Medicine Man (film)

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Summary

After a period of no communication, the sponsoring pharmaceutical company receives a request for an additional research assistant and a gas chromatograph(G.C.), believing that Campbell and his research have gone "off the rails", the company decides to send a woman researcher, Dr. Rae Crane (played by Lorraine Bracco) to convince him to abandon his research and return. When she arrives, he is displeased. He had been expecting help, but he believed it would be a man. After an initial period of icy interaction, they eventually warm up. When Crane presses Campbell to find out what he has been researching the past few months, he angrily demonstrates his results, and she is, appropriately, shocked: Campbell has managed to completely reduce malignant neoplasms (a cure for cancer). Even more shocking is Campbell's revelation that his oncological remedy has only been synthesized once and, despite his best efforts, he cannot seem to replicate the original chemical recipe. This ties into the scientific method through designing and controlling an experiment. Although their initial stock is running dangerously low, Campbell has tracked down one mysterious, elusive element, and with Crane's help, is determined to find it.

The main drama comes from the tension with a nearby logging company, who doesn't believe that Campbell's research is important enough to merit the salvation of the forest. Campbell is also explicit about not sharing his research, for fear of being unable to find the missing element in time before other, more well-funded researchers storm through the area -- thus destroying the lives of the indigenous people who live there.

Eventually, Crane and Campbell discover that the missing element is the presence of a rare kind of ant that often uses the flower (the main source of the cure) for food and habitation (the ants were often washed away during the preparation of the flowers for chemical analysis). The discovery is purely by accident. After testing several samples, Dr. Crane runs a calibration test on the G.C. Since she has run out of calibration samples, she creates a sugar-based test serum as a substitute, unaware that the same rare ants had invaded her sugar bowl. The ants go in with the sugar solution, and the sample comes up positive, a match for the original flower sample that had the healing properties.

However, their revelation comes too late. The logging company comes plowing through the forest, building a road straight through the area of Dr. Campbell's research. There is an accident, and a bulldozer catches fire. The fire quickly spreads through the forest, burning up the village and the research post along with many acres of rainforests.

The final scene features a voice-over narration by Crane to the company, informing them that she would accompany Campbell even deeper into the forest in search of the ant.

Trivia

• Sean Connery based his hairstyle upon that of the film's composer, Jerry Goldsmith, whom Connery was friends with. Goldsmith is even jokingly-listed in the end credits as one of Connery's hairstylists.

• Early in the film Campbell (Sean Connery) tells Crane (Lorraine Bracco) he was planning to just call her "Brooklyn," to which Crane replies, "I'm from the Bronx." In reality actress Bracco is from Brooklyn.