Le Jaguar (The Jaguar) is a 1996 French film directed by Francis Veber. It starred Patrick Bruel, Jean Reno, Patricia Velásquez, Harrison Lowe and Danny Trejo.
Wanu (Lowe), a South American shaman from The Amazon Rainforest, visits France for a public relations campaign to raise awareness about preservation of his forest and his people. He is accompanied by Jean Campana (Reno), a French ethnologist and environmentalist. In the Hotel Crillon's elevator in Paris, he meets a good-for-nothing and incurable gambler named François Perrin (Bruel). He is fascinated by Perrin and follows him to his flat, and although Perrin is not very enthusiastic about so much interest in his person, he lets the shaman spend the night there.
After an official meeting on the next day as part of his PR campaign, Wanu suffers from a heart attack. Hardly being able to speak and laying in a hospital bed, he demands to see Perrin. The latter is not very interested in meeting the shaman again. However it looks like the shaman and Perrin seem to be tied mentally somehow. Campana decides to take Perrin to the Amazon forest in the hope of curing Wanu by "seeking his soul". Perrin accepts, but only because his life is threatened by gangsters he owes money to. Once they're in Brazil, Perrin and Campana find themselves confronting Kumare (Trejo), a ruthless tribe chief and gang leader who wants to steal the lands of Wanu's tribe.
Le Jaguar provides examples of:
- Animal Eyes: Perrin has these when he's possessed by Wanu's jaguar spirit and defeats Kumare.
- Animal Motifs: Jaguars, naturally. It is Wanu's totem, and for a very good reason.
- Bathroom Brawl: Campana kicking the collective asses of the loan sharks in the bathroom of Orly airport to save Perrin.
- Buddy Picture: The two main characters, Perrin and Campana, are an Odd Couple. In the end, they become friends. Perrin even saves Campana's life.
- Camping a Crapper: Matecamu's henchmen assaults Perrin in the toilets of the airport. They also assault a poor guy who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Perrin survives only because Campana shows up and saves him.
- The Can Kicked Him: At the airport, Matecamu's henchmen want to make sure no-one will bother them when they torture Perrin in the bathroom. There's a guy on the crapper in one of the cabin, and they pull that poor guy's feet to have his head hit the flush, knocking him out.
- The Chosen Zero: Wanu chose Perrin as the jaguar spirit vessel who will help his tribe. To put it plainly, Perrin is initially a slimeball who only leaves France because his life is threatened by his Mob Debt, and initially shows little to no care about his mission in South America. He gets better over the course of the film.
- Fish out of Water:
- Wanu, a South American shaman from the Amazon rainforest, visits Paris and stays at the Hotel Crillon. He sleeps in a hammock inside his hotel room and goes out at night with his traditional, very light attire, whereas the weather is cold.
- Perrin has a very hard time getting used to the Amazon rainforest.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Perrin is quite a selfish jerkass overall, but he has some redeeming qualities. For example, when he finds Wanu almost naked in the cold streets of Paris, he gives him his jacket. He also really cares about Maya: he tells Campana to give her his money and he even gives his Rolex watch for her in the end.
- Machete Mayhem: Kumare uses a machete to chop off a hand at one point. He also beheads the priest with it later on.
- Mob Debt: Perrin's life is threatened by some ruthless gangsters he owes money to as he's Trapped by Gambling Debts, and it's the sole reason why he agrees to go to South America with Campana. Campana saves his butt right as he was cornered by them at the airport.
- Narrator: Campana (Jean Reno) narrates how Perrin eventually chose to stay in the Amazon rainforest at the end.
- Nature Spirit: Wanu's jaguar spirit. It's even possible Wanu possesses the jaguar that eventually kills Kumare.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Wanu is based on Raoni Metuktire
. - Odd Couple: The two main characters are very different: Perrin is a sleazy, cowardly, good-for-nothing gambler, whereas Campana is a brave, adventurous, generous ethnologist. They have to work together.
- Psychic Link: There is undeniably one between Perrin and Wanu. While Wanu is comatose, his body reacts to the injuries Perrin sustains in his duel against Kumare and commands Perrin's sudden "jaguar spirit" attacks on Kumare.
- Skeptic No Longer: Perrin doesn't believe in Wanu's rituals and religion/magic... until the climax, when Wanu's spirit controls his body to defeat Kumare.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To La Chèvre, an earlier Veber film. It's also about an Odd Couple with two Frenchmen named François Perrin (the more incapable of the two) and Campana (the more well-adjusted and badass of the two) who go to tropical jungles in Latin America in order to find something/someone. It's also way Darker and Edgier with very few if any comedic moments and some gore.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Perrin is a gambling addict, and owes money to some gangsters who don't hesitate to brutalize him to get their money back.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: After being possessed by Wanu's spirit and kicking the ass of Kumare's henchmen, Perrin wakes up next to Maya the next morning. His best guess is that he got drunk and inadvertently seduced Maya.
