Taglines: She’s a girl from the big city. He’s a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine… or survive.
Romancing the Stone movie storyline. Talented, still single, and incurably romantic, the famous best-selling romance novelist, Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), sees her orderly life turn upside down, when she receives a desperate message from her kidnapped sister and a well-worn treasure map. Under those circumstances and having no other option but to play along, the utterly unprepared adventurer will leave behind New York’s urban jungle.
Only to get involved in a real-life rescue mission deep in the unforgiving rain forests of Colombia, wearing her fashionable ensemble, and her high heels. Now, Joan’s only hope of success rests in the capable hands of the handsome and reckless fortune-seeker, Jack Colton, who itches to beat the local mountain bandits at their own game. Will Joan find the romance she’s been yearning for in the hot and humid Cartagena?
Romancing the Stone is a 1984 American romantic comedy-adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Diane Thomas. The film stars Michael Douglas (who also produced the film), Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. It was followed by a 1985 sequel titled The Jewel of the Nile. Romancing the Stone was released on March 30, 1984, to positive reviews from critics and earned over $115 million worldwide at the box office.
Thomas wrote the screenplay in 1979, her only screenplay to be produced in her lifetime. Noticing Thomas’ screenplay, Zemeckis, who at the time was developing Cocoon, offered his service as director, but 20th Century Fox initially declined after his first two films I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars, were commercial failures. After Fox executives disliked the film’s preview, he was dismissed as director of Cocoon. Alan Silvestri, who would collaborate with Zemeckis on his later films, composed the film’s score.
About the Story
The movie opens in the middle of a Western cowboy story where a beautiful blonde woman is confronted by an evil man named Drogan. Drogan has come for a treasure of considerable value and demands it and sex from the woman. As she prepares to undress, she throws a hidden knife at her foe, killing him, proclaiming that Drogan had killed her dog, raped and murdered her sister and stole her Bible. After she’s dressed, she packs up her horse and rides out, only to stop at the sight of Drogan’s men on horseback. Suddenly her hero, Jesse, shown only in shadow, appears and shoots all the men dead. Jesse and the woman embrace and she says they’ll be together forever.
The scene shifts to Joan Wilder, an author of bestselling romance novels, crying as she types out the scene she’d just narrated. It’s the finale to her latest book. Joan is happy that she’s completed what could be her biggest selling novel yet. In her kitchen, she hears a noise behind her and greets someone she calls “Sweetheart” — it’s her cat, Romeo. She gives him a can of Bumblebee tuna to eat and celebrates with him. She looks up at a poster on her wall of Jesse from the cover of one of her books and hopes aloud that she’ll one day find a man like the one she’s created.
Joan leaves her apartment, late for a meeting with her editor. On the way, she meets an elderly neighbor who gives her a package that the mail carrier couldn’t fit in her box. The package is from her brother-in-law and has arrived from Colombia. At the meeting with her editor, Joan presents the manuscript. Her editor has had them meet in a bar thinking that it’ll be good for Joan to see single men in a social setting. Joan remains reluctant because none of them can match her vision of Jesse. Joan also mentions to her editor that she’d gotten a package from her brother-in-law, Eduardo, who’d recently been found dead and mutilated in Colombia.
In Cartagena, Colombia, Joan’s sister, Elaine, is leaving her apartment in a hurry. Outside, a boy is playing with a bola and as Elaine drives her car out of her garage, the boy throws the bola at her, knocking her unconscious. The boy drives Elaine in her car to a nearby fortress where Ralph, a small-time crook, sees him arrive. He talks to his cousin, Ira, who’s feeding a large nest of crocodiles through a wooden grate in the ground, telling him that they should leave Colombia because things have gotten too dangerous. Ira tells Ralph that they have one more treasure hunt to go on & they’ll leave.
Joan arrives home to find that her apartment has been ransacked. Earlier, a shady character had been standing at Joan’s front door and had killed the building’s janitor. Joan finds her cat safe and suddenly gets an unexpected call from her sister Elaine. Elaine, being forced to talk to Joan by Ira and Ralph, sounds upset and asks Joan if she’d gotten the package from Eduardo. Joan finds a treasure map inside. Elaine tells Joan to bring the map to Cartagena. Joan is reluctant, thinking that Colombia is too dangerous. Elaine tells her that Ira & Ralph are plotting to torture her. Joan packs up and leaves her cat with her editor, who tries to talk her out of going.
Joan arrives in Colombia and looks for a bus that’ll take her to Cartagena. The shady character that ransacked her apartment, Colonel Zolo, tells her that the bus, which is really going to a remote town in the mountains, will take her to Cartagena and joins her on the bus. Ralph also happens to be at the airport and spots Joan on the wrong bus just as it leaves.
Joan wakes up on the bus, which is winding it’s way through a mountain pass surrounded by rainforest. When she asks the driver when they’ll arrive, the driver is distracted and crashes into a parked Land Rover. The bus is wrecked and the passengers continue on foot. Zolo tells Joan she can wait for another bus & soon draws a pistol on her, demanding her purse. Just then a man appears at the top of a nearby ridge. Zolo fires a warning shot at the man, who raises his hands and suddenly grabs a shotgun from a scabbard on his back.
The two men shoot at each other until Zolo runs out of ammo and retreats. Joan, hiding under the bus, hears the mystery man cursing in English about the wrecked Land Rover and losing a bunch of birds. He eventually finds her hiding under the bus. Still angry about losing his vehicle and the birds he’d been collecting, he acts very callously toward Joan, who asks him to take her to a town with a phone. The man demands $500 & Joan talks him down to $375 in American Express traveler’s checks. He also coldly refuses to carry Joan’s suitcase.
Romancing the Stone (1984)
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Zack Norman, Alfonso Arau, Holland Taylor, Mary Ellen Trainor. Eve Smith, Evita Muñoz ‘Chachita’, Camillo García, Rodrigo Puebla
Screenplay by: Diane Thomas
Production Design by: Lawrence G. Paull
Cinematography by: Dean Cundey
Film Editing by: Donn Cambern, Frank Morriss
Costume Design by: Marilyn Vance
Set Decoration by: Enrique Estévez
Art Direction by: Agustín Ituarte
Music by: Alan Silvestri
MPAA RAting: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: March 30, 1984
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