TraviCom owner, and multimillionaire, R.B. Travis (Joe Don Baker, Walking Tall) sends his son Charles (Bruce Campbell, The Evil Dead) and his friend Jeffrey (Taylor Nichols, Metropolitan) to the Congo to search for rare blue diamonds that can work as powerful conduits for telecommunications lasers. When Charles and Jeffrey are ambushed, his ex-fiance Dr. Karen Ross (Laura Linney, The Truman Show), who observes the attack via remote video feed, is sent by R.B. Travis to follow in his son's footsteps back to the Congo to finish what was started and, hopefully, find Charles alive. Upon embarking, Karen encounters Dr. Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh, Nobody's Fool), his assistant (Grant Helsov, True Lies) and a gorilla named Amy, who can communicate with humans via a sign language-controlled glove that translates her movements into audible dialogue (voiced by Shayna Fox, Reggie Rocket on Nickelodeon's Rocket Power). Dr. Elliot is on a poorly-funded expedition to bring Amy back to the Congo, which ends up being made financially viable by a Romanian philanthropist (Tim Curry, Clue) and Karen, who opts to tag along. Once in Africa, they meet up with their guide (Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters) and find themselves targets of various local militaries, tribes, and a race of gray, killer apes along the way to find the Lost City of Zinj.
Based on a long-gestating 1980 novel by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Disclosure), CONGO started its adventure to movie screens well over a decade before it hit theaters in the summer of 1995. A similar mash-up of tech-heavy sci-fi and roaring adventure to blockbuster juggernaut Jurassic Park two years prior, Frank Marshall's (Arachnophobia) screen adaptation of Crichton's unclassifiable genre amalgam comes to vivid life with a script by noted playwright and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano), lush cinematography by Spielberg collaborator Allen Daviau (E.T., The Color Purple) and a suitably bombastic score by Jerry Goldsmith (Alien, Poltergeist). Vinegar Syndrome Ultra is proud to present this undeniable staple of mid-90s blockbuster filmmaking in its world UHD debut with a brand new 4K restoration from its original 35mm camera negative alongside a robust assortment of new extras.
directed by: Frank Marshall
starring: Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker
1995 / 108 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Additional info:
- 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD (High Bitrate UHD100) / Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Commentary track with author/screenwriter Kelly Goodner and film historian Jim Hemphill
- "A Crash Course in Ape School. Looking Back at the Creation of Congo's Gorillas" (50 min) - a new making-of documentary featuring interviews with Stan Winston Studio crew: Christian Colquhoun, Richard Landon, J. Alan Scott, and gorilla suit performers Misty Rosas and Nicholas Kadi
- "Withstand the Test of Time: A Conversation with Congo's Make-up FX Team" (13 min) - a featurette with artists Matthew Mungle and Michael McCracken
- "Journey into the Unknown" (25 min) - an archival making-of featurette
- Extensive behind-the-scenes photo gallery (7 min)
- Original teaser trailer
- Original theatrical trailer
- 40-page perfect bound book with essay by Simon Abrams, Matt Singer, and Justin LaLiberty (exclusive to the limited deluxe case edition)
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
