Robert Zemeckis · 1984 · overland

Robert Zemeckis's 1984 adventure-romance. Joan Wilder, a lonely New York writer of romance novels, flies to Colombia when her sister is kidnapped and she is forced to carry a treasure map into the country. Stranded in the mountains after her bus is wrecked, she falls in with the roguish soldier-of-fortune Jack Colton, and the two trek through the jungle pursued by smugglers and secret police, hunting the fabulous emerald called El Corazon. It is a comic reworking of the pulp adventures Joan writes for a living, dragging its bookish heroine through the real thing.

1. 1
   New York City

   Joan Wilder, a solitary romance novelist, is pulled out of her Manhattan apartment when her sister is kidnapped and a mysterious map arrives in the mail.

2. 2
   Cartagena

   She flies to Colombia and lands in Cartagena, hopelessly out of her depth, and is bundled onto a bus toward a rendezvous that goes badly wrong.

3. 3
   The Colombian Jungle

   Her bus wrecked in the mountains, she meets the mercenary Jack Colton, and the mismatched pair strike off through the jungle, chased by rival treasure-hunters.

4. 4
   The Waterfall

   Deep in the highlands, behind a waterfall, they find the great emerald El Corazon, the heart of the map's secret.

5. 5
   Cartagena (return)

   They fight their way back to Cartagena for a final reckoning with the smugglers on the harbour front, treasure, crocodile and romance all in play.