The Ruins (2008) on Netflix
Jeff, Amy, Eric and Stacy, two couples vacationing in Mexico, meet Mathias, a German looking for his brother at a Mayan ruin. Armed villagers surround the group and stop them from leaving.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.9/1091,937 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes52%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jeff and his girlfriend Amy, with Amy's best friend Stacy and Stacy's boyfriend Eric, are on vacation at a resort in Mexico. In the swimming pool they befriend Mathias, a German who invites the group, along with his Greek friend Dimitri, to a Mayan temple ruin where his brother is camped at an archaeological field eighteen kilometers from the resort. They take an old taxi there, and Mayan villagers carrying revolvers, rifles and bows surround them and refuse to let them leave. The group climbs a structure covered in creepers with red flowers and remains there under siege. Then they hear a cell phone ringing from somewhere inside the ruins.
Cast
- Balder Morenoas Mayan Horseman
- Patricio Almeida Rodriguezas Taxi Driver
- Mario Juradoas Mayan Archer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Ruins (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Smith was two-thirds done with the book when Ben Stiller's production company, Red Hour Films, bought the screen rights based on an outline, and they told him they wanted him to write the screenplay too, so while writing the last third he already knew he would be adapting it for the movies.
SPOILER
Director Carter Smith said the theatrical ending was chosen after test screenings, explaining that although he loved the ending of the source novel, using it in the film would have left an already punishing audience wanting to kill themselves.SPOILER
In a deleted scene and extended version of this ending, a caretaker is seen walking among the headstones in a cemetery sometime later, whistling "Frère Jacques"; when he hears the same tune coming from a grave, he finds the grave to be Amy's, with several red flowers around the headstone.- The vine was designed by taking elements from lots of different real-life plants, because it is in practically every single shot after the characters reach the hill and had to look like something that could really be growing there while still looking menacing.
- The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb, earning only $22.9 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $25 million.
