Spoiler Points for The Ruins (2008)

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Spoiler Points for The Ruins (2008) [R] 91 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $4.75
DVD Release Date: 8 July 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer

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Click to read the non-spoiler review

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Click to see photos from the Premiere of The Ruins

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Spoiler Points:
• A group of four friends: Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), his girlfriend Amy (Jena Malone), her friend Stacy (Laura Ramsey), and her boyfriend Eric (Shawn Ashmore) get lured into a plot by Mathias (Joe Anderson) to travel to a secret Mayan ruin to meet up with his archeologist relatives.
• No sooner do they finally arrive at the ruins does a melee ensue costing the life of Dimitri, Mathias's friend. The rest are then prevented from leaving the ruin and shortly thereafter begin to realize why.
• Turns out the temple harbors an sentient carnivorous plant capable of ensnaring human prey by mimicking familiar sounds by vibrating air through bladders in its flowers. The vines it grows are capable of piercing human flesh and then growing and thriving inside and off the animals. Natives of the region apparently discovered the plant 100s of years ago and have done everything they can to isolate it and prevent it from spreading beyond the temple. They have salted the soil to prevent the spread of the plant which, apparently is incapable of spreading by seed like most other plants.
• It takes some time, however, before they group realizes that they are infected with the spores of the plants now growing on their clothes and that the local people are gathering at the base to ensure they do not escape the temple and spread the plant to other areas where it would thrive and kill. For some reason, it does not occur to them to simply set the entire temple on fire burning the plant to its extinction. It's never clear if they feel that by feeding the plant now and again, it will be satisfied and fail to attempt to spread.
• With Dimitri dead and panic in the group. They stay on top of the temple until, one by one, they get picked off by the plant. Mathias's legs get entangled in the vines. In an attempt to get Mathias's cell phone they believe can reach the outside world and bring a rescue party, Stacy and Amy go down into the temple where they discover that the ringing cell phone they've been hearing is a sound effect being made by the plant. During their investigation, Stacy is trapped and infected with the plant. They return to the top, but it's too late for Stacy. Shortly thereafter, it becomes clear to Jeff, as the pre-med student, that Mathias's legs need to be amputated to save his life. He convinces the group to help him, and Mathias agrees to the procedure. It's all too little too late, though despite the horror of having to complete this complex procedure with basically ancient supplies, as he is eventually overcome and killed by the plant's tentacle-like vines prompting Eric to say, "That was worth it."
• Unfortunately, the plant is growing inside Stacy. At first she feels it is her imagination, and the others play along knowing full well that things are growing inside her as they can see them. Eventually, Jeff agrees to help cut them out. But, he cannot get every last one, and the ones inside her head make her go crazy. That night, she awakens and begins to cut them out of herself completely emaciating much of her body. They try to stop her, but she ends up stabbing Eric in the heart with the knife killing him. He is quickly taken by the plant as is Stacy.
• Finally beginning to doubt they will ever be rescued and realizing they are being held in quarantine to die, Jeff refuses to give up. He conceives a play to, at least, allow for Amy to escape. The plan will be for him to create a diversion at the bottom of the pyramid just long enough for Amy to run off into the jungle to get away. Despite all of his major intelligence, he seems to lack the common sense to realize that if his plan succeeds, and Amy does get away, the plant will be set free upon the rest of the civilized world. Nonetheless, he rushes to the bottom and ends up getting shot multiple times. The film ends with scenes of Amy running off into the jungle.