Romancing the Stone
Promotional poster for the film.
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Michael Douglas Jack Brodsky Joel Douglas
Written by	Diane Thomas Uncredited: Lem Dobbs Howard Franklin Treva Silverman
Starring	Michael Douglas Kathleen Turner Danny DeVito Alfonso Arau Manuel Ojeda
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Dean Cundey Álex Phillips Jr.
Editing by	Donn Cambern Frank Morriss
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	March 30, 1984 (USA)
Running time	105 min.
Country	Mexico / USA
Language	English
Followed by	The Jewel of the Nile
IMDb profile

Romancing the Stone is an American 1984 action-adventure film. It also has many elements that might categorize it as a romantic comedy. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it stars Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. There is a second part, played by the same actors, titled The Jewel of the Nile. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 379 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (478 × 755 pixel, file size: 91 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a film poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the film... Robert Lee Bob Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American movie director, producer and writer. ... For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation) Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Lem Dobbs (born Lem Kitaj on December 24, 1959 in Oxford, England) is an American screenwriter. ... For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation) Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. ... Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress. ... Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. ... Alfonso Arau (born January 11, 1932) is a Mexican director of such films as Zapata: The Dream of a Hero, Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico, 1992) (adapted from the novel written by his wife, Laura Esquivel), and A Walk in the Clouds, which starred Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn. ... Manuel Ojeda (right) in Espejo retrovisor (2002) Manuel Ojeda (born Jesús Manuel Ojeda Ruiz de la Peña on November 4, 1940 in La Paz, Baja California Sur) is one of the most active actors of television and the Cinema of Mexico. ... Alan Silvestri (b. ... Donn Cambern (born October 29, 1929), is an Academy Award nominated film editor. ... Frank Morriss, a graduate of Beverly Hills High School, an Emmy award winning film editor[1], was a three sport varsity letterman at Beverly. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Jewel of the Nile is a sequel to the 1984 romantic adventure Romancing the Stone featuring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, the stars of the first film. ... // Events The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... A romantic comedy may be a film or novel, presenting a story about romance in a comedic style. ... Robert Lee Bob Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American movie director, producer and writer. ... For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation) Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. ... Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress. ... Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. ... The Jewel of the Nile is a sequel to the 1984 romantic adventure Romancing the Stone featuring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, the stars of the first film. ...

The movie was a respectable hit and earned over USD$114 million worldwide in box-office receipts and $36 million in video rentals. This film also helped launch Turner to stardom, reintroduced Douglas to the public as a capable leading man, and gave Zemeckis his first box office success. USD redirects here. ... Jazz Festival box Office, Edmonton A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue. ...

Plot summary

The plot of the movie revolves around romance writer Joan Wilder, played by Kathleen Turner, who travels to Colombia to find her kidnapped sister. In time she falls in love with a soldier of fortune and the two become romantically involved as they search for a precious stone which the kidnappers want. Even Soldiers of Fortune have to sing! 1958 record album An adventurer or adventuress is a term that usually takes one of three meanings: One whose travels are unusual and often exotic, though not so unique as to qualify as exploration. ...

Opening sequence

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (March 2008)

The first few minutes of the movie depict a scene from one of Joan Wilder's novels, entitled The Savage Secret. An evil cowboy named Grogan (Ted White) storms in on a sexy damsel in distress named Angelina (Kymberly Herrin). He threatens to kill Angelina unless she does exactly as she's told. "Where is it?" he asks. Angelina motions to a saddlebag in the corner. What is in it is never revealed. Now that he has what he wants, she tells him to get out. Grogan smiles. "Not quite." he says. He orders her to take her clothes off. Reluctantly, Angelina begins to unlace her skirt. When she finishes with the laces, she pulls back her skirt to reveal a knife strapped to the back of her leg. While Grogan is distracted by Angelina's breasts, she throws the knife from across the room in his chest, killing him. As she prepares to leave the house, Angelina points out that Grogan killed her father, raped and murdered her sister, burned down her ranch, shot her dog and stole her Bible (this last being emphasized, as if stealing a Bible is a greater crime than murder, rape, or arson). Ted White is a tall, massive American stunt man/actor who doubled for John Wayne, Fess Parker, Clark Gable, Lee Marvin and Richard Boone, among others. ... A poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ... Kymberly Ellen Herrin (born October 2, 1957 in Santa Barbara County, California) is an American model and actress of Swedish, French and Filipino descent. ...

She then takes back the saddlebag and rides off across the desert. She is chased by Grogan's brothers, but her lover, the heroic Jesse (William H. Burton), suddenly appears. He shoots her pursuers out of the saddle. The couple meet and kiss. Then, Jesse pulls her up onto his horse and, in true romantic style, rides off into the sunset.

The scene then switches to the apartment of shy, mousy, lonely romantic novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), who has just finished writing the story. Angelina never speaks in the scene. All her lines are delivered by a voice-over by Turner. A romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ...

Although the opening scene has little to do with the story, there are some connections:

1. Many of Joan's fans say Jesse and Angelina are her most popular characters.
2. Towards the end of the movie, during a confrontation with Zolo, Zolo asks Joan how she would like to die, "Slow like a snail, or fast like a shooting star." Grogan said something similar to Angelina. Joan also uses Angelina's knife-throwing tactic on Zolo, but Zolo blocks the knife with a piece of wood he uses as a weapon.
3. At the end of the movie, Jack shows up in New York with the boat he bought with El Corazon. In honor of Joan, he has named it Angelina.

Rest of film

After the opening sequence, Joan receives a strange package from her dead brother-in-law Eduardo, who was recently murdered and dismembered, from Colombia. Soon afterwards, she gets a frantic call from her sister Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor), telling her she has been kidnapped and needs the map from the package as ransom. Mary Ellen Trainor is a American film and television actress who is probably best remembered as either Dr. Stephanie Woods in the Lethal Weapon movies or as Harriet Walsh (the mother) in The Goonies. ...

Hastily flying down to Colombia from New York, Joan gets lost on the way to her destination, Cartagena: - interestingly, the destination of the bus she got on, Castillo de San Felipe, is in Cartagena and where she was instructed to go to hand over the ransom later in the movie. Also, the city purporting to be Cartagena de las Indias is obviously not that. In the film, the castle is shown going down to the level of the moat, whereas the real Castillo de San Felipe is raised several tens of metres above the surrounding water. Eventually she runs into swashbuckling opportunist Jack T. Colton (Douglas). In return for helping her find her way to Cartagena, Joan promises Jack US$375 in traveler's checks. He helps her elude key villains, the vicious leader of the secret police, Zolo, who is responsible for Eduardo's murder (Manuel Ojeda), and a dastardly duo of zany bandits, Ralph (Danny DeVito) and Ira (Zack Norman). New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... For other places with the same name, see Cartagena (disambiguation). ... A Swashbuckler is a term that came about in the 16th century and was applied to rough, noisy, boastful swordsman. To swash is to swagger and swing about, making a lot of noise and a buckler is a shield. The stock character Miles Glorioso is a swashbuckler. ... Manuel Ojeda (right) in Espejo retrovisor (2002) Manuel Ojeda (born Jesús Manuel Ojeda Ruiz de la Peña on November 4, 1940 in La Paz, Baja California Sur) is one of the most active actors of television and the Cinema of Mexico. ... Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. ...

Along the way, Jack discovers Joan's map. He tries to convince her to go after the treasure indicated on it. Joan is reluctant, but after they become lovers, she relents and agrees to go after the prize, whatever it is (the map doesn't specify). They decide they can retrieve the treasure and give the then-worthless map to the kidnappers.

After some harrowing escapes, they eventually find the treasure, which turns out to be an enormous emerald about the size of a baseball, called El Corazon ("The Heart"). Unbeknownst to them, they have been tracked by the malevolent Zolo and by Ralph, who steals El Corazon from them. But before he can escape with it, Zolo's men appear on the scene as well as the Colombian Police. After getting El Corazon back from Ralph, Joan and Jack eventually get separated, but agree to meet at Joan's hotel in Cartagena. Jack doesn't show up, which troubles Joan, since he possesses the gem. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

She meets with Ralph and Ira, her sister's captors, and turns over the map. They are interrupted by Zolo, who knows the map is now worthless. Zolo's men have Jack, but he has refused to disclose the location of El Corazon. When Zolo threatens to feed Joan to the crocodiles, Jack gives up the gem, which he has been hiding on his person, slinging it off his foot towards Zolo's crocodile pit.

Zolo catches El Corazon, but his hand (together with the gem), is bitten off by one of the crocodiles and a gunfight breaks out between Zolo's private army and Ira's men. This allows Joan, Elaine and Jack to escape. Jack chases the hand-eating croc, while Joan and Elaine just try to get away. After a prolonged gunfight with Zolo's men, Ira and his gang seize the opportunity to escape, leaving Ralph behind.

Zolo catches Joan and Elaine. Joan tries to kill Zolo with his own switchblade in a scene mirroring that of the beginning of the movie, but Zolo blocks the thrown knife with a piece of wood. After Elaine faints from the sight, Joan, within earshot of Jack, pleads for his help. He must decide whether to save her or hold onto the croc which has ingested El Corazon. He decides to try to save Joan by scaling a rock wall to reach her. However, he arrives moments after Zolo falls into a pit full of crocodiles. Seeing that the women are safe, Jack leaves to pursue El Corazon once more.

Joan returns home to New York, more optimistic, though lonely without Jack. She churns out a hit novel based on her recent experiences. Returning home one day, she finds Jack - wearing crocodile skin boots - waiting for her in a sailboat he purchased with the proceeds of El Corazon. It turns out Jack managed to catch the crocodile, who suffered "a fatal case of indigestion" from swallowing the gem. The movie ends with Jack and Joan kissing on the deck of the Angelina, named for Joan's fictional heroine, as the trailer the boat rests on drives off into the streets of New York City.

Production and release

Due to the real-life threat of kidnappings in Colombia, the movie was filmed elsewhere. Locations included Veracruz, Mexico (Fort of San Juan de Ulúa), Mazatlan, Mexico and Manila, Philippines. Veracruz from space, July 1997 The city of Veracruz is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. ... San Juan de Ulúa is a large fortress on an island overlooking the seaport of Veracruz, Mexico. ... Mazatlán is a city (population 340,000 as of 2000) located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, just across from the southernmost tip of Baja California. ... For other meanings of the word, see Manila (disambiguation). ...

This was the first Zemeckis film to feature a music score by composer Alan Silvestri; Silvestri has scored each subsequent film Zemeckis has directed. The novelization of this film was credited to Joan Wilder. Alan Silvestri (b. ... A novelization (or novelisation in British English) is a work of fiction that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work. ...

Although, upon its release, comparisons to Raiders of the Lost Ark were inevitable (Time magazine called the movie "a distaff Raiders rip-off"),^[1] the screenplay for Romancing had actually been written five years earlier. It was written by a Malibu waitress named Diane Thomas in what would end up being her only screenplay; she died in a car crash shortly after the film's release. Though Thomas received solo writing credit, several uncredited script doctors helped to refine the film's screenplay. ^[2] This article is about the film. ... TIME redirects here. ... Location of Malibu in Los Angeles County, California Coordinates: , Country State County Los Angeles Incorporated (city) 1991-03-28 [2] Government  - Mayor Jeff Jennings [1] Area  - Total 100. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Turner later said of the film's production, "I remember terrible arguments [with Robert Zemeckis] doing Romancing. He's a film-school grad, fascinated by cameras and effects. I never felt that he knew what I was having to do to adjust my acting to some of his damn cameras--sometimes he puts you in ridiculous postures. I'd say, 'This is not helping me! This is not the way I like to work, thank you!'"^[3] Despite their difficulties on the film, Zemeckis would go on to work with Turner again, casting her as the voice of Jessica Rabbit in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released on its Touchstone Pictures banner), which blends traditional animation and live action. ...

Studio insiders expected Romancing the Stone to flop (to the point that, after viewing a rough cut of the film, the producers of the then-in-the-works Cocoon fired Zemeckis as director of that film),^[4] but the film became a surprise hit. In fact, it ended up being 20th Century Fox's "only big hit" in 1984.^[5] Zemeckis later stated that the success of Romancing the Stone allowed him to make Back to the Future.^[6] The film's success also led to a sequel, 1985's The Jewel of the Nile, without Zemeckis at the helm but with Douglas, Turner and DeVito all returning. Though it performed respectably, its success didn't match that of the original. A second sequel called Crimson Eagle was planned but never got past the development stage. Another film, The War of the Roses, again reunited Douglas, Turner and DeVito. Cocoon is a 1985 science fiction film about a group of elderly humans who were rejuvenated by aliens. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... This article is about the first film in the Back to the Future trilogy. ... This article is about the year. ... The Jewel of the Nile is a sequel to the 1984 romantic adventure Romancing the Stone featuring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, the stars of the first film. ... This article is about a film. ...

References in other media

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. (March 2008) Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles.

• The film was parodied in a Family Guy episode called "Barely Legal" in which, after seeing the movie, Mayor Adam West sends the entire Quahog police force (minus Joe Swanson) to Cartagena, Colombia, to find Elaine Wilder.
• The phrase "Romancing the Stone" is parodied in the title of the book Sexing the Cherry by the English writer Jeanette Winterson (in reference to a cherry stone).
• An original song was composed for the soundtrack, but only its guitar solo was in the film. The song was performed by Eddy Grant. A video of Grant's song was released.
• The theme music which plays during Joan Wilder's book The Savage Secret in the opening scene is from How the West Was Won.
• The phrase "Romancing the Stone" is parodied in the title of the 1985 Sierra Entertainment computer game King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne

Family Guy is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. ... “Barely Legal” is a season five episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. ... Mayor Adam West is a fictionalized caricature of actor Adam West on the animated television series Family Guy. ... Lieutenant Joseph Joe Swanson is a fictional character in the Fox animated television show Family Guy. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Jeanette Winterson OBE (born August 27, 1959) is a British novelist. ... Eddy Grant (born Edmond Montague Grant, 5 March 1948), is a Plaisance, Guyana born musician. ... How the West Was Won is an epic 1962 western film which follows four generations of a family (starting as the Prescotts) as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean. ... Sierra Entertainment is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Los Angeles, California. ...

See also

• Movies depicting Colombia

This is a list of films depicting Colombia or specific aspects of it, such as the illegal drug trade or its internal conflict. ...

References

This article is about the year. ... is the 113th day of the year (114th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar. ... is the 214th day of the year (215th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Romancing the Stone at the Internet Movie Database