received his first and only Academy Award nomination for his captivating performance as police detective John Book in the 1985 crime thriller film Witness. Following the success of Witness, the actor was anxious to reunite with Witness director Peter Weir on another project that would again provide Ford with the opportunity to play against type. The result was the 1986 drama film , in which Ford plays Allie Fox, a disillusioned and idealist inventor who leaves the United States with his wife and children and moves to the jungles of Central America, where Allie intends to build a utopian civilization, only to preside over a dystopian nightmare.

whose overconfidence in his own genius leaves him unable to process the destructive consequences of his headstrong actions. However, Ford’s unsympathetic portrayal was jarring in 1986 to viewers accustomed to seeing him as the flawed but triumphant Han Solo and Indiana Jones in the decade’s two most successful film franchises. This dichotomy is embedded within The Mosquito Coast, in which Allie sees himself as a hero while everyone around him sees a villain.

The television series adaptation of The Mosquito Coast takes a much more pragmatic approach to the source material by presenting Allie Fox, played by Justin Theroux, as a man whose abandonment of the industrial world for a simple life is continually disrupted by outside distractions, including law enforcement agents and Mexican drug cartel assassins.

In contrast, the film adaptation primarily focuses on the misguided attempt by Harrison Ford’s Allie Fox to bend nature to his will in the rain forest of Belize, where Allie wants to create a kingdom in which he’s the absolute ruler. In the film, Allie buys a small Belize village called Jeronimo, where Allie dazzles the villagers by constructing a revolutionary ice machine, which has the potential to transform the lives of the villagers, whom Allie condescendingly approaches in the guise of being a benefactor and savior.

However, Allie’s adventure in Belize is driven by his need to be proven right and superior, not helping people. Allie’s lack of self-awareness is established after a trio of armed rebels arrive at Jeronimo with the intention of using the village as a base without his permission. Believing he can simply outsmart the gunmen, Allie traps the gunmen in the ice machine, where the freezing gunmen attempt to shoot their way out.

To Allie’s horror, the gunfire triggers an explosion that destroys the machine and his family home while also poisoning the river, forcing Allie and his family to abandon the village. When his wife suggests that they return to the United States, Allie, in keeping with his growing authoritarian behavior, lies to his family by telling them that the United States has been destroyed in a nuclear war.

The Mosquito Coast grossed less than $15 million at the domestic box office, the lowest total for any Harrison Ford feature-starring vehicle in the 1980s. , in terms of dampening Ford’s continued willingness to take creative risks over the ensuing decades.

who found The Mosquito Coast to be an unpleasant viewing experience. In Ebert’s two-star review of The Mosquito Coast, Ebert laments the hellish ordeal that Allie Fox puts his wife and children through in the film. Ebert wrote:

“Fox is played in The Mosquito Coast by Harrison Ford, and it is one of the ironies of the movie that he does very good work. Ford gives us a character who has tunnel vision, who is uncaring toward his family or anyone else, who is totally lacking in a sense of humor, who is egocentric to the point of madness. It is a brilliant performance — so effective, indeed, that we can hardly stand to spend two hours in the company of this consummate jerk.”

Just as Allie Fox stubbornly and tragically refuses to accept defeat in The Mosquito Coast, . In a 1986 interview with United Press International, Ford passionately defended the film against critics. Ford said:

“The film is something no one has tasted before, so it needs to be described to the audience. There have been mixed reviews, and I think the film has been treated unfairly in some quarters. I have never seen a film treated so badly by critics, and I think they’re wrong. This is the sort of movie that really doesn’t sink home for about three days. It is disturbing and makes you think. It stays with you.”

During his 2000 appearance on the talk show Inside the Actors Studio, Ford expressed continued affection for the film and his performance when host James Lipton questioned why Allie is one of his favorite roles. Ford said:

“I love that guy [Allie Fox]. He’s just a pain in the ass. Paul Theroux’s book is full of delicious language, and I fell in love with the words, and with the character. He’s tragic. Yes, he’s ruthless, but that’s not all there is to it. He went that far in the book. I wasn’t afraid to go that far in the movie. There was a truth inside the story of Allie Fox that I wanted to be part of.”