Ariel Levy

The Green Inferno

College freshman Justine becomes interested in a student social activism group led by Alejandro and his girlfriend Kara. The group plans a trip to the Amazon rainforest to stop a petrochemical company from forest clearing and displacing native tribes by filming them and streaming footage to raise awareness. Justine suggests she could bring attention to the issue through her father, a United Nations attorney. The operation is funded by Carlos, a drug dealer who meets the group in Peru. They journey by boat to the construction site and begin their protest, chaining themselves to bulldozers while filming the land clearing. A private militia hired by the company arrives, and when Justine is nearly killed by an officer, the protest goes viral. The group is arrested, but Carlos bribes the police to release them. They depart by plane, but the plane's engine explodes and it crashes in the jungle, killing several people, including Carlos. As the survivors search for a GPS phone, Kara hears something nearby. However, when she goes to check, a native tribe emerges and kills her before tranquilizing the others, taking them to their village, and imprisoning them. As a tribal elder and the Headhunter leader kill Jonah and feed his remains to their tribe, Alejandro reveals the protest was staged to benefit a rival petrochemical company and so he could focus on other activism projects, to the others' dismay. The tribe test Justine, Samantha, and her girlfriend Amy for their virginity. Upon learning Justine is a virgin, they take her away for a genital mutilation ceremony while the couple is returned. Alejandro tells the group to stay put and wait for the next petrochemical company's clearing crews, but they attempt to escape. Amidst a downpour, they distract a watchman while Samantha escapes and hides in a canoe and Justine is eventually captured and returned. The tribe feed the prisoners strange meat. Being a vegan, Amy reluctantly eats, only to discover a chunk of skin in her bowl bearing one of Samantha's tattoos. Realizing they were fed Samantha's remains, Amy breaks the bowl and uses a shard to commit suicide. Seeing an opportunity, Lars stuffs marijuana down Amy's throat, hoping to get the tribe high when they eat her. As his plan succeeds, Justine and Daniel escape, but Alejandro chooses to stay, tranquilizing Lars to keep him company. When Lars regains consciousness, he sees the intoxicated tribe members eat him alive. Justine and Daniel reach the crash site and find a phone, but are recaptured and returned to the village. The tribe paints and dresses Justine in tribal attire while an elder ties Daniel to a stake, breaks his limbs, and leaves him to be eaten by ants. News of a forest clearing crew's arrival sends the tribe into a frenzy and the warriors leave to confront them, allowing Justine to escape with the help of a sympathetic child she befriended earlier. Daniel begs Justine to kill him, but the child does so after she refuses. Alejandro begs Justine for help, but she abandons him and flees. Encountering the militia in a firefight against the tribe, she convinces an officer that she is an American and uses the phone to pretend to film the fight so the battle would end peacefully, and they fly her to safety. In New York City, she lies to her father and other government workers in an interview saying that she was the sole survivor of the plane crash, the natives were friendly, and that they helped her group before they were slaughtered by the petrochemical company's militia. Sometime later, Justine sees a group of activists wearing shirts emblazoned with Alejandro's face. In a mid-credits scene, Alejandro's sister Lucia phones Justine saying she saw Alejandro in a satellite photo, which shows him covered in the dark tribal paint of the village leader that was killed by the militia.