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The Jewel of the Nile
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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. Released in 1985, it sends their characters off on a new adventure in a fictional Middle Eastern desert, in an effort to find the precious "Jewel of the Nile."
Romancing the Stone, the opening scene takes place in one of Joan's novels.
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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. Released in 1985, it sends their characters off on a new adventure in a fictional Middle Eastern desert, in an effort to find the precious "Jewel of the Nile."
Plot summary
Opening sequence
Like Romancing the Stone, the opening scene takes place in one of Joan's novels. But this time, instead of Joan's wild-west supercouple, Jesse and Angelina, Joan and Jack are the featured heroes. As the movie starts Jack and Joan are on an old sailing ship. They're getting married. Suddenly, pirates attack the ship. Jack leads a brief counterattack against the pirates, but eventually the pirates take the ship. Joan manages to hold them off by tossing a lit torch over a spilled barrel of oil, setting the deck of the ship aflame as the survivors get to the lifeboats. By the time Jack and Joan reach the lifeboats, there's only room enough for one more. Joan gives the seat to Jack and he leaves without her. Now she's alone and surrounded by pirates. It seems she's doomed. And then...
We return to reality, where Joan is sitting on the deck of the Angelina, struggling to finish her novel and Jack is out on the ocean, water-skiing past her. Frustrated, she gives up and tosses her typewriter overboard. As it sinks to the bottom, it descends past a diver, then observes him as he places an object against the hull of the Angelina...
Rest of film
Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) is having trouble writing her next romantic novel while living with Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) on his boat, the Angelina, and refuses to discuss marriage. At a book signing engagement she meets a charming Arab ruler named Omar (Spiros Focas) that has managed to persuade the world that he is the firm, but fair, ruler of Kadir, a fictional Middle Eastern nation. Omar offers Joan the opportunity to live like a queen at his palace, while she writes a fluff piece about him. However, as soon as Joan leaves with Omar, Jack runs into Ralph (Danny DeVito). Ralph, recently out of prison, plans on killing Jack, but is stopped by an Arab named Tarak (Paul David Magid), who tells Jack of Omar's true intentions. This includes the fact that he has their greatest treasure, the Jewel of the Nile, in his possession. Ralph, immediately interested at the prospect, agrees to help find the Jewel. Jack, however, is less than convinced. But seconds later, the Angelina explodes, having been sabotaged under Omar's orders. He then agrees to team up with Ralph and Tarak in order to track down the lost jewel in Omar's kingdom.
During her stay at his palace in Kadir, Joan discovers that Omar is a brutal dictator, who imprisons her until she agrees to finish the fluff piece that will introduce him to the world as an enlightened ruler that will unite the Arab world. In the palace jail she meets a holy man, Al-Julhara, (Avner Eisenberg), who is in fact the Jewel of the Nile. Realizing that he is the only one who can stop Omar, Joan offers to take Al-Julhara to Kadir herself. The pair escape the palace, and with the help of Jack (who hijacks an Arab fighter jet), are able to flee Omar's army into the desert. Ralph, who provides much of the film's comic relief, is left to fend for himself in the desert and thus joins with the rebel Sufi tribe led by Tarak that has sworn to protect the Jewel so he can fulfill his destiny.
After a battle with a mountain African tribe, Joan breaks the news to Jack, that the Jewel is in fact Al-Julhara who is the true spiritual leader of the Arab people (Alan Foulds). Omar plans on using a British rock & roll technician's smoke and mirrors special effects at an upcoming festival, planned by Omar, to convince the Arab world that he is in fact a prophet that will unite the Arab world under his rule. Jack, Joan and Al-Julhara decide to crash the festival in Kadir and unmask Omar as the fraud that he is. However, they are all captured and Omar sets up an elaborate and fiendish trap from The Savage Secret, Joan's most popular novel. Jack and Joan are suspended over a deep pit, with the ropes holding Jack up are soaked with goat's blood and being rapidly chewed away by rats, while Joan's are slowly being dissolved by drops of acid. Al-Julhara, however is simply locked up in stocks. As Omar leaves them to their fate, they are found later and inadvertently saved by Ralph, who along with Tarak and his Sufi followers have come to rescue Al-Julhara. As Omar takes center stage to address the Arab people, Jack and Joan disrupt the ceremony while Tarak and the Sufi battle Omar's guards below. A fire breaks out when part of Omar's platform apparatus crashes into the stage, engulfing it in flames. Jack and Joan are separated in the chaos and Omar corners her at the top of the burning scaffolding surrounding the stage. With help from Ralph, Jack rides a crane to the top of the scaffolding and knocks Omar over the side and down into the flames below just as he is about to kill Joan. Once Omar is killed, Al-Julhara rises as the real spiritual leader and Jack and Joan are finally married by Al-Julhara himself the following day. While he is genuinely happy for Jack and Joan, Ralph laments sadly that once again, he has nothing to show for his efforts. But he is then acknowledged as being a true Sufi by Tarak, signified by being presented with a priceless jeweled dagger. Ralph is genuinely touched and happily accepts the gift. The film ends with Jack and Joan sailing down the Nile as Al-Julhara and his people, along with Ralph, Tarak, the Sufi and Joan's publisher, Gloria (Holland Taylor) wave goodbye from the river's dock.
Response
While The Jewel of the Nile grossed nearly as much as its predecessor, the film was much less successful critically and helped to effectively kill the franchise (thus scrapping the proposed sequel, Crimson Eagle, which never got past the development stage), although it was said at the time that both Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas only made the sequel because they were contractually obligated to do so. (At one point during pre-production, Turner tried to back out of the project, and Twentieth Century Fox threatened her with a $25 million lawsuit.) Turner, Douglas, and DeVito would later reunite in the (unrelated) film The War of the Roses.
Critics felt the film was loaded with numerous plot holes and that it lacked the first film's original charm. The New York Times opened its review by writing, "There's nothing in The Jewel of the Nile that wasn't funnier or more fanciful in Romancing the Stone." Roger Ebert agreed that "it is not quite the equal of Romancing the Stone," but praised the interplay between Douglas and Turner. "It seems clear," he wrote, "that they like each other and are having fun during the parade of ludicrous situations in the movie, and their chemistry is sometimes more entertaining than the contrivances of the plot."
Soundtrack
"When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going", performed by Billy Ocean, plays during the film's end credits. Douglas, Turner and DeVito also co-starred with Ocean in the MTV music video of the same name.
The soundtrack also features 80s rap group Whodini and their single "The Freaks Come Out at Night" as Michael Douglas and company make their way through the desert on camel back.
Trivia
- As with the first film, the novelization of the sequel was credited to Joan Wilder.
- The Jewel of the Nile was the final film released on the SelectaVision video format.
- Even though the movie was rated PG, on Fox Movie Channel it was rated TV-MA LSV.
- Approximately two weeks before principal photography began, a plane carrying Richard Dawking (production designer) and Brian Coates (production manager) crashed during location scouting over the countryside of Morocco, killing all on board.
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