The Ghost and the Darkness is JAWS with claws and teeth
Val Kilmer, who has died at the age of 65, may be most famous for his roles in Batman Forever and the Top Gun films, but in 1996 he played a character in a film who needed to be ‘top gun’ to survive against a pair of killer big cats.
The Ghost and the Darkness is often referred to as JAWS with lions. And it’s easy to see why, both movies centre around a predatory animal that becomes a terrifying force of nature, stalking and terrorising a group of people.
In both films, the predator is not simply an animal but an almost supernatural force that creates fear and chaos. The comparison is particularly apt when considering the central roles played by Kilmer and Michael Douglas, who navigate the lethal forces of nature in ways that are reminiscent of the iconic main characters from Steven Spielberg’s JAWS.
Directed by a different Stephen, this time Hopkins, perhaps best known for his work on films like A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) and Predator 2 (1990), The Ghost and the Darkness shares thematic similarities with JAWS, particularly in how the tension is built.
Hopkins brings a steady hand to the film's pacing and suspense. Both films use the landscape—whether it’s the ocean in JAWS or the ocean like sweeping grass of the African savannah in The Ghost and the Darkness - is a character in itself, shaping the plot and creating a sense of isolation and impending doom.
The Ghost and the Darkness tells the story of the real-life Tsavo lion attacks of 1898, where two lions terrorised the construction of a bridge for the Kenya-Uganda Railway, killing numerous workers.
However, the film, written by William Goldman (famous for The Princess Bride, Marathon Man – with Roy Scheider - and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), is a fictional account of these events.
Goldman adapted the true story, exaggerating and dramatising the events to create a compelling narrative. It is the story of how these lions became more than just wild animals and became something more akin to the shark in JAWS, an unstoppable killing machine that instils terror in everyone who encounters it.
Like the shark in JAWS, the lions in The Ghost and the Darkness are not merely animals. They are embodiments of terror and death.
The mysterious nature of their attacks creates a sense of foreboding that parallels the horror created by the unseen shark in JAWS. In both films, the characters are forced to confront an enemy that is elusive, powerful, and relentless, which creates a tension-filled atmosphere throughout.
In The Ghost and the Darkness, Val Kilmer plays Colonel John Henry Patterson, an engineer tasked with solving the problem of the lions. His character is somewhat akin to Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), with elements of Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) as at one point he attempts to capture the lions in a train car.
Patterson is supported by Michael Douglas's character, Charles Remington, a big-game hunter who aids him in the pursuit of the lions. The duo’s dynamic mirrors that of Chief Brody and Quint in JAWS - with Brody the civilian trying to understand the threat and Quint the experienced, cynical man who knows what it takes to kill the beast.
As it turns out both the main characters in The Ghost and the Darkness have very similar endings to their JAWS counterparts, one succumbing to that which they were here to hunt, with the other in a shoot to the death.
We even get a railroad owner with a touch of Mayor Vaughn, who refuses to slow down construction and keep his workers safe.
The true story behind The Ghost and the Darkness is just as chilling as the fictionalised account. The Tsavo lions are believed to have killed anywhere from 28 to over 130 people, though the actual number remains debated.
What makes their story so eerie is that they did not eat their victims but instead killed them and dragged their bodies into their lairs. This behaviour was unusual for lions, who generally only kill for food.
Some speculated that the lions were driven to their deadly actions by disease or a lack of prey, while others suggest that the lions may have developed a taste for human flesh due to the ease of hunting workers who were largely confined to camps and tents.
The real-life lions were eventually killed and their skins were later sent to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where they are still on display today.
The lions were dubbed "The Ghost" and "The Darkness" due to their elusive nature and the terror they inspired. They remain infamous to this day, not only for the number of deaths they are suspected to have caused, but also for the extraordinary, almost mythical status they attained due to their haunting behaviour.
Just as JAWS captured the fear of the sea, The Ghost and the Darkness taps into the terror of an unstoppable force in the wild.
Whether it's the relentless shark or the deadly lions, these predators embody the same idea: a threat so overwhelming and unnatural that it turns the natural world – with man stuck in the middle of it - into a realm of terror.
A young Val Kilmer played Quint from JAWS in his homemovire remake called ‘TEETH’
In the documentary Val (2021), which explores Val Kilmer’s life and career using his personal home videos, there is a segment where he and his brothers reenact scenes from JAWS on home video.
In these childhood recordings, Kilmer plays the role of Quint, the grizzled shark hunter famously portrayed by Robert Shaw.
It's both a fantastic foreshadowing of him appearing in his own JAWS...with lions and this early display of his love for acting is one of the many personal and intimate moments captured in the now even more poignant documentary.
The documentary provides not just a deep look into his journey as an actor and his struggles, but also includes his battle with something far bigger than The Ghost and the Darkness lions, his throat cancer.
Sleep well Iceman, you'll always be our Huckleberry.
Words by Dean Newman
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