It is not hard to see why it was a flop – it is hard to imagine what, other than Sean Connery, anyone imagined the film had going for it. It takes an odd pure science plot – indeed it is one of the few sf films in which we see actual scientific method at work. Unfortunately this hardly makes for the stuff of gripping drama. Maybe the scriptwriters hoped that the sparring relationship between Connery and Lorraine Bracco would fill the gap. They are both presented as stubborn and it seems obvious from the outset, due to the fact that they are the only two characters in the film, that there is going to be an attraction of sorts. But there isn’t – and instead we get a character comedy that is agonizingly drawn out. Bracco gives an annoying performance – she comes across as nasally whiny. Moreover she is characterized in some often sexist ways – she screams at snakes, and when we are introduced to her we see her filing her nails which in a film like this is a certain sign that she is going to get her hands dirty in a big way. Neither the characters nor the relationship come off and as a result there isn’t much for the film to work with – just lame pieces with Connery having to rescue an intoxicated Bracco out of a tree on a rope and a few token messages about the disappearing rainforest and the plight of the indigenous peoples.