, Comedy, Fantasy

Original Language: English

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Producer: John Davis , John Fox , Beau Flynn , Dwayne Johnson , Dany Garcia , Hiram Garcia

Writer: Michael Green , Glenn Ficarra , John Requa

Release Date (Theaters): Jul 30, 2021 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Aug 31, 2021

Box Office (Gross USA): $117.0M

Runtime: 2h 7m

Distributor: Walt Disney

Production Co: Flynn Picture Company, Walt Disney Pictures, Seven Bucks Productions, Davis Entertainment, TSG Entertainment

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Dwayne Johnson

Frank Wolff

Emily Blunt

Lily Houghton

Edgar Ramírez

Jack Whitehall

McGregor Houghton

Jesse Plemons

Prince Joachim

Paul Giamatti

Verónica Falcón

Dani Rovira

Quim Gutiérrez

Sir James Hobbs-Coddington

Jaume Collet-Serra

Michael Green

Screenwriter

Glenn Ficarra

Dany Garcia

Hiram Garcia

Scott Sheldon

Executive Producer

Douglas C. Merrifield

Flavio Labiano

Cinematographer

Joel Negron

Film Editing

James Newton Howard

Original Music

Jean-Vincent Puzos

Production Design

Chris Hansen

Art Director

Set Decoration

Paco Delgado

Costume Design

Marisol Roncali

News & Interviews for Jungle Cruise

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Weekend Box Office Results: Jungle Cruise Sails Past Expectations With $34.2 Million Debut

Critic Reviews for Jungle Cruise

Audience reviews for jungle cruise.

Silly but enjoyable. Sort of dual remake of both "The Mummy" (1999) and the first "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Disney film that is enough to watch with the family and friends, but offers little return value. Between all the remakes of animated classics, Disney lacks a focus on new and fresh ideas. Jungle Cruise may not be the step in the right direction but it demonstrates they are still willing to take a risk. Blunt is well cast and she is rarely miscast, but it's Johnson who feels out of his element. The film is a mess of special effects mixed together with Pirates of the Caribbean. It's an odd choice the filmmaker and writers made for this mega budgeted film. I just don't understand why they make these films so massive and risk not turning a profit. This should've been a more character focused film with a splash of big adventure. I have heard they are planning a sequel, but I thought they closed this off well enough to avoid a sequel.

A great adventure film and while it is reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Mummy, it has some original twists and the humor makes the film. Blunt and Johnson are great and Plemmons looks like he is seventh heaven chewing up the scenery!. Well Directed and written. Enjoyable from beginning to end. 09-06-2021

Disney turned a theme park ride that mostly involved sitting into a billion-dollar supernatural adventure franchise, so why not try another swing at reshaping its existing park properties into would-be blockbuster tentpoles? Jungle Cruise owes a lot to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and actually owes a little too much for its own good. For the first half of the movie, it coasts on the charms of stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt and some light-footed visual misadventures. Then the second half turn involves a significant personal revelation, and that's where the movie felt like it was being folded and crushed into form to closely resemble the Pirates franchise. It gets quite convoluted and littered with lackluster villains, too many and too stock to ever establish as intriguing or memorable (one of them is a man made of honey, so that's a thing). I found myself also pulling away in the second half because of the inevitable romance. Their screwball combative banter between Johnson and Blunt gave me some smiles and entertainment and then, as they warm to one another, it sadly dissipated, as did my interest. The comedy is really labored at points. Johnson keeps referring to Blunt as "Pants" because she's a woman and she wears pants in the twentieth century. It was not funny the first time and it's not funny or endearing after the 80th rendition. The supernatural elements and curses feel extraneous and tacked on. With the Pirates films, at least the good ones, there are a lot of plot elements they need to keep in the air and you assume they're be able to land them as needed. The competing character goals were so well established and developed in those movies and served as an anchor even amid the chaos of plot complications and double and triple crosses. With Jungle Cruise, it feels like a lot of effort but also a lot of dropped or mishandled story and thematic elements. This feels more creatively by committee and the heavily green screen action is harder to fully immerse with. As a wacky adventure serial, there may be enough to keep a viewer casually entertained, but Jungle Cruise feels too beholden to the Pirates formula without bringing anything exciting or fresh on its own imagination merits. Nate's Grade: C

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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

Dwayne Johnson | Disney | Jungle Cruise | In theaters July 30 or order it on Disney+ Premier Access. Additional fee required. | poster

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.

Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) and Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) from the Disney movie "Jungle Cruise".

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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, 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

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.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

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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Community Reviews

Parents say (35)
Kids say (66)

Based on 35 parent reviews

Turn it off about an hour in...

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 : February 19, 2023

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Screen Rant

Jungle cruise: biggest mysteries and unanswered questions.

Jungle Cruise is yet another big adventure movie based on a Disney theme park ride, and it leaves a trail of unanswered questions for a sequel.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Jungle Cruise .

Disney's Jungle Cruise leaves several unanswered questions and mysteries for the potential sequel to address. The film brings the popular theme park ride to the big screen, with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt leading the way as Skipper Frank Wolff/Captain Francisco Lopez de Heredia and botanist Dr. Lily Houghton respectively. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the film follows a group of travelers through an Amazon riverboat ride in search of the mysterious Tears of the Moon. Lily, alongside her brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) is determined to find the mythical tree as she believes it has unparalleled healing powers that can change the world.

Plans to adapt the Jungle Cruise ride into a feature film started all the way back in 2004 after Disney saw significant success with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . However, it remained stagnant until 2011 when an entirely different version with either Tom Hanks or Tim Allen fell through. It wouldn't be until 2015/2016 that Johnson and Blunt were officially hired for the project, while the rest of Jungle Cruise 's cast was finalized in 2018. Filming started the same year, with the intention of releasing the film in theaters in 2020. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, Disney was forced to push it back a year and opted for a hybrid release instead, dropping it on cinemas and Disney+ with Premier Access on the same day.

Related: Jungle Cruise: Movie Character Comparisons To The Ride

Overall, Jungle Cruise presented a more or less complet story. Frank was finally able to break out of the curse, Aguirre (Édgar Ramírez) and his men were neutralized when they turned into stone, and Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) was killed in his quest for the Tears of the Moon. Lily officially became a professor in Cambridge, and together with MacGregor, Frank, and Proxima, they all lived in London. That being said, there are several loose plot ends that the film left, some of them could ultimately be answered in Jungle Cruise 2 's story .

How Exactly Did The Arrowhead Get to London?

At the beginning of Jungle Cruise , the Houghton siblings came up with a plan to acquire the arrowhead — the key in locating the Tears of the Moon by asking permission from the Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society. Once that fell through, Lily took it into her own hands and opted to steal it instead from the secured chambers where she's not allowed in. The film revealed that the artifact was recovered by Dr. Albert Falls, but it never revealed how and where exactly he acquired it.

Why Does Lily Fear Water So Much?

Throughout Jungle Cruise , Lily was established as a risk-taker who cannot be dissuaded once she decides on doing something. Despite the dangers of pursuing the Tears of the Moon as repeatedly pointed out by MacGregor, Blunt's heroine was nothing but keen on finishing her self-imposed mission. One thing, however, that she's extremely afraid of is water. Her brother revealed that it's because she cannot swim, but considering her courageous nature, it's unclear why she's never learned the skill. Perhaps it's due to a traumatic experience in the past — something that the sequel could further explore.

What Happened to Aguirre’s Daughter?

Jungle Cruise had two villains. Prince Joachim, who's outright evil and wanted to use the Tears of the Moon to win World War I and amass more power, and Aguirre, whose motivation to seek the mythical tree came from a good place. As revealed by Frank to Lily, the conquistador was originally seeking the Tree to save her ailing daughter. But since he's been cursed by the natives' chief for forcefully demanding the arrowhead, he and his men had been trapped in the forest for all of eternity. Jungle Cruise , however, never revealed what happened to Aguirre's daughter in the years that followed after his tragedy.

Related: Jungle Cruise: Why Disney Thinks Theme Park Rides Make For Good Movies

What Happened to The Tribe Leader’s Daughter?

After Aguirre stabbed the tribe chief for refusing to give up the secret to the Tears of the Moon, his daughter kept the arrowhead safe by running away from the commotion. This was the last sighting of the artifact before it popped up in London centuries later. With Dr. Falls' experience recovering the arrowhead unknown, Jungle Cruise did not also reveal any additional information as to what happened to the chief's daughter.

How Come Frank Doesn’t Have Money?

Despite his seemingly thriving business as a skipper in Jungle Cruise , Frank was still strapped for cash, owing money to the town's big businessman, Nilo Nemolatto (Paul Giamatti). He was in such debt that his boat's engine was even briefly confiscated. However, according to his story, he pretty much built the settlement; surely, then, he could've earned money to at least live a comfortable life. If anything, he should've been able to save enough funds since he'd already been working for at least a couple of centuries.

What Does Frank Do In London?

The end of Jungle Cruise saw Frank move to London. As Lily promised, she would show him and Proxima all the sights in the city. It's the feel-good ending that one would expect from a Disney movie , but what does Frank do in London after hitting up all the must-see places? He is centuries old and has mostly dedicated his life to be a skipper after he was cursed, how can he have a normal life in London separate from Lily?

Can Aguirre Still Come Back?

Frank willingly sacrificed himself by crashing his boat and blocking the river which resulted in him, Aguirre, and his men turning into stone. Lily using the petal on him, however, not only revived but also effectively broke the curse on him. The heroes then left the rest of the conquistadors in their hardened state, but who's to say that they, too, won't be saved, whether accidentally or intentionally in the future? If the petal was able to resurrect Frank, chances are that it could also work on his fellow Spaniards.

Related: Jungle Cruise Is Trying To Recreate The Magic Of The Mummy

What Did Lily Do To The Last Tears of The Moon Petal?

The whole story of Jungle Cruise was kicked off with Lily's motivation to find the Tears of the Moon. After countless hurdles and near-death experiences, she was finally able to find it, and while she used the first petal to save Frank, the tree bloomed again one last time so she can get another leaf. Based on MacGregor's speech in front of the Society, it sounds like Lily did announce that she successfully acquired the mythical petal, but it's uncertain what exactly she did to it. This particular question could very well be the jumping point for the sequel, with Lily, Frank, and MacGregor further discovering the secrets of the Tree.

Will They Return To The Amazon For Jungle Cruise 2?

Johnson has revealed that discussions for Jungle Cruise 2 have started at Disney and based on the aforementioned lingering mysteries, they don't have a scarcity of narratives to explore in the potential sequel. The question is if they'll find their back to the Amazon in the proposed follow-up or their new adventure takes them somewhere else. Assuming it's the former, then it would be easy for the next Jungle Cruise film to incorporate Aguirre and his conquistadors back into the narrative.

More: Jungle Cruise Ending & Meaning Explained

Copyright, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Jungle Cruise

Reviewed by: Eric Tiansay CONTRIBUTOR —first time reviewer for Christian Spotlight

Exploratory expeditions into remote territory

What is the real Tree of Life ?

Amazon jungle

Dangerous wild animals and evil people

Snakes in the Bible

What about Gays needs to change? Answer — It may not be what you think.

M ore than 65 years after debuting as a popular Disneyland theme park ride, Jungle Cruise is cruising into theaters and streaming on-line with a live-action adaptation.

So is the long wait worth it? Perhaps.

“Jungle Cruise” is touted as a rollicking river boat thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff ( Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ) and intrepid botanist Dr. Lily Houghton ( Emily Blunt ).

The movie calls to mind the spirit of movies such as the Indiana Jones films, “Romancing the Stone” and “ The African Queen .” However, it’s not an instant classic like those films, but the Disney flick is family-friendly for the most part and lightly entertaining with plenty of humor in the form of dad jokes.

“Jungle Cruise” has a strong moral theme, espousing self-sacrifice, seeking the good for many and touting being trustworthy. However, Christians need to be concerned about violence in this film, as this is the main reason for its PG-13 rating. Discerning parents will also want to be aware of the movie’s supernatural element , which is a major plot point.

Set in 1916 when the world is at war, “Jungle Cruise” begins with Lily traveling from London, England to the Amazon jungle where she enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila (which supposedly translates to goddess of the moon )—his ramshackle-but-charming boat.

Lily, who is portrayed by Blunt as a female Indiana Jones, bucks the male-dominated system at the time by wearing trousers for the journey, which prompts Frank to call her “Pants.”

Lily is determined to find the ancient Tree of Life and the “Tears of the Moon ,” a legendary flower known for its miraculous healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine.

About MIRACLES in the Bible, including a comprehensive list
MIRACLES—Has science disproved the miracles associated with Jesus Christ? Answer
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Thrust on this epic quest together with Lily’s brother, MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ), the unlikely trio encounters innumerable dangers from wild animals and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest.

Speaking of supernatural forces, the film features a curse spoken by a dying tribal chief and undead 400-year-old conquistadors who command creepy snakes that could scare small children. Snakes emerge from inside a man’s wound.

Another concerning aspect of “Jungle Cruise” is the amount of alcohol consumption in several scenes, including one where a jaguar gets drunk and vomits after drinking some spilled wine .

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence, “Jungle Cruise” has multiple intense sequences, including a German U-boat firing torpedoes at people, threat of cannibals, lunging and biting snakes, killer bees, blow darts, machine guns, pistols and rifles, spears, knives, a character being stabbed with a sword through his body and a bad guys being killed instantly by a huge slab of plaster.

Perhaps the most concerning and controversial part of “Jungle Cruise” is the script calls for McGregor to be Gay. He comes out to Frank. Although McGregor doesn’t use the word “Gay,” he says he broke off three engagements with women because his “interests happily lay elsewhere.” And carrying a spear, he asks a man, “Would you like to bite down on my stick?” (an innuendo)

McGregor goes on to say that he would do anything for his sister Lily because she was the only one who “stood by” him while he was shunned by family and friends because of who he “loved.”

During my screening of film, the scene didn’t seem to garner much attention from the audience, and it appeared to go over the heads of my sons, who are 9 and 11.

On the plus side, there are several elements from the park attraction featured in the movie. The most notable is the “back side of water” gag that most of the cast members use during the theme park attraction.

“Jungle Cruise” also offers plenty of laughs—depending if moviegoers are fans of puns. With a dorky-deadpan delivery, Frank delights in saying things like “toucan play that game,” and he points out that certain rocks are “taken for granite.”

Additionally, the movie has a strong moral theme as lying , being dishonest and not trustful are looked down upon. Christian parents can also point out the healing powers of the “Tears of the Moon” is fictional, but Jesus is mankind’s true healer.

Among Disney movies based on Disney theme park rides, “Jungle Cruise” is fairly good—way better than “Haunted Mansion,” but not as memorable as the original “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

On the whole, the Rock and Blunt have chemistry together, which really keeps the movie afloat.

Not recommended for kids under 12.

Violence: Heavy
Profane language: Moderate— • Oh G*d (1) • Oh my G*d (3) • G*d (1) • h *ll (1)
Vulgar/Crude language: Mild— • s-word (1 incomplete and 1 in German) • “bugger” • references to urination • “Take your invitation and shove it up your association.” • “Crusty old farts”
Nudity: None
Sex: Minor— • kiss • a little cleavage • shirtless men
Drugs/Alcohol: Heavy
Occult: Moderately Heavy— • supernatural curses • spirit animals • supernatural undead people

Learn about DISCERNMENT —wisdom in making personal entertainment decisions

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

Jungle Cruise Movie Guide Questions

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This is a 35 open ended question movie guide to the 2021 Disney Movie, The Jungle Cruise. This movie stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The questions go in order of the movie and are designed to keep students engaged throughout the entire film. The movie and/or movie link is not included, just the questions. This comes in pdf and google doc form. Answer key included.

No prep for teachers. Just print the pdf and go. Or upload your copy of the google doc to your digital classroom. Answer key included.

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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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JUNGLE CRUISE

The film opens by describing the legend of the Tears of the Moon. They are magic petals that come from a special tree that comes with healing powers. Sometime in the mid-16th century, Spanish conquistadors led by Don Lope de Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez) make a voyage to the Amazon to seek the tree out. Aguirre loses most of his men and is left on his own. The legend states that he was found by local villagers and later condemned to be a prisoner of the jungle.

London, 1916 – MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) is attempting to convince a Royal Society of explorers to fund an expedition to find the Tears of the Moon for research and medicinal purposes, but the group sees it as a waste of time and is only based off a myth. MacGregor’s sister Lily (Emily Blunt) sneaks out while he stalls the group as she goes to the archives of the group. She manages to find a crate containing a special arrowhead that is the key to finding the Tears of the Moon, but also seeking it is German aristocrat Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons). Lily almost makes it out until Joachim calls her out. She tries to escape on a ladder but Joachim almost causes her to fall until MacGregor stops a bus to let her drop and make her getaway. After they get away, Joachim kills the other men in the room when his identity is revealed, and the curator of the archives tells him who Lily is. Meanwhile, Lily and MacGregor make plans to find the Tears of the Moon (or “Lagrimas Del Cristal”) on their own.

In South America, a tour guide named Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) is taking a group of people on a ride across the river in his boat, La Quila, which is comprised of a bunch of tricks that Frank had set up. He also engages in many lame puns, to the chagrin of the passengers. Frank manages to steer them clear of rough waters.

Lily and MacGregor arrive nearby to seek out Nilo Nemolato (Paul Giamatti), a harbormaster that will provide them with the boat that they need to take their voyage, based on a map that Lily has carried that will take them to the tree. Nilo finds Frank, who owes him money, and when he doesn’t have enough, he takes the engine from Frank’s boat as collateral. Frank sneaks into Nilo’s office when he is out to try and get the engine back, and Lily goes up to the office thinking she is talking to Nilo, but Frank tricks her and attempts to convince her to hire him for the expedition to the tree. This almost works until MacGregor appears with the actual Nilo, and Lily starts to make her leave. The bar they are in is then terrorized by a jaguar, which Frank manages to get to leave the building with a piece of meat. This convinces Lily and MacGregor to join Frank.

Frank leads Lily and MacGregor to his boat as he attempts to put the engine back. Lily is captured by bird poachers hired by Joachim, but she manages to pick a lock and free herself just as his henchmen pursue her. Frank and MacGregor attempt to outrun Nilo’s men as they start to ride the boat out. They manage to catch up with Lily and get her onto the boat, but Joachim learns that the heroes are getting away, so he emerges from his submarine and attack them. He fires a torpedo at them, but Frank drives the boat through an old building as the torpedo passes under them. Frank gets them out of there while the submarine trashes Nilo’s other boats, and Nilo watches his business literally go under.

On the boat ride, Frank cracks jokes at the siblings’ expense, but he spends more time with them. Lily shows him a video camera while they pass through the river with mythical dolphin creatures. Later, the siblings discover that the jaguar from earlier is Frank’s pet named Proxima, which he used as a pawn to convince them to hire him. Lily is upset.

Joachim and his men find an underground cavern where Aguirre and his men are imprisoned within the earth of the jungle. Using river water, Joachim frees the snakes that are part of Aguirre’s body to request his services in seeking out the arrowhead. Aguirre agrees, and Joachim’s men flood the cavern with river water to reawaken the conquistadors.

The trio come across rough waters and nearly go over a huge waterfall, but Frank manages to get them on a path to safety. They make it to land and stop for a moment. Lily goes through Frank’s quarters while he talks with MacGregor, who reveals to Frank that he was disowned by his family and from society because he is gay, and Lily was the only one who stood by his side, even if she can come off a bit rough around the edges at times. Lily comes across several maps of the tree among Frank’s belongings, leading to a confrontation where she accuses him of seeking the tree for himself. Moments later, the three are knocked out by darts.

The three find themselves captive to a native tribe. Frank speaks their language and attempts to deal with them as they request the arrowhead. Lily refuses to give it up and tries to make a run for it, but it is then revealed that the tribe know who Frank is and take part in his ruse. Lily is infuriated with his constant deception, and MacGregor follows suit in punching him in the face. After cooling down, Lily talks to the tribe leader, Trader Sam (Veronica Falcón), to figure out how to decipher the arrowhead, which gives them the location of the tree and explains that the tree blooms in a blood moon. The tribe is then attacked by Aguirre and his men, who have been bound to the jungle for so long that they have become monsters that manipulate creatures like bees and snakes. They nearly get the arrowhead, but Frank gets his hands on it at the expense of being impaled by Aguirre’s blade and thrown from a great height. Lily runs away with it and makes it far enough because the conquistadors are pulled back since they cannot go beyond the river.

In the morning, Lily finds MacGregor and Frank alive. It is then that he reveals to Lily that he is nearly 400 years old. He was previously known as Francisco and was the cartographer on Aguirre’s voyage, as they had grown up together like brothers. Aguirre sought out the Tears of the Moon to cure his sick daughter. After most of their men were lost on the voyage, they were found by the villagers, who used the petals of the tree to heal Frank and Aguirre, and the remaining men. Aguirre became impatient and demanded the tribe’s chief (Pedro Lopez) tell him where to find the tree, but he was deemed not worthy and killed the chief in retribution. Frank helped the chief’s daughter (Sulem Calderon) secure the arrowhead, and in the chief’s dying breaths, he curses the conquistadors and dooms them to be bound to the jungle and never able to leave. Throughout the decades, Frank and Aguirre encountered each other repeatedly and fought countless times, so Frank set up a trap to lure the men into the cavern away from the water, keeping them trapped in stone for centuries. Frank would set up the nearby town and meet many people that he would outlive, and so he has been seeking the tree to finally die in peace.

Frank and Lily make the journey themselves to the tree while MacGregor stays behind with Sam since he is injured. Unfortunately, they are found by Joachim, who takes MacGregor hostage and forces him to help lead them to Lily’s location since the conquistador’s bees have also given them clues. Meanwhile, Sam swims back to the tribe.

Frank and Lily find the site of the tree in La Luna Rota, and Lily must overcome her fear of swimming to make her way underwater and fit through a passage to pull a switch that gets them closer to the tree. After doing so, the waters go down, but Joachim arrives with MacGregor in tow. He makes them enter the passage, and they try to decipher the scripture. Frank and Lily discover that the arrowhead is meant to be a heart, and inside is a jewel that acts as a key. It brings the tree to life as the moon is rising overhead. Joachim and his men attempt to secure the petals from the tree, but they are thwarted by Lily. Aguirre and his men arrive and attack Joachim with his snakes while Lily runs to grab one petal as the moon is passing through and the other petals quickly die, but she grabs the one she needs. Aguirre fights Frank on the boat as he steers it toward a wall to block the river, but he first tells MacGregor to tell Lily that “she is world enough” for him. Joachim comes back to attack, but MacGregor fights him and knocks him against a wall, causing a pillar to fall and crush Joachim. The boat crashes into the wall and stops the water from flowing, permanently imprisoning Aguirre and his men, but Frank as well. Lily brings the petal to Frank to revive him, and it doesn’t appear to work at first, but Proxima roars as she sees that the stone around Frank crumbles. He is alive, but his immortality is gone, and he can now live normally. He and Lily share a kiss.

The trio return to London, where MacGregor tells off the Royal Society to their face that he rejects their application. Lily takes Frank on a tour across London as she shows him how to drive, but he is not very good at it.

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In the early 20th century, siblings Lily and MacGregor Houghton seek out the Tears of the Moon, the petals from a tree that contain healing powers, for the purposes of research and benefiting mankind. A German aristocrat named Prince Joachim also seeks out the tree to exploit its powers. After arriving in South America, Lily and MacGregor team up with tour guide Frank Wolff to seek out the tree, as he has some knowledge of it and has a boat to guide them. Meanwhile, Joachim seeks the aid of Don Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish conquistador who previously sought out the tree in the 16th century but was trapped within the jungle.

After going through several dangerous encounters with Joachim and the environment, the three are found by a tribe that works with Frank and helps Lily figure out the location and meaning of the arrowhead. Aguirre's men attack, and it is revealed that Frank is immortal since he previously worked with Aguirre as his cartographer (but they were also like brothers), and Aguirre wanted the Tears of the Moon to cure his sick daughter, but he became corrupted in his pursuit, killing the chief of the tribe, who later cursed Frank, Aguirre, and the remaining men to be trapped in the jungle for eternity. Frank has been looking for the tree to put an end to the curse.

Frank and Lily find the tree's location while Joachim forces them to help by taking MacGregor hostage. After uncovering the tree, Lily secures one petal before Aguirre and his men attack. MacGregor causes Joachim to get crushed by a pillar while Frank drives the boat into a wall to block the river, which would permanently trap himself, Aguirre, and the conquistadors in the cavern. Lily uses the petal to save Frank, allowing him to live as a mortal.

Frank joins Lily and MacGregor as they return to London and he begins to live a normal life.

Jungle Cruise (2021)

There’s a back story involving Spanish conquistadors cursed with immortality by wronged natives. A swaggering captain with a dark past who is both more and less than he seems. There’s magic involving the rays of the moon, but also a quest for a mythical source of life deep in the jungle and a magic MacGuffin that points the way.

We have supernatural antagonists whose deteriorating bodies have assumed the characteristics of lower life forms and menace from stereotyped ooga-booga natives (albeit with a twist). Oh, and there’s an elaborately choreographed, stunt-driven escape sequence in which the protagonist exits a period London building via a second-story window, dangling over the street before dropping into a conveniently timed vehicle.

In short, Jungle Cruise plays like fan fiction for, like, all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies combined — a gambit you can sort of understand the five writers going with when you consider that the only other precedents for big-screen Disney theme-park attraction movies are The Haunted Mansion and The Country Bears .

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/spiritual value, age appropriateness, mpaa rating, caveat spectator.

In place of Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightley, and Orlando Bloom, Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Jack Whitehall, which in 2021 is clearly at least two-thirds of an upgrade. The strange magic of Depp’s 2003 debut as Captain Jack Sparrow is something that no one (least of all Depp himself) is likely to match today — and Johnson isn’t about to try. As Skipper Frank Wolff, a steamboat captain on the Amazon, Johnson is well within his comfort zone. He may have gotten his Hollywood start as the antagonist in the Brendan Fraser sequel The Mummy Returns , but he’s now a reliable fixture in swashbuckling roles that Fraser himself might once have played. Johnson’s charisma is as outsize as his Maui-esque torso and his improbably wide grin, and his presence is a comforting promise that even if the movie isn’t (to invoke what Roger Ebert called the Siskel test) more entertaining than a documentary about the same actors having lunch, at least that shouldn’t be too bad.

As for Blunt, between her splendid starring turn in Mary Poppins Returns and her hard-edged heroics in Edge of Tomorrow and the Quiet Place movies , there’s no doubt that she’s more than equal to the lighthearted derring-do of Jungle Cruise . Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a British scholar conspiring with her effete brother (Whitehall) to follow a secret map to a fabled destination with the help of a rough-around-the-edges American guide (Johnson), and — hey, Johnson really is playing the Fraser role in the setup to the 1999 Mummy movie, isn’t he? Lily even stilt-walks on a library ladder in her introductory sequence, although she makes it look better than Rachel Weisz was allowed to do.

You might also be reminded at times of the likes of Romancing the Stone , Raiders of the Lost Ark , and The African Queen — reminders that could incline you to revisit any of these well-crafted entertainments that hold up to any number of repeat viewings. Will anyone who watches Jungle Cruise , in however forgiving a mood, be inclined to revisit it? Try as I might, I can’t imagine it. If you’re tempted to go easy on the slipshod plot, just recall what a well-oiled machine the original Pirates of the Caribbean is (not to mention any of the older movies mentioned so far). The cursed gold medallions in Pirates worked in a precise and elegant way, for reasons that made sense. There are “rules” in Jungle Cruise , too, but they’re random and nonsensical.

The MacGuffin is a Fountain of Youth stand-in called the Tears of the Moon, which are the petals of the legendary Tree of Life (not that one, a different Tree of Life somewhere in the Amazon) possessing miraculous healing powers. The immense tree, which (like so many trees) grows in a vast, hidden underground cavern with only a tiny opening to the sky, blooms a) only under the direct light of the moon, and then for some reason b) only when you do the right thing with another MacGuffin — some Heart of Te Fiti thing or other. Also, the petals grow and then wither almost instantly unless they are immediately plucked before the light of the moon moves on. Just because! Of course there’s an elaborate deathtrap puzzle-box guarding access to the tree (assuming you don’t just find that cavern skylight and rappel down). This massive feat of ancient engineering, dwarfing the Holy Grail deathtraps from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , exists how and why exactly? No explanation!

The film seems to have even less of a clue how to deal with its magic life-giving flowers than Last Crusade had regarding the Holy Grail. At least with the Grail they established that its power was confined to the temple. Here, the filmmakers begin by explicit setting up the possibility of curing all the world’s diseases, and then — what? Seriously, what? I’ve seen the movie, and I’m still not sure the screenwriters know the answer. All of this would be fine in the Jumanji video-game universe, where we would also have the added pleasure of watching Johnson and Blunt play against type as computer avatars inhabited by other people’s personalities. The glaringly poor CGI would be more forgivable, too.

Perhaps director Jaume Collet-Serra is out of his element. I know him only from The Shallows , a tense survival/horror film dominated by the specificity of its setting. The “Amazon” of Jungle Cruise was patched together in Hawaii, Australia, Atlanta, and lots of CPUs, and feels as fake as the theme-park ride. Ironically, the movie’s most notable accomplishment is sending up the theme-park ride’s modest pleasures, from the animatronic animals and pretend dangers to the skipper’s groanworthy puns. Frank, you see, specializes in bogus tours of the real Amazon. That is, he pilots tourists up and down a well-traveled section of the Amazon, but he’s contrived an array of fake spectacles and dangers to liven up the experience — and occasionally pressure a little extra money from frightened passengers. Frank is also an inveterate punster, the one part of his schtick he seems to do for the sheer pleasure of it. (“We’re heading into headhunter territory now, which is a terrible place to be headed.”)

Nobody appreciates this except Lily’s brother McGregor, played by Whitehall as a buffoonish dandy of a sort that might be described as “queer-coded,” if not for the brief scene in which he comes out to Frank. The word “gay” isn’t used, but McGregor indicates that his lack of interest in women — more precisely, that his “interests happily lie elsewhere” — led to his ostracization by his family, with only Lily accepting him. Frank, too, is affirming, raising a glass “to elsewhere.” And that’s the end of that, at least until a string of winking double entendres in a scene involving impalement. I’m honestly curious whether this approach to “representation” pleases anyone, or whether Disney’s insistent but timid “progressivism” falls between two stools and leaves no one happy.

I see I forgot about Jesse Plemons’ murderous German Prince Joachim, who pursues our heroes up the Amazon in a U-boat. Also I haven’t mentioned Paul Giamatti, wasted as a scheming harbormaster, or Édgar Ramírez as the leader of the cursed conquistadors. I promise I’ll try to be more organized reviewing Jungle Cruise 2 .

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Dwayne Johnson makes no less than twenty terrible puns in Jungle Cruise , a movie that understands the assignment. This is a movie where The Rock both fights a leopard with his bare hands and also cuddles a leopard with his bare hands. (Can anything beat The Rock’s chemistry with CGI animals?) It’s unfortunate that the incomprehensible plot drags down the overall quality—the next Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, this is not—but if you’re looking for a fun, ridiculous romp, then Jungle Cruise is the adventure flick you want it to be.

Things get off to a strong start with the introductions of Emily Blunt and The Rock’s characters, Dr. Lily Houghton and “Skipper” Frank Wolff. Lily is a combative, Indiana Jones-type scientist on a mission, and her first meticulously choreographed fight scene—in which she bests a German aristocrat played with zeal by Jesse Plemons —is pure entertainment, like watching an acrobatic show in Vegas.

Frank, meanwhile, is perfectly happy scamming early 20th century tourists in the Amazon. His jungle cruise is the cheapest around, and, much like a tour guide on a certain Disney theme park ride, he cracks groan-worthy word-play jokes, like, “The rocks you see on the river are sandstone, but some people just take them for granite.” Also like a Disney park ride, almost everything on the tour is fake—fake hippo, fake skeletons, and a fake waterfall, whose pitiful stream of water Frank calls “the eighth wonder of the world.” Frank is perhaps the perfect role for Johnson’s brand of charisma. If the whole wrestling and acting thing hadn’t worked out, The Rock would have made an excellent Disneyland tour guide.

Lily lures Frank into transporting her and her brother ( Jack Whitehall , in a performance that might have been homophobic, had his character not actually come out as gay in a touching scene) downriver on a dangerous mission to retrieve a petal from the tree of life, which, legend has it, will cure all diseases everywhere. The good news is that she has already stolen the arrowhead key needed to open the tree (sure); the bad news is that Plemons is hot on her tail to get that arrowhead back. Jungle Cruis e wastes no time getting to the chase scenes and explosions, at times feeling more like a Fast and Furious movie than Indiana Jones .

For the first half of the story, it clicks. Blunt, Johnson, and Whitehall are a lovable trio, and the jokes are legitimately laugh-out-loud funny. Plemons doesn’t have quite as much to do as the trailer suggests, but he certainly makes his limited screen-time count. (Paul Giamatti also gets to have fun with accents, perhaps even more so than Plemons.) The hijinks are amusing and the action is exciting. Jungle Cruise is a throwback to the types of adventure films that used to be popular— Indiana Jones, The Mummy, National Treasure, and of course, Pirates of the Caribbean —and sure, it’s probably trying to be a few too many of those titles, but it’s nonetheless enjoyable… Up until the point when it isn’t.

Between the “story by” and the “screenplay by” credits—Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, and John Requa on the screenplay; John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Ficarra, and Requa on the story; and Jaume Collet-Serra as the director—no less than five people are credited with writing this film. And perhaps because of that, there’s simply too much going on: too many villains, too many ghost stories, and too many MacGuffins. Is it the arrowhead key or the magical petal that Jesse Plemons is after? What exactly is the motivation for the ghost that looks vaguely like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 ? Who are those conquistadors from the opening scene again? And what the heck does Paul Giamatti and his exaggerated Italian accent have to do with any of it?

It’s impossible to keep track. You want to give up and enjoy the cruise, but the last hour of the film is entangled in the confusing mythos, leaving little room for a half-hearted romance. And then there’s a plot twist that feels completely untethered from reality. Jungle Cruise tries too hard to be Pirates of the Caribbean when it should have tried harder to be Jumanji . Too bad. Perhaps with a little more finesse, this could have been the next great adventure franchise. As is, it’s an enjoyable but messy action flick, and it’s one of The Rock’s better movies—or as Frank would say, one of The Rock’s boulder movies. Like the ride it’s named after, Jungle Cruise offers less than is advertised, and you’ll notice the peeling paint. But go in with the right attitude, and you’ll still have a good time.

Jungle Cruise will open in theaters and stream on Disney+ with Premier Access on Friday, July 30.

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JUNGLE CRUISE

"family entertainment marred by political correctness".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Stealing.

More Detail:

JUNGLE CRUISE is a big, sweeping action adventure movie based on Disneyland’s popular ride, which has been crafted into a story about a young Englishwoman who hires a debt-ridden boat captain to take her down the Amazon River to find a fabled tree with leaves that supposedly can cure any disease. Laced with lots of humor but no obscene language, JUNGLE CRUISE has many exciting escapades and beautifully filmed action sequences, with some Christian, redemptive metaphors and elements, but the movie has a strong Romantic worldview with some with politically correct, feminist, pro-homosexual elements attacking traditional morality, and the story contains some scary characters and situations involving slithering snakes.

The movie opens in 1916 with MacGregor Houghton trying to convince the Royal Academy in London to finance an expedition into the Amazon to find a mystical, magical tree with fabled healing properties. The stuffy scientists in attendance mock MacGregor off the stage. Meanwhile, his sister, Lily, who put her prissy brother up to making the public request, sneaks into the archives of the Academy. There, she steals an arrowhead from the last Amazon expedition, which supposedly is a key to unlock to unlock the location of the magical tree. She steals the arrowhead right under the very nose of a German prince named Joachim, who’s rumored to be the son of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. The curator of the archives had just finished a deal with Prince Joachim to give him all the artifacts from the expedition, in exchange for a very large donation.

Cut to the Amazon, where Captain Frank Wolff is giving one of his pun-infested tours to some tourists on his ramshackle boat. Part of the tour is clearly fake. Frank even uses some local people to pretend to be savage headhunters to scare the tourists.

Unhappily for Frank, he owes a lot of money to his rival in the tour business, a portly Italian named Nilo who repossesses Frank’s boat engine when he returns to town. Lily meets with Frank to rent his boat to travel down the Amazon to the legendary location of the magical tree. Frank at first refuses, because he thinks she’s on a wild goose chase, but Lily offers him lots of money.

With Lily’s brother along for the ride, they’re soon on their way down the Amazon. After, Fran steals back his engine from Nilo, of course. However, Prince Joachim is hot on their trail in his very own German submarine.

Of course, innumerable other dangers await them down river, including some supernatural ones, in the form of a group of cursed Spanish conquistadores awakened from suspended animation.

JUNGLE CRUISE features many exciting escapades and beautifully filmed action sequences. In many ways, it’s similar to Disney’s PIRATES movies, the Indiana Jones movies and the 1984 movie ROMANCING THE STONE. The action does slow down slightly in the middle, but not by much. Dwayne Johnson, who plays Frank, and Emily Blunt, who plays Lily, have some good chemistry together. This definitely helps the movie when it comes time for their characters to develop strong romantic feelings for one another. Viewers will root for these two characters when it looks like they’re going to be separated forever. Admittedly, the chemistry isn’t as special as Indy and Marion in the original Indiana Jones movie, but that’s a high bar to set. JUNGLE CRUISE is also laced with lots of fun humor. For example, the movie borrows heavily from the puns that the tour guides on the Disneyland ride subject on Disneyland visitors.

As with many Disney adventure movies, the action sequences involve some scary moments. The heroes not only have to avoid a huge, deadly waterfall. They also encounter the scary leader of the cursed conquistadores, who was cursed centuries ago with slithering jungle snakes.

Sadly, despite some Christian, redemptive metaphors about life, death and resurrection, JUNGLE CRUISE has a strong Romantic worldview overall. The heroine is a spunky female who’s bucking the staid, corrupt male establishment of the Royal Academy. The traditional rules don’t apply to her, so she steals the arrowhead from the Academy. Also, the movie reveals in the middle that Lily defended her brother when it came out that the reason he didn’t marry any of the women their family offered to him was because he’s homosexual. Their family disowned Lily’s brother, but she stood behind him. Lily’s brother reveals all these facts to Frank in one scene. Also, at one point, the brother, holding a spear, makes a crude, unnecessary sexual innuendo when he asks a wounded Frank, “Would you like to bite down on my stick?” The filmmakers are careful not to include any obscenities in their movie, so the lewdness of this line is unexpectedly strong and rather disturbing. In fact, the homosexual brother is played with such a prissy quality that one wonders if LGBT activists are going to look as favorable on it.

All in all, MOVIEGUIDE® must advise extreme caution for this particular trip down the Amazon. It’s somewhat of a missed opportunity to provide moviegoers with a truly family-friendly experience. That’s what happens when you let silly leftwing politics creep into your art and entertainment, not to mention your commerce.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

Parents Guide

Certification

Sex & Nudity (4)
Violence & Gore (5)
Profanity (2)
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking (1)
Frightening & Intense Scenes (4)
Spoilers (3)

Sex & Nudity

None 205 of 328 found this to have none Severity? None 205 Mild 87 Moderate 16 Severe 20 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
A kiss between a man and a woman in the end of the movie. Edit
One scene where a man confesses that he is not interested in women at all - but "elsewhere". Then goes on to talk about being persecuted for "who he loves". Edit
A male character holding a walking stick says to another male character, who may be in pain, "Do you want to bite down on my stick, Frank?" After Frank declines, the man says, "It's here if you need it." Edit
Multiple instances of men being kicked in the groin. Edit

Violence & Gore

Moderate 97 of 206 found this moderate Severity? None 15 Mild 83 Moderate 97 Severe 11 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
Zombie-like creatures are broken into pieces by swords and gunshots. More creepy than it is violent. Edit
Various action sequences that include punching, stabbing, and shooting. Almost no blood is seen. Edit
Some scenes of violence towards native Amazonians. A flashback shows their village being attacked by villains. Edit
A man is impaled with a sword and then falls down into a river. Edit
There is a scene where 2 of the characters and an animal are physically ill 1-2 minutes after a scene depicting them riding the ship along the rocky rapids/consuming alcohol. Briefly shown with visuals that may be triggering for some. Edit
None 132 of 222 found this to have none Severity? None 132 Mild 73 Moderate 7 Severe 10 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
"God," one use of "hell," and one unfinished use of "shit" respectively. Edit
McGregor says "bugger" when he bangs his head on Frank's ship, which is a UK (mild) & Australian (very mild) swear. Edit

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

Mild 127 of 176 found this mild Severity? None 34 Mild 127 Moderate 10 Severe 5 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
Characters occasionally drink alcohol. Edit

Frightening & Intense Scenes

Moderate 95 of 193 found this moderate Severity? None 20 Mild 65 Moderate 95 Severe 13 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
There are cursed, zombie-like characters which could be frightening for younger viewers. One of them is cut open multiple times, and snakes spring out from under the skin. Edit
There are multiple jump-scares. Edit
Occasional scenes with spiders, snakes, piranhas, scorpions, bees and other insects. Some of these scenes are more disturbing than others. Edit
(Deleted. Personal opinions about ratings are not appropriate for the Parents Guide.) Edit

The Parents Guide items below may give away important plot points.

One character is killed by a large stone. No blood. Edit
One use of the word Scheiße! Which is the German word for s...! Edit
A man is responding to an offer for membership tells an auditorium of distinguished members to "shove it up your association." Edit

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