WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Lost City, now playing in theaters.
Critics and audiences alike hailed the release of The Lost City as a return to big-budget original ideas, but it has quite the iconic predecessor. While not officially a remake of 1984’s Romancing the Stone, the two films have more than a few suspicious similarities. Though there is no obvious nod in The Lost City to this action-adventure classic, there may still be a sly reference to it thanks to the 2022 film‘s most-hyped cameo.
While The Lost City has its fair share of obscure cameos, Brad Pitt’s Jack Trainer is its most obvious. He’s called in by Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum) to track down and rescue romance novelist Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock). In the movie’s comic highlight, Trainer effortlessly helps Alan and Loretta escape their captors. A possible flirtation with Loretta gets cut brutally short as Trainer is shot in the head, though the post-credits scene softens that blow on the audience. The name “Jack Trainer” may strike most people as a generic action hero name, but Romancing the Stone fans might find it more than a little familiar.
The name’s connections to the 1980s classic might be two-fold according to one IMDB user. On one level, they linked his name to the late actress Mary Ellen Trainor. She appeared in many films including Best Picture Winner Forrest Gump and Bruce Willis’ definitive action masterpiece, Die Hard. Offscreen, she not only introduced producer Kathleen Kennedy to Steven Spielberg, but was also married to Romancing the Stone director Robert Zemeckis. In her husband’s first blockbuster, she played the sister of romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) who gets captured by a pair of smuggler brothers who are looking for the location of a valuable emerald. Joan flies to Colombia to rescue her in an adventure that introduces her to the love of her life, Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas).
A Lost City viewer might look at that name and do a double-take. Douglas’ Jack is very similar to Pitt’s Jack, as they both embody the rugged he-man adventure hero one might find in a romance novel. When Joan and Loretta first meet them, it’s like they’re meeting the exact kind of person they’ve always written about. It’s no wonder that sparks fly. Therein lies the biggest difference between the two, however. Jack T. Colton becomes the co-lead of his movie while Jack Trainer is left for dead and the vapid cover model, Alan, has to step up to the plate as Loretta’s heroic partner.
The names and their basic plots aren’t the only similarities between the movies. While The Lost City is more focused on large-scale archeological adventure than Romancing the Stone was, both films feature their main couples crawling through more tunnels and forests than Indiana Jones could crack a whip at. Once they get out of the jungle, both cinematic couples solidify their romance through a spur-of-the-moment outdoor dance. It’s a fitting development as both adventures are heart-driven. Loretta’s search for The Lost City‘s tomb is motivated by a metaphorical need to get over the heartache of her husband’s death, while Joan must rediscover herself as she searches for the titular stone in Romancing the Stone, which is known as “El Corazon,” Spanish for “the heart.” One film might be more CGI-heavy than the other, but their scene structure and core character arcs are one and the same.
The Lost City creative team might never tell us if IMDb is right to think that Jack Trainer’s name is a two-for-one reference to Romancing the Stone. However, movie fans will recognize the debt that The Lost City owes to the earlier adventure epic. It’s almost as large as the debt movie audiences owe to each film for their commitment to bringing old-fashioned romance and thrills back to cinemas in cynical times. In a few decades, IMDb users may very well be wondering if a new film in that tradition is tipping its hat to The Lost City by naming a character after Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The Lost City is currently playing in movie theaters worldwide. Romancing the Stone is currently streaming on HBO Max.
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