Congo (film) - Plot

Plot

The film begins with Charles Travis (Bruce Campbell), the ex-fiancé of electronics expert Karen Ross (Laura Linney), testing a diamond-powered communications laser in a remote part of the Congo by a dormant volcano. Charles' friend, Jeffrey, discovers an ancient lost city's ruins and brings Charles with him. But when Jeffrey goes to explore the city, he's mysteriously killed, along with Charles. Karen, waiting in TraviCom's headquarters for Charles to test the device, activates a video feed and is shocked to see a destroyed camp with several dead bodies. A shadowy animal knocks the camera over, ending the transmission. TraviCom's CEO R.B. Travis (Joe Don Baker), Charles' father, reveals why they're exploring the Congo. He wants to find a rare blue diamond that's only found at the volcanic site and will help expand his communication technologies. He orders Karen to finish the mission and find the blue diamond. She makes Travis promise that he's sending her there for his son, and not simply for a diamond.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Elliott (Dylan Walsh), a primatologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his assistant Richard (Grant Heslov) have devised a way to teach human communication to primates using a gorilla named Amy (voiced by Shayna Fox). With a special backpack and glove, her sign language is translated to a digitized voice. Despite the success, Peter is concerned that Amy is having nightmares and psychological problems. These have been partly quelled by Amy's painted pictures of trees and an open eye. Peter theorizes that she's painting a jungle and decides to return her to Africa, but the university is reluctant to fund the expedition. Peter is then approached by a Romanian philanthropist, Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry), who offers to fund the expedition. Karen, hoping to find Charles, joins Peter and provides additional funding.

Upon arriving in Africa, the group is met by their expert guide Captain Munro Kelly (Ernie Hudson). However, they're soon captured by the local authorities and questioned by a militia leader (Delroy Lindo) who grants them passage in exchange for a sizable bribe. As the group boards another plane, Munro reveals that Homolka has led previous safaris in search of the "Lost City of Zinj", with disastrous results. The group covertly crosses the closed Zaire border but must parachute into the jungle after their plane is shot down by Zairean soldiers. They make camp and Karen sets up equipment to contact TraviCom via satellite. The next morning, a ghost tribe's members enter the camp, claiming to have found a dead white man with the TraviCom logo on his clothes.

The tribe's members lead the team to Bob, a member of the original TraviCom expedition. He's not actually dead but in a catatonic state and the tribe performs a ritual to summon his spirit back to his body. After they revive him, Bob sees Amy and begins screaming, before coughing up blood and dying. Perplexed, the group heads deeper into the jungle by boat. Munro again presses Homolka about his obsession with the lost city, and he reveals that as a young man he found a book in Soviet Georgia that contained a drawing of Zinj, where King Solomon was believed to have had a vast diamond mine. The drawing featured a peculiar decoration that resembles an open eye, the same eye that Amy has been painting. Homolka comes to the conclusion that Amy has seen Zinj and can lead the group there.

Arriving at the empty camp site, the group finally discovers Zinj. Peter, Karen, Munro, Homolka, and head porter Kahega (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) enter the ruins while Amy, Richard and the remaining porters wait outside. While the first group searches the city, they see a certain hieroglyphic everywhere. Suddenly, a hysterical Richard runs into the city, screaming in terror. He collapses dead and a gray gorilla comes out of the shadows and attacks the group. That night, they set up a secure camp, but gray gorillas attack the perimeter after dark and are driven off by automated machine guns set up by Karen. Homolka translates the repeated hieroglyph to: "We are watching you."

The group reenters the ruins, where they find hieroglyph pictures of people teaching the gorillas to be "guard dogs" for the mines and to kill anyone from stealing the diamonds. Soon they find Homolka at the entrance of Solomon's diamond mine. Homolka picks up handfuls of large diamonds but they're again ambushed by the gorillas, who appear to be living in the mine with its precious minerals. Homolka is killed and the others open fire. In a small geode within the mine, Karen and Peter find Charles' dead body, holding a large blue diamond in his hand. Kahega and the other porters run out of ammunition and are killed. As the gorillas attack Peter, Amy arrives and fiercely protects him from them, giving Karen enough time to load the blue diamond into her own laser, which she uses as a weapon on the gorillas. The volcano then suddenly erupts, collapsing the mine into molten lava. This gives the three survivors and Amy time to escape as the gorillas are killed by the boiling lava.

Upon escaping the city and volcano, Karen contacts Travis and informs him that she found the blue diamond, but that Charles is dead. However, when she realizes that Travis only values the diamond, she programs the laser to target TraviCom's orbiting multimillion-dollar satellite, destroying it. Having found their crashed cargo plane, Karen has Munro set up a hot air balloon. Peter says goodbye to Amy, as she's set free in the wild and joins a group of mountain gorillas. At sunset, Peter, Karen, and Munro set off in the balloon. Karen has Peter throw away the only diamond she managed to save from the mine. The balloon sails away over the jungle as Amy looks on and heads off with the mountain gorillas.