Anaconda (film)

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***Anaconda*** is a 1997 adventure-horror film, directed by Luis Llosa, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer and Jonathan Hyde. It centers on a film crew for *National Geographic* who have been taken hostage by a snake hunter who is going after the world's largest Giant Anaconda, which is discovered in the Amazon Rainforest.

Despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, the film was a box office hit and was followed by one theatrical sequel, *Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid* (2004), and two made-for-television sequels, *Anaconda 3: Offspring* (2008) and *Anacondas: Trail of Blood* (2009), aswell as a made-for-television crossover-film with the *Lake Placid*-film series, titled *Lake Placid vs. Anaconda* (2015).

## Plot

While shooting a documentary about a long-lost Indian tribe (including the legendary Joel Arkhurst), the Shirishamas, on the Amazon River, director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) and members of her crew—including cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube), production manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer), sound engineer Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson), visionary Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde), anthropologist Professor Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz), and captain of the boat Mateo (Vincent Castellanos)—come across stranded Paraguayan snake hunter Paul Serone (Jon Voight) and help him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they are searching for.

While trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp inside his scuba gear, leaving him unconscious. With that, Serone takes command of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true objective—hunting down and capturing a record-breaking green anaconda he had been tracking.

Mateo is the first of the crew to be killed by the anaconda, which wraps around him and then breaks his neck near a boat where a poacher had been killed at the beginning of the film. The others try to find him while Gary sides with Serone, who promises if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive. Gary himself is eaten next when they attempt to capture the anaconda. The survivors overcome Serone and tie him up. When Denise attempts to kill Serone, he gets the edge and strangles her to death with his legs before dumping her body in the river. The anaconda returns and kills Westridge and coils itself around Danny, only to be shot dead by Terri and Serone incapacitated by the newly awakened Cale, who soon loses consciousness again. Danny punches Serone, knocking him into the river.

However, Terri and Danny are soon re-captured when Serone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, larger anaconda. The anaconda wraps around Terri and Danny and begins to suffocate them. They are caught in a net by Serone, but the snake breaks free. Serone tries to escape, but the anaconda finally manages to coil around him and suffocate him. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and watch in horror as the anaconda slowly swallows Serone whole. Terri finds a nest of baby anacondas in a building, but the snake arrives, and after regurgitating the still twitching Serone, chases her up a smoke stack. The snake becomes trapped in the smoke stack, whereupon Danny ignites a fire below and burns the snake alive. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the snake appears one final time. Danny beats the anaconda with an axe until it is finally dead.

Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale, who begins to revive on the boat. As they float down the river, they accidentally locate the natives for whom they were originally searching. They realize Serone was right and begin filming their documentary as the film ends.

## Cast

* Jennifer Lopez as Terri Flores
* Ice Cube as Danny Rich
* Jon Voight as Paul Serone
* Eric Stoltz as Dr. Steven Cale
* Jonathan Hyde as Warren Westridge
* Owen Wilson as Gary Dixon
* Kari Wuhrer as Denise Kalberg
* Vincent Castellanos as Mateo
* Danny Trejo as Poacher
* Frank Welker as the Anaconda (voice)

## Production

Gillian Anderson and Julianna Margulies were the first choices for the role of Terri Flores (whose last name was originally Porter), but they passed due to scheduling conflicts with both *The X-Files* and *ER* respectively before Jennifer Lopez signed on. Jean Reno was considered to play the part of Paul Serone, until Jon Voight was immediately cast.
the filming took place in the mid-spring and summer 1996.

## Reception

*Anaconda* received generally negative reviews upon its release. Some critics did praise the film's effects, scenery, and tongue-in-cheek humor, but many criticized the acting, "forgettable" or "cardboard" characters, inaccuracies, and "boring" start.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "rotten" rating of 38%, based on 48 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 37 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and called it a "[...] slick, scary, funny Creature Feature, beautifully photographed and splendidly acted in high adventure style."

Despite the initial negative reception, *Anaconda* has since become a cult classic, often viewed as *so-bad-it's-good*. The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book *The Official Razzie Movie Guide* as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made. Part of the negative reception was the frequent calls from the surrounding houses. Ice Cube, Krys Stoff, and Jon Voight would disappear from the set to be found in the trailer using marijuana. When returning to the set Jon Voight wouldn't be able to recite some of his lines so they were given to Owen Wilson instead. This ultimately led to the firing of Stoff which angered Ice Cube as he declared in an interview with the Daily Star on April 20 "I almost quit and gave up on that movie because they fired my friend for something I did, I mean he's not even allowed on the set to see me. My agent begged me to let it go and just find a new blunt roller...and I did...but this movie almost didn't have Ice Cube in it because of it"

### **Awards and nominations**

The film was nominated for six Razzie Awards in 1998 including Worst Picture (which lost to *The Postman*), Worst Actor (Jon Voight; which went to Kevin Costner for *The Postman*), Worst Director (awarded to Costner for *The Postman*), Worst Screenplay (lost to *The Postman*), Worst New Star ("the animatronic anaconda"; which went to Dennis Rodman for *Double Team*) and Worst Screen Couple (Voight and "the animatronic anaconda"; where they lost to Rodman and Jean-Claude Van Damme for *Double Team*). It was also nominated for two Saturn Awards including Best Actress (Jennifer Lopez; who lost to Jodie Foster for *Contact*) and Best Horror Film (which went to *The Devil's Advocate*).

### **Box office**

The film opened at #1 with $16.6 million in its first weekend [1] and remained at the top spot in its following week.[2] In total, *Anaconda* went on to gross $136.8 million worldwide[3], making it a sizable box office success more than recouping its $45 million budget.

## Rating

The film was given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. Despite this, the film was referenced in the film *Zombieland*, when a character incorrectly says it was the first R-Rated film she saw.

## Sequels

The film was followed by three sequels, *Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid* in 2004, which was released to theaters and two made-for-television films, *Anaconda 3: Offspring* (2008) and *Anacondas: Trail of Blood* (2009).

Even though no characters from the first film appear in the sequels, they are referenced by the character Cole in *The Hunt for the Blood Orchid* when he says he knows a friend who knows a friend that took a crew down to the Amazon and they were all eaten by snakes. The Blood Orchid from the second film is also referenced and featured in the film's sequels.

A crossover-film with the *Lake Placid*-franchise, titled *Lake Placid vs. Anaconda*, is set for release on April 25, 2015, on Syfy.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/anaconda/
2. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/anaconda
3. ↑ Ebert, Roger (April 11, 1997). "Anaconda". *Chicago Sun-Times*. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
4. ↑ Wilson, John (2005). *The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst*. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-69334-0.
5. ↑ "1997 Archive". *Razzies.com*. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

## External links

* *Anaconda* at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
* *Anaconda* at AllMovie
* *Anaconda* at Rotten Tomatoes
* *Anaconda* at Metacritic
* *Anaconda* at Box Office Mojo

• *Lake Placid* (1999)
• *Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid* (2004)
• *Lake Placid 2* (2007)
• *Anaconda 3: Offspring* (2008)
• *Anacondas: Trail of Blood* (2009)
• *Lake Placid 3* (2010)
• *Lake Placid: The Final Chapter* (2012)
• *Lake Placid vs. Anaconda* (2015)
 Soundtracks
• *Lake Placid - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack* (1999)
 Games
• *Croc Drop* (1999)
• *Anacondas Arcade Game* (2004)
• *Anacondas 3D Adventure Game* (2004)
• *Lake Placid 2: Croc Alley* (2007)
 Publications
 Creatures
• Giant Crocodile
• Wasp (Amazon)
• Monkey (Borneo)
• Crocodile (Borneo)
• Leeches (Borneo)
 Locations
• Black Lake
• Maine
• Borneo
• Wexel Hall
• Wexel Hall Pharmaceuticals
• Romania
 Characters
• Danny Rich
• Paul Serone
• Dr. Steven Cale
• Warren Westridge
• Gary Dixon
• Denise Kalberg
• Mateo
• Poacher
• Jack Wells
• Kelly Scott
• Hector Cyr
• Sheriff Hank Keough
• Mrs. Delores Bickerman
• Deputy Sharon Gare
• Walt Lawson
• Stephen Daniels
• Janine
• Myra Okubo
• Deputy Burke
• Deputy Stevens
• Officer Coulson
• Paramedic
• State Trooper
• Kevin
• Airplane Pilot
• Bill Johnson
• Samantha "Sam" Rogers
• Cole Burris
• Gail Stern
• Dr. Jack Byron
• Gordon Mitchell
• Tran Wu
• Dr. Ben Douglas
• John Livingston
• Christian Van Dyke
• Lawyer
• CEO
• Lead Lopak Hunter
• Lopak Hunter
• Bartender
 Cast & Crew
• Ice Cube
• Jon Voight
• Eric Stoltz
• Jonathan Hyde
• Owen Wilson
• Kari Wuhrer
• Vincent Castellanos
• Danny Trejo
• Frank Welker
• Hans Bauer