Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt battle mythical creatures in action-packed Jungle Cruise trailer
Film News Jungle Cruise
If there’s an action movie in the works, you know Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is on board. Disney’s newest Jungle Cruise trailer lays the action on thick as Johnson and co-star Emily Blunt face all sorts of tropical dangers, from the mystical creatures to jaguars to–hold up–a German with a torpedo? Between clips of throwing punches and perilous waterfalls, Blunt’s character, researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, seeks a mystical tree that will “change medicine forever.” Johnson plays Frank Wolff, her quick-witted, rough and tough guide. It’s giving Pirates Of The Caribbean meets Jumanji meets The Lost City Of Z.
Jungle Cruise is based on the Disneyland theme park ride, and while does not appear to rely on grandiose and poetic themes pushing it forward, in typically Johnson fashion it looks raucous and focused on stunning viewers with action and special effects. In a time where Disney is on a reboot loop, reimagining the same films over and over again, a completely new live-action film feels like a breath of fresh air.
Here is Disney’s official plot description:
“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.”
Jungle Cruise hits theaters and Disney+ on July 30.
82 Comments
“God fucking damnit”
Me when the trailer’s needle drop hits.
(Otherwise this movie looks great)
I called it the Lost City of Zed…and I was wrong. It was my one chance to use Zed and I blew it
Just looking at that picture, I’m thinking, what if Humphrey Bogart got increasingly more buff as he grew older rather than the way heart disease, COPD and cancer wasted him away? Because Dwayne Johson sure looks like his character is based on Bogart in The African Queen. I’m sort of looking forward to this. I hope they keep some of the tongue-in-cheek silliness of the ride, but somewhat disappointed to read that they added supernatural elements. I hope the movie isn’t just a Search for the Magical Jungle Macguffin.
That’s not a coincidence. The Jungle Cruise attraction took influence from African Queen along with Disney’s nature documentaries and the casual racism of the day.
Oh, don’t I know it. I just find it interesting that they gave Dwayne Johnson almost the exact same costume as Bogey, despite the massive differences in their physiques.
That is the same costume.Stars were bigger back then. Literally! Stars were literally bigger back then!
Finally someone who agrees with my “shrinking Earth” theory.
Listen, its gonna just be easier to point out the early Disney attractions that were not based on casual racism.
Teacups I guess.
I would have to check the “Is it racist” meter against Alice in Wonderland but without that I would guess it probably is
Jumanji 3? These days almost every film like this has that ultra colorful digital look to it that makes everything in the movie look synthetic.
Bogart was Scotch, Martinis and cigarettes while the Rock is strictly Tren, Clen and Anavar.
I just wanna see a hippo pop up and the Rock pull out a 45 and blast him.
The vibe I got is Jumanji: Jungle Cruise. What goes inside the game when nobody is playing. Looks like something worth watching once like the other Jumanji movies.
I think you nailed it. This is Disney wanting a piece of that sweet Jumanji money.
Pirates Of The Caribbean meets Jumanji meets The Lost City Of Z but not a hint of The African Queen. Gotcha.
At no point in this write-up or the promotional material did anyone say, “DWANYE JOHNSON IS ‘ROCK-ING’ THE BOAT THIS SUMMER!”Kudos to everyone involved in that decision.
Cool, yes. I will be there.
“What if we remade “The African Queen” only with actors who were better looking but far less talented?”“Ron you’ve done it again!”
I think I finally need to say it… I’m sick of The Rock being in so many things.
The Rock is in so much complete trash it’s kind of unbelievable. He’s the biggest action star in the world so he’s presumably getting offered some great scripts yet the projects he picks are invariably bland and generic. Like name one thing about Skyscraper or Rampage or San Andreas…this is the output of the world’s biggest action star in his prime and it’s entirely forgettable. It’s like he skipped to the direct-to-video stage of his career and nobody noticed.
Except all those movies somehow make tons of money. I don’t get it.
It may be trash but he is having fun, and that comes through in his performance. Rock is having fun = going to be a good time even if the rest of the movie is trash
Rampage wasn’t bad! It was basically lighterhearted Godzilla: King of Monsters
i actually highly doubt he’s offered scripts at this point, he seems to develop projects from the ground up, before they even have a script. if anything he’s picking the people who write the scripts.frankly i just don’t think he has very good taste, nor does he have any reason to step outside of his extremely large comfort zone. between all his other endeavours he probably just looks at movies as another thing on the list.
is there an actual lgbt character in this or like hints of one?
That guy with Emily Blunt screams “maybe he’s gay! but we’re not going to do anything with it.”
There’ll be a single shot or line that confirms it, that inexplicably gets lost from the film in the more phobic or regressive markets. Nobody wants to throw away all those yuan, after all.
Actually, I’m pretty sure I remember an article from years ago (thanks to the delays) that the character you’re talking about had a bunch of his scenes reshot because he was an offensively over the top gay stereotype.
Oh no, not only that…the guy playing him is straight as an arrow.https://www.themarysue.com/mcgregor-houghton-gay-character-disney-jungle-cruise/
So not only was their first openly gay character going to be camp, it was going to be a straight gay playing him.
To be fair, Jack Whitehall’s entire persona is basically effeminate and camp, even though he’s straight.
That is…not a good look in general.
Why? Is there a problem with a straight man acting effeminate?
*Acting* effeminate?If his whole act is putting on a stereotypical effeminate gay persona, absolutely.
It’s not. Have you ever seen his act?
it’s so generic it feels like it was all generated by some screenplay AI software.wish emily blunt would use her talent in better things than this and propping up her bland husbands projects.
This looks fun. As one or two others have pointed out, I was not expecting a supernatural element to the plot, but it worked wonderfully for the first Pirates movie, so I’m optimistic here.
These trailers are an exhausting exhibit of how the mastery of every single aspect of art direction, fight direction, and tech has effectively nullified the stakes for me. Every escape is calculated to a pixel, every character has combat skills, every punch sounds mixed to haymaker level, every scene is stuffed to the brim with the best waterfalls … it’s like loudness wars in movie form. There are no dynamics. I don’t think anybody is to blame, I just almost feel like we’ve gotten too good at everything and the expertise and attention to detail that each department brings to the production is suffocating in aggregate.
There’s so much LOER in this trailer that you can just see the desperation to create a new Pirates franchise…but they forget that part of what made that first film a success was it was an otherwise normal world that slowly unfolded in to weirdness instead of this where it throws everything at you in the trailer.
But the trailer for POTC gives away the weird ghost parts too:
But the skeleton ghosts were the ONLY thing about that movie. It was a singular supernatural element that put the otherwise normal pirates in a difficult situation.This trailer has giant machine subs and leopards and zombie men and big monsters and worm creatures and magical healing juice and…and…and…The giant machine gun sub could be a movie in it’s own right. As would be the weird zombie men or the giant sea monster.BUT THIS HAS ALL OF THEM WHAT THE FUCK?!
Also the Pirates movies (at least the first couple) look like they take place a real world that happens to have some supernatural elements as opposed to this trailer which is basically a cartoon. It looks like they took the swinging monkey scene from Indiana Jones 4 and expanded it to an entire movie. I’m sure I’ll end up watching this with my kids at some point but it looks extremely generic.
It’s trying to be Jumanji. But Jumanji got away with it by taking place in a video game world.
It has Emily Blunt, and that’s enough for me!
I remember seeing this trailer and thinking, “My god. That looks terrible.” And then I was shocked to discover the film was actually good. It’s a shame about those sequels, though.
I think the film industry has always had that “mass appeal” over quality battle going on since the beginning. There were plenty of movies that were formulaic and just cranked out. We just don’t remember them. Most of them are literally gone, because no one even bothered to save the masters. In 50 years, most of these movies won’t be remembered.
It’s not so much the formula or mass appeal. It’s that the state of every art is so good now. The intent or goal of the people making the movies hasn’t changed. Their ability to do it to such a level that there is no trace of imperfection left is what I think robs mass appeal art (in reality it’s art with budgets that can afford the level of specialization I’m bemoaning) of some humanity. The tools have become so advanced, the top practitioners so proficient that it’s akin to various stages in human history where some burst of technological advancement aids us in becoming so adept at something – advances in fishing leading to overfishing for historical example – that we just do it too well for our own good. To the detriment of the the goals of entertainment in this case. There are no longer any limitations in what can be achieved by way of technology, expertise, and budget and I argue that limitations are a key component in the creation of *good* mindless mass appeal entertainment.
Yep. And it’s not because movies today are too “slick” or “commercial.” Films from the golden age of Hollywood were still basically industrial products: They were made on an assembly line by a team of highly skilled craftspeople, much as modern blockbusters are. And yet, many of them still look and sound amazing. They stand up as among the most significant works of art of their time. People have literally devoted their lives and careers to studying and appreciating them. I just can’t quite see anybody doing that over most of this stuff today.I’m admittedly a pretty big analog enthusiast, so it’s tempting to blame the shift to digital acquisition for a lot of it. But the truth is, I’ve seen digitally shot indie films that look simply stunning. Conversely, a few major blockbusters are still shot on film (really, theirs is the only sort of budget that can support it now), but by the time they’re released every last inch of it has been so over-processed in post production it’s a wonder they even bothered. It all just comes out looking plastic and fake in the end.There’s also a storytelling element at play that your post picks up on. I’d put it like this: Modern Hollywood knows how to do action pretty well, but they don’t quite have adventure figured out. True adventure is more than big explosions, well choreographed fights, and state of the art CGI. It requires a story that makes you actually give a damn about what’s going to happen, and characters that make you care about what happens to them.
I touched on this in my other reply here, but yes .. I think the idea of adventure ties into my theory on the lack of limitation. It’s like because we can show anything, we can’t help but forget the small stuff that put the big stuff into some kind of scale. Everything is big, because everything *can* be big. Everything is awesome, because everything *can* be awesome. The limitations of the past I think forced the hand of the industry to always contain some kind of perspective – some smallness, some rough around the edgesness – that’s missing in today’s pictures. Today’s coffee shop isn’t just some coffee shop. It’s been thought about *too hard*. Nothing is incongruous because nearly everything is crafted. Nothing is found. To me it’s not about technical fidelity or how good it looks .. it’s that every single frame, location, sound can look that way because the tools allow it and the amount of it that must be created from nothing forces it.
So, basically, “African Queen” meets “The Mummy”, right?
All the way through, I kept thinking “Why isn’t Brendan Fraser playing this character fifteen years ago?”
Jumanji 3? These days almost every film like this has that ultra colorful digital look to it that makes everything in the movie look synthetic.
It’s certainly Disney trying to steal Jumanji’s thunder…quite literally by signing the Rock and likely including an option for multiple films so he’s too busy for more Jumanji.
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.You know, a fun period piece where the Rock and Emily Blunt survive the jungle would have been fine. Not everything has to be OMG WE GOTTA SAVE THE UNIVERSE! level action.
Blame Marvel.
That’s Marvel though. It makes sense superheroes would be saving the world.This is a Jungle Cruise movie.
Malaria… Snakebite… Tetanus… Some of those little parasitic fish that swim up your urethra and implant their spines into you so they can stay put.Call it The Devil Wears Leeches.
Filmed over two years ago and delayed by the Pandemic. Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie with the Rock is finally getting released. The new trailer just dropped and it looks like a mix between Pirates of the Caribbean and Jumanji. The movie also comes with that yellow tint filter no one likes but they keep adding to movies anyway lol!
The yellow filter makes me think of a really bad pollen day.
lol
Next up, Tea Cup Ride: The Adventure Continues
I thought the movie would be the mystic quest for the 8th WONDER OF THE WORLD…The backside of Water!!!!
I gotta admit this looks pretty darn fun
I’m in.Also, Dwayne NEEDS to play Doc Savage. NEEDS to.
0:01 Mary Steenburgen
Yet another film in the Dwayne Johnson pantheon that begs the question: “Is this Jumanji?”
Why, is that Jesse Plemons as a wacky German submarine commander?
I was an early fan of Dwayne Johnson. People thought I was insane when I told them that I thought he was just incredibly charismatic in the aughts. “You mean, the wrestler?” And he has a great screen presence, but his career has been disappointing. He’s terrible at picking quality projects, although admittedly great at making sure those awful movies make bank. Think about the kind of directors Schwarzenegger worked with during his career: James Cameron, Paul Verhoeven, John McTiernan, and John Milius. That’s not a coincidence. Either he had brilliant agents or Schwarzenegger actually had an eye for movies and the talent behind them.By contrast, Johnson’s filmography is just one big disappointment after another. I’d rather watch a Vin Diesel movie or a Jason Statham film. I’m hoping Jungle Cruise changes this, though. The trailers look like a blast, and Jaume Collet-Serra has proven that he knows how to make a fun movie that’s occasionally clever.
>Think about the kind of directors Schwarzenegger worked with during his career.Yeah I’ve had this thought before too – when Arnie was the most bankable movie star on the planet he used that clout to work with the best directors in the genre and often made films that were pretty weird and risk taking (Total Recall for one). The Rock kind of does the opposite and keeps working with the same mediocre directors, never stepping outside his comfort zone, and making different variations of the same movie. I guess it works for him because these movies keep making money but when you see The Rock on a movie poster your first instinct is to assume it’s a soulless piece of crap which can’t really be what he wants, right?
Somebody really oughta tell the Disney press release team that if you start at the mouth of the river and then go towards the source, you’re going upstream, not down.
Is that Jessie Plemons that comes out of the hatch on the sub? I was going to see this, but if that is him SIGN ME THE FUCK UP, JP playing into a role = fucking amazing
Didn’t this dogshit movie already happen like 2 years ago?
They moved the jungle cruise to the Amazon, so I guess that means no hippos. I’m out.
Interesting to see a trailer for this turd, starring an actress who just said she wouldn’t make comic book movies. I guess theme park ride movies are more moving to her.
Getting Treasure of the Amazon vibes from this trailer. Not a great sign when you’re pulling ideas from a movie only remembered because it was featured on Rifftrax. (Also, Nazi foe played by Donald Pleasance is better than Nazi foe played by Jesse Plemons).
mythical beasts are one thing but the mythical skiny-girl-with-spaghetti-arms-punching-out-grown-men is a bridge too far. i get that this is a fantasy world with fantasy beasts but presumably her character is a human female of the sort we currently have on planet earth. hard pass.
Yup, that sure was a lot of green screen.
This definitely gave me “The Mummy” flashbacks, in that the CGI looked like it was from 1999.
How many sequels in before Jungle Cruise crosses over with Pirates of the Caribbean?
Because nothing says adventure story set during the first half of the 20th century like Credence Clearwater Revival?Also that leopard looks terrible. You’re Disney, you own TWO of the best animation studios in the world, and about 90 percent of the world’s IP, and that’s the best you can come up with? Shutting down the theme parks must have hit the bottom line even harder than we imagined.
Gotta love a good Jesse Plemons drop-in.
I mean, it’s based on a 60-year-old theme park attraction, but I guess that’s what passes for “completely new” from the re-hash factory.