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Congo
- 175 statements
- 33 feature instances
- 18 referencing feature instances
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Congo | |
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Congo | |
| Congo | comment |
Congo is a 1980 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton, who admitted he was trying to remake King Solomon's Mines.The novel starts with an abrupt end to an expedition sent by Earth Resource Technology Services Inc. in the dense rain forests of Congo when the team is attacked and killed by an unknown creature and all contact with them is lost. The expedition, searching for deposits of valuable diamonds, discovered the legendary lost city of Zinj (in Arabic "Zinj" or "Zanj" refers to the southern part of the East African coast). A video image taken by a camera there, and transmitted by satellite to the base station in Houston, shows a peculiar race of grey haired gorillas, to be responsible for the murders.Another expedition, led by Karen Ross, is launched to find out the truth and to find the city of Zinj, where there are believed to be deposits of a certain diamond, type IIb, which are naturally boron-doped and thus useful as semiconductors, though worthless as gemstones. This time the searchers bring along the famous White African mercenary Munro, as well as a female gorilla named Amy, who has been trained to communicate with humans using sign language, and her trainer Peter Elliot. Time is of the greatest essence, as a rival consortium of Japan, Germany, and Holland has also set off into the jungle after the diamonds, turning the entire expedition into a race to the city of Zinj. Unfortunately for Ross and her team, the American expedition encounters many delays along the way, including plane crashes, native civil wars, and jungle predators.A film adaptation was released in 1995. | |
| Congo | fetched |
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2023-11-11T23:16:03Z | |
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Dropped link to EndOfAnEra: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN | |
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| Congo / int_1396b32c | type |
The Worm Guy | |
| Congo / int_1396b32c | comment |
The Worm Guy: Two members of the expedition are this: Peter Elliot (because of his knowledge of gorilla behaviour) and Karen Ross (who is a self-proclaimed "console hot-dogger" and the one with the skills to run the expedition's technology and analyse its data faster than it would take if it was sent back to Texas-and later because there is no communication at all). | |
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| Congo / int_19d8d325 | type |
Darkest Africa | |
| Congo / int_19d8d325 | comment |
Darkest Africa: Much of the novel takes place in the Republic of Zaire, which is almost all rain forest. Even today it's a dangerous place to travel on foot, and often there's no other way to travel. In 1979 it was much more so thanks to an even lower level of technology and a raging civil war. | |
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| Congo | hasFeature |
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| Congo / int_22071825 | type |
I'm a Humanitarian | |
| Congo / int_22071825 | comment |
I'm a Humanitarian: The group has to constantly evade a tribe fighting the Mobutu government. | |
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| Congo / int_40cc0c7e | type |
Bittersweet Ending | |
| Congo / int_40cc0c7e | comment |
Bittersweet Ending: Ross, Elliot, Amy, and Munro escape the Congo with their lives, but that's about all they escape with, as most of the porters they brought with them are dead, and the eruption of Mukenko has buried the Lost City of Zinj, Ross' diamonds, and Elliot's dreams of introducing a new species of gorilla to the world under almost half a mile of lava in one fell swoop. The epilogue gives a little more sweetness to their future: Ross resigns from ERTS and eventually marries a fellow scientist, Elliot sees Amy begin to fully assimilate into a mountain gorilla troop, Amy bears a child to whom she can teach her own sign language (which Elliot witnesses for himself), and Munro is able to return to his old lifestyle after selling a handful of blue diamonds on the market for a handsome profit. | |
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| Congo / int_47741ade | type |
Parachute in a Tree | |
| Congo / int_47741ade | comment |
Parachute in a Tree: This happens to Elliot when the team parachutes into the jungle. Fortunately, he's only four feet above the ground, so he can undo his chute and jump down without getting hurt. It's still a very unnerving experience for him since this is the first time he's ever jumped out of a plane. | |
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| Congo / int_59619fac | type |
Head Crushing | |
| Congo / int_59619fac | comment |
Head Crushing: The lost city of Zinj is guarded by gray gorillas who were trained by the city's human inhabitants to kill intruders by crushing their heads between stone paddles held in each hand. Hundreds of years after the human trainers died out, the gorillas are still training each other to perform this gruesomely effective duty. | |
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| Congo / int_6a36abe2 | type |
Hollywood Natives | |
| Congo / int_6a36abe2 | comment |
Hollywood Natives: The Kigani tribe run around with spears, bows, face paint and practice cannibalism constantly. They also throw their poop like monkeys for some bizarre reason. | |
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| Congo / int_6bda9a30 | type |
Meaningful Name | |
| Congo / int_6bda9a30 | comment |
Meaningful Name: Zinj, also spelled Zanj, means "country of the blacks" in Persian and Arabic (and is the root for both Tanzania and Zanzibar's names, for instance) but is phonetically the same as singe, the French word for ape or monkey (as in La Planete des Singes). | |
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| Congo / int_79974fb8 | type |
Rock Beats Laser | |
| Congo / int_79974fb8 | comment |
Rock Beats Laser: Zig-zagged. Averted HARD with the Kigani tribe who are rebelling against Mobutu's government. They're still at a stone age level of technology with bows, arrows, and spears. It is made VERY clear that these primitive weapons stand no chance in hell against the Zaire army, with its full array of modern attack helicopters, {=RPG=}s, and assault rifles wielded by men from an enemy tribe. This is made even more clear at the end when the protagonists, reduced to only four people (and one gorilla) still manage to hold off and decimate an entire war party of Kigani themselves, armed only with assault rifles (though they quickly run low on ammunition and are forced to escape before the next war party is send against them). Played straight when the protagonists go up against the gray gorillas of Zinj. Despite all the high technology they brought with them, they're nearly helpless against the gorillas, who outnumber them and also benefit from the humans' tendency to see the gorillas as dumb animals. Subverted when Munro and Elliott get the idea of turning the gorillas' greatest advantage - their intelligence and use of language - into a weapon against them. | |
| Congo / int_79974fb8 | featureApplicability |
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| Congo | hasFeature |
Congo / int_79974fb8 | |
| Congo / int_7b096be7 | type |
Cannibal Tribe | |
| Congo / int_7b096be7 | comment |
Cannibal Tribe: The team has to constantly avoid a cannibalistic tribe of natives (the Kigani) who are at war with the Mobutu government. Partly because they were cannibals, but mostly because Mobutu was a vicious dictator running a People's Republic of Tyranny and he didn't like that said tribe was ignoring him. Nor does it help that the general in charge of battling the tribe, Ngo Muguru, is said to be just as unpleasant as any one Kigani. | |
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| Congo / int_88ebc539 | type |
Always a Bigger Fish | |
| Congo / int_88ebc539 | comment |
Always a Bigger Fish: Munro goes on a punitive expedition to wipe out the killer gorillas, finds several of them and is about to open fire when he realises the entire mountain in swarming with them. He beats a hasty retreat. | |
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| Congo / int_8ef5ae81 | type |
Lethally Stupid | |
| Congo / int_8ef5ae81 | comment |
Lethally Stupid: Ross's psych profile states she has a habit of cutting corners and acting rashly when her goal is in sight - and boy howdy, is that on the mark. Despite herself being a geologist who should know about such things, she almost gets the entire team killed when she ignores Munro's warning about how dangerous it is to set off explosive charges near an eruptive volcano. | |
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Congo / int_8ef5ae81 | |
| Congo / int_9d080c44 | type |
Ice Queen | |
| Congo / int_9d080c44 | comment |
Ice Queen: Ross is a cold, practical, methodical egotist, driven to obtain her goal at any cost including betraying the trust of her teammates. She trusts other people only as far as they are useful to her. | |
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| Congo / int_9f619ad6 | type |
Corporate Warfare | |
| Congo / int_9f619ad6 | comment |
Corporate Warfare: Presented here as a sort of Cold War by proxy. | |
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Congo / int_9f619ad6 | |
| Congo / int_a0d7a074 | type |
Diurnal Nocturnal Animal | |
| Congo / int_a0d7a074 | comment |
Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Played with. The gorillas always attack at night, but a very large group is shown feeding during the day. | |
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| Congo / int_a2b38d3b | type |
Eye Scream | |
| Congo / int_a2b38d3b | comment |
Eye Scream: The leader of the first expedition is looking for his friend when something plops next to him. He picks it up and realises he's holding a severed eyeball. | |
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| Congo / int_a5e71bfb | type |
Abandoned Camp Ruins | |
| Congo / int_a5e71bfb | comment |
Abandoned Camp Ruins: When the protagonists' expedition arrives to the place where the missing E.R.T.S. expedition they were sent to find was camped, the narration notes that in the weeks in between the missing team's last contact and the protagonists' arrival the whole site has been Reclaimed by Nature and cleaned by the Killer Gorilla tribe who killed the team, and aside from a couple of gadgets there is no trace left. | |
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Congo / int_a5e71bfb | |
| Congo / int_a964d140 | type |
Gentle Gorilla | |
| Congo / int_a964d140 | comment |
Gentle Gorilla: Amy was raised in captivity by humans and trained to communicate via sign language. She's very friendly and docile, and acts as an interpreter between the humans and the Killer Gorillas. | |
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| Congo / int_afd112fe | type |
Hired Guns | |
| Congo / int_afd112fe | comment |
Hired Guns: Munro is a famous White African mercenary. | |
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| Congo / int_b1f4c5bb | type |
Enhance Button | |
| Congo / int_b1f4c5bb | comment |
Enhance Button: Zig-Zagged Trope: the hunt to enhance a piece of footage that displays one of the killer gorillas storming the first ERTS camp requires specialised computer programs (some of which need to be run to counteract a degradation of the footage that the previous program unwillingly created) and a long amount of time, and Ross needs to run several programs to make sure that the resulting slightly-more-clear image is real, as well as needing to convince Travis of this (the resulting picture still looks bad enough that Travis thinks at first it's an "easter egg" from a rookie programmer that Ross unknowingly triggered). It is the speed and efficiency of Ross pulling this off that helps her convince Travis to send her as the needed "console hot-dogger" for the second expedition. | |
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| Congo / int_b618409c | type |
Sentry Gun | |
| Congo / int_b618409c | comment |
Sentry Gun: One of three pieces of the expedition's W.E.I.R.D. package (alongside a portable electrified fence, Night-Vision Goggles and Frickin' Laser Beams in designator-rifle-mode for the guns). Tripod-mounted, portable, silenced, capable of detecting heat or attack laser-designated targets. They unfortunately (and quickly) become Too Awesome to Use because of their immense firing rate eating too much ammo. | |
| Congo / int_b618409c | featureApplicability |
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| Congo / int_b77808f2 | type |
"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue | |
| Congo / int_b77808f2 | comment |
"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue tells what happens to each of the main characters over the next couple of years. It basically amounts to "back to normal life" for everyone except Ross. She leaves ERTS for a government job that is entirely office-bound, with no fieldwork at all. | |
| Congo / int_b77808f2 | featureApplicability |
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| Congo / int_c25c7890 | type |
Fun with Acronyms | |
| Congo / int_c25c7890 | comment |
Fun with Acronyms: W.E.I.R.D. (the defensive package of the expedition), S.D.T.A.G.W ("Some Damn Thing Always Goes Wrong", written on a plaque on Travis' desk). | |
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| Congo / int_ca326e1e | type |
Chekhov's Volcano | |
| Congo / int_ca326e1e | comment |
Chekhov's Volcano | |
| Congo / int_ca326e1e | featureApplicability |
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| Congo / int_d5b7a6e3 | type |
Denied Food as Punishment | |
| Congo / int_d5b7a6e3 | comment |
Denied Food as Punishment: In an early chapter, Elliott says that he sometimes punishes Amy's misbehavior by sending her to bed early without her usual peanut butter and jelly snack. Subverted in that while it is a punishment, it's just a tasty snack that she enjoys, and she is still getting a full meal - basically, she's still getting dinner, just not any dessert afterwards. | |
| Congo / int_d5b7a6e3 | featureApplicability |
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| Congo | hasFeature |
Congo / int_d5b7a6e3 | |
| Congo / int_dc579c91 | type |
Contrived Coincidence | |
| Congo / int_dc579c91 | comment |
Contrived Coincidence: The fact that ERTS is one of the sponsors of project Amy becomes this, not only because of the involvement of apes in the destruction of the first team, but also because it is eventually revealed that Amy was born near Zinj and her mother was killed by the grey apes. | |
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| Congo / int_e2a6ebc1 | type |
Closed Circle | |
| Congo / int_e2a6ebc1 | comment |
Closed Circle: What the Lost City of Zinj becomes to the expedition, because of sheer distance from any help, a rival expedition's jamming and eventually sun spots and atmospheric phenomena kills all satellite communications, and because the Killer Gorilla tribe has closed off their escape route. | |
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Congo / int_e2a6ebc1 | |
| Congo / int_eeb2d092 | type |
Killer Gorilla | |
| Congo / int_eeb2d092 | comment |
Killer Gorilla: On the way to the city of Zinj, Karen Ross's team has to contend with a group of deadly gorillas. Played with, in that the gorillas are not inherently aggressive, but were trained that way by the former inhabitants of Zinj, and they have been teaching themselves this behavior through succeeding generations. | |
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Congo / int_eeb2d092 | |
| Congo / int_f32d85ab | type |
20 Minutes into the Future | |
| Congo / int_f32d85ab | comment |
20 Minutes into the Future: The novel, which can be disconcerting as it's also set around the collapse of the Amin regime (current events at the time it was written). | |
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| Congo / int_f3cbaf48 | type |
Misapplied Phlebotinum | |
| Congo / int_f3cbaf48 | comment |
Misapplied Phlebotinum: The compression algorithm used for voice communication is impressive even for today: real-time audio encoding and decoding on a general-purpose computer somewhere between last-generation 8-bit Atari XE and lowest-end IBM PC. But the way they use it, a text chat would've been faster and more convenient. | |
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| Congo / int_f4101e11 | type |
Jungle Opera | |
| Congo / int_f4101e11 | comment |
Jungle Opera: An attempt to update the trope. | |
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| Congo / int_fb9e2ffd | type |
Team Pet | |
| Congo / int_fb9e2ffd | comment |
Team Pet: Amy fills this role, yet she's very human in a way. | |
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Congo |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Congo | hasFeature |
Abandoned Camp Ruins / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | seeAlso |
Congo | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Corporate Warfare / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Defends Against Their Own Kind / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Doomed Predecessor / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Game of Chicken / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Gentle Gorilla / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Ham and Cheese / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Head Crushing / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Hungry Jungle / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Protected by a Child / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Reed Richards Is Useless / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Sentry Gun / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Smart Animal, Inconvenient Instincts / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
The Worm Guy / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Third Act Stupidity / int_58781ffd | |
| Congo | hasFeature |
Wacky Wayside Tribe / int_58781ffd |
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Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.