Medicine Man (film)

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Medicine Man
original movie poster
Directed by	John McTiernan
Produced by	Donna Dubrow Andrew G. Vajna Sean Connery
Written by	Tom Schulman Sally Robinson
Starring	Sean Connery Lorraine Bracco José Wilker
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Donald McAlpine
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	1992
Running time	106 min.
IMDb profile

Medicine Man is an American film, released in 1992 and directed by John McTiernan. It features Sean Connery as Dr. Robert Campbell, a researcher who ventures deep into the Amazon tropical rainforest searching for new medicines on behalf of a pharmaceutical company.

[edit] Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After a period of no communication, the sponsoring pharmaceutical company decides to send a woman researcher, Dr. Ray Crane (played by Lorraine Bracco), who believes he and his research project has gone off the rails. He had been expecting help, but he believed it would be a man. After an initial period of icy interaction, they eventually warm up. When Crane presses Campbell to find out what he has been researching the past few months, he angrily demonstrates his results, and she is, appropriately, shocked: Campbell has managed to completely reduce malignant neoplasms (a cure for cancer). Even more shocking is Campbell's revelation that his oncological remedy has only been synthesized once and, despite his best efforts, he cannot seem to replicate the original chemical recipe. Although their initial stock is running dangerously low, Campbell has tracked down one mysterious, elusive element, and with Crane's help, is determined to find it.

The main drama comes from the tension with a nearby logging company, who don't believe that Campbell's research is important enough to merit the salvation of the forest. Campbell is also explicit about not sharing his research, for fear of being unable to find the missing element in time before other, more well-funded researchers storm through the area -- thus destroying the lives of the indigenous people who live there.

Eventually, Crane and Campbell discover that the missing element is the presence of a rare kind of ant that often uses the flower (the main source of the cure) for food and habitation (the ants were often washed away during the preparation of the flowers for chemical analysis). However, their revelation comes too late, and the laboratory, and surrounding forestry, is destroyed. The final scene features a voice-over narration by Crane to the company, informing them that she would accompany Campbell even deeper into the forest in search of the ant.