SYNOPSIS
Disgusted with modern civilization, Allie Fox, handyman and obsessive genius, sets off to the Mosquito Coast of Central America to found his own society. Despite finding that the village he has bought is no more than a few broken-down shacks, Allie soon clears the jungle and constructs a gigantic ice-making machine, 'Fat Boy'. In a nearby village he finds three men, apparently prisoners, and shows them how to escape to his town. They prove to be armed mercenaries and, when he fails to persuade them to leave, Allie traps them inside Fat Boy. They try to shoot their way out but the machine explodes, causing widespread devastation. Fox's shattered family set off towards a village on the coast, but as they proceed upriver his sons increasingly resent their father's tyrannical and eccentric behaviour. When they come upon a mission, the boys rebel. Allie is shot while setting fire to the church and dies on the raft as his family head back to the sea and so to America.

CREDITS
Director: Peter Weir
Producers: Saul Zaenrz, Jerome Hellman
Screenplay: Paul Schrader, based on the novel by Paul Theroux
Cinematography: John Seale
Editor: Thorn Noble, Richard Francis-Bruce
Production designer: John Stoddan

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