Romancing the Stone

"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."

1984 1h 46m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 2,136

RomanceComedyActionAdventure

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.

“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.”

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Cast

Michael Douglas
Jack T. Colton
Kathleen Turner
Joan Wilder
Danny DeVito
Ralph
Zack Norman
Ira
Alfonso Arau
Juan
Manuel Ojeda
Zolo
Holland Taylor
Gloria
Mary Ellen Trainor
Elaine

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Diane Thomas
Languages: French, English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 8.7× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

42 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Romancing the Stone Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Frank Morriss shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Zemeckis directs. Dean Cundey behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Frank Morriss cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in French, English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 8.7× over at the box office.
242 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, English, Spanish.
4Part of the "Romancing the Stone Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Robert Zemeckis, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Frank Morriss shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "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.".
10IMDB entry: tt0088011 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 26 themes, including "airplane", "smuggling (contraband)", "chase", "kidnapping".

The technical file

Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Original score: Alan Silvestri
Editing: Frank Morriss
Production design: Lawrence G. Paull
Costume design: Marilyn Vance
Makeup / hair: E. Thomas Case
Stunt coordinator: Vince Deadrick Jr.
Runtime: 106 min · 1h 46m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $10,000,000
Box office: $86,572,238
Return: 866% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Romancing the Stone (1984)

Part of

Romancing the Stone Collection

An action-adventure romantic comedy film series about the adventures of fictional romance novelist Joan Wilder and bird exporter Jack T. Colton.

Also by

Robert Zemeckis

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2023-06-08
★ 6/10
This film does make you realise just how good Harrison Ford was in "Indiana Jones" (also 1984) and how good Danny DeVito is in this - but as far as Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner go, well they are really pretty mediocre. He is "Jack", the dashing rogue who ends out helping slushy fiction writer "Joan" through the Colombian jungle in search of her kidnapped sister - something about a treasure map. This adventure takes for ever to get going, but once it does it offers us a colourful and entertaining enough series of set-piece escapades with a beat-heavy synthesised score that works hard to compensate for some really inane dialogue from both. Kidnapper DeVito ("Ralph") amiably steals the scenes he features in, as the story builds to a suitably perilous - and predictable - denouement with big creepy insects, a waterfall, car chases - and everyone gets wet a lot. You get the drift. It's fine to pass an afternoon and there is some chemistry between the two, but it's all a bit of a pale imitation now and the comedic elements have not aged very well either.
Peter McGinn2024-02-05
★ 7/10
I guess I was a bit more impressed with the leads in this movie than the other reviewer here, for I think they held up their end of a story that is, if anything, even more of a take-off on action movies that the Raider franchise. It is fluff, of course, with odd violence offsetting what is a rather gentle adventure. Good luck finding it on one of the streaming services out there. It is for sale or rent only at this time. I had a chance to watch it free, however, as I wasn’t about to buy or rent it. It is good, but not that good.
Wuchak2025-06-29
★ 6/10
Goofy escapades in the jungles of Latin America with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas A writer of romantic adventure in Manhattan (Turner) goes to Columbia to save her sister, who’s been kidnapped by shady cousins (Danny DeVito and Zack Norman). She meets an exotic bird smuggler (Douglas) who helps her evade a corrupt colonel (Alfonso Arau) and his military police. “Romancing the Stone” (1984) came in the wake of the success of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It’s an entertaining flick that effectively walks the balance beam between serious adventure and fun storytelling. Unfortunately, it jumps the shark at the midway point with the drug lord’s carefree, happy attitude as he helps Joan & Jack escape Col. Zolo & his military goons while barely evading deadly machine gun fire. Why so gleeful when they could all die at any moment? Why so merry when he's now targeted as an enemy of the state and they will seize his nice hacienda? Let's just say, he'll never be able to go home again. It's bad writing, which is a shame because the flick was amusingly thrilling up to that point. Then it became eye-rolling and boring. Nevertheless, the locations are great, the interplay between Turner and Douglas is entertaining, and there are a lot of (shallow) thrills. Too bad practically the entire second half makes it forgettable fluff. A sequel followed the next year, “The Jewel of the Nile.” It runs 1 hour, 45 minutes, and was shot in Snow Canyon, Utah (the opening); New York City; and everything else in areas near Mexico City or east of there, specifically Veracruz (the old stone fort), Huasca de Ocampo, Xalapa, El Arenal, Tonaya, Xico, Barraca Grande, and the Valle de Silencio; interiors were done in the studio in Mexico City. GRADE: B-/C+