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Jungle Cruise Cast: Where You’ve Seen The Actors Before

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After it was pushed back from its original October 2019 release date to July 2020 before being pushed back another whole year, the time has finally come that we get to see Dwayne Johnson visit " the backside of water ." In Jungle Cruise , based on the popular Disneyland attraction of the same name, The Rock plays a sea boat captain enlisted to help guide an eccentric scientist, played by Emily Blunt , on a quest to find the Tree of Life during World War I. While it is easy to tell that this is destined to be one of the biggest 2021 movies with such huge stars in the lead, there are many other big names in the Jungle Cruise cast to look forward to seeing.

Dwayne Johnson (Frank Wolff)

Playing a hero named Frank who runs a slightly sketchy river tour operation until he's hired by Emily Blunt ’s character for an entirely different purpose is The Rock. He first transitioned from wrestling to acting playing his father on That ‘70s Show before making his film debut in 2001’s The Mummy Returns as The Scorpion King.

He first became friendly with Disney with family films like The Game Plan before the Fast and Furious movies certified him as a franchise rejuvenator and box office draw. After the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle star returns to the jungle again, he will re-team with Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra for Black Adam (one of the most anticipated DC movies ), return to California for a Big Trouble in Little China sequel, and revisit Hawaii for Robert Zemeckis’ Kamehameha biopic , The King.

Emily Blunt (Dr. Lily Houghton)

It is actually surprising that it took until now for Dwayne Johnson and Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt (who plays Lily Houghton, a woman on a quest to find a mythical tree in the Amazon that can cure any ailment) to join forces. For one, she is also a Disney darling, with Mary Poppins Returns and others, and has led action-packed blockbusters like the A Quiet Place movies (directed by and co-starring her husband John Krasinski ).

The British beauty first got America’s attention with 2006’s The Devil Wears Prad , which led to an impressively versatile career, ranging from sci-fi thrillers like Looper to dark indie dramedies like Sunshine Cleaning to light rom-coms like The Five-Year Engagement with Jason Segel . Blunt does not seem interested in granting many fans’ wish to see her play Invisible Woman in the Marvel movies , but could follow Jungle Cruise by reprising her Edge of Tomorrow role if the long-awaited sequel ever happens , that is.

Jack Whitehall (MacGregor Houghton)

Playing the role of MacGregor Houghton, the brother of Lily who accompanies her on the voyage is Jack Whitehall, who may finally make a splash with American audiences by starring in Jungle Cruise . This is not to say, however, that the British comedian does not already have a following in the States, having starred in 2016’s Mother’s Day , the hit Amazon Prime original miniseries Good Omens in 2019, and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (his first collaboration with Disney) a year earlier. Later in 2021, Whitehall will appear in the live-action Clifford the Big Red Dog movie and is slated to star in two very unique upcoming romance movies called Silent Retreat and Robots .

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Paul Giamatti (Nilo Nemolato)

As Nilo Nemolato, who manages the port where Frank keeps his boat, we have Paul Giamatti , who has been acting since the ‘90s, appearing in bit parts in movies like Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show and the Saving Private Ryan cast before he earned his first Golden Globe nomination for 2004’s Sideways , which made him a household name. He has since become an Oscar nominee for Cinderella Man , a Golden Globe and Emmy winner for HBO’s John Adams miniseries, a Marvel villain (Rhino) in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 , a shady record producer in the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton , and even Santa Claus in 2007’s Fred Claus with Vince Vaughn.

Jungle Cruise marks Paul Giamatti's second collaboration with Disney after Saving Mr. Banks and his second collaboration with Dwayne Johnson after San Andreas from 2015. He. is also a series regular on Showtime’s Billions and will reportedly reunite with Sideways director Alexander Payne for The Holdovers .

Jesse Plemons (Prince Joachim)

Prince Joachim, the one who steals the arrowhead from Emily Blunt and attacks Dwayne Johnson's boat from a submarine in the Jungle Cruise trailer, is played by Jesse Plemons . He has has proved that he can play a good bad guy as Todd on the Breaking Bad cast , in one of the best Black Mirror episodes (“U.S.S. Callister”), in the dark comedy Game Night , Netflix’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things , and as a morally bankrupt FBI agent in Judas and the Black Messiah most recently.

Jungle Cruise could technically qualify as the latest of his multiple Disney projects, having appeared in Twentieth Century Fox’s Like Mike as a teen and Fargo - FX’s anthology series based on the 1996 Coen Brothers movie. The former Friday Night Lights cast member also worked with Steven Spielberg on Bridge of Spies , was directed by Martin Scorsese for The Irishman and the upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon , narrated Vice , and his role in Antlers (one of the most anticipated upcoming horror movies ) will finally hit the screen in October. 2021.

Édgar Ramírez (Aguirre)

Also playing one of the villains in Jungle Cruise , named Aguirre, is Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez, who has played everybody from Gianni Versace to the role of Bohdi in the remake of Point Break after breaking out in Hollywood in a small The Bourne Ultimatum part. This led to getting second billing in the possession thriller Deliver Us From Evil , the lead in sports biopic Hands of Stone , and a few Netflix movies, including 2017’s Bright and the family comedy Yes Day in 2021. Following Jungle Cruise (his second film with Emily Blunt after The Girl on the Train ) Ramírez will reunite with his Zero Dark Thirty co-star Jessica Chastain in Netflix’s The 355 and has joined the Borderlands cast for Eli Roth’s film adaptation of the popular video game series.

Jungle Cruise's Veronica Falcón in Queen of the South

Veronica Falcón (Trader Sam)

Portraying a gender-swapped version of Trader Sam - a classic character from the original Jungle Cruise attraction - is Veronica Falcón, who made her English-language debut in the 2007 thriller Not Forgotten years before starring alongside The Suicide Squad ’s Alice Braga on USA’s Queen of the South and on HBO’s Perry Mason series reboot later in 2020. The following year has been huge for the Mexican actress so far, from a small part on the Falcon and Winter Soldier cast , a large part on the Why Women Kill cast, and an appearance in the latest of the Purge movies , The Forever Purge . Falcón will next star on Ozark Season 4 , in The Starling alongside Melissa McCarthy and Timothy Olyphant, and Apple TV+’s Mr. Corman with creator and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Jungle Cruise's Andy Nyman in Ghost Stories

Andy Nyman (Sir James Hobbs-Coddington)

Another British actor who could likely call Jungle Cruise the most high-profile credit on his resume to date (at least to American audiences) is Andy Nyman, who previously worked with director Jaume Collet-Serra on the Liam Neeson action thriller The Commuter in 2019. Much earlier, he starred in the original Death at a Funeral from 2007 , played The Tumor in Kick-Ass 2 , and appeared on Netflix’s Peaky Blinders as Winston Churchill. The co-writer, co-director, and star of Ghost Stories - one of the most acclaimed anthology horror movies in recent memory - also played a Jail Guard in Star Wars: The Last Jedi , had a recurring role in Amazon’s series reboot of Hanna , and starred in the Academy Award-winning biopic Judy in 2019.

It looks like the Jungle Cruise cast may help drive Disney’s latest theme park attraction-based movie toward a treasure trove of riches.

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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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. 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. 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.

Jaume Collet-Serra
Michael Green
Glenn Ficarra
Dwayne Johnson
Emily Blunt
Edgar Ramírez
1.2K User reviews
297 Critic reviews
50 Metascore
5 wins & 9 nominations

Frank Wolff

Lily Houghton

MacGregor Houghton

Prince Joachim

(as Quim Gutierrez)

Sir James Hobbs-Coddington

Chief's Daughter

Society Guard

Society Member

Society Worker
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Dwayne Johnson & Emily Blunt Answer Burning Questions

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Trivia Many of the puns Frank uses are taken directly from the Disney Parks attraction on which the movie is based. These "so bad they're good" jokes are one of the reasons why Jungle Cruise skippers are so important to the ride experience.
Goofs Prince Joachim knows where the trapped Spanish are located. There was no record of this because only Skipper knew where he trapped them.

Frank Wolff : If you're lucky enough to have one person in this life to care about, then that's world enough for me.

Crazy credits The bay in the Disney logo is seen to have the water glowing purple, and after the Disney logo fully appears the camera dives into the water and leads to the Tree of Life, which opens the film.
Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: D23 Expo 2019 Extravaganza (2019)
Soundtracks Nothing Else Matters Reimagined by Metallica and James Newton Howard With featured performances by James Hetfield , Lars Ulrich , Kirk Hammett , Robert Trujillo Written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich Associate Producer and Engineer Greg Fidelman

User reviews 1.2K

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Oct 14, 2021
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Will 'Weird Al' Yankovic's song 'Skipper Dan' about Disney's Jungle Cruise ride be featured in this movie?
July 30, 2021 (United States)
United States
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Thám Hiểm Rừng Xanh
Kaua'i, Hawaii, USA
Davis Entertainment
Flynn Picture Company
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$200,000,000 (estimated)
$116,987,516
$35,018,731
Aug 1, 2021
$220,889,446

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Runtime 2 hours 7 minutes
Dolby Atmos
IMAX 6-Track

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Meet the Characters of Disney’s Jungle Cruise

By the D23 Team

Disney’s Jungle Cruise , inspired by the classic Disney theme park attraction, is a rollicking thrill ride down the mighty and mysterious Amazon, set to make waves when it arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on Friday, July 30. Featuring a star-studded cast led by Dwayne Johnson as the wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and Emily Blunt as determined botanist Dr. Lily Houghton, Jungle Cruise is a pulse-quickening adventure in which Lily enlists Frank’s guide service and his ramshackle boat, La Quila , to convey her through the deepest and most dangerous parts of the Amazon River to try to uncover the mystery of an ancient tree—one with the power to change the fate of humanity. Here is a guide to the dazzling array of colorful characters you will meet beginning this Friday when Jungle Cruise debuts.

Frank Wolff/Dwayne Johnson Charismatic skipper Frank Wolff is head of the Jungle Navigation Company. Opportunistic and endlessly charming, Frank leads unwitting tourists on sightseeing cruises along the Amazon that are low on substance but high on humor. As a producer, the potential for a Jungle Cruise –influenced feature film project was tantalizing enough, but to take on the mantle of Frank, the down-on-his-luck skipper of the jungle cruise riverboat, was chock-full of possibilities for Johnson. Describing his character, Johnson says, “Frank is a skipper on the Amazon, and he takes a lot of pride in what he does. There are elements as the movie progresses where you start to realize things about Frank that one would never have guessed. The man is an old soul who has a very unique perspective on life itself. Frank meets Lily, who is ambitious and brave and funny and charming and beautiful, and all these things eventually remind him how great life can be.”

Dr. Lily Houghton/Emily Blunt Dr. Lily Houghton is a determined British scientist and explorer who is as brilliant as she is fearless. Driven not only by her ideals but by an unrelenting desire to prove herself, free-spirited Lily is a force to be reckoned with. “I was just so struck by Lily’s determination and tenacity, and the fact that she was so ahead of her time, considering that the film is set in 1917,” says Blunt. “There was so much inequality between men and women and what was expected of her at the time. But she doesn’t subscribe to what was appropriate for her sex. And I found her really funny. She’s very reckless and heedless and adventurous. I admired her spirit.”

Captain Aguirre/Edgar Ramírez Captain Aguirre is the fearsome leader of a cutthroat crew of soldiers. These cursed men are powerful fighters who carry a personal vendetta that makes them even more of a threat to Frank and Lily on their quest. “I also love the mystery of my character, Aguirre, and the duality of the character,” Ramirez says. “To play a character like Aguirre, who walks that very thin line between good and evil, is very interesting.”

MacGregor Houghton/Jack Whitehall Lily’s brother, MacGregor, joins her and Frank on their expedition down the Amazon. Dapper MacGregor enjoys the finer things in life—stylish fashion, fine dining and elegant living—even in the middle of the rain forest. British comedian/actor Jack Whitehall is perfectly cast as a well-meaning sibling, whose often inept attempts to take care of his sister give the film some of its most hilarious moments. Although he and Blunt had never met, they soon discovered some unexpected overlaps in their backgrounds growing up in the same part of London. The pair easily fell into a familial rapport. “Our backstories are very similar,” notes Whitehall, “so Emily and I playing sister and brother just seems so right. I think we’ve been able to transfer all of those weird connections we have on to the screen in the best possible way.”

Nilo/Paul Giamatti Owner of a wildly successful sightseeing cruise company, Nilo is a powerful figure—and a tough competitor—in the Amazonian port town where Frank ekes out a living with his ramshackle boat. Veteran actor Paul Giamatti portrays Nilo, who has a long history with Frank Wolff, Johnson’s character. “Nilo keeps Frank under his thumb,” says Giamatti. “He extorts money out of him, and he wants all the boats in the town. He even wants Frank’s beat-up boat. Nilo just wants to control everything. So he’s bullying Frank to get what he wants.” Frank’s boat, La Quila , is the exact opposite of Nilo’s slick, state-of-the-art tourist boats that are moored in the same harbor. “ La Quila is a wonderful sort of character in and of itself,” comments Giamatti. “It’s just a fantastic, beat-up old trooper of a boat, which Frank is like too, in many ways. Frank’s been around a long time, and the boat’s been around a long time.”

Prince Joachim/Jesse Plemons Prince Joachim is a wealthy and capable young commander with an arsenal of military-grade weapons at his disposal. In his quest for power and glory, he ruthlessly seeks the secret at the heart of Lily and Frank’s journey. “We tried to create a villain character that feels unique,” Plemons says. “It was just about finding his quirks. He’s someone who is forward-thinking and looking far ahead into the future. So, I tried to keep that in mind when I was working on the character.”

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Disney's Jungle Cruise Cast & Character Guide

Jungle Cruise promises to be an adventurous and exhilarating movie. Here's who's who in Disney's latest theme-park-inspired film.

With the promise of adventure, excitement, legends and curses , Disney’s Juggle Cruise is sure to be an exhilarating movie. It takes its inspiration from the boat attraction of the same name, which can be found at four Disney theme parks worldwide, and its premise is the search for the legendary Tree of Life. The only problem is that that tree, which could greatly improve medicine, is supposedly deep within the Amazon Jungle.

Intent on making the discovery of a lifetime, a British scientist and her brother travel to South America and enlist the services of a local captain, who runs a less-than-pristine riverboat attraction. Along the way, they will have to face the dangerous wildlife and the deadly environment of the Amazon. And to make matters worse, there has to be a villain of some kind, so an Imperial German expedition is also racing to find the same legendary tree. With all that to keep track of, here's who’s who ahead of Jungle Cruise’s release.

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Dwayne Johnson as “Skipper” Frank Wolff

“The Rock” plays Frank Wolff, who owns a jungle cruise business that he describes as the “cheapest” expedition of its kind. Frank tends to be shrewd and cynical but can be noble when the need arises. During Jungle Cruise , Frank is hired to offer passage to two explorers on their quest for the Tree of Life on his boat La Quila but only agrees after being offered a large sum of money. His character is based on the skippers from the original Jungle Cruise attraction, and his attire takes inspiration from Charlie Allnut from The African Queen .

Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton

The star of A Quiet Place II , Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, who is a bit like Indian Jones -- eccentric and always looking for an adventure. According to Blunt , Lily is “brave and fearless and wild, and she’s brilliant-minded and humble.” In Jungle Cruise , the character is a British scientist and explorer determined to find the Tree of Life to study it for its medicinal benefits. She, along with her brother, travel to South America, where they hire Skipper Frank Wolff to give them passage up the Amazon River on their quest.

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Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton

Jack Whitehall is well known for playing Gothi the Troll Priest in Frozen , but in Jungle Cruise , he portrays Lily Houghton’s younger brother, McGregor, who is unambiguously gay. Fiercely devoted to Lily, he accompanies her to the Amazon, even if he isn't the adventurer that she is. In fact, he is skeptical about going after the tree in the first place.

Paul Giamatti as Nilo Nemolato

Paul Giamatti, who recently appeared in Netflix’s Gunpowder Milkshake , plays Nilo Nemolato, the irritable harbormaster where Frank docks his riverboat. For those concerned about missing Giamatti's performance, don't worry, Nilo can be spotted by a pet cockatoo that accompanies him everywhere.

RELATED: Jungle Cruise Won Over Emily Blunt’s Toughest Critics - Her Kids

Édgar Ramírez as Aguirre, Quim Gutiérrez as Melchor and Dani Rovira as Sancho

Ramírez, Gutiérrez and Rovira play a trio of cursed, Spanish conquistadors who are also looking for the Tree of Life. Aguirre’s character, specifically, is based on a real-life conquistador named Lope de Aguirre, who was once dubbed “El Loco” after driving himself mad during a failed search for the lost city of El Dorado.

Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim

Jesse Plemons, who is best known for his roles in films like Game Night and The Irishman , portrays Prince Joachim in Jungle Cruise . As with any good film, there has to be a villain, and Joachim offers that for this Disney flick. At the same time Dr. Lily Houghton is searching for the Tree of Life, Joachim, who is a deranged German aristocrat, is funding a competing, military expedition to claim the discovery as his own accomplishment.

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Veronica Falcón as Trader Sam

Veronica Falcón plays Lupe in the 2020 HBO reboot of Perry Mason , but in Jungle Cruise, she plays a female version of Trader Sam from the Jungle Cruise ride. Trader Sam is the chief is the chieftain of the Indigenous tribe that protects the Tree of Life everyone is searching for. However, the character doesn't come without its own set of issues, as it was removed from the Disney attraction earlier this year after being deemed offensive.

Other Named, Minor Characters

There are other minor characters in Jungle Cruise , but ahead of the film’s release, details on their roles are slim. Raphael Alejandro plays Zaqueu, Simone Lockhart is Anna, Philipp Maximilian tackles Axel, Sulem Calderon portrays Quila and Andy Nyman takes on Sir James Hobbs-Coddington.

Jungle Cruise releases Friday in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.

KEEP READING: Jungle Cruise's Charm & Sense of Adventure Keeps the Film Afloat

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Jungle cruise: the 10 best characters in the movie.

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Disney's adventurous Jungle Cruise sails into theaters Friday, July 30th, 2021. Based on the popular theme park ride of the same name, the film has drawn middling reviews so far. However, one of the biggest plaudits of the film, so far, includes its stellar ensemble cast who plays a range of fun, lively characters.

RELATED: Jungle Cruise - 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Movie

While Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt lead the epic voyage to find the sacred Tree of Life Flower, the film also includes several memorable characters, some of which have even made Disney movie history.

Fans of the Disney World theme park attraction are sure to recognize the name Trader Sam, the iconic figure who appears in several attractions including Jungle Cruise, Main Street Cinema, Trader Sam's Grog Grotto, and more. In the film, Trader Sam is a fierce warrior chieftain who leads the tribe protecting the Tree of Life.

While the character has been portrayed as a man in the past, the film reimagines Trader Sam (played by Veronica Falcón) as a strong-willed woman in charge of her tribe. The character is extremely important in the way it's reimagined and pokes fun of colonial stereotypes.

Sancho & Melchor

Alone, they aren't much to speak of. Together, however, the minor characters Sancho (Dani Rovira) and Melchor (Quim Gutierrez) comprise one half-decent antagonist on a dogged quest to procure the Tears of the Moon in the Amazon, and they add a menacing dose of excitement to the mix.

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While the two armed conquistadors mainly provide inept challenges for Frank and Lily to triumph over time and again, the ruthless baddies add thrilling chases through elaborate sets and help to clearly establish who to root for and who to cheer against.

As one of the few children in the film, Anna (Simone Lockhart) is a minor-key character who reminds the audience how perilous the jungle is for youngsters. The vulnerability Anna shows in the face of danger while searching for the Tree of Life helps ratchet up the tension and suspense and reinforce the terror of the natural environment.

While Anna helps foster more fear and draw appeal from the younger crowd, her character doesn't enjoy all that much screen time. Still, her stone-faced rebuke of Frank's "backside of water" joke remains a standout moment.

James Hobbs-Coddington

While he is a minor character who does not add much to the plot of the film, Sir James Hobbs-Coddington (Andy Nyman) lends a regal air of British aristocracy that underscores how valuable finding the Tree of Life is to even the most affluent people in the world.

Moreover, Hobbs-Coddington provides a characteristic counterpoint for Lily and McGregor, showing two vastly different sides of the British backgrounds from which each character hails. His character provides context for the other more important main characters in the film.

Prince Joachim

The award for the over-the-top scene-stealing goes to Jesse Plemons, who plays the wildly unhinged Prince Joachim, an unscrupulous German aristocrat who pays for and leads a military voyage into the Amazon to find the Tree of Life.

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As the main villain in the film, Prince Joachim adds the requisite terror and unpredictable guile to become an apt foil for Frank and Lily. Plemons has a blast playing the thick-accented and mustachioed madman who wants to keep the Tears of the Moon all to himself. Without his violent opposition, the film would be less exciting.

Nilo Nemolato

Other than Plemons, no actor in Jungle Cruise appears to be having more fun than Paul Giamatti, playing the salty Italian harbormaster, Nilo Nemolato . Armed with a thick accent, a pet toucan on his shoulder, and far too fancy a wardrobe for the jungle, Nilo operates the harbor where Frank's boat is docked.

Giamatti seems to have a blast in the film as the crabby Nilo, who threatens to monopolize tour guides in the area and put Frank out of business. He provides genuine humor and as well as a moral quandary that increases the dramatic stakes of the story.

Edgar Ramirez plays one of the scariest characters in Jungle Cruise as Aguirre, a cool but ruthless mercenary who agrees to lead a rival riverboat full of unsavory characters through the jungle in search of the Tree of Life.

As one of the chief bad guys in the film out to thwart Lily's quest, Aguirre provides the necessary dramatic conflict to make Frank and Lily's heroism truly resonate in the end. No stranger to playing frightening villains, Ramirez sells the role of a supernatural Spanish conquistador with a sinister scariness that goes a long way in gripping the audience.

McGregor Houghton

In Disney's first coming out scene, McGregor Houghton's (Jack Whitehall) importance as a character extends beyond the big screen. In the film, McGregor is Lily's younger brother and high-maintenance assistant who wants no part of the journey through the jungle.

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Aside from the importance of LGBTQ+ representation, McGregor provides several laughs in the film, mainly relating to his over-packed luggage and lack of preparation for the perils of the Amazon. Whitehall steals scenes throughout the film as one of the most colorful and sympathetic characters.

Lily Houghton

As the female lead of the film, Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is clearly one of the best characters in the movie. The British botanist is full of idiosyncratic quirks and an adventurous spirit that makes her an ideal companion for Frank, even if her brother McGregor isn't always up to the task.

After a great heist scene that introduces Lily and demonstrates her capabilities, Lily continues to show her character by launching hilarious barbs at Frank while evading danger and searching for the Tree of Life. Blunt owns the role with seamless ease, fully immersing herself in the shoes of a scientist whose admirable virtues match her lovable eccentricities.

Frank Wolff

Dwayne Johnson brings his trademark machismo and charisma to the role of Frank Wolff, the jaded but wizened steamboat captain in charge of transporting the Houghton siblings through the heart of the jungle to find the Tree of Life. As the male protagonist, Wolff's magnetic appeal comes from his status as a reluctant hero who is far more than capable than he lets on.

Moreover, the hilarious zingers and waggish interplay between Frank and Lily make the movie far more entertaining than a typical action-adventure film. Wolff's surprise singing, guitar playing, and silly puns add dimension to the big lug with a heart of gold.

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

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The cast of disney’s jungle cruise talks humor, heart, and adventure.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the amazing… the colossal… the stupendous… the eighth wonder of the world… The back side of water, on the big screen! That’s right, the long-awaited film adaptation of Disney’s Jungle Cruise is finally here, taking the Disney Parks attraction we know and love and bringing it to life. Actors Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, and Edgar Ramírez sat down in July to talk about their new movie, Disney’s Jungle Cruise , when it first came to theaters and Disney+ with Premier Access.

Dwayne Johnson, who plays skipper Frank Wolff, is also a producer on the film. He explains of his decision to climb aboard the project, “I immediately just saw the potential of the opportunity to [adapt] a beloved and iconic Disney ride since 1955 when the park opened. This was Walt Disney's baby.” And the spirit of the attraction is alive in this film. Jack Whitehall, who plays MacGregor Houghton, brother to Emily Blunt’s Lily Houghton, says, “I would say the element to the Jungle Cruise ride that I like the most is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, and I think that that is definitely something that we took over into the movie.” Blunt shares, “I know when [Dwayne] and I first met Jaume [Collet-Serra, the director], we both asked him the same question. We said, ‘Well, what do you feel this movie's about?’ And he goes, "You know, it's about love." It was so perfect, 'cause you could've talked about all the action, the spectacle, and the myths, and the legends, and all that. But that's when I knew in Jaume we had an innate romantic, and a world builder, and that's what you need for this type of movie.”

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Nilo Nemolato

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Background [ ]

Nilo Nemolato is the Italian harbormaster of the Brazilian town of Porto Velho and the owner of " Nilo's River Adventure ", a boat tour attraction along the Amazon River that competed with Frank Wolff 's small Jungle Navigation Company operation. Operating out of a clean boathouse with a small fleet of nice red and white steamer boats, the popularity and prosperity of Nilo's operation has driven Frank into significant financial debt to him, with his parrot Rosita often squawking the phrase "Frank owes me money!". When Nilo repossesses the engine of the La Quila , Frank sneaks into his office to steal the keys to get it back, meeting Lily Houghton in the process and convincing her that he is Nilo. When the ruse is exposed in the cantina below, Frank offers a lower price then Nilo for passage down river. When the Houghtons are followed by the forces of Prince Joaquim and his submarine, their escape from town with Frank ends up resulting in the destruction of Nilo's boathouse.

When the expedition returns from the long journey down river on the cobbled-together scraps of the La Quila , Frank declares that Nilo can finally own what's left of his boat when meeting him at the dock.

Appearances [ ]

Jungle cruise [ ].

Nilo is first seen at the beginning of the film during a tour around the Amazon where the ship is captained by Frank alongside a group of tourists who are present during the tour. After a tour around the Amazon, Frank approaches Nilo Nemolato who explains him to give him money to which Nilo feels dissatisfied for an insufficient amount of money. He then explains to Frank that he borrows money from him to get a new engine for the La Quila , telling him to pay him back for interest, explaining that he will keep his ship's engine for now. Nilo then warns him that if he doesn't get his money on one week, he will keep his whole boat by next week. After a conversation, Frank walks across a bar at the Hotel de Ferreira where he goes to Nilo's office without getting detected by Nemolato himself and arriving there, he finds his pet cockatoo Rosita on her perch. Lily Houghton suddenly bursts into Nilo's office and finds Frank instead of Nilo inside his office.

Later at the bar at the Hotel de Ferreira, Frank is negotiating with Lily about his payment after the tour to which McGregor explains to the two that he found Mr. Nilo himself to which Lily feels upset with him that he deceived him for claiming himself to be Nilo Nemolato just as Lily talks to the real Nilo who would negotiate with her. Later while on their way to the Lágrimas de Cristal while being ambushed by Prince Joachim and his soldiers who are planning to steal the Arrowhead from Lily, Frank ties a rope on a pole where Nilo's boats are docked at where Nilo confronts Frank for trespassing the Nilo's River Adventure property to which Frank manages to starboard his ship to avoid Joachim and his soldiers who are on their way to steal the Arrowhead while Frank continues increasing the engine's speed to avoid getting hit by torpedoes fired by Prince Joachim in a plan to evade him, still passing through, destroying part Nilo's property much to Nilo's fury. Frank manages to escape from Joachim and his men.

At the end of the film when Frank, Lily, McGregor, and Proxima return to Porto Velho via raft, Frank approaches Nilo to which Frank explains to him that he has all the boats in which Nilo thanks him to which Nilo feels startled upon feeling Proxima passing through him just as Frank, Lily, McGregor, and Proxima walk across the docks of Porto Velho before arriving back at England.

Disney Parks [ ]

Jingle cruise [ ].

In the 2021 Jungle Cruise, a crate reading, "Nilo Nemolato" was amongst the dumped Christmas cargo nearby the marooned passengers of the Kwango Kate in the African veldt.

Nilo's pet cockatoo Rosita is based on a character originating from Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and who physically appears in Disneyland's Jungle Cruise and Tropical Hideaway .
Originally, the filmmakers planned on giving Nilo a pet monkey before opting for a bird due to it being easier to work with.
Nilo's office door resembles those seen on the upper floor of the Skipper Canteen . His tour boats are also reminiscent of the red and white candy-striped boats that the original attraction used until the 1990s.
Nilo takes his name from the Italian name of the river Nile. His surname is a tribute to concept-artist Luca Nemolato.

External links [ ]

Nilo Nemolato on the Jungle Cruise Wiki .
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‘Jungle Cruise’ Review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s Bumptious Rom-Com Theme-Park Joyride

The two stars have an undeniable plucky chemistry in a fantasy adventure so rollicking it threatens to turn romance into one more special effect.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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In “ Jungle Cruise ,” a Disney adventure that demonstrates how basing a movie on a theme-park ride may now be a more natural occurence than adapting it from a novel, Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a London researcher-explorer who’s as fearless, in her demure way, as Indiana Jones, and Dwayne Johnson is Frank Wolff, the friendly huckster of a river-boat captain who ferries her down the Amazon at the height of World War I.

He wears a hat just like the one Humphrey Bogart wore in “The African Queen,” and she wears pants — which, of course, were an early adaptation of Katharine Hepburn’s. For anyone old enough, or old-movie-centered enough, to care (which is maybe five percent of this movie’s prospective audience), the banter between these two could be said to evoke Bogart and Hepburn — or, at least, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone.” Frank, a charlatan with a chip on his shoulder, calls Lily “Pants” and tells godawful jokes. She call him “Skippy” and rolls her eyes. And as they go at each other with gusto and bite and a touch of venom, you can sit back and feel, at moments, like you’re at a romantic comedy.

But it’s like watching a romantic comedy while strapped to a roller-coaster with a VR headset on. “Jungle Cruise” is at once a love story, a made-for-4DX action movie, a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-style fairy tale featuring a ghostly conquistador (Edgar Ramirez) and his pewter-armored henchman with digital snakes slithering through their bodies, and God knows what else. Blunt, appealingly brash, makes mincemeat of Frank the lug but lets you know she likes him anyway, and Johnson knows how to deliver a genial putdown that still stings. They’ve got a chemistry, no doubt about it, but in a funny way the romantic pluck of “Jungle Cruise” plays like one more trick effect. You can practically touch the one-liners as they ping off the screen.

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I enjoyed the movie more than I did the two recent “Jumanji” films, because you can kind of pretend that there’s something at stake, and the director, Jaume Collet-Serra, stages it all with a certain breathless bravura. Leaving the dock in the Brazilian jungle where Frank plays P.T. Barnum to gullible tourists, our heroes set off in his barely seaworthy steamboat, only to have to get out of the way of a torpedo launched by Prince Joachim, a Teutonic megalomaniac played by Jesse Plemons with a smirky flourish. The ship plows right into Frank’s docking station, which blows up real good.

There’s a turbulent sequence in which the boat speeds toward a waterfall, and a funny one that fools us into thinking, for a moment, that the movie is going to exploit the woefully outdated stereotype of a “primitive” tribe of cannibals wearing skull masks. (It’s actually mocking it.) Lily has brought her brother, MacGregor, along for the ride, and he’s a pampered dandy who think it’s not dinner unless you’re wearing a dinner jacket. He’s played by Jack Whitehall, in a pinpoint performance that benefits from not having to repress the implication that the character is gay, though it might have benefited even more if his coming-out speech to Frank didn’t dance around the subject nearly as torturously as the old repression.

“Jungle Cruise” is a movie that implicitly asks: What’s wrong with a little good old-fashioned escapism? The answer is: Absolutely nothing, and “Jungle Cruise” is old-fashioned, expect that it pelts the audience with entertainment in such a lively yet bumptious way that at times you may wish you were wearing protective gear. Lily has in her possession a mystical arrowhead, which everyone wants, because it’s the totem that will lead her to the Tears of the Moon, a legendary tree (it’s like the Fountain of Youth) with magical healing properties. That sounds like a Disney MacGuffin, and is, except what struck me after a while is that the real preoccupation of “Jungle Cruise” isn’t romance, or even adventure, but metamorphosis. Tree vines grow and wrap themselves around historic explorers; a fearsome tiger is revealed to be a pussycat; a key character turns out to be 400 years old; a theme-park ride turns into a love story and then back again. All that remains unchanged is the price of an oversize box of Raisinets.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, July 26, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 127 MIN.

Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Davis Entertainment Company, Seven Bucks/Flynn Picture Co. production. Producers: John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia. Executive producers: Scott Sheldon, Doug Merrifield.
Crew: Director: Jaume Collet-Serra. Screenplay: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Camera: Flavio Labiano. Editor: Joel Negron. Music: James Newton Howard.
With: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutierrez.

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Jungle Cruise - Full Cast & Crew

50 Metascore
2 hr 9 mins
Fantasy, Family, Action & Adventure
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In the Amazon, riverboat captain Frank Wolff encounters English researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, who looks to study a fabled tree with healing properties. As Frank and Lily navigate the risks of the rainforest, they cross a cohort of foes determined to use the tree for nefarious purposes. Inspired by the theme park ride at Disneyland.

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Dwayne johnson and emily blunt in ‘jungle cruise’: film review.

The perennial Disneyland theme park ride goes the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' route with Jaume Collet-Serra's big-screen adventure, in which Amazon explorers encounter threats both human and supernatural.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Of all the longtime favorite rides of the Disneyland theme parks, the Jungle Cruise , introduced in 1955, is among the most enduringly captivating. Sailing on a 1930s British steamer down the major rivers of Southeast Asia, Africa and South America through lush vegetation, accompanied by a skipper with a weakness for bad puns while Audio-Animatronic animals pop up in the waterways or on the riverbanks, the quaint Adventureland attraction is the very definition of transporting. Those central elements survive in Disney’s big-screen offshoot, though just barely, given the writers’ assiduous efforts to drown them in overplotting.

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra is usually found putting Liam Neeson through his B-movie action-man paces, or, more memorably, pitting Blake Lively against a pesky shark in The Shallows . But family-friendly humor isn’t quite his strong point, and the absence of a light touch here means that even the teasing banter and sexual tension between appealing leads Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt is a bit stiff. By the time they start wrestling with 400-year-old undead conquistadors and an evil spawn of the German kaiser who navigates the Amazon in a submarine, you probably won’t much care if they find the elusive object of their expedition, let alone seal it with a kiss.

Full credits

Distributor: Disney/Disney+ Production companies: David Entertainment Company, Seven Bucks, Flynn Picture Co. Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutiérrez Director: Jaume Collet-Serra Screenwriters: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa; story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Ficarra, Requa Producers: John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia Executive producers: Scott Sheldon, Doug Merrifield Director of photography: Flavio Labiano Production designer: Jean-Vincent Puzos Costume designer: Paco Delgado Music: James Newton Howard Editor: Joel Negron Visual effects supervisors: Jim Berney, Jake Morrison Casting: Mary Vernieu, Marisol Roncali

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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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New trailer released for disney’s “jungle cruise” starring dwayne johnson and emily blunt coming to theaters and on disney+ with premier access july 30 .

This morning, Good Morning America gave fans an exclusive look at the new trailer for Disney’s “Jungle Cruise,” and now the full trailer—bursting with thrills, laughs and surprises—is available, along with a new poster and images from the trailer. “Jungle Cruise” will release simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on Friday, July 30.

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.

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Film / Jungle Cruise

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Jungle Cruise is a 2021 adventure film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the Disney Theme Parks ride of the same name , and in turn loosely based on The African Queen , the film that inspired the ride.

Set during the early 20th century, a riverboat captain named Frank Wolff ( Dwayne Johnson ) takes Lily Houghton ( Emily Blunt ), an English scientist, and her brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ) on a mission into a jungle to find the Tree of Life, which is believed to possess healing powers. All the while, the trio must fight against dangerous wild animals, a competing German expedition and a rather unexpected enemy .

The film also stars Édgar Ramírez , Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti . It was released on July 30, 2021, simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access. The film became available to all Disney+ subscribers on November 12, 2021. In August 2021, it was announced a sequel, again featuring Johnson and Blunt, had been greenlit.

Jungle Cruise contains examples of:

Accidental Murder : MacGregor punches Joachim into a wall, who then happens to be crushed by a piece of stone that falls from above. MacGregor immediately lampshades that he didn't mean for that to happen.
Action Girl : Lily is quite the swashbuckler, having even more stunts than Frank, as well as throwing a pretty solid punch.
Adaptation Expansion : Like with Pirates of the Caribbean , Jungle Cruise adds plenty of new characters and lore that didn't exist in the original ride, such as the Tears of the Moon, the tree that can heal anything, the Conquistadors who were cursed while trying to take it, the Germans seeking to seize it for their war effort, and many of the Amazon creatures in general as the Amazon River has the most minimal role of all the rivers in the ride, being primarily represented by piranhas or Inspiration Falls depending on the version.
Affectionate Nickname : Lily and Frank playfully refer to each other as "Pants" and "Skippy" respectively.
Agony of the Feet : Shortly after getting the arrowhead from the society, Lily and MacGregor recount an incident where he apparently lost two toes from an expedition to Bhutan when he was 7 when MacGregor is arguing against joining her on her planned Amazon trip. Later, he hurts the other foot when escaping from Aguirre and his men.
All Animals Are Dogs : Proxima the jaguar acts a lot like a dog.
Ambiguously Gay : MacGregor is rather heavily implied to be gay, but not explicitly said to be so. He admits to Frank that he has rejected three attempts by his family to marry him off to highborn young ladies because his affections lie "elsewhere," and his sister Lily is the only relative who doesn't regard him with disgust. Given the social conventions of upper-class Edwardian English society, it's possible that he's talking about being in love with a working-class woman , but his evasive description (and the fact that he's an able-bodied military-age male who's not in the army at the height of WWI), and the fact he never mentions an actual love interest and the specification that he could not accept any offer (which could be loyalty to another woman he has fallen for, but is more likely to mean that the issue is in the gender) pushes the audience's suspicions pretty far in the other direction. It's worth noting that this is accurate for the time period the movie is set in.
Amusing Injuries : Poor Frank gets punched a whole lot. And after he's revealed to be immortal, he gets even worse, since he can survive things like being stabbed, shot, and attacked by piranha.
And I Must Scream : Tired of Aguirre and his crew constantly tracking him down, Francisco lured them into a trap that dropped them down into a cave out of sight of the river. When the jungle tried to drag them back, they were immobilized, turned to stone, and their bodies began to erode, becoming part of the jungle itself. At the end, he leaves them in the same state once again, and nearly suffers this fate himself.
And Starring : "With Jesse Plemons , And Paul Giamatti "
…And That Little Girl Was Me : At one point, Lily and Frank discuss Aguirre's cartographer, with Frank saying that he spent his life searching for the Tears of the Moon to no avail. He fails to mention that he was said cartographer, and had been searching for the Tears of the Moon for centuries.
Angry, Angry Hippos : Invoked. During his boats trips, Frank uses a fake hippopotamus to scare the tourists, even though (As one of the tourists points out) hippos don't live in the Amazon.
When Joachim shoots at Frank's steamboat with dual mounted machine guns, he runs out of ammo, calls for "reload", and then sits around as if he expects it to happen automatically (the actual reloading process occurs offscreen). The guns he's using have ammo drums that have to be swapped out manually.
At least one of the German soldiers uses an American shotgun despite being a member of the Imperial German Navy (and Imperial Germany's contentious relationship with shotguns on the battlefield, which they insisted was a war crime ).
Frank's riverboat, La Quila , doesn't make much sense mechanically. The "engine" seen being lifted out of the ship near the start of the film looks vaguely like a dressed-up steam engine piston assembly, but it has no obvious physical connection to the firebox or propeller (such connections would also make the engine more difficult to remove and reattach than shown). The firebox is misplaced, being located in a stove-like chamber at the base of the (excessively large) funnel instead of being under the boiler (which either doesn't exist, or is also not where it should be). The mechanical parts of the ship in general are overdressed with pointless components and pipes while the actual working parts are too small for a boat the size and speed of the Quila (an engine with one or two pistons, a stove-size firebox, and a boiler small enough to stow away are more fitting for the small steam launches used by the real-life ride).
The interior of Joachim's U-Boat is excessively roomy, to the point where it's not immediately obvious that the scenes taking place in his personal study are actually inside a part of the sub until he opens the door. Needless to say, this sort of accommodation would not be possible in a World War One-era submarine (which were notoriously cramped, greasy, and generally filthy).
Aristocrats Are Evil : Prince Joachim is one of the main antagonists of the movie, seeking the Tree of Life to use its powers to win the war for Imperial Germany.
MacGregor sums up Lily's excursion at the Society. MacGregor: Breaking and entering, larceny and, worst of all, having to take public transport.
At the end, when MacGregor is telling the Society about the adventure, they seem to take in all the crazy exploits, the battles with evil Germans and the undead monstrous conquistadors...but it's when he mentions a woman being chief of a native tribe that the Society members act in outraged disbelief, as if they're unaware of the female monarchs their own country has had in the past—including Queen Victoria, whose reign had only ended with her death in 1901, well within living memory of the setting .
Awesome, but Impractical : A German U-boat might have allowed Joachim to smuggle himself and a crew of supporters into the Amazon river undetected, as well as boasting more offensive capability that anything else in the river, but U-boats were built for the open ocean, not rivers. Even a river as big as the Amazon can only barely fit the sub, and the closest it gets to being a threat is at the start of the journey, when the river mouth is widest and Joachim can maneuver without too much difficultly, allowing him to bring the guns and torpedoes on board to bear against Frank's decisively less well-equipped craft, but once Frank used his boat's smaller size and greater agility to his advantage, Joachim accomplishes little to inconvenience him, save wrecking Nilo's rival boating company in the crossfire. By the time of the Final Battle , the submarine becomes beached when Frank and Lily uncover the secret entrance to the Tears of the Moon through lowering the water level in the basin they're in, whereas Frank's boat can still proceed through to the tree no problem. Frank: Who brings a submarine to the Amazon?
The Barnum : Frank's "thrilling" cruise is purposefully engineered to be exciting without any real danger, using fake submerged hippos and natives acting the part of blowgun-wielding "marauders".
Beastly Bloodsports : In the bar where Lily and MacGregor meet Frank, some fights between spiders and scorpions are organized.
Been There, Shaped History : A mild case as it turns out Frank is the one who founded the town he lives in centuries before .
Belligerent Sexual Tension : It does not take long after Frank and Lily meet for them to start bickering, giving each other sassy nicknames, and saving each other's lives .
Big Bad Duumvirate : Prince Joachim and Lope de Aguirre are the main villains of the movie.
Bilingual Bonus : The name of Frank's original rescued animal was the Spanish phrase La Proxima note (Meaning "The Next") . It was also the name of the next one, and the next one, and the next one.
Bling of War : Aguirre's armor was both more ornamental than the rest of his troops and gilded with gold.
Bloodless Carnage : Justified in Frank's case as a side-effect of the curse prevents him from losing any blood. When the curse stops working again, he happily notes that he's bleeding .
Book Ends : The film begins with MacGregor giving a speech to the Society, stuttering and using cue cards from Lily while going along as a distraction to ask for their approval. The movie ends with him giving his own speech and fully confident after his Character Development , soundly and rightfully rejecting their request for Lily to join on her own behalf.
Brick Joke : Early on in the film, Lily taunts Joachim by switching the arrowhead in it's container with a Toucan toy that was in the same packaging crate. Joachim keeps hold of it, and in the finale Frank does the same thing to Aguirre, pretending the Toucan toy wrapped up in a cloth is the Petal they're fighting over to distract him long enough for his boat to ram and block the river entrance to the chamber they're in, activating their curse's restrictions against all 5 of them .
Brother–Sister Team : Lily and MacGregor Houghton. Lily's adventurous and determined, and MacGregor goes with her to keep her out of trouble. Also counts as Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy .
Poor Nilo, getting his boating company caught in the crossfire of a submarine .
Also MacGregor, who gets repeatedly dragged into his sister Lily's adventures. Apparently, one such expedition cost him two toes.
But Not Too Gay : Billed as yet Disney's most recent "first openly gay character" note (after Artie in Cruella , LeFou in Beauty and the Beast , Officer Spector in Onward , Larma D’Acy and Wrobie Tyce in The Rise of Skywalker and that one guy Joe Russo played in Avengers: Endgame ) MacGregor merely says his "interests lie elsewhere" when discussing his past refusal to marry. (Just to cement that it's this trope, he talks of being ostracized because of "who I love," but has no love interest whatsoever in the film.) Justified in that the timeframe is WW1 and England was known to arrest gay people for 'crime of indecency' so he at least has an excuse of not wanting to discuss it out-loud.
Cloudcuckoolander's Minder : MacGregor is a downplayed example. Lily has a tendency to let her adventurous tendencies get the better of her, while the cooler-headed MacGregor helps to save her from whatever situation she's put herself in. The opening demonstrates this well when Lily is hanging over a busy street, and MacGregor gets a double-decker bus to stop under her, allowing her to drop down safely.
Complete Immortality : The conquistadors including Frank are immune to any form of death, including old age or injury. No matter how damaged they are, they'll just regenerate. The only way to circumvent this is to break their curse with the Tears of the Moon.
Curse Cut Short : Frank gets out an "Oh, shi—" before getting taken out with a tranquilizer dart.
Deadpan Snarker : How MacGregor copes with the situation.
Death by Looking Up : MacGregor knocks Joachim against a wall that causes a pillar to fall on top of him, though he has enough time to let out an "Oh scheiße " before he's crushed.
Death Seeker : Frank, after experiencing Who Wants to Live Forever? . He gets over it after Lily lifts his curse and instead goes to London with her to live out his natural lifespan.
Deliberate Injury Gambit : Lily pulls off one by proxy in the finale, shooting Frank to make it look like she was betraying him for a chance at the Tears of the Moon. He wasn't really affected because of his curse, but it gave him the opportunity to fake it and go to rescue MacGregor.
Department of Redundancy Department : "Trader Sam likes a trade."
Lope de Aguirre was this, relentlessly venturing further into the Amazon jungle no matter how many losses he suffered, from his ship, to his crew falling one by one, to eventually himself succumbing to either exhaustion or disease before the natives found him and nursed him back to health. Francisco reveals this was because his daughter was deathly ill, and he hoped to cure her with the petals, but it's tragically Deconstructed as this very trait of his is ultimately what damns him to a Fate Worse than Death twice over. The native chief cursed him and bound him to the river because he refused to turn back after finally finding proof of the Tears of the Moon and was willing to slaughter both the natives and even his own brother-in-arms Francisco if it meant getting the arrowhead, and his refusal to accept the consequences of his actions lead to him instead blaming Francisco when he became included in the conquistador's curse, hunting him down and repeatedly killing him over the years until Franciso was forced to subject him to Taken for Granite , because he would never stop coming after him otherwise .
Lily is also a good example. She will get the Tears of the Moon, and no undead conquistadores, German royalty, river rapids, naysaying from Frank, or sexist gentleman's club will stop her. Frank: You should give up! Lily: You should give up the guitar !
Disney Death : Happens to Frank twice. First, during a fight with Aguirre, he's stabbed through the heart and falls into the river. Then it turns out that he's immortal. And later at the end of the final battle, he sacrifices himself by ramming his boat to block the river in order to defeat Aguirre once and for all, turning himself, Aguirre, and his men into stone. Then Lily gives him the petal, which revives him.
Don't Explain the Joke : After making a pun about a pair of toucans fighting over something to eat (a game only two can play) that falls flat, Frank starts explaining that they're toucans and only two can play...get it? His passengers aren't impressed.
Dragon with an Agenda : Prince Joachim indulges in some Evil Gloating about how first he will use the Tears to win the war, then Take Over the World , and finally "reign forever." Given that he's the youngest son of Kaiser Wilhelm, it sure doesn't sound like he plans on sharing immortality with Papa Willy or any of his five big brothers or his younger sister.
Dwindling Party : Aguirre's expedition got hit with this, first losing their ship on the mouth of the river, then the entire crew dying one by one to the dangers of the jungle, with only 5 conquistadors, including Aguirre himself, being left on the verge of death by the time the native tribe found them and nursed them back to health with the Tears of the Moon. Then that number dwindles down to 4 once Francisco turns on his compatriots when they start killing the natives to get the arrowhead .
Dying Curse : After being stabbed, the chief used his last breath to lay a curse on the five conquistadors to live forever yet never be allowed to leave view of the Amazon River. This also saved his daughter, who had the Arrowhead, as the jungle dragged Aguirre away from her.
Evil Is Petty : Prince Joachim's not only a greedy bastard, but he's also quite vindictive shown in the Royal Society at the beginning of the film when he murders many of Sir James's workers with his own hands just because the latter unintentionally mispronounced his name.
Evil Makes You Monstrous : Unlike the similar curse in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl , the Conquistadores' curse doesn't specifically do anything to their appearance, as demonstrated by Frank/Francisco, their Token Good Teammate who looks totally normal . Their current Body Horror is the indirect result of continuing to be evil after being cursed. Francisco had to trap them in a cave away from the Amazon to stop them pursuing him. Since they were suddenly away from the river, the jungle tried to pull them back, but it couldn't get them through the surrounding stone, and instead merged them with the surroundings. Even after they're re-animated by Joachim bringing the river to them, their original bodies have suffered so badly from erosion that they were replaced with things like bees, mud, and snakes. Had they not gone after Francisco, they'd look much the same as they always had.
Exact Words : When Joachim said that only one of them can get the petal, he asks Frank if was willing to give up his petal for Lily. Frank specifically said Lilly will have to kill him for it. So she does. Or more specifically, she helps him fake his death so he could go help MacGregor.
Fate Worse than Death : The conquistadors were cursed with immortality at the cost that they would always be drawn back to the river if they tried to go out of visual range of it. Later, Francisco (Frank) managed to trap them in a pit so that they would be kept away from the river for centuries, their bodies collapsing and being 'replaced' by things ranging from bees to snakes until the German forces detonated explosives to send the river into the pit . This happens again at the end, when the heroes use Frank's riverboat to cut off the flow of water into the temple; the curse drags them into the temple walls, where they will presumably stay forever .
Five-Second Foreshadowing : Aquirre mentions getting revenge on a man named "Francisco" one minute before the reveal that Frank is a former member of their group and is cursed as well .
Frank looks surprised when Lily shows the map...which makes sense as he drew it and is amazed a copy got to England .
In said staged fight, when Frank wrestles with the jaguar on the ground, he sees a scorpion skittering towards the cat and immediately throws her to the other side (and when he sees a spider on that side, he tosses her up and onto a table), showing that he's clearly manipulating the fight to keep Proxima away from anything that might actually hurt her. He is also more concerned about Proxima's safety than his own, since he is effectively immortal.
During the fight Proxima bites Frank's arm, later prompting him to remark that she did it "way too hard". Such a bite would have, at the very least, left Frank with a noticeably bleeding wound, yet he appears perfectly fine. One may wave it off as being part of the ruse, or a fumble of the FX crew, but it's actually a subtle hint at him being unable to bleed due to his curse .
Frank looks noticeably shaken when he sees the arrowhead Lily's wearing around her neck and becomes insistent upon being the one to take her on the cruise to find the Tree, even after she's discovered his lies about being Nilo, whereas before he was determined to take her on a safe, but enjoyable trip to get her money to pay for his boat back. At first, this seems to be foreshadowing that Frank had himself been searching for the Tree before giving up and deciding to become a Riverboat skipper after failing to find it for years, but instead it's because he's literally just seen the key to breaking his curse dangled right in front of him and knows Lily is actually serious about finding the tree .
Frank complains Proxima is "the worst cat I've ever had." This seems a joke at first until you learn Proxima is only the latest in the long line of cats Frank has owned over the centuries, all sharing the same name .
During a conversation with MacGregor Frank reveals that he speaks Latin which was the dominant lingua franca of European scholars prior to the 18th century. As a cartographer Frank would likely have been versed in this language as part of his education.
Frank makes reference to having "run out of things to draw" before it's revealed that he was the cartographer for the conquistador's expedition through the Amazon and has spent centuries drawing maps of the region .
When Frank and Lily meet the mutated Aguirre, Lily is surprised that the legend of the Conquistadors is true, while Frank just says "this is impossible." Frank already knew the curse was real, because he was one of the conquistadors and is the reason they were trapped, thus he isn't surprised that Aguirre is alive, just that he escaped the cave.
Frank initially nicknames Lily as "Pants", mainly out of his jokes about seeing a woman wearing pants. While it could easily be chalked up to it being an unusual sight in the Amazon, it may also be combined with Frank's lack of knowledge about the world beyond the Amazon due to his curse, not to mention his age; seeing as it's been a while since he was last in an actual city and may literally not be used to seeing women wear such clothing to begin with. It's not just him either; the conquistadors similarly refer to Lily as the "woman in pants", which hints at both Frank's true age and his history with them.
Observant viewers will realize that the terms of the conquistador's curse, that they are 'never to leave sight of the river again' fits neatly in with Frank's job as a riverboat captain who has intricate knowledge of the estuaries and layout of the jungle landscape.
When talking about the local legend that some types of fish in the river as shapeshifter spirits who will curse them with bad nightmares for life if they look them in the eye, Frank warns Lily and MacGregor that 'If you believe in legends, you should believe in curses too.' Whilst it seems to be foreshadowing the fact that the conquistador's curse is Real After All , it's actually foreshadowing that Frank himself has first-hand experience with the curse, being a member of the conquistador's party 400 years ago.
During Frank's conversation with MacGregor, he has somewhat doubtful expression when MacGregor claims there haven't been any conquistadors in the area for 300 years. Because MacGregor is claiming the cursed conquistadors weren't real, to one of the conquistadors in question .
Counts more as Five-Second Foreshadowing , but when Frank is impaled by Aguirre, he seems remarkably unconcerned with the mortal wound, pulling himself closer on the blade to grab the arrowhead from one of Aguirre's snakes and throwing it to Lily even as he falls off the tree, showing remarkable clarity of mind for somebody who's about to die. It turns out that Frank's actually immortal, and has apparently been impaled before. Repeatedly .
Frank is negotiating with the natives in their own language. After a few moments, we see the translation where Frank is surprisingly outspoken about Lily being difficult and blasé about their lives in danger. This sets up the reveal the tribe and Frank are working together and this is all a huge performance . A similar foreshadowing can be taken from earlier in the film where the natives who "attacked" Frank's tour group were obviously also putting on a performance .
Early in the movie, Frank jokingly claims that Zaqueu looks 10, but is actually 47. Frank is actually the one who is significantly older than he looks .
In the first scene where Frank is giving a jungle cruise to tourists, he points out two toucans fighting over food ("a game only two can play") . This foreshadows the role of the toucan figurine when two characters are fighting over either the Tears of the Moon or the arrowhead, where the loser is tricked into fighting over the figurine instead.
When Frank gets punched by either of the Houghton siblings, he comments on their "strong form." While this is expected for Lily , he also says it about MacGregor. MacGregor happens to be an amateur boxer.
Frank seems to be incredibly fond of his riverboat and refuses to part with her or replace her, despite her being...past her prime (to put it mildly) . Turns out, he built the boat by hand 400 years ago and she has been his home the whole time, which explains his reluctance to part with her.
Why would Frank be particularly cold and dismissive of the Houghton siblings, even treating them exploitatively in the first acts? As someone cursed to be immortal, he has already buried many of his friends so he does not want his heart broken again. The emotional distancing has become a coping mechanism.
Friendship Moment : Frank explaining to Lily his full backstory for the first time including his true name and why he was also chasing after the Tears of the Moon marks the moment the two characters were able to finally trust each other.
Funny Background Event : While Frank is tossing MacGregor's bags in the river, a group of locals on a rowboat can be seen snagging the luggage for themselves.
Gaia's Vengeance : The Conquistador that's made out of Bees Wax, is dripping honey, and has bees following him everywhere is none too pleased when Prince Joachim kills some of his bees. He learns about it because one of them managed to escape and flew back to tell him. When he appears he says quite angrily "I've been told you were not nice to my little friends."
Gender Flip : The male shrunken head salesman Trader Sam is switched into the female chief of the native tribe.
Got Me Doing It : Lily unleashes a bad pun at the end, as Frank had been doing throughout the movie.
Guilt by Association Gag : A dramatic example. Francisco, who would eventually be known as Frank, was included in the curse on the conquistadors despite turning on them in order to protect the native village.
He Knows Too Much : After his identity is accidentally revealed, Joachim kills everyone who was in earshot of it. Justified as he is a German aristocrat in the middle of London during World War I .
Heroic Sacrifice : Frank uses La Quila to block the river and petrify the conquistadors once more... at the cost of the curse getting him too. Thankfully, it doesn't last long before Lily cures him.
Prince Joachim Franz Humbert of Prussia, youngest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II. note The real Prince Joachim, between being unable to adjust to his change in status after his father was deposed and his marriage falling apart, killed himself in 1920. He also reportedly did not speak English.
Lope de Aguirre, the 16th Century Spanish conquistador, who's been trapped in the Amazon jungle since his supposed death. His comrades (Melchor, Sancho, and Gonzalo) are all names of historical figures relevant to Aguirre's conquest of Peru.
Prince Joachim of Prussia was a real person; he did serve in the German army during the First World War but doesn't seem to have been particularly villainous. Indeed Irish rebels against the British during the Easter Rising in 1916 even considered offering him the throne of an independent Ireland in the event of a German victory. Overlaps with Death by Adaptation as the real Joachim survived the war only to take his own life in 1920 after Germany became a republic and his marriage had fallen apart.
However, the trope is also downplayed: Joachim is a villain mostly because he opposes the heroes, and while his goal is not admirable in the slightest using a magical remedy to win the war and extend his own life keeping the monopoly of it are pretty understandable goals for a member of a royal family. His villainous actions are done in pursuit of that goal rather than out of malice. He is also one of only two men never shown to be dismissive of Lily because of her gender.
Hollywood Natives : Invoked by Frank, who works with the Puka Michuna as part of his show, with the tribal leader, Trader Sam, even commenting on how ridiculous the whole show is, and the tribe is actually quite normal, even if they aren't entirely aware of outside happenings.
Humanoid Abomination : The conquistadors, sans Frank , due to a side effect of their curse; when they're freed after having been petrified for centuries, erosion had done a serious number on their bodies and they have to take elements from the surrounding area to fill in the missing parts. Aguirre himself is mostly snakes, and his men are made of beehives, mud, and tree branches respectively.
I Ate WHAT?! : Subverted. When MacGregor drinks what he thinks is beer at the native tribe, Frank points out it's actually fermented spit. Though initially disgusted, MacGregor continues to drink it anyways. It is also a sign of character development.
Improperly Placed Firearms : A minor example where one of the U-boat crew threatens Frank with a Winchester '97 12-gauge. The Germans had a major cultural aversion to shotguns being used as combat weapons, enough that in 1918 they threatened to execute any American captured with one as a war criminal note the US called them out on it, citing their liberal use of flamethrowers and poison gas , and promised to execute all German POWs if they tried it; the Germans quickly backed down . So although not impossible, it is highly unlikely that any German grunt would even possess, much less use, a combat shotgun.
Inevitable Waterfall : Frank and Lily's boat heads towards a waterfall at one point when sailing down the rapids. They almost end up going over it because Frank gets distracted messing around with Lily and fails to notice they've missed the turn into the safer river path.
Invincible Hero : Frank puts on the persona of being one in his river cruises, pretending to be an experienced skipper who can handle any dangers the jungle throws at him and his passengers with ease and cracking jokes all the time. Then it turns out he's literally this, as one of the five conquistadors who were cursed by the chief, he literally cannot die or be meaningfully hurt by any dangers of the jungle, and has apparently been stabbed by weapons often enough that Trader Sam has gotten tired of pulling them out of him and offers advice to Lily on how to best yank out a sword Frank's impaled by .
In-Universe Factoid Failure : One of the fake menaces Frank brings up to the tourists is a hippopotamus, but (as one girl points out) there are no hippos in the Amazon.
Invincible Villain : The conquistadors are cursed and utterly unkillable, with the heroes being able to fight them off, but not being able to keep them down for long, and unlike the cursed pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean , breaking their curse isn't easily achievable, as it requires the Tears of the Moon, which only bloom rarely in a secret location, so the heroes' only real choice is to Run or Die . Thankfully, the 'run' option is made more practical by the curse, as the Conquistadores can only pursue targets so far before they're dragged back to the river.
I Take Offense to That Last One : Of all the snide remarks that Lily makes to Frank, the one that really gets to him is the accusation of playing his guitar off-key.
Frank desperately wants the Tears of the Moon flower so he can break his 400 year old curse. When there was only one flower, he decides to not only give it to Lily, but to also allow himself to be turned into stone (while also trapping the other conquistadors) to save Lily's life.
Downplayed on Lily's part. Although the consequences of her giving the last Tears of the Moon to Frank to break his curse isn't as dramatic, it meant all of the effort and money she has spent on finding the flower would have gone to waste, not to mention the possible flak she would have received for failing to get a specimen of the flower.
Subverted Trope : see Karmic Jackpot
Jerkass Has a Point : Joachim doesn't have any noble purpose regarding the flower, but he is right in pointing out that Lily owes nothing to the association that wouldn't accept him because of her gender (noticeably, he is the only man beside MacGregor to never disregard her because of it, in his first appearance seeming genuinely impressed by her pointing out that the association mislabeled an artifact). Lily does end up choosing to reject the association in the end because of their mistreatment.
Karmic Jackpot : Lily gives up the single petal she has to revive Frank. The moonlight then happens to illuminate a single branch, allowing another to bloom for her to take.
Frank is generally cynical, doesn't think Lily can find the Tears of the Moon, and runs a tourist attraction full of fake thrills . He's also willing to put himself on the line to save Lily and Trader Sam's tribe. And during Lope de Aguirre's expedition, he was the only one to turn against Aguirre when he decided to massacre the tribe that took him in.
MacGregor really doesn't like the jungle and also doesn't think the legends are real. But that doesn't matter to him, because Lily's his sister (and the only member of his family who didn't disown him for his homosexuality), and he'd follow her into a volcano .
Lame Pun Reaction : Frank's many puns are often met with groans. One child begs her mother to make him stop.
Large and in Charge : Frank is the skipper of the boat and it's mentioned several times how big he is. He's played by 6'5"/196cm, 260lb/118kg Dwayne Johnson. This actually becomes a plot point, as it means Frank is too large to fit through the underwater ruins blocking the entrance to the tree's location, and has to help Lily overcome her inability to swim to reach the lever that opens the way .
Let's Get Dangerous! : MacGregor is presented as an Upper-Class Twit who is shown to hate the jungle, behaves quite effeminately (he's quite possibly gay) and brings an absurd amount of luggage on a trip up the Amazon River. He's also a Queensberry Rules boxer, and proves himself to be a very competent fighter when he completely levels the German submariners during the finale. He's even the one who takes out Prince Joachim, albeit partially by accident.
Logical Weakness : Albeit an impractical one; the Conquistadores' curse restricts them to the immediate vicinity of the Amazon river. If you really want them away from somewhere, you can re-route the river, changing where the curse allows them to go. Of course, this does require significant effort (it's not easy to change the course of the world's largest river), but it's how Joachim awakens the Conquistadores to help him out- he uses explosives to direct the river partially into the cave where they were trapped. It's also how the heroes defeat the Conquistadores in the end, using Frank's steamboat as an impromptu dam to suddenly define the area they were in as 'too far from the river'.
Logo Joke : The bay in the Disney logo is seen to have purple water, and after the Disney logo fully appears the camera dives into the water.
Lots of Luggage : MacGregor brings an absurd amount of luggage for a trip up the Amazon. Frank promptly throws most of it overboard.
Lovecraftian Superpower : The trapped Conquistadores have had parts of their body replaced by jungle. This makes them "disgusting" in the words of one and makes Aguirre wonder if they still have souls, but it allows them to control the wildlife in their bodies.
Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy : The adventure-seeking Lily who prefers wearing pants to MacGregor, who always tries to be a Sharp-Dressed Man and be clean, no matter how impractical.
Master of Unlocking : Lily is quite adept at lockpicking and uses it to get things she wants and into places others don't want her to be.
Misplaced Retribution : The native chief cursed all five conquistadors for the slaughter of his tribe, including Francisco, who didn't participate in the massacre and actually helped his daughter escape with the arrowhead his 'allies' were trying to retrieve, thus forever including him in Aguirre's eternal punishment despite not having done anything to deserve it himself. It's Justified though, as it's implied the chief's curse was vaguely-worded enough to count all the conquistadors as a group together, and the majority of them were guilty of shedding innocent blood, so the chief's Dying Curse wasn't able to exclude Francisco, not to mention the fact that the chief wasn't able to see Francisco turning on his comrades to protect his daughter. In addition, it also technically saved Francisco's life, as he was mortally wounded by Aguirre and almost died before the curse affected him.
Misplaced Wildlife : In-Universe . Frank's Jungle Cruise tour includes props of Hippos that he makes move around with loaded weights strategically cut to stimulate the cruise with safe but exciting thrills for the passengers. One little girl tries to point out that hippos aren't native to the Amazon before Frank shushes her.
Motive Decay : Frank reveals Aguirre's quest to find the Tears of the Moon was initially to find a cure for his terminally ill daughter, before he succumbed to anger and slaughtered the natives upon being rejected by the chief on the cusp of achieving his heart's desire. His anger at Francisco/Frank protecting the natives and allowing the chief's daughter to flee with the arrowhead they needed to find the tree lead to him spending their immortal lives hunting Frank down and killing him again and again, despite both of them being immortal and thus the outcome pointless regardless , and his daughter having long succumbed to either her disease or aging over the years. By the present day, he merely wants to break the curse that binds him to the river and give Frank further punishment for the Fate Worse than Death he gave them .
Frank is the Pungeon Master just like the skippers on the ride the film is based on.
The "dangers" of Frank's boat trips for tourists seen in the trailer are as fake as the ride it's based on. Frank also utters the famous "backside of water" line after he secretly cuts a rope to produce a "waterfall" from a sluice pipe hidden above.
Dr. Albert Falls is alluded to through a collection of artifacts discovered on his expedition, including the mysterious arrowhead.
While Frank's riverboat operation is the film's version of the Jungle Navigation Company, the competing "Nilo's River Adventure" bears a closer resemblance to the original Disney ride and the bright red and white boats from pre-90s incarnations. Nilo's office also features a door based on the offices seen on the upper floor of the Skipper Canteen at the Magic Kingdom.
Nilo's cockatoo is Rosita, the missing Birdmobile girl from The Enchanted Tiki Room that later made an appearance in person in the Jungle Cruise/Tiki Room themed restaurant Tropical Hideaway at Disneyland.
The chief of the native tribe is named Trader Sam, albeit a gender-flipped incarnation.
The chamber the Tears of the Moon is hidden in is essentially a Mayincatec version of the sunken temple found at the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo versions of the attraction.
The Navigator : Both Frank and Lily are skilled navigators, Lily because she's been adventuring most of her life and is skilled at reading maps and orienteering, and Frank because he lives and works on the Amazon, and knows every branch and tributary, because he's had centuries to roam them, looking for the Tears of the Moon. In fact, he's the one who drew the very map Lily is using.
Never Say "Die" : Frank uses a lot of euphemisms to talk about his intent to commit suicide after breaking the curse.
No Kill like Overkill : Joachim fires a torpedo against the La Quila , a tiny riverboat.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent : No explanation is ever given for Frank's clear American accent, even though he's living in Brazil and is a 400-year-old Spaniard.
Not So Above It All : At the end of the movie Lily joins in with making puns while driving Frank off into London.
Not-So-Harmless Villain : The Beeswax Conquistador comes off as the least threatening of the cursed conquistadors, being knocked out and incapacitated twice by mundane means whereas his more threatening compatriots require more effort to subdue, as well as partially enjoying his cursed state because he now tastes delicious, but his connection to the bees nesting inside him means that the conquistadors have a long-range spy network, able to communicate with Joachim and send him after Frank and the others when they evade the cursed group, as well as tracking them down for the Final Battle when one bee escape Joachim's attempts to crush them all and prevent the conquistadors finding the tree.
Only in It for the Money : Frank only reacts to Lily's demand for a river trip when she starts talking about her wealth, in part because he needs to make 5000 Real in one week in order to pay off his debt to Nilo in order to keep his boat, and his livelihood. This then becomes subverted when he catches a glimpse of the Arrowhead hanging around her neck, as it offers an opportunity for him to finally break his curse .
Panthera Awesome : Proxima the jaguar. Frank exploits this by training her to fake fights with him to make him look good.
Percussive Maintenance : Lily restarts Frank's engine by giving it a kick.
Piranha Problem : At one point, Frank throws a small rodent into the river to attract piranhas and eat them. Later in the film, a school of piranhas attacks Frank to eat him. Since he's immortal they aren't successful, but the experience is clearly unpleasant for him .
Pocket Protector : Subverted , but the spirit of the trope is there. Towards the climax of the movie, Lily grabs a gun and fakes turning on Frank in order to take Joachim's offer of 'a single petal' from the tree, shooting him so he falls into the water and can then ambush the remaining Germans back on his cruise boat holding MacGregor hostage. Frank actually doesn't have any such protective items to block the bullets, but since he's Immortal , it enables him to convincingly 'fake' getting shot more realistically . The only thing that nearly gives away the ruse is Frank getting equally taken off-guard by Lily's Unspoken Plan Guarantee and needing a second bullet to get the hint.
Politically Correct History : Zigzagged. MacGregor was realistically shunned by most of his family and associates for being gay in the 1910s. When he explains this to Frank, who is a Spaniard that grew up in the 1500s during the country's conservative Catholic environment , Frank is surprisingly open-minded about his sexuality and doesn't judge him. Given Frank's been stuck on the river for 400 years and has likely met plenty of people from all types of cultures and customs, he's had plenty of time to accept such things.
Profane Last Words : Joachim says "Oh scheiße" before being crushed to death.
The Punishment : The Conquistadors certainly don't like their current state, but it allows them some decent, if creepy superpowers , while Frank is entirely human, aside from the immortality . The trope is downplayed because the punishers didn't intend for them to get powers, and their curse does come with the hobble of being unable to go too far from the Amazon river. The chief who cursed them originally wanted them to stop them from pursuing his daughter, and Frank intended to just trap them forever. The reason they are partially made of jungle is because of the effects of erosion on their petrified bodies, and they only escape because Joachim re-directed the river with explosives.
Prussians in Pickelhauben : Apart from Lope de Aguirre , the villains are Imperial Germans, complete with a U-boat. Bonus points for Joachim specifically being the Prince of Prussia.
True to the original ride, Frank can't help but riff off several puns during his touring spiel, much to the annoyance of everyone who goes on a voyage with him. Some of the jokes are directly lifted from the ride's script.
In the ending, Lily teaches Frank how to drive. Lily remarks she has no idea what they're getting into, to which Frank replies, "An automobile". Lily replies that that remark was "exhausting". Geddit?
Ragnarök Proofing : Justified . The cursed Conquistadors use archaic weapons like a musket, crossbow, hatchet and swords that are still in working order and sharp as they're ever been—in the case of the crossbow and cusket they're still able to fire despite their wielders being made of Mud and Beeswax without the substances interfering with the firing mechanisms in any way—alongside armour that's still in usable condition, but it's made clear that this is because the items in question have become fused to their bodies through the centuries, and are thus included in the curse that preserves their existence. At once point, Aguirre chucks a knife at Lily that then turns into a snake, showing that they're basically forming the weapons from the surrounding environment to attack their targets with, when they're not using the parts of the environment they're made of to attack instead.
Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud : When MacGregor reads Lily's prepared statement at the beginning, he says, "Pause for dramatic effect" in front of everybody.
Reduced to Ratburgers : Subverted when Frank shoots a rodent out of a tree and MacGregor asks if he expects him to eat that. Instead he uses it as piranha bait.
Relationship Upgrade : Frank and Lily .
Really 700 Years Old : Frank the skipper is really the 400 year old Francisco, formerly Aguirre's cartographer and right-hand man until the massacre of the natives created a rift between them.
Reimagining the Artifact : Trader Sam and the other native characters are reimagined as native actors Frank hires to provide thrills to his passengers. Sam even mocks the stereotypical costumes they put on to scare Lily and MacGregor.
Revenge Before Reason : Aguirre could make the most of his immortality like Frank has done, but instead he obsesses over punishing him for his betrayal. This forces Frank to inflict a Fate Worse than Death on him.
Running Gag : One of the Houghton siblings getting surprised by Frank and reflexively punching him in the face, which he shrugs off with minor annoyance (and a remark that they have "strong form"). Frank: Every time!
The Savage Indian : Invoked by Frank as one of the "dangers" of the Amazon. At one point, jungle natives start shooting darts at Frank's boat, which is full of tourists; when one actually gets inside the boat instead of just hitting the side, Frank mouths "c'mon!" and gives them a disapproving "that could've hit someone!" look, to which they depart with a sheepish wave of apology, meaning they're just in cahoots with him to provide safe thrills to the tourists.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here : Trader Sam literally jumps ship when Joachim catches up to the heroes and she swims back to her tribe.
Sealed Evil in a Can : Aquirre and his men into were imprisoned in a cave where they couldn't see the river, resulting in them being turned to stone when the curse tried to drag them back and couldn't do it properly. It turns out Frank did it. Joachim sets them free. Frank manages to cut them off from the river inside the temple and seal them away again.
Sealed Evil in a Duel : A variant, in that Frank and Aguirre technically don't have to fight each other, but Aguirre blames him for losing the arrowhead all those centuries ago and takes his anger out on Francisco by repeatedly hunting him down and killing him, even if the curse prevents Francisco from staying dead. Eventually, Frank gets tired of getting repeatedly stabbed and decides to swap this for Sealed Evil in a Can instead .
Self-Inflicted Hell : While cursed to live forever and be unable to leave sight of the river, Aguirre and his men only end up as twisted, undead monsters because they continued to hunt down Frank in the name of Revenge , leading him to trap then in a place where they couldn't return to the river and were left petrified for centuries .
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man : Frank is a gun-toting, rough-and-tumble boat captain and former Spanish conquistador . MacGregor Haughton is a foppish pretty boy, albeit a surprisingly competent Queensberry Rules boxer .
Sharp-Dressed Man : MacGregor insists on being one, impracticality be damned. Both Frank and Lily point out multiple ways that this is a bad idea. He does not remain one for long.
Shot in the Ass : MacGregor gets it with a tranquilizer dart.
The main female character's names are both types of flowers, Lily and Rose.
Frank and Charlie when first starting out, point out that there's only two hours of daylight left, but Lily and Rose points out that that is two hours of extra time to go.
Frank and Charlie point out that the only place to take a bath is the river. However, Lily doesn't take them up on the bath, unlike Rose.
After going through a set of rapids, the main male character expects the female character to want to turn back, but instead they enjoyed it.
Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer : MacGregor's role is greatly de-emphasized in the trailers (the amount of times he's clearly in frame across all of them could be counted on two hands, and his speaking lines on one hand), while Nilo never shows up or is mentioned at all; justified, as Jack Whitehall and Paul Giamatti aren't nearly as internationally famous as Blunt and Johnson are.
Small Role, Big Impact : Dr. Albert Falls is only mentioned in passing, but he found and retrieved the Arrowhead that was required to find the Tears of the Moon. There's also Aguirre's cartographer, who made the maps that Lily and Joachim both use. Subverted with the latter; he's actually a main character.
Something That Begins with "Boring" : MacGregor attempts to play "I Spy" with Trader Sam in the canoe before being ambushed.
Soundtrack Dissonance : In comparison to the film mostly using rousing adventure-movie-style music, the tragic backstory portions instead use a re-recorded version of Metallica 's "Nothing Else Matters".
Staff of Authority : Prince Joachim carries a fancy one that also happens to be a Sword Cane .
Lily doesn't know how to swim.
During the final fight at La Luna Rota, after MacGregor knocks some German soldiers into the water, they are not seen again.
Take Me Instead : When the group is captured by the natives, Frank tries to convince them to let Lily and Macgregor go, insisting that there's no way all three can get out. Subverted when it's revealed that Frank knew all along they weren't in real danger .
Taken for Granite : This is the fate of the conquistadors after Francisco tricked them into falling down a pit far from the river, manipulating the specific wording of their curse against them. When the jungle attempted to drag them back, it couldn't pull them through the rock and they were instead fused into it. By the time Joachim releases them after 300 years, the elements have eroded their petrified bodes enough that they end up forming replacements from the jungle matter around them in facsimiles of their original bodies. Frank exploits this in the climax to petrify them and himself once more .
Taking You with Me : Frank pulls this on Aguirre and the conquistadors during the finale. Ramming his steamer to cut off the river's access to the tree chamber causes the curse to ensnare and petrify all five Spaniards, Frank included . Only a last second intervention prevents this being fatal.
There's No Kill like Overkill : Using a pair of MG-08/15 machine guns against Frank's boat? Reasonable enough if you have murderous intent. Escalating to a torpedo when that fails? Now you're just getting ridiculous.
Tribal Face Paint : When MacGregor befriends some of the locals, one offers what MacGregor assumes to be red face paint. Only after does he learn it's permanent tattoo ink.
Underwater Kiss : Frank does the "Breath of Air" type to Lily (twice) to save her from drowning when she's trapped in an underwater cage.
Undying Loyalty : Despite him loathing his sister's adventurous nature and the scrapes it drags him into, MacGregor states he would still follow Lily into a volcano if he had to, because she's the only member of his family who didn't disown him when it was revealed he was gay (or so he implies.)
Unspoken Plan Guarantee : Lily's plan to trick Joachim at the end is a good example, although it almost fails because Frank is just as in the dark as the audience, and doesn't know he's supposed to fall into the water after she shoots him, so he can swim over to help free MacGregor. Luckily, he gets the hint after the second shot.
Upper-Class Twit : MacGregor is a benign example. He is the sort of guy who tries to take golf clubs on a trip down the Amazon, but he's also the sort of guy who will follow his sister into a volcano because she stood up for him.
Frank has a pet jaguar, showing his deep understanding of the Amazon and the creatures living there. He's also had an ocelot and a cougar over the years.
The Beeswax Conquistador also appears to view the bees nesting in him as allies/companions, referring to them as his "little friends" when confronting Joachim at the sacred tree .
Vomit Chain Reaction : After the rapids, Frank teases Lily about looking seasick and offers some food, prompting her to vomit. This in turn causes MacGregor to vomit to Frank's amusement... until he nearly vomits himself.
Villains Want Mercy : Aguirre begs Frank not to seal him and the other Conquistadors away again as they're being turned back to stone.
The Conquistadors are effectively immortal and possess incredible powers but have to stay in sight of the Amazon at all times. Several times, their attempts to get the arrowhead are thwarted simply because their target ran a bit too far away, and they get dragged away from the chase. Intentionally invoked by the chief who cursed them in the first place, as he wanted to make sure they couldn't catch his daughter as she escaped with the arrowhead.
The Beeswax Conquistador apparently shares a sympathetic connection to the bees nesting in his body. When Frank vents the furnace on his boat into his face, it floods the cabin with smoke and suffocates the bees, causing the Conquistador to faint in addition to the heat causing the honey and beeswax in his body to soften and lose its integrity.
Wham Line : Frank: Actually...it's Francisco. And I'm basically 400 years old.
Wham Shot : When Lily finds Frank washed up on shore after being stabbed, she thinks he miraculously survived...and then sees the sword still sticking out his back with Frank seemingly feeling no pain, let alone bleeding .
What Happened to the Mouse? : Aguirre pursued the tree in order to save his daughter's life, and it was being denied that which drove him to turn on the natives. Despite this it's never mentioned what happened to her and so whether she recovered from her illness or died is left unknown. Justified, as the conquistadors were cursed to be unable to leave the Amazon river, and as such had no real way of finding out her fate.
What Have I Become? : The conquistadors are horrified at what has become of their bodies. Aguirre even wonders if they still have souls after being ravaged by the curse for centuries. However, it's averted by the beeswax conquistador. Mud Conquistador (in Spanish): We're disgusting. Beeswax Conquistador (in Spanish): Speak for yourself. I'm delicious!
Who Wants to Live Forever? : Obviously the cursed conquistadors aren't happy about their situation, but Francisco is shown having lived for so long that he's had to bury every friend he's made since . At the conclusion, Francisco is 'freed' of his immortality and enjoys the chance to live a normal life away from the Amazon even knowing that he will now die of old age . "Everything you see as new, I've seen hundreds of thousands of times."
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? : Lily is afraid of swimming, which is a bit problematic when her latest adventure takes her up the Amazon river.
The Worm That Walks : Aguirre and his fellow conquistadors have had their bodies devolved into this after years of being cut off from the river, with them being made of different jungle parts like snakes, mud and frogs, tree roots and branches, and bee nests.
Wrestler of Beasts : Frank fights a jaguar in front of the protagonists to convince them to hire him. It is later revealed that the jaguar was tamed and the fight was staged.
You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good! : As shown by Frank /Francisco, the conquistadors' curse doesn't actually make them monsters or anything other than Immortal humans who cannot die, age or leave sight of the river for the rest of eternity. Aguirre's pointless anger at Francisco for allowing the chieftain's daughter to flee with the arrowhead instead drives him to spend about 50 years hunting him down and killing him again and again in a pointless demonstration of his wrath towards his former brother-in-arms, rather than doing something productive with the time he had been granted. Whereas Francisco was able to build a small town, and make a livelihood out of the advantages the curse granted him , Aguirre's refusal to do anything other than blame others for his situation instead lead to him being imprisoned by Franciso and devolving into a literal and figurative monster by the present day.
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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

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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.

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

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No Lion, the Skipper Is the Real King of the Jungle Cruise

Bad jokes and puns are part of a Disneyland job that has been immortalized in a new film. Those who’ve held the role at the theme park never really leave it behind.

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By Kathryn Shattuck

In 1916 Brazil, Skipper Frank Wolff runs the cheapest jungle cruise on the Amazon. And undoubtedly the cheesiest, as he introduces tourists to the river’s wondrous sights with a spiel overflowing with doozies.

“If you look to the left of the boat, you’ll see some very playful toucans. They’re playing their favorite game of beak-wrestling. The only drawback is, only two can play.”

“The rocks you see here in the river are sandstone. But some people just take them for granite. It’s one of my boulder attractions.”

And the highlight of the tour: “Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the eighth wonder of the world,” he says, building toward the climax, as his rickety steamboat passes behind a makeshift waterfall. “Wait for it … the backside of water!”

Frank’s guests may groan and roll their eyes at his droll banter in Disney’s “ Jungle Cruise ,” starring Dwayne Johnson as the swaggering skipper and arriving July 30 on Disney+ and in theaters. But the skippers and their spiels — corny jokes and bad puns, the cringier the better — have been the real stars of the Jungle Cruise attraction since the first one opened at Disneyland in 1955. Take them away and the seven-minute fantasy boat trip along rivers in South America, Asia and Africa, inspired in part by “The African Queen,” might be just another ride down a fake waterway with fake scenery.

It’s also one of the rare performing jobs at a Disney theme park where the skippers can weave their own personalities into the script — from dry and geeky to animated and flamboyant — and get guests in on the action. “It’s this alchemy that happens” that few attractions can replicate, said Alex Williams, a former skipper who now works for the Disney fan club D23.

With the new movie as well as the ride’s freshly reimagined story line, the Jungle Cruise is in the spotlight now, and no one is feeling it more than the skippers themselves.

“We’re all just really excited about being able to share this experience with everyone and being the inspiration for the movie,” said Flor Torres, a “lead” on the attraction.

“Once a skip, always a skip.” That’s the motto of skippers who’ve held a job requiring them to maneuver a boat while performing a stand-up routine dozens of times across an eight-hour day.

“People really take that to heart,” Torres added of the motto. “I know skippers that have worked here maybe 20, 30 years ago, and they still come by and talk to us like they were just here yesterday.”

A handful have wisecracked their way to bigger stages, like Ron Ziegler , the White House press secretary for President Richard M. Nixon; the filmmaker John Lasseter ; Steve Franks, a screenwriter and the creator of the TV series “Psych”; and, it’s said, the actor Kevin Costner. (Alas, stories that Robin Williams and Steve Martin honed their humor at the helm are apparently only myths.)

Other former skippers have recounted their experiences on podcasts like “Tales From the Jungle Crews” and “The Backside of Water,” or provided pandemic uplift in Freddy Martin’s “World Famous Jungle Cruise” video and its sequel .

And a bold few have revealed some not-Disney-approved antics in books like “ Skipper Stories : True Tales From Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise,” a compilation of six decades of anecdotes from former skippers, including the author, David John Marley.

To wit: The ritual of becoming a “real skipper” by peeing in the river at night. The Jungle Justice inflicted on skippers who abused their break time (they found themselves suddenly scheduled for upward of 90 minutes of nonstop cruises without water or a bathroom stop). The off-hours party where $2,000 was spent on alcohol and condoms.

A good skipper is an extrovert, a nut and somewhat of a rogue. At least that’s how Bill Sullivan , who joined the Jungle Cruise in 1955, once put it . His own skipper colleagues included a man who arrived one morning with chameleons around his neck.

They didn’t have much of a script in the beginning so the men wrote their own, Sullivan, who eventually became vice president of the Magic Kingdom, recalled in 2008. (Women didn’t become skippers until the mid-1990s.)

The spiel had been repeatedly fine-tuned by the time Franks landed his gig in the late 1980s. And venturing from it was ill-advised.

“You would hear these stories about supervisors hiding in the jungle, listening for people going off-book, but if that was true, they would have canned me on Day 2,” he said. “I knew I wanted to make movies, and I was doing stand-up at the time. And as soon as we got around the first corner, I was working in material.”

Franks stayed at Disneyland for eight and a half years, writing the script for Adam Sandler’s “Big Daddy” while monitoring the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Crews may have been rowdier back in the day, but “today we’re much more conservative, a little less the Wild West,” said Kevin Lively, one of two skippers chosen to represent Disneyland at Tokyo Disney Resort’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2009. (There’s also a Jungle Cruise at Walt Disney World and Hong Kong Disneyland.)

Lively now works as a Disney Imagineer, developing skipper spiels and contributing “gnu” magic to the attraction, which has replaced racist elements like spear-throwing African “headhunters” with a story about Felix Pechman XIII, “the unluckiest skipper on the dock.”

And when the “Jungle Cruise” movie needed an injection of humor, Lively was on it.

“I shotgun-blast puns and references and Easter eggs to them, and let them kind of just run amok,” he said. “There’s stuff in there that I think all these skippers will get, which just makes me over-the-moon happy. They really showed their love of the attraction in that film.”

Skipper Frank’s ersatz Amazon tour wasn’t in the original script, said Jaume Collet-Serra, the movie’s director. But once the filmmaker had ridden the actual Jungle Cruise and witnessed reactions to that “backside of water” joke, he knew what he had to do.

Treat the audience to a mini-Jungle Cruise experience.

“I was like, let me give them what they want for two minutes and then I’ll give them more, but at least they’ll be happy early,” he said. “You know, ‘Here is what you came for — now let the movie begin.’”

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‘Jungle Cruise’s’ Gay Character Is Yet Another Baby Step From Disney

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Jungle Cruise
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In Disney’s Jungle Cruise — which released today in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access— Jack Whitehall ‘s character has interests that “happily lie elsewhere.” In other words, he’s attracted to men. He doesn’t want to have sex with women. He’s gay.

It’s another step from Disney toward LGBTQ+ representation that feels big in the context of the oppressively heterosexual corporation—certainly, it’s an improvement over some of the laughably meaningless Disney “gay moments” in recent years—but small in the context of the year 2021. After all, it’s been 11 years since Kurt and Blaine kissed on Glee , 16 years since Brokeback Mountain was nominated for Best Picture, and 23 years since Will & Grace premiered on NBC. This is hardly the first time mainstream America has seen a gay man on a TV or movie screen. Yet Disney—the biggest, most lucrative movie studio in the world—has only recently begun to acknowledge the existence of non-heterosexuals in its films. Jungle Cruise is the latest example of Disney not so much marching forward with pride but reluctantly dragging its feet into the 21st century.

While the phrasing is coy, the scene where Emily Blunt’s on-screen brother comes out is, at least, fairly definitive. McGregor Houghton (Whitehall) had already been coded as a gay man, somewhat stereotypically, throughout the film—fussy, effeminate, and a little too into skincare. He’s the polar opposite of Dwayne Johnson’s character, the tough guy riverboat captain named Frank, who has agreed to escort McGregor and his sister, Lily, down the river in search of a magical petal. (Don’t ask.) But about an hour into the film, Frank and McGregor share a quiet moment together, in which McGregor reveals—in so many words— that he recently came out as gay to his family.

“It was the third time that I had been presented with a marriage with a charming, educated woman who sits on a horse well,” McGregor says. “But I had to tell the lady in question that I couldn’t accept the offer, or, indeed, any offer, given that my interests happily lie… elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?” Frank clarifies.

“Elsewhere,” McGregor confirms.

“Huh. To elsewhere!” Frank takes a swig of his flask and offers McGregor a drink.

McGregor accepts, smiling, and then—dropping some of his coyness—describes how his family and friends reacted to the news. “Uncle threatened to disinherit me. Friends and family turned their backs. All because of who I loved. I would have been ostracized from society, were it not for Lily. She stood by me. And for that, I would follow her into a volcano.”

In all honesty, it’s a touching scene, and one of the few honest character moments in the film. It’s not just that this moment confirms that McGregor likes men, it also makes him feel like a real, lived-in human being. Yes, he’s a campy comic relief character, but also, he has a backstory! He has baggage! He has an emotional bond with his sister! But once it’s over, it’s over. McGregor’s sexuality is not alluded to or shown again for the rest of the film.

Over the last five years, Disney has made a lot of empty promises when it comes to queer characters in its films. In 2017, Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon promised an “exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie,” which turned out to be a two-second shot of LeFou—as played by Josh Gad—dancing with a man in the film’s final ball sequence, just before the credits roll. Two years later, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo revealed the film would feature the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first-ever openly gay character, which turned out to be a random dude (played by Russo) using male pronouns to refer to his romantic partner. A few months later, Star Wars fans were teased with LGBTQ+ representation in The Rise of Skywalker , which was a literal blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kiss between two nameless women among a crowd of cheering extras. They didn’t even get any lines.

Unsurprisingly, the queer community has not responded with gratitude to these gay bread crumbs from Disney. In an essay for Vanity Fair , K. Austin Collins argued that the Star Wars kiss—and Disney’s other after-thought queer moments like it—might technically be steps forward for Disney, but are so far behind the rest of the world, they are barely even worth noting, let alone celebrating. Perhaps the corporation has been listening to these criticisms, because Whitehall’s character in Jungle Cruise is, at the very least, a step up from the minuscule moments listed above.

Unlike in Avengers or Star Wars , McGregor is a character with names and lines and even a significant role in the plot. Unlike in Beauty and the Beast , his “gay moment” is an actual, honest-to-God scene that lasts for longer than two seconds, and is not thrown in at the very end of the film. For once, the filmmakers didn’t proudly announce “Disney’s first gay character” while patting themselves on the back for “representation.” (Whitehall, when asked by a reporter , carefully said that he was “proud of the work he’d done,” but wisely avoided the r-word.) There’s even a good excuse to avoid the word “gay,” given that Jungle Cruise takes place in the early 1900s, a time when the term “gay” usually meant feeling happy and nothing more. Yet while it’s a step in the right direction, Jungle Cruise still feels miles behind the rest of the world.

Some may argue—reasonably so—that a movie about a magical tree and ghosts is allowed a gay anachronism or two. Personally, I care less about hearing the word “gay,” so much as I care about being shown that McGregor is actually attracted to men. And in this regard, Jungle Cruise falls short. Despite the Rock’s impressive physique, there are no lingering looks. There’s no spark between McGregor and one of the fake island natives who appear in the movie. While Johnson and Blunt share a painful kiss, despite their lack of romantic chemistry, McGregor doesn’t get even a hint of romance. Instead, McGregor is the butt of jokes for being the scared, foppish one. (Whether Whitehall, who is straight, was the right casting choice for the role is another conversation entirely.)

Compare that to Netflix’s big-budget action film, The Old Guard , a movie in which one man declares his love for another in an impassioned speech, and then kisses him —with heat—about halfway into the film. While neither character has an explicit “coming out” scene, their love is the emotional heart of the film, rather than a one-off scene that could be easily cut out. As a result, The Old Guard was embraced by the queer community with open arms and became a hit for the streaming service. If Disney wants to be groundbreaking—if the company truly wants to reach out to its LGBTQ+ fans—it should be taking notes from Netflix. Jungle Cruise may be a step forward, but the company still has a long way to go.

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Jungle Cruise (2021)
best boy grip: second unit, Atlanta Unit / key grip: second unit, Atlanta Unit Fred Duffer ... video assist operator: additional photography, second unit Todd Durboraw ... second assistant camera: second unit Duke Duvauchelle ... fixtures / rigging electrics Noah Eagle ... dimmer technician Scott Eagle
Jungle Cruise Cast: Where You've Seen The Actors Before
Andy Nyman (Sir James Hobbs-Coddington) Another British actor who could likely call Jungle Cruise the most high-profile credit on his resume to date (at least to American audiences) is Andy Nyman ...
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Jungle Cruise: Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. With Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall. 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.
Meet the Characters of Disney's Jungle Cruise
By the D23 Team. Disney's Jungle Cruise, inspired by the classic Disney theme park attraction, is a rollicking thrill ride down the mighty and mysterious Amazon, set to make waves when it arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on Friday, July 30.Featuring a star-studded cast led by Dwayne Johnson as the wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and Emily Blunt as determined botanist Dr ...
Jungle Cruise Cast & Character Guide
The cast of the upcoming Disney movie Jungle Cruise is stacked with A-listers and new faces playing a variety of eccentric characters. The family film is based on the iconic Disney World theme park attraction of the same name. Jungle Cruise also makes use of another iconic Disney World item—the Tree of Life, which sits in Animal Kingdom. The titular cruise is the central focus of the family ...
Disney's Jungle Cruise Cast & Character Guide
The star of A Quiet Place II, Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, who is a bit like Indian Jones -- eccentric and always looking for an adventure. According to Blunt, Lily is "brave and fearless and wild, and she's brilliant-minded and humble."In Jungle Cruise, the character is a British scientist and explorer determined to find the Tree of Life to study it for its medicinal benefits.
Jungle Cruise: The 10 Best Characters In The Movie
Disney's adventurous Jungle Cruise sails into theaters Friday, July 30th, 2021. Based on the popular theme park ride of the same name, the film has drawn middling reviews so far. However, one of the biggest plaudits of the film, so far, includes its stellar ensemble cast who plays a range of fun, lively characters.
Jungle Cruise (film)
Jungle Cruise is a 2021 American fantasy adventure film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay written by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, and Michael Green.It is based on Walt Disney's eponymous theme park attraction.Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti.
The Cast of Disney's Jungle Cruise Talks Humor, Heart, and Adventure
Actors Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, and Edgar Ramírez sat down in July to talk about their new movie, Disney's Jungle Cruise, when it first came to theaters and Disney+ with Premier Access. Dwayne Johnson, who plays skipper Frank Wolff, is also a producer on the film. He explains of his decision to climb aboard the project ...
Nilo Nemolato
Nilo Nemolato is a character in Disney's 2021 live-action film, Jungle Cruise, based on the ride of the same name. Nilo Nemolato is the Italian harbormaster of the Brazilian town of Porto Velho and the owner of "Nilo's River Adventure", a boat tour attraction along the Amazon River that competed with Frank Wolff's small Jungle Navigation Company operation. Operating out of a clean boathouse ...
'Jungle Cruise' Review: Disney's Bumptious Rom-Com Theme-Park Joyride
In "Jungle Cruise," a Disney adventure that demonstrates how basing a movie on a theme-park ride may now be a more natural occurence than adapting it from a novel, Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily ...
Jungle Cruise
Andy Nyman. Sir James Hobbs-Coddington. Mark Ashworth. Society Member 1. Emily Marie Palmer. French Woman. Piper Collins. Boat Tourist. Raphael Alejandro.
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in 'Jungle Cruise' Film Review
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra. Screenwriters: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa; story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Ficarra, Requa. Rated PG-13, 2 hours 8 minutes. Everything about ...
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This morning, Good Morning America gave fans an exclusive look at the new trailer for Disney's "Jungle Cruise," and now the full trailer—bursting with thrills, laughs and surprises—is available, along with a new poster and images from the trailer. "Jungle Cruise" will release simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on Friday, July 30.
Jungle Cruise (Film)
Jungle Cruise is a 2021 adventure film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the Disney Theme Parks ride of the same name, and in turn loosely based on The African Queen, the film that inspired the ride.. Set during the early 20th century, a riverboat captain named Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) takes Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt), an English scientist, and ...
Jungle Cruise
Rating: PG-13. Runtime: 2h 7min. Release Date: July 30, 2021. Genre: 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.
Jungle Cruise
2h 7min. Genre: 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 ...
No Lion, the Skipper Is the Real King of the Jungle Cruise
Dwayne Johnson as the skipper in "Jungle Cruise," based on the ride. Disney. By Kathryn Shattuck. July 29, 2021. In 1916 Brazil, Skipper Frank Wolff runs the cheapest jungle cruise on the ...
'Jungle Cruise's' Gay Character Is Yet Another Baby ...
100 Shares. In Disney's Jungle Cruise — which released today in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access— Jack Whitehall 's character has interests that "happily lie elsewhere.". In ...
Jungle Cruise
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.
Jungle Cruise
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 ...

Jungle Cruise Cast: Where You’ve Seen The Actors Before

Dwayne Johnson (Frank Wolff)

Emily Blunt (Dr. Lily Houghton)

Jack Whitehall (MacGregor Houghton)

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Paul Giamatti (Nilo Nemolato)

Jesse Plemons (Prince Joachim)

Édgar Ramírez (Aguirre)

Veronica Falcón (Trader Sam)

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‘Jungle Cruise’ Review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s Bumptious Rom-Com Theme-Park Joyride

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Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, July 26, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 127 MIN.

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