In 1979, four documentary filmmakers and their guide went into the jungles of South America to shoot a film about cannibalism... They never returned. Six months later, the New York University along with the Pan American Broadcasting Corporation sent a search team in looking for the filmmakers. They could never be prepared for what they would find. Although there are numerous tribes living within the wilds of the Amazon jungle, and even sub-tribes within these many tribes, the "Green Inferno" attempts to show the three following clans, with focus on finding the mysterious cannibalistic "tree people" of  the Yanomamo tribe.


Plot

    There are two timelines in the film, one that depicts Monroe's trip into the jungle to determine the fate of the American explorers, and the other that involves Monroe's subsequent analysis of the recovered films made by the missing explorers. Much of the film is the depiction of the recovered film's content, which functions similarly to a flashback and grows increasingly disturbing as the film progresses.

Synopsis

    The film begins with a television documentary about a missing film crew and their expedition to the Amazon Rainforest to make a documentary about cannibal tribes. The crew consists of Alan Yates, the director; Faye Daniels, his girlfriend and script girl; and their two cameramen, Jack Anders and Mark Tomaso. Professor Harold Monroe, a New York University anthropologist, has agreed to lead a rescue team and flies to the Amazon to meet his guides, Chaco and his assistant, Miguel. Due to a military raid, the group has a hostage from a tribe known as the Yacumo to help negotiate with the natives. After a long trek, they happen upon a Yacumo male raping and murdering his wife as a punishment for adultery. They follow the Yacumo to a large clearing, where they negotiate the release of their hostage if they are taken to the Yacumo village.

    Upon their arrival at the village, the group is greeted with hostility. It is soon revealed that the missing film team caused great unrest. Miguel quells their fears by offering the Yacumo a switchblade as a sign of good faith. The next day, the three head even deeper into the rainforest to locate two warring cannibal tribes, the Yanomamo and the Shamatari. They follow a group of Shamatari warriors to a riverbank, where they save a smaller group of Yanomamo from certain death. In gratitude, the Yanomamo invite Monroe’s team back to their village, but they are again treated with suspicion. In order to gain their trust, Monroe bathes naked in a river, which a group of Yanomamo women find amusing. They lead him to a shrine made from the bones of the missing filmmakers, confirming Monroe’s fears. Frustrated, he confronts the Yanomamo in their village, and after playing a tape recorder for them, he is able to trade it for the team’s reels of film.

    Once Monroe is back in New York, executives from the Pan American Broadcast Company inform him that they wish for him to host the airing of the film team’s documentary. Monroe asserts that he will acquiesce only if he views the film first. They agree, and to introduce him to the works of Alan Yates, they show him a short segment from the group’s previous documentary, The Last Road to Hell. After viewing, a female executive informs him that the whole scene was staged by Yates to acquire more exciting footage. Puzzled, Monroe continues on to view the recovered footage.

   The first reel begins by detailing the group’s trek through the jungle. Deep in the jungle, their guide, Felipe, is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. The remaining four continue on to locate the Yacumo. They come across a group of Yacumo in a clearing, and Jack shoots one in the leg so they can follow him to the village at their leisure. As the projectionist changes reels, Monroe expresses his disapproval toward the team’s actions. The second reel then starts with the group’s arrival at the Yacumo village, where they almost immediately force the entire tribe into a hut and burn it down in order to stage a scene for their film. Monroe again expresses his concerns over the staged scenes and unethical treatment of the natives, but his worries are ignored. He continues viewing the footage the next day, in which a pregnant Yacumo woman has her fetus forcibly removed.

    Back at the station, Monroe expresses his disgust toward the executives’ decision to air the documentary. In an attempt to change their minds, he offers to show them the remaining, unedited footage. The final two reels begin with the team locating a young Yanomamo girl, whom the men gang-rape as Faye tries to stop them. Afterward, they arrive at a site where the same girl is impaled on a wooden pole and claim that the natives killed her due to an “obscure sexual rite.” Once they move on, the Yanomamo attack them in revenge for the girl’s death. Jack is impaled by a spear, but instead of attempting rescue, Alan shoots him to ensure that they film the natives castrate, disembowel, cook, and eat his corpse. While the remaining three attempt escape, Faye is then captured, and Alan insists that they rescue her. Mark films as Faye is gang-raped and beheaded, after which, the Yanomamo locate the final two in their hiding spot. The camera falls to the ground, and Alan’s bloody face falls in front of the lens as the reel ends. At first silent, the executives order for the footage to be burned as Monroe leaves the station.