Disney’s Latest ‘Jungle Cruise’ Clip Has Some Indiana Jones Vibes

July 29, 2021

Viewers who are entertaining the idea of embarking on a Jungle Cruise this weekend may want to know what’s in store for them. Disney’s live-action adaptation of its Jungle Cruise theme park ride hits theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 30. Now, the studio has released a new 4-minute clip which gives us our best look yet at what you can expect should you decide to board the riverboat with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

Jungle Cruise has earned mixed-to-positive reviews; our own review called it a “decent adventure that owes a lot to other films.” Specifically, it has drawn comparisons to adventure films like The Mummy and Romancing the Stone, along with other live-action Disney features like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Another major source of inspiration for both the ride and the movie is The African Queen, the 1951 classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. Yet it’s really Raiders of the Lost Ark that the clip below brings to mind. While building scenes for its next tentpole, it seems that Disney has been doing some of its own raiding: of film history.

Jungle Cruise Clip

Though the Great Movie Ride and its Well of Souls scene have gone the way of the dodo, Raiders of the Lost Ark continues to have a presence in Disney’s theme parks thanks to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. The live show, which begins with a temple and boulder scene straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark, is temporarily unavailable due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, if you’ve ever seen it (or, you know, just seen Raiders, one of the greatest movies of all time), then some of what’s featured in the clip above might strike you as familiar.

Like Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) in Raiders, Emily Blunt’s character, Lily, gets kidnapped in a market. In this case, she’s stuck in a birdcage with a tarp over it instead of a basket. She’s resourceful, though, and fights her way free before climbing the building like the performers in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

There are also some chittering monkeys, none of which consume poison dates and die, thankfully. James Newton Howard’s music in this clip is very reminiscent of John Williams, and it comes with the added bonus of letting us see Blunt punch Johnson in the face. (She’s already claimed, in another behind-the-scenes featurette, that she can bench-press more than him.)

Here’s the official synopsis for Jungle Cruise:

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 has its simultaneous release in theaters and on Disney+ (with Premier Access) on Friday, July 30.

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