The Emerald Forest is a 1985 British adventure drama film set in the Brazilian rainforest, directed by John Boorman, written by Rospo Pallenberg, and starring Powers Boothe, Meg Foster, and Charley Boorman with supporting roles by Rui Polanah, Tetchie Agbayani, Dira Paes, Estee Chandler, and Eduardo Conde.

The film tells the story of an American boy who is kidnapped by an indigenous tribe in the Amazon jungle. It is allegedly based on a true story, although the accuracy of this claim has been disputed. The film was screened out of competition at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, where it was chosen as the closing film. In promoting the film for awards competition, Boorman created the first Oscar screeners, but the film received no Academy Award nominations.

Bill Markham (Powers Boothe) is an engineer who has moved to Brazil with his family to work on a large hydro-electric dam. The film opens on Markham, his wife Jean (Meg Foster), his young son Tommy (William Rodriguez), and his daughter Heather (Yara Vaneau) having a picnic on the edge of the jungle, which is being cleared for the dam's construction. Tommy wanders from the cleared area, and an Indian (Rui Polanah) from one of the indigenous tribes known as the Invisible People notices Tommy and takes him. Markham pursues the pair into the forest but does not find his son.

Ten years later, the dam is nearing completion. A 17-year-old Tommy (Charley Boorman), now called Tomme, has become one of the Invisible People. When his father, Chief Wanadi, the man who took and adopted Tommy, notices Tomme is now smitten with girls, he initiates Tomme's coming-of-age rite, after which Tomme undergoes a vision quest. Tomme's spirit animal tells him he must retrieve sacred stones from a remote spot deep in the jungle. Wanadi warns him that the quest will be dangerous, as it will take him into the territory of the cannibalistic Fierce People.

Meanwhile, Markham has finally identified his son's abductors. Markham and a journalist (Eduardo Conde) decide to set off bottle rockets to attract the attention of the Invisible People. Instead, they attract the Fierce People and are captured. Armed with a CAR-15 carbine, Markham is able to defend himself long enough to talk with Chief Jacareh (Claudio Moreno) who releases Markham for the night, promising to hunt him down in the morning, while the Fierce People kill and butcher the journalist. Close to dawn, Markham stumbles into Tomme collecting the sacred stones. The two recognize each other just as the Fierce People arrive, striking Markham in the arm with an arrow. Tomme and his father manage to escape, leaving Markham's carbine behind. In the care of the Invisible People, Markham recovers from his injuries and discovers that his son has chosen a wife, a young woman named Kachiri (Dira Paes).

Jacareh, recognizing the destructive power of Markham's carbine, visits a seedy brothel at the edge of the construction zone and arranges to exchange women for ammunition and more guns.

Wanadi presides over the wedding, with Markham seated in honour next to the chief; Markham watches as Tomme and Kachiri are wedded; he is still grief-stricken, even still upset with Wanadi, for his son being taken; Markham asks Chief Wanadi why he took Tommy all those years ago. Wanadi answers that he had thought the white people must be terribly unhappy, since they were destroying the forest, but Tommy had smiled at the Invisible People when he saw them; the Chief says he had taken Tommy to save him.

Wanadi gives Markham the herb to instigate Markham's own vision quest, and he wakes up back at the dam's construction zone.