In screenwriter David Koepp's Cold War story, Jones — assisted, and then betrayed, by Ray Winstone's bland sidekick Mac, and later accompanied by John Hurt's
wacko Professor Oxley — travels from America to the jungles of Peru in search of the titular item wearing the same furrowed brow and grimace, nearly all the self - deprecating humor and joy and diversity of emotion that made him a compelling spelunker replaced by sourpuss crankiness.