Nearly two years after having gone amiss in Africa, renowned anthropologist Dr. Ethan Powell is caught attacking a group of gorilla-poachers. He is imprisoned in a Florida mental institution, where aspiring psychologist Dr. Theo Calder takes over his important case. Dr. Powell, who has been with a group of gorillas during all that time, is not talking at all and seems to be living in a dreamworld. Very slowly, Dr. Calder manages to reach Ethan Powell and starts finding out why Ethan killed two of the poachers. Yet Theo's case is not just about why the murders have happened, but also about how Dr. Powell became the being he is in the first place. With Ethan's silence broken, Theo is introduced into a world beyond common human comprehension: The true nature of being. He learns that mankind's control of everything is a mere illusion and that the true values of existence can't be found so easily. Ethan changes Theo's view of things forever. Summary written by Julian Reischl {julian.reischl@tuquoque.de} Dr. Ethan Powell, an anthropologist, is in Africa studying apes when he is lost for two years. When he is found, he kills 3 men and puts 2 in the hospital. Cuba Gooding's character is a psychologist who wants to take up the task of trying to get Dr. Powell to speak again and maybe even stand judgment at a trial for his release from prison of mental cases. Along the way, Cuba has to deal with also helping the mental patients that are being abused and neglected. In this process Cuba learns a few things about himself and life, and so does Anthony Hopkinscharacter, Dr. Powell.

release year: 1999

star(s): Anthony Hopkins