My quick rating – 6.8/10. Jungle is one of those survival films that quietly sneaks up on you. My first thought was “Here we go, another typical man-versus-nature flick.” I clearly wasn’t familiar with the actual story. Backpackers make some bad decisions and head into a jungle that absolutely does not give a crap about their personal growth. But once I realized how much this movie actually tones down the real events it’s based on, it shifted from “that was pretty good” to “okay, that’s damn amazing.”
Set in 1981, the film follows Israeli backpacker Yossi Ghinsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), who meets a mysterious Austrian geologist in La Paz, Bolivia. This guy spins the kind of stories that should immediately trigger every internal red flag – lost tribes, untouched land, secret opportunities – but instead convinces Yossi and his friends, American photographer Kevin (Alex Russell) and Swiss teacher Marcus (Joel Jackson), to head deep into the Bolivian jungle. With a “seasoned guide” leading the way (always comforting words), they expect adventure and self-discovery. What they actually get is the jungle slowly dismantling every ounce of optimism they brought with them.
Once the Amazon becomes the main attraction, the movie wastes no time killing the fantasy. This is not a friendly wilderness (South Park had this right). The jungle here is everything eating at your nerves and aggressively uninterested in your survival. Jungle does a great job showing how quickly confidence evaporates when nature stops cooperating. When the group inevitably becomes separated, because you knew that was coming, Yossi’s story turns into a punishing survival ordeal that never feels overcooked or melodramatic.
Daniel Radcliffe is excellent here, easily one of his best performances. The physical transformation alone is convincing, but it’s the mental breakdown that really sells it. Every bad decision, hallucination, and moment of sheer exhaustion feels earned. There’s absolutely zero Harry Potter energy left by the end unless Hogwarts added starvation, infection, and psychological collapse as electives.
Visually, the movie looks amazing. Shot in Australia and Bolivia, the jungle is endless, suffocating, and in a weird way, beautiful. And constantly reminding you that it has the power to kill you at any moment. The setting is almost like another character. It is breathtakingly gorgeous, frightening, and utterly unapologetic to the suffering of others.
What really elevates Jungle, though, is its restraint. Knowing that this is based on actual events, and still a toned-down version, adds an extra holy shit layer. The real Ghinsberg had to endure much worse than what is depicted, and that alone helps to keep this from feeling exploitative.
This is one of those rare cases where the actual events are even more incredible than the film, and that’s a compliment in itself. Jungle is a great survival movie and a launchpad for an even crazier true-life tale. I’d honestly recommend reading up on the actual events before or after watching. It really drives home just how insane this experience actually was.
