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Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986)
 
Spoiler Alert !

Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.
 
This is a jungle adventure screwball comedy that's a sequel to King Solomons Mines, released a year earlier with the same lead actors, Richard Chamberlain as Allan Quatermain, and Sharon Stone as Jesse Huston. Every jungle adventure movie should have at least one snake in it, and this movie doesn't disappoint, with two different snake scenes. There are also some nice shots of beautiful African scenery.

Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot
Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot

The First Snake Scene

During the opening credits we see a man (Dumont) chased through a jungle by men wearing white masks. He stops under a tree to hide from them. A snake crawls down from the tree onto him. He makes a face as if he was bitten, but we don't see that happen, so maybe he was just scared. Then he screams and runs away. The men chasing him hear the scream and run towards him but somehow he manages to escape and get to Quatermain's house.

The movie was filmed in Zimbabwe where the African Rock Python is common, and I think that's what this snake is.

Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot

Jesse and Quatermain have planned a trip to the U.S.A. to get married. After Dumont shows up with news that leads Quatermain to believe that his lost brother Robeson has found the lost city of gold, Quatermain decides to skip the wedding trip and organize an expedition to find the city. He goes to a trading place to hire men to go with him.

Jesse told Quatermain earlier that she doesn't want to get married in Africa and spend her honeymoon swinging from vines and checking the bed for snakes, so she decides to go to the U.S. without him. Trading her jungle pants for a pink dress, she drives to the train station. Half way there she changes her mind, strips into your great grandmother's underwear, throws her dress away, and returns to look for Quatermain at the trading place. There, a man tries to grab her but she gets away. He tells two other men to abduct her, probably to sell or keep her as a slave.

Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot
Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot
Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot

The Second Snake Scene

Running away from men trying to abduct her, Jesse goes into a storage area where one of the men traps her. She picks up a basket and throws it at him. It bounces off him and when it hits the ground a bunch of large brown snakes fall out. She did not know that the basket was full of snakes and looks terrified when she sees them, but she quickly pretends that the snakes were part of her plan and points at the snakes and orders them to attack the man. The man makes a face that shows he knows the snakes are harmless and keeps moving towards her, but just then Quatermain and his companion (James Earl Jones) show up and rescue Jesse.


One of the most common harmless colubrid snakes in Zimbabwe is the Brown House Snake and I suspect that's what the large brown snakes snakes are. Why there was a large basket full of them is anybody's guess.

Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot
Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot Allan Quatermain Screenshot

Then everybody treks off to find the city of lost gold, where we see some nice snake art made of gold.