The Emerald Forest (1985, UK/US)

In director John Boorman's naturalistic R-rated adventure tale - it was a coming-of-age story (based on an uncredited true account), set among the 'Invisible People' indigenous tribe in the rainforests of the Amazon Basin of Brazil. The film contained considerable nudity, for authenticity's sake, of the tribal natives.

The film's tagline described the basic plot outline: "What kind of man would return year after year for ten years to rescue a missing boy from the most savage jungle in the world? His father."

• in the film's opening, young Tommy Markham (William Rodriguez as a blonde-haired, green-eyed 7 year-old child) became separated from his family during a picnic near the Brazilian construction site for a hydro-electric dam
• Tommy's father was Bill Markham (Powers Boothe), a construction engineer for the dam project in Brazil, who was married to Jean Markham (Meg Foster)
• Tommy was abducted by the natives, known as "The Invisible People," and taken into the dense jungle; the young boy was snatched and adopted by the future chieftain-head of the tribe Wanadi (Rui Polanah), and he was renamed Tomme
• after he grew up and ten years later, 17 year-old Tomme (Charley Boorman, the director's son, as an older teen) became acculterated with the native way of life; his local love interest when he had grown to manhood and was interested in courtship was Kachiri (Dira Paes); a formal wedding ceremony was held for them
• meanwhile, Tommy's father spent many years searching for his lost son as dam construction continued, and meanwhile, civilization was increasingly encroaching upon the tribe
• in a major adventure-film side-plot during Markham's search for his son, he was abducted by a rival cannibalistic, hostile and violent aboriginal tribe known as the 'Fierce People' led by Chief Jacareh (Claudio Moreno)
• when allowed to escape and treated as hunted prey, Markham happened to locate Tomme during his son's coming-of-age ritual (a vision quest) to collect sacred stones (green-colored clay used for the tribe's body-paint camouflage); Markham was shot in the shoulder with an arrow by the Fierce People, and was brought to recuperate amongst Tomme's tribe; once Markham recovered and was encouraged to go on his own spiritual quest, he was returned to white civilization
• the story came to a head when many of the Invisible People were murdered by the tribe of Fierce People and the native girls were kidnapped and taken to be traded with white slave traders; in exchange for their use as prostitutes in a nearby brothel close to the dam's construction zone, the Fierce People were offered guns, ammunition, and liquor
• in the stirring conclusion, Tomme ventured into the city to alert his "Daddy" to help rescue Kachiri and the other enslaved young girls; after a shootout and successful rescue effort (although Chief Wanadi was killed), Tomme became the tribe's new chief to replace the deceased Wanadi
• the film ended with Markham's attempt to deliberately destroy the hydro-electric dam (a symbol of the white man's incursion into the jungle that would destroy the native tribe), but it remained unclear: had it been destroyed by the detonated explosives or by drenching torrential rains?