The Mosquito Coast (1986)
Trivia
Jump to:
Spoilers (1)
While building the town set in Belize, the crew unearthed an ancient Mayan temple. It notified the Belize government, which declared the site an important historical find.
River Phoenix was raised in the Children of God cult, where he and his family had been stationed in Venezuela. River was motivated to act in this movie because he recognized the many similarities between it and his childhood.
River Phoenix and Harrison Ford had a very close bond. Ford personally recommended Phoenix for the part of young Indy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) after working with him on this movie. Ford stated that of all of the young actors who were working at the time, River was the one who looked the most like him when he was that age.
During casting, River Phoenix was passed on several times for the role of Charlie Fox for being too old (he was fifteen). When no age-appropriate Charlie could be found, Phoenix's audition tape was brought in again to director Peter Weir and, impressed by Phoenix, he decided to put the age issue aside and give him the job.
Of all of his movies, Harrison Ford considers this to be his favorite.
Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix started a personal relationship on this movie which continued for several years.
In an Entertainment Weekly Magazine article titled "Regarding Harrison" from a 1992 interview, Harrison Ford said of this movie: "It's the only film I have done that hasn't made its money back. I'm still glad I did it. If there was a fault with the film, it was that it didn't fully enough embrace the language of the (source) book (by Paul Theroux). It may have more properly been a literary rather than a cinematic exercise. But I think it's full of powerful emotions."
Corey Haim was offered the role of Charlie Fox. His father, who was acting as his manager at the time, turned it down in favor of a starring role in Lucas (1986).
Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of Allie Fox. Nicholson withdrew from this movie partially because he could not watch his Los Angeles Lakers basketball team from Belize where much of the movie was to be filmed.
Due to principal photography on this movie, Harrison Ford and director Peter Weir famously missed the 1986 Academy Awards ceremony, for which they had been nominated for Witness (1985), in the Best Actor and Best Director categories, respectively. Witness (1985) went on to win two Oscars, for Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay, after being nominated for eight, including Best Picture.
River Phoenix had a reputation for being very anti-establishment, particularly against big corporations. For that reason, director Peter Weir was taken aback when he saw Phoenix drinking cans of Coca-Cola and eating Mars bars on-set.
Belize was chosen as the main location not only because it had all the necessary landscape features, but also because it was an English-speaking country with a stable economy.
Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame had a bit part in this movie as a store clerk. During shooting in Rome, Georgia while out shopping in what turned out to be a not so safe area he had a gun put to his head from behind. Not knowing what was the thing pressing on his head, Alexander twisted, reached up, grabbed the robber's hand and arm and pulled forward just as the robber started shooting. Alexander claims he managed this due to long years of martial arts training. He was not hurt and managed to break the man's arm and one finger as he pulled the gun from his hand before fleeing the scene. Alexander has told this story in several interviews, notable on Kevin Pollak's podcast number 86.
Peter Weir was already familiar with the Paul Theroux novel when he was offered the chance to direct, as Sigourney Weaver had given him a copy of the book on-location in the Philippines when they were making The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).
Final theatrical movie of Butterfly McQueen (Ma Kennywick).
Three Jeronimo sets were built, in various stages of completion, to mirror the actions in this movie. Harrison Ford's carpentry skills were often called upon by the production design team.
This movie's failure at the box office was mainly attributed to Harrison Ford's performance, which many critics found to be too forced and over-the-top.
This movie was released five years after its source novel of the same name by Paul Theroux was published.
Peter Weir had planned to make this movie with Jack Nicholson in the lead, and was already moving furniture into the production office when he was informed the funding had fallen through. Calling his agent, he asked for a "go" project into which he could step immediately as director. He was offered three - Cocoon (1985), The Mean Season (1985), and Witness (1985) - and chose Witness (1985),
Producer Jerome Hellman bought the rights to Paul Theroux's novel as soon as it was published.
First of two collaborations of River Phoenix and Harrison Ford. The pair worked together again on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Phoenix played the younger version of Indiana Jones, in the opening flashback sequence, with Ford portraying the usual regular adult form of the character.
Show-business trade paper "Variety" described this movie as "a modern variation of Swiss Family Robinson". Many critics and audiences have compared this movie with Johann David Wyss' classic "Swiss Family Robinson" (1812) novel.
Of her first and only co-starring experience with Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren has said that, though he was the nicest and sweetest guy you could want to meet, when it came down to their love scenes, it wasn't the most pleasant experience.
The source novel won "The Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year" award and was also awarded "The James Tait Black Memorial Prize".
Jamaica, Mexico, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Guatemala were all considered for filming before the production settled on Belize.
Thq quotation cited in this movie was from T.S. Eliot's "Fragment of an Agon".
The number of invention patents that Allie Fox (Harrison Ford) had patented was six patents pending with nine patents registered in total.
Bagels, which are not a common feature of the Belize diet, were flown in specially for the cast and crew.
Second and final (to date, June 2022) collaboration of Harrison Ford and director Peter Weir. The first being Witness (1985).
Thirty six years later, as season 2 episode 6 of the TV adaptation of "The Mosquito Coast" airs on AppleTV, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren release their new TV series that they are starring in together titled "1923" on Paramount Plus.
The name of Allie Fox's (Harrison Ford's) large ice-making machine invention was "Fat Boy".
