The Ruins (film) - Plot

Plot

Two young American couples (Jeff and Amy, and Eric and Stacy) on vacation in Mexico make friends with a German tourist, Mathias, and decide to help him look for his brother, Heinrich. Heinrich had met a female archaeologist and followed her to an archaeological dig at a remote Mayan ruin in the jungle but had not been seen since. Dimitri (a friend of Mathias) joins the bus journey to the Mayan site the next morning and the group uses a crude map Heinrich drew.

When the group reaches the ruins, Mayan villagers appear with guns and bows. Mathias tries to tell them they're looking for his brother by showing them a picture of him on his cell phone, but it becomes clear that the villagers do not understand Spanish or English. Dimitri approaches the villagers with Amy's camera with the hope of appeasing them, but he is instead killed with an arrow and bullet to the head. The rest of the group then flees up the steps of the ruins to escape the Mayans.

At the top they find an abandoned camp with two tents and a shaft in the center leading down. Eric and Mathias are the only two with cell phones, but Eric's has no signal and the Mayans still have the other. Then they hear a cell phone ringing and realize it's coming from the bottom of the shaft. Mathias says he is certain it's his brother's ringtone and is lowered down- but the rope breaks. He falls into the darkness of the shaft.

Meanwhile, Amy (followed by Jeff) descends the temple steps in hopes to reason with the Mayans, but they have no success. In anger, Amy throws a clump of vines at them and hits a young boy, leading the Mayans to shoot him. Jeff and Amy then return to the group. They then realize the Mayans are scared of the vines, and the Mayans won't let them go since they have touched them. Later, Stacy and Amy descend the shaft to help Mathias and to find the phone. They find Mathias who has broken his back and legs and cannot move. Jeff and Eric rig a backboard and bring the paralyzed Mathias out of the shaft.

Next morning, Stacy observes a tendril of vine has crept into a wound on her leg during the night. The vines have also wrapped themselves around Mathias's lower legs and eaten them down to the bone. Eric and Jeff are barely able to remove the vines from Stacy but cannot get them off of Mathias. The cell phone is heard again from deep in the shaft so Stacy and Amy descend again. In a small, vine-covered room the two find the body of the young archaeologist (from the opening scene of the movie) as well as her broken phone. Amy discovers that the flowers are vibrating and screeching, reproducing the ring of the phone. As she goes to touch one, the vines attack and the two barely manage to escape. Stacy is convinced the vines are growing inside her. The group now realizes the vines are predatory. They also see the Mayans salting the earth around the hill. They all contemplate whether or not to find a way to escape the ruins and whereas Amy, Stacy and Eric want to try to escape, Jeff insists that "four Americans on vacation don't just disappear" and that help is on the way since they haven't checked out of their hotel and will miss their flight. After some more arguing, they all hesitantly agree to wait.

With Mathias' condition getting worse, Jeff amputates both his legs saying Mathias will die of an infection otherwise. Stacy becomes jealous at Eric comforting a distraught Amy, accusing them of having sex claiming that she overheard Amy moaning. Stacy calls Amy's fidelity into question by bringing up an earlier incident where a drunken Amy almost made a move on Mathias, but was stopped from taking it further when she intervened. While the four argue, the vines suffocate Mathias and Jeff finds his body with the vines going down his throat.

To remove the vines in Stacy's leg and back, Jeff cuts them out of her. Stacy claims she can feel more, but the others reluctantly deny her pleas to remove them. While the rest sleep, Stacy sneaks out of her tent and begins to slash herself in an attempt to remove the vines. Jeff tries to stop her and she slashes out at him, cutting his hand. When Eric tries to stop her, she fatally stabs him and the vines drag his body away. Overcome with remorse, Stacy begs Amy to kill her, and Jeff goes to remove the knife from Eric's body. Amy cries asking him not to kill Stacy, as Stacy slowly dies while the vines inside her begin to kill her. The film cuts to the Mayans watching at the base of the pyramid. Stacy is heard screaming, continuing to beg them to kill her and her screams abruptly stop implying her death.

Realizing they'll both eventually die, Jeff makes a plan for Amy to escape. He smears Stacy's blood all over her, then carries her to the bottom of the temple and lays her on the ground, making it appear as though she has died. After giving her a kiss, Jeff begins walking away and talking aggressively – which eventually leads to the Mayans shooting him with arrows before shooting him in the head with a bullet. Simultaneously, Amy makes a run for it through the jungle while the Mayans chase after her. Narrowly missing arrows and gunfire, Amy starts the Jeep and furiously drives away.

In a finale, Dimitri's Greek friends are seen moving toward the temple, looking for him.