Twenty-four American military cadets are stranded on a remote tropical island after their plane crashes. They manage to rescue the pilot, but he remains unconscious. Ralph is chosen to be the leader of the group. He immediately establishes order by having anyone who speaks hold a conch shell. The fragile equilibrium of the community is undermined when Jack challenges Ralph's leadership abilities. He eventually forms a hunting party and takes some of the boys with him to track down a wild boar that has been seen in the underbrush. While Piggy, an intellectual stands behind Ralph, many of the others leave when Jack sets up a rival camp.
Harry Hook directs this mesmerizing screen interpretation of Sir William Golding's Nobel Prize-winning novel. Shot in Jamaica, this version, unlike the 1963 film by Peter Brook, makes the island into a major character in the tale. With startling impact, the story charts the boys' casual descent into savagery. Golding's theme of "tracing the defects of society back to the defects of human nature" comes across vividly as the boys succumb to scapegoating and violence. Anyone who doubts that the " wilding" capacity resides within us all should experience Lord of the Flies. It is a testament about human nature, tempation and sin.