Joan Wilder is a best-selling author of pop romances living a formula life of loneliness in New York City. Although she can imagine steamy sex scenes, the closest this shy woman comes to love is with her cat Romeo, and he's pretty persnickety. As for adventure, it's all a head trip in faraway times and exotic places — until her sister calls from Columbia where she is being held captive by two American smugglers. It seems her missing husband sent Joan a map giving the location of a precious jewel he buried in the jungle. Unless the kidnappers receive the map, they will kill her sister.

Joan arrives in Columbia and is directed into the wilderness by a nefarious military commander who will stop at nothing to locate the jewel. Thanks to the heroics of Jack T. Colton, an American soldier of fortune, Joan is saved from death. Together she and Jack hack their way through the jungle with the commander's henchmen in pursuit.

Robert Zemeckis (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Used Cars) directs this crackerjack fantasy-adventure tale with elan. In the spirited tradition of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film is filled with high-speed chases and amusing surprises.And screenwriter Diane Thomas serves up just the right mix of excitement and romance.

Kathleen Turner is sexy and bright as the New York writer who is toughened and liberated by her experiences in South America. Michael Douglas provides a good foil for her as the resourceful drifter whose dreams of sailing a yacht around the world are given a new lease once he meets Joan. Romancing the Stone is a rip-roaring saga of derring-do.