Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt set out on an adventure together in the trailer for Disney’s movie adaptation of the Jungle Cruise theme park ride.
The teaser opens in London, where Blunt’s Lily Houghton sneaks into a college and reveals her goal: “Legend has it, there is a tree in the Amazon that possesses unparalleled healing powers, and the arrowhead is the key to unlocking it.” In short order, Houghton steals the aforementioned arrowhead, then sets off to the Amazon to find this mystical tree.
After Houghton makes her escape, the trailer introduces Johnson’s Frank, who runs “undoubtedly the cheapest” Amazonian jungle cruise. Houghton hires Frank to take her into the Amazon — for a hefty price. Soon, they find themselves on a dangerous adventure, with curses and explosions and ships tumbling over waterfalls.
According to the official description,
Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s Jungle Cruise is an adventure-filled, Amazon-jungle expedition starring Dwayne Johnson as the charismatic riverboat captain and Emily Blunt as a determined explorer on a research mission.
The Jungle Cruise trailer has a distinctly Pirates of the Caribbean-esque vibe, from its slapstick-y action to the meta-references to the original Adventureland ride. Much (possibly all) of this footage was previously screened at the D23 Expo in August, right down to the clips of Frank trying to swindle his customers by hiring actors to pretend to be natives who attack them during their trip on his riverboat. It seems like a decent way of paying homage to the theme park attraction, while at the same time reframing its more outdated and regressive elements. And of course, as teased here, Frank soon comes to learn just how real the legends about the Amazon jungle truly are.
Jungle Cruise, which is based on Disney Parks’ classic attraction of the same name, is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Whitehall, Emily Blunt, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti and Èdgar Ramírez. The movie hits theaters July 24, 2020.
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