Movies Similar to The Diamond of Jeru (2001)

A couple looking for adventure and romance get a lot more than they bargained for in this made-for-TV drama based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. It's 1955, and John and Helen Lacklan (Keith Carradine and Paris Jefferson) are two scientists who've been working for the United States government as part of the nuclear weapons development program. They're also man and wife, and when John wed Helen, he gave her a ring without a stone, promising to someday find the diamond that she deserved. Needing a vacation, the Lacklans travel to Borneo, hoping to find a diamond while getting away from it all. Needing a guide, the Lacklans hire Mike Kardec (Billy Zane), an American expatriate who knows the jungles of Borneo and has done some diamond hunting himself. Mike soon finds he's strongly attracted to Helen, and Helen is equally drawn to Mike; it doesn't take long for John to see what's happening, and he angrily fires Kardec, hiring instead a native boy who claims to know where diamonds can be found. However, what John doesn't know is, the boy is a member of the Dyak tribe, whose leader Jeru (Piripi Waretini) has been responsible for the disappearance of a number of visitors; when Mike gets word of this, he sets out to find the Lacklans before it's too late. The Diamond of Jeru also stars Jackson Raine and Peter Carroll. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi