King Solomon's Mines (2004 film)

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King Solomon's Mines was 2004 two-part TV miniseries loosely based on the novel King Solomon's Mines (1885) by H. Rider Haggard and previous film versions. It starred Patrick Swayze as Allan Quatermain and Alison Doody as a made up character called Elizabeth Maitland. Though serious in tone, new characters and radically changed story elements were incorporated, so it is not faithful to the book at all.

[edit] Plot

Elizabeth Maitland hires Allan Quatermain to find her father Sam Maitland, who has been kidnapped by the Kaukaunas as he had drawn a map to the mines. The Russian Tsar was funding Sam's efforts to locate the mines, which introduced four more characters, a tracker called McNabb, who is an old acquaintance of Quatermain's, and three Russians sent by the Tsar. Gagool is young instead of the wizened old woman in the book. She is not evil, does not betray Quatermain at the end and does not die. There is no great battle where Henry kills Twala in a duel to the death. Quatermain defeats Twala's warrior to allow Umbopa/Ignosi to claim his throne and the tribe kills Twala after he kills Sir Henry. The three would-be main characters bear very little resemblance to their namesakes. Captain Good is almost unrecognizable.