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Rescue Team
Harold Monroe
"I wonder who the real cannibals are?"
An anthropologist at New York University who was sent in the Amazons to find and recover the crew.- Action Survivor: Monroe manages to win the trust of the Yanomamo and get out alive, all without killing anyone.
- Deadpan Snarker: Helps to cut the tension.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's the only one who calls out the horrors that Yates' film crew committed and the only one to object to their documentary being aired.
- Hero Protagonist: Perhaps the closest the film has to a wholly good protagonist.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In order to gain the tribe's trust, he has to eat human meat.
- Mr. Fanservice: He goes naked in the Amazon water to get the attention of the women in the Yanomamo tribe and they do get their attention to him. It should also be noted that his actor is a porn star in Real Life.
- Nice Guy: He is shown to be a good-hearted person with morals. As a result, he stands out when compared to the savage cannibalistic Yanomamo and the even more psychopathic film crew who would slaughter people for fame (save for Faye, at least.)
- Skinny Dipping: To earn the trust of the Yanomamo tribe, he bathes in a river, which draws attention from the women.
Alan Yates' Crew (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
In general
From top left to bottom right: Alan Yates, Faye Daniels, Mark Tomaso and Jack Anders.
The crew, led by the director Alan Yates, who traveled to the Amazon to make their next documentary called "The Green Inferno" about the cannibals, only to end up missing and turn up dead when a rescue team came to find them months later.- Arch-Enemy: To the Yanomamo tribe for all the horrible things they did to them.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: It's even worse since these were real animals that were killed.
- Bullying a Dragon: Would you really want to go pissing off a tribe of cannibals who decorate their huts with bones?
- The Dreaded: Even the cannibals seem to fear Alan and the crew after seeing how evil they were.
- From Bad to Worse: They go around committing chaos towards the tribe, they don't take it well.
- Hate Sink: Deodato created the movie as a critique of sensationalism and the depravities that people will sink to just for a good story, which is precisely what Yates and the crew do.
- Mighty Whitey: They think of themselves as this, but in reality, are a dark deconstruction, becoming more savage than the cannibalistic tribe.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The gangrape scene is one of their moral event horizon crossings. Faye is outright horrified by it.
- Snuff Film: Their documentaries are filled with actual deaths recorded to be shown in them.
- Stupid Evil: Alan and the crew fuck with the cannibals so badly that it leads to their own cruel death.
- Too Dumb to Live: Again, what do you think is gonna happen to the morons who go out of their way to antagonize a cannibal tribe? Especially when you have no clear route of escape.
- Would Hit a Girl: More like would rape a girl and possibly impale her later.
- Would Hurt a Child: It's possible that there were children still inside the burning huts.
Alan Yates
The true savage.
"Here we are at the end of the world in human history. Things like this happen all the time in the jungle. It's survival of the fittest! In the jungle it's the daily violence of the strong overcoming the weak."
The main man of the crew. A documentary filmmaker and an anti-war activist who also added violence in his projects such as with his documentary aired in BBC about innocent people being executed.- All Men Are Perverts: He only has a girlfriend so he can fuck her.
- Asshole Victim: Nobody is gonna feel bad for Alan when the cannibals finally get him. The people who knew him (even family members) said that he deserved his fate.
- Ax-Crazy: An absolute fucking psychopath who did deranged wicked stuff with a huge sadistic streak.
- Bad Boss: Shoots Jack and leaves Faye to to be butchered by the cannibals.
- Big Bad: The true villain of the film.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While not shown but its highly implied that he dies just like how the other members died.
- Dirty Coward: He leaves his other members to be tortured, butchered and eaten by the cannibals just to save himself.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: He is one of the only two crew members who has a family member that cares about them, his father.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. He strongly considers abandoning the documentary to save Faye from the vengeful Yanomamo, but he's easily talked out of it by Mark.
- Evil Is Hammy: A rather loud speaking person, especially when he goes full massacre mode.
- Evil Is Petty: Everything he does towards the Yanomamo and his Kick the Dog moments is just him wanting to be an sadistic and total dick.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He looks like a pretty cute person however in reality he's just about anything but good.
- Fatal Flaw: The chaos he and his crew commit is the main reason why the cannibals got revenge on them.
- Faux Affably Evil: He puts on a facade of an enthusiastic filmmaker and documentarian, but is in reality nothing more than a sadistic sociopath.
- For the Evulz: While also committing these actions for fame, its also done because he clearly just enjoys it.
- Greed: He goes to make the documentary in The Amazons just to be famous after the documentary.
- Hated by All: Nobody who knew Alan had anything good to say about him and it shows that people who knew him knew he was a despicable human being.
- Hate Sink: The Green Inferno footage just shows how utterly despicable Alan (and his crew) is. He and his crew burn down a village full of people, gang rape a girl and then implied impale her. And if that wasn't enough he then leaves his members to die which ends up him dead too, it's nothing but satisfactory when he dies. Without a doubt, Deodato intended him to be a prime example of the depths to which people will sink just for fame. Even his own actor hates him.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Not him but it's implied he did this to his rape victim.
- It's All About Me: The actions he commits in the Amazon are just for fame and making him look good.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He might look like to genuinely care for Faye and look concerned when the cannibals get her, but thanks to Mark it seems that he no longer cared and recorded her about to be raped and butchered, at the end Alan destroys his only redeeming quality. Furthermore, it's implied the only reason he didn't want the cannibals to murder Faye was because he was worried he would have no other woman to have sex with, not because he actually cared about her.
- Karmic Death: Is set upon by the pissed off Yanomamo tribe along with the rest of his party in retaliation for their extreme cruelty towards them. To make matters even more karmic, the executives who watched his abomination of a documentary decided to burn all the materials afterwards, rendering both his legacy and his attempt at fame and fortune All for Nothing in the end.
- Narcissist: He only makes the snuff documentaries just to be famous and never cared for others except him and his fame, in fact he leaves his own people just to survive.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He is extremely xenophobic, at the point of dehumanizing the indigenous people and calling them "monkeys".
- Psychopathic Manchild: A crazy monster for sure but a very childish one.
- Sadist: A textbook example. Alan puts violence in his documentary because in his words it makes them more exciting. Also the Amazon footages show Alan being so cruel and sadistic that you might just compare him to Ramsay Bolton when it comes to sadism, it could just be a tie.
- Sex Is Violence: Implied. He has sex with Faye after burning down the native's huts.
- Slasher Smile: Does this sometimes like when watching the impaled corpse.
- The Social Darwinist: When he's about to burn down a hut (See his quote above).
- The Sociopath: An extremely violent, remorseless, careless, arrogant man who only cares for himself.
- Stupid Evil: His need for fame through committing increasingly atrocious acts blows up in his face, especially given that said acts are committed against a tribe of cannibals who make huts out of human bones.
- Too Dumb to Live: He and Mark decide to film Jack and Faye's gruesome deaths instead of running for dear life. Needless to say, they pay for that mistake (and many others) with their lives.
- Villain Protagonist: Of the found footage.
- Villain with Good Publicity: According to the film's official site, which is written from an in-universe perspective, Alan is a proclaimed anti-war activist, which makes him even more of a hypocrite and fraud than he already is in the film.
- You Are What You Hate: Though he thinks the natives are perfectly acceptable to kill because of their savagery, he is far more vicious than any of them. The only thing he doesn't sink to that they do is cannibalism, and he still manages to be a far worse person than they are.
Faye Daniels
Alan's girlfriend, and the only one of the group with a shred of decency.
- Alas, Poor Villain: By the end, you have to feel kind of sorry for her. She was appalled at the gangrape the three men took part in and tried to get them to stop under the pretense of them wasting footage. The Yanomamo know nothing of this, and she ends up being raped and killed by them in retribution for what the other members of the group did to the one Yanomamo woman, while her boyfriend betrays her and lets her die while he films it. However...
- Asshole Victim: Yes, she is better than the other members of the group, and is the only one with any redeeming qualities, but she still took part in mass murder.
- Butt-Monkey: She gets filmed while nude (much to her displeasure), scared by a tarantula, filmed again while peeing (again to her displeasure), and eventually gets the most brutal death of the crew.
- Depraved Bisexual: Notably averted. She is the only one who did not take part in the gangrape.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Her sister says 'God rest her soul' when she hears the news about her death.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely seemed to love Alan, which makes her final fate rather sad.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She seemed genuinely horrified by the gangrape her boyfriend and his cameramen took part in. She also expresses shock when Alan and Mark betray Jack, despite the fact that she never personally liked him.
- Fan Disservice: Faye has been shown naked 3 times in the movie, but they were all filmed without her consent. The 3rd is particularly the worst one as she is gangraped and then beheaded.
- Females Are More Innocent: Downplayed. She is still an amoral woman who took part in the slaughter of many innocent people, including children, with little to no remorse, but she personally engaged in the least of the atrocities of the group, and was the only one to protest to the gangrape. She also cares for the other members.
- Honor Among Thieves: Unlike Alan and Mark, she expresses concern for Jack and tries to convince the men to save him, to no avail.
- Off with Her Head!: She gets beheaded after the Yanomamo tribesmen gangrape her.
- Ironic Death: She's the only one to object to the gangrape, and gets raped herself later.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only female of the group.
- Women Are Wiser: She’s the only one out of the group that has any morals, at least compared to the three other guys, and cares for them despite all being horrible people.
Mark Tomaso
One of Alan's cameramen, and the most sadistic of the group bar Alan himself.
- All Men Are Perverts: Tends to film Faye in the nude. She is visibly uncomfortable about it.
- Asshole Victim: Mark is as cruel and sadistic as Alan, possibly even more so given he talks Alan out of saving Faye, destroying his one redeeming quality.
- Ax-Crazy: The most psychotic of Alan's group.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: He shoots a defenseless pig just for kicks.
- Camera Fiend: He tends to point the camera at Faye in compromising situations, such as changing her clothes, having sex, urinating, vomiting, getting gangraped and murdered.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Unlike Alan, this trope is strictly averted. Mark's own father hates him and goes as far as calling him "no good." Considering what a monster he turned out to be, it's hard to blame him.
- Hate Sink: He is just as evil as Alan. Even his own father has nothing good to say about him and even his own actor hates him.
- Killed Offscreen: He's the one holding the camera as he and Alan are killed by the natives. As such, we don't actually see his death.
- No Honor Among Thieves: He agrees with shooting Jack and then convinces Alan to let Faye die.
- Sadist: The most sadistic of the group bar Alan himself.
- The Sociopath: Much like Alan, Mark has no empathy for anyone, enjoys killing animals, has a facade of acting charming, and is perfectly fine with throwing allies under the bus.
- Sociopathic Soldier: His "just like Cambodia" line while torching the Yacumo village implies that he committed war crimes during the Vietnam War.
- Too Dumb to Live: He and Alan decide to film Jack and Faye's gruesome deaths instead of running for dear life. Needless to say, they pay for that mistake (and many others) with their lives.
- Villainous Friendship: He and Alan seem to have the closest thing to a genuine friendship out of the group, as they never attempt to betray each other, and they seem to get along quite well.
Jack Anders
Alan's other cameraman.
- Asshole Victim: He's the first of the camera crew to die. He ends up receiving the most graphic death out of the documentary team, and it's well deserved too.
- Disappeared Dad: To his son, whom we see when Monroe is asking Jack's wife questions about him. He was apparently already this since he was very rarely around, with his wife saying that in four years of marriage, they were "together" for less than a year..
- Flat Character: Compared to Alan, Mark, and Faye; Jack gets the least amount of characterization.
- Groin Attack: One of the natives slices off his penis. Ouch...
- Hate Sink: He has absolutely no redeeming qualities. While he's not quite as bad as Alan and Mark, that's hardly saying much.
- The Sociopath: Much like Alan and Mark, Jack has no empathy or morals, and he repeatedly displays this with all the vile things he does to the natives.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He ends up being shot by Alan, so that way the cannibals go after him instead. Too bad it doesn't work as well as planned.
The Natives
The Yanomamo
A cannibalistic Amazon tribe that are the focus of Yates' documentary.
- Anti-Villain: At worst, they don't show any qualms with rape, murder, war, and cannibalism, but they care about each other and are generally nice to outsiders provided that they're shown the same respect in return. At the end of the day, they're just trying to defend their land and avenge their murdered tribe members.
- Ax-Crazy: Downplayed. They may be violent and brutal, but usually only when provoked or if waging war on fellow tribes, which we never see them do.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: It's clear that in spite of their practices that are seen as barbaric by most of "civilized" society, they have their morals and will act out in vengeance if they're provoked enough. They also might punish premarital sex with impalement, though it's Yates who claims as such, and might have done the impalement himself.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being cannibals with a fondness for waging war on other tribes, they are terrified of Yates and his crew and believe their documentary to be cursed, and eventually kill them all once they're provoked one too many times.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Well, the movie wouldn't have "cannibal" in the title were it not for them.
- Noble Savage: Downplayed, in that they're still cannibals who wage war on other tribes, but they care about each other, and can be very reasonable to outsiders who show them proper respect. Their murder of the film crew was a very justified act of self-defense.
- Pet the Dog: They're usually reasonable to outsiders who approach their camp peacefully, look after each other, and allow Monroe to take the reels after he establishes trust with them.
- Pragmatic Hero: The Yanomamo don't needlessly antagonize others and can be respectful to outsiders, but they are known to be ruthless to other tribes. And they had zero pity for Yates and his crew.
The Yacumos
Another tribe that the crew targets.
- Butt-Monkey: Nothing goes right for them.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Like the Yanomamo tribe, they are fierce natives, but they are nowhere near as bad as the crew.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Averted. Unlike the Yanomamo, they don't take part in cannibalism.
- Noble Savage: Like their enemy tribe, they are noted to be a warlike tribe that engages in conflict with the neighboring tribes. However, they are less savage than the Yanomamo, and neither of them are as bad as the crew.
