The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. With neither the guidance nor the restrictions of society, emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they reach puberty and fall in love.
Plot
In the Victorian period, two young cousins, Richard and Emmeline Lestrange, and a galley cook, Paddy Button (Leo McKern) survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific and reach a lush tropical island. Paddy cares for the small children and forbids them by "law" from going to the other side of the island, as he found evidence of bloody human sacrifices. He tells them the bogeyman lives there. He also warns them against eating a certain scarlet berry that Emmeline finds.
Paddy soon dies after a drunken binge. Now alone, the children go to another part of the island and rebuild their home. They survive solely on their resourcefulness, and the bounty of their remote paradise.
Years pass and they both grow into tall, strong and beautiful teenagers. They live in their hut, spending their days together fishing, swimming, and diving for pearls. Richard and Emmeline (now portrayed by Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields) begin to fall in love, although this is emotionally stressful for them because of their lack of education on human sexuality, and are unable to express their physical attraction for one another. Emmeline is frightened after she begins her first menstrual period, and is nervous when Richard wants to inspect her for a cut. Richard himself has many questions about what is happening to them, but has no means of getting answers. He wishes to hold and kiss her, but when she rejects him he goes off and masturbates.
Emmeline, ever curious, goes to the other side of the island and discovers an impressive, Moai-like idol there. Instinctively recognizing that this is a holy place, she prays. Later she tells Richard that she thinks Paddy was wrong and the "bogeyman", who bleeds like Jesus, is actually God. However, Richard berates her for disobeying the "law".
Sometime later, their relationship suffers a major blow when a ship appears for the first time in years. Richard's desire to leave comes into conflict with Emmeline's desire to stay, and she does not light the signal fire. As a result, the ship passes by without noticing them. Richard's fury leads him to kick her out of their hut. They make up for this fight after Emmeline is nearly killed upon stepping on a stonefish and Richard admits to his fear of losing her. Emmeline eventually recovers. After she regains her ability to walk, they go skinny dipping in the lagoon and then swim to shore. Still naked, Richard and Emmeline share some fruit in the vegetation overlooking the idol, and discover sexual intercourse, and then passionate love. Casting all their unease aside, they regularly make love from then on while occasionally spending their time together in the nude. Due to their regular sexual encounters though, Emmeline soon becomes pregnant. Although this is clear to the viewer, Richard and Emmeline themselves do not know about the truth of childbirth and simply assume that the physical changes in Emmeline's body are her getting fat.
One night Emmeline goes missing. While Richard looks for her in the forest, he witnesses a human sacrifice committed by the natives of another island at the idol shrine where they sacrifice some enemy natives. As he flees, Richard hears Emmeline cry out and follows the sound just in time to help her give birth to a baby boy, whom they name Paddy, in remembrance of Paddy Button. Later on, frustrated at not knowing how to feed the baby, Emmeline holds him on her arms to appease his crying, and learns how to feed him as the baby instinctively starts sucking on her breast. The young parents spend their time playing with Paddy as he grows, teaching him how to swim, fish and build things.
As the family plays, a ship led by Richard's father Arthur (William Daniels), approaches the island, and sees the family playing on the shore. As they are completely covered in mud, Arthur assumes these are natives, not the young couple they have been searching for all these years. Richard, having lost all of his desire to leave the island, agrees with Emmeline with an exchange of glances, and they let the ship pass.
One day, the young family takes the lifeboat to visit their original homesite. While waiting for Richard, Emmeline and Paddy remain in the boat. Emmeline falls asleep and does not notice when Paddy brings a branch of the scarlet berries into the boat. She awakes as Paddy tosses one of the oars out. The tide was sweeping the boat out into the lagoon and Richard, hearing her calling, swims to her, followed closely by a shark. Emmeline throws the other oar at the shark, striking it and giving Richard just enough time to get in the boat. Though close to shore, they are unable to return or retrieve the oars without risking a shark attack. They paddle with their hands, but to no avail; the boat is caught in the current and drifts out to sea.
After drifting for days, Richard and Emmeline awake in the boat to find Paddy eating the berries he picked. Realizing that these are the same type of berry Paddy warned them about, they try to stop him, but he had already swallowed some. Hopeless, Richard and Emmeline eat the berries as well, lying down to await death. A few hours later, Arthur's ship finds them floating in the boat. Arthur asks, "Are they dead?" and the ship's captain (Alan Hopgood) answers, "No, sir. They are asleep."
- Brooke Shields as Emmeline Lestrange
- Christopher Atkins as Richard Lestrange
- Leo McKern as Paddy Button
- William Daniels as Arthur Lestrange
- Elva Josephson as Young Emmeline
- Glenn Kohan as Young Richard
- Alan Hopgood as Captain
- Gus Mercurio as Officer
- Bradley Pryce as Little Paddy
- Chad Timmermans as Infant Paddy
Production
The film was shot in Jamaica and Nanuya Levu, a privately-owned island in Fiji, whilst the blue lagoon scenes were shot in Champagne Bay, Vanuatu. The flora and fauna featured in the film includes an array of animals from multiple continents. As it turned out, the iguanas filmed on Fiji were a species hitherto unknown to science; this was noted by the herpetologist John Gibbons when he watched the film, and after traveling to the island where the iguanas were filmed, he described the Fiji Crested Iguana (Brachylophus vitiensis) in 1981.
In the DVD version of this film, it was stated that many of Brooke Shields' nude scenes were in fact done by older body doubles. In addition, the film's stunt coordinator Kathy Troutt was one of the body doubles as well as the dolphin trainer. It was also stated that Brooke Shields had done many of her topless scenes with her hair glued to her breasts
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Their life together is blissful, but not without physical and emotional changes, as they grow to maturity and fall in love.
Plot
In the Victorian period, Mrs. Sarah Hargrave, a beautiful widow, and two young children (one of whom is the son of the castaways from the original film) are cast off from the ship they are travelling on. After days afloat, a sailor who has been sent with them tries to kill the children. Sarah angrily kills him, using an oar, and dumps his body overboard. The trio arrives at and is stranded on a beautiful tropical island in the South Pacific. Sarah tries to raise them to be civilized, but soon gives up, as the orphaned boy Richard was born and raised by young lovers on this same island, and he influences the widow's daughter Lilli. They grow up, and Sarah educates them from the Bible, as well as from her own knowledge, including the facts of life. She cautiously demands the children never to go to the forbidden side of the island.When Richard and Lilli are about eight, Sarah dies from pneumonia, leaving them to fend for themselves. Sarah is buried on a scenic promontory overlooking the tidal reef area. Together, the children survive solely on their resourcefulness, and the bounty of their remote paradise. Years later, both Richard and Lilli grow into strong and beautiful young adults. They live in a house on the beach and spend their days together fishing, swimming, and exploring the island. Both their bodies mature and develop, and they are physically attracted to each other. Richard loses the child's game Easter egg hunt and dives to find Lilli an adult's pearl as her reward. His penchant for racing a lagoon shark sparks a domestic quarrel; Lilli thinks he is foolhardy, but the liveliness makes Richard feel virile.
Lilli awakens in the morning with her first menstrual period, just as Sarah described the threshold of womanhood. Richard awakens in the morning with an erection, and suffers a nasty mood swing, which he cannot explain. They then get into an argument regarding privacy and their late mother's rules. One night, Richard goes off to the forbidden side of the island, and discovers that a group of natives from another island use the shrine of an impressive, Kon-Tiki-like idol to sacrifice conquered enemies every full moon. Richard camouflages himself with mud and hides in the muck; meanwhile, Lilli worries about his disappearance. Richard escapes unscathed, though he is seen by a lone native. Ultimately, after making up for their fight, Richard and Lilli discover natural love and passion, which deepens their emotional bond. They fall in love, and exchange formal wedding vows and rings in the middle of the jungle. They consummate their new found feelings for each other for the next several months.
Soon after, a ship arrives at the island, carrying unruly sailors, a proud captain, and his beautiful but spoiled daughter, Sylvia Hilliard. The party is welcomed by the young couple, and they ask to be taken back to civilization, after many years in isolation. Sylvia tries to steal Richard from Lilli and seduce him, but as tempted as he is by her strange ways, he realizes that Lilli is his heart and soul, upsetting Sylvia. Richard angrily leaves Sylvia behind in the middle of the fish pond, in plain view of the landing party. Meanwhile, a sailor ogles Lilli in her bath and drags her back to the house. He tries to rape her and steal her pearl, before Richard comes to her rescue. The sailor opens fire on Richard who flees. Richard lures the sailor to his death in the jaws of the shark in the tidal reef area. Upon returning, he apologizes to Lilli for hurting her and she reveals that she is pregnant. They decide to stay and raise their child on the island, as they feel their blissful life would not compare to civilization. The ship departs and the two young lovers stay on the island, and have their baby girl. They name her Sarah after Lilli's mother.
Cast
Background and production
The film was shot on location in Australia and Taveuni, Fiji and is a sequel to the 1980 remake The Blue Lagoon, starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. Return to the Blue Lagoon bears a strong similarity to the original film, which was produced and directed by Randal Kleiser, but picks up from where the original film left off. It is almost nothing like The Garden of God, Henry De Vere Stacpoole's sequel to his novel The Blue Lagoon. However, in the second sequel novel, The Gates of Morning, a pair of sailors attack the people of a nearby island because they know its waters are rich with pearls, and it is possible the filmmakers used this. Richard is the child of Richard and Emmeline Lestrange of the original film, who both are revealed to be dead at the beginning and are buried at sea. The new shipwreck occurred mere days after they were found where the crew is struck with cholera.
Although many of the film's elements were derived from the 1980 Blue Lagoon film, and there was some nudity, the film was much more sanitized in content than its predecessor, and was able to garner a PG-13 rating in the United States. Despite the adult content of this film, including partial nudity (controversially, from a 15-year-old Milla Jovovich) and sexual themes, when Return to the Blue Lagoon was released to home video, it was promoted in North America as a family film suitable for all ages. The DVD version of this film is reframed to cut out Milla Jovovich's breasts in the scene where she's looking at herself in the mirror. The older VHS version showed her nipples at the very bottom of the screen.
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