Romancing the Stone Original and Limited Edition Art (1984)

Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) is a romance novelist who receives a package mailed to her by her now-dead brother-in-law Eduardo, who was recently murdered. Her neurotic widowed sister, Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor) calls Joan and begs her to come to Colombia with the mailed package because Elaine has been kidnapped and the package is the ransom.

Hastily flying down to Colombia from New York, Joan is detoured from her destination, Cartagena, by Colonel Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), the man who killed Elaine's husband. Joan ends up in the rural jungles of Colombia and is almost killed by Zolo, but is saved by the swashbuckling handsome opportunist Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas). In return for helping her find her way to Cartagena, Joan promises to pay Jack $375. The package is revealed to contain a map, and Jack suggests investigating where the map leads.

Jack helps Joan elude Zolo, who wants the map and chases them with Colombian military police who he commands as a "private army". Unknown to Jack and Joan, they're also being followed by Ralph (Danny DeVito), a comical swindler who is the cousin of Ira (Zack Norman), the man that kidnapped Elaine. After harrowing situations and an encounter with a local smuggler who is a fan of Joan's novels named Juan (Alfonso Arau), who helps them escape from Zolo, they eventually find the treasure, which turns out to be an enormous emerald called El Corazon ("The Heart"). After the discovery, they are chased again by Zolo and Ralph, but fall in a raging river and go over a waterfall. Jack and Joan end up on opposite sides of the river with no way of crossing; Joan has the map but Jack has the emerald. Jack directs Joan to Cartagena, promising that he will meet her there with the emerald.

Joan arrives at Cartagena, but Jack is not there. She meets with Ira at an old military fortress across the bay from her hotel, and the exchange of the map for Elaine is made successfully. As Joan and Elaine attempt to leave, they are stopped by a volley of machine gun fire. Suddenly, Jack appears, along with Zolo and his men who found him at the hotel and captured him. Zolo then proceeds to set the map aflame before the shocked eyes of Ira, knowing it is now worthless. Zolo demands to know where the emerald is, but Joan tells him that they found nothing when they looked for it. He then proceeds to drag Joan to a small moat full of crocodiles, where he cuts her hand and uses the blood to entice the crocodiles to come closer. To save Joan, Jack reveals that he still has El Corazon and surrenders it to Zolo. However, before he can celebrate his victory further, El Corazon is swallowed by one of the crocodiles, who also bites off Zolo's hand in the process. As a furious gun battle between Zolo's soldiers and Ira's gang takes place, Joan and Elaine take the opportunity to dash for safety, but they are pursued by a enraged Zolo. As Ira and his men make their escape, leaving Ralph behind, Jack spots the crocodile who swallowed the emerald heading over one of the walls of the fortress and tries to stop it from escaping. He has his grip on the crocodile's tail when he sees that Joan is in trouble with Zolo, who is trying to kill her. Jack lets go of the crocodile and scales a rock wall to reach her, though Joan has managed to fight Zolo off herself. Zolo is killed when he falls into Ira's pit of pet crocodiles, Ira and his men escape, and Ralph is left behind as the authorities arrive. After a kiss, Jack dives into the water to chase the crocodile, leaving Joan behind with her sister.

Sometime later, Joan is shown in New York, delivering another completed manuscript based on her experiences to her publisher, Gloria (Holland Taylor), who is positive it will be her best seller yet and declares that Joan is now "a world class hopeless romantic". Still thinking of Jack, Joan quietly disagrees and calls herself "a hopeful romantic" Returning home, she finds Jack - wearing crocodile skin boots - waiting for her in a sailboat he purchased with the proceeds of El Corazon. It turns out Jack managed to catch the crocodile, who suffered "a fatal case of indigestion" from swallowing the gem. The film ends with Jack and Joan kissing on the deck of the Angelina, named for Joan's fictional heroine, as the trailer the boat rests on drives off into the streets of New York City.