A typically evil big money corporation is just dying to build a road through the rainforest. If there's a village in the way, it's getting wiped out. If the villagers are making trouble, they are wiped out, too.
The man who's doing the dirty work is ex-marine Colonel Whytaker (Brian Dennehy, making his role a little more human than expected).
His life isn't going to get easier when Daniel Morell (Francesco Quinn, ideally equipped for a role like this that only requires action and determined stares), the son of an American and a local chief returns home from his stint at the marines. The corrupt authorities can't dissuade him from seeking justice for his people. When his father is crushed by an excavator, he starts his own little guerilla war against Whytaker and his men. Soon exploding coconuts are flying and helicopters are hit by tree catapults. Whatever Whytaker tries to stop Daniel doesn't work, not even flying the young man's old Sergeant Jake (Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Yes, that's his name. I am sorry to inform you that his name is the only marvelous thing he has.) in to have a little talk with his student.
If nothing else, this is another proof that Antonio Margheriti was even very late in his career still able to make an entertaining film out of next to nothing.
I doubt that Margheriti had much more money to spend on it than Tonino Ricci had when making Raiders of the Magic Ivory; Indio still looks so much better that Raiders feels even more like the (surprisingly funny) joke it is.
The difference here is Margheriti's talent to let things look a lot more interesting than they have any right to be. Even the silliest moments almost magically work, there is no filler to be found and the action is inventive enough to satisfy. Even the acting is mostly alright (in Dennehy's case even a lot better than alright), with the exception of Hagler who has never met a line he couldn't butcher.
And come on, there are exploding coconuts.
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