On vacation in Cancun, six friends go on an excursion to visit an archaeological dig near Coba. Jeff, a type A guy who is set to begin medical school in the fall with his girlfriend, Amy; Stacy, Amy's best friend, an irresponsible and promiscuous aspiring social worker whose nickname is "Spacy" along with her boyfriend, Eric, an immature high school teacher; a fun-loving Greek guy nicknamed "Pablo," who lacks a common language with any of the others; and Mathias, an intense, thoughtful German tourist round out the cast of characters.
Mathias' brother, Henrich, vanished shortly before the Americans and Greeks met Mathias--he met a beautiful Dutch archaeologist and decided to meet her at her dig, leaving a hastily drawn map for Mathias to follow in case he wanted to join him. Jeff, Stacy, Amy, Eric, and Pablo decide to accompany Mathias in his search for his brother, taking a bus to Coba for the day. Pablo leaves a copy of the map at their hotel for his two companions--who had gone to fish--to find, thinking that they may want to join the group. Things immediately start to go wrong, as the group isn't well prepared for the heat and insects, and the journey becomes creepy. The poorly drawn map leads them to a Mayan village, where the grievously poor inhabitants appear at first disinterested, and then hostile to the foreigners. The Mayans try to force the vacationers to leave the area. Unmoved by the villagers pleas, they find an almost-hidden trail that they follow to the ruins.
Gun, rifle, and bow-and-arrow wielding Mayan villagers then will not allow the kids to leave. They are forced to climb a large hill covered in vines and red flowers. The situation turns increasingly disturbing as they find Henrich's corpse, covered in the vine and flowers. Further investigation uncovers numerous other corpses covered in the plant, and the plant, it turns out, secretes an acidic sap that burns them all when it is crushed.
A ringing cell phone at the bottom of the mine under the hill lures Pablo, but the rope breaks as he attempts to retrieve it and he falls, breaking his back. Eric is injured slightly trying to rescue him. Gradually, the group discovers that the vine is sentient and carnivorous as it begins to lure them to their deaths, one by one, perfectly mimicking the voices of others.
Jeff and Mathias amputate Pablo's legs after the plant eats part of them. Amy is the first to go, strangled by the plant while Jeff, angry at her for being drunk, ignores her struggles, mistaking for strangled cries for sickness. The plant enters Eric's wound and, though they remove the bulk of it, Eric insists it's still inside him as he repeatedly cuts himself in an effort to get it out.
Jeff is able to hold the group together to a certain extent, always with new ideas about how to conquer their challenges. But he is ultimately killed by the villagers' arrows while trying to sneak past them. Air-headed and distressed Stacy--who has held hope until the last that the other two Greeks will arrive to save them--leaves Pablo unattended, and the plant kills and eats him. Eric flays himself alive trying to remove the plant, which has begun to take over his body again, and then accidentally kills Mathias with his knife when Mathias attempts to stop him. With only Eric and Stacy left, Eric begs her to kill him and put him out of his misery, which she ultimately does. Then, she slashes her wrists on the path at the base of the hill as a warning to others, but the plant moves her away, just as it did other warning signs put up by other victims.
The Mayans leave. Three days later, Pablo's two Greek friends, with a few Brazilians, climb onto the hill to seek out their traveling companion, bringing several others with them.
*THIS IS A SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK..NOT THE MOVIE.*
Mathias' brother, Henrich, vanished shortly before the Americans and Greeks met Mathias--he met a beautiful Dutch archaeologist and decided to meet her at her dig, leaving a hastily drawn map for Mathias to follow in case he wanted to join him. Jeff, Stacy, Amy, Eric, and Pablo decide to accompany Mathias in his search for his brother, taking a bus to Coba for the day. Pablo leaves a copy of the map at their hotel for his two companions--who had gone to fish--to find, thinking that they may want to join the group. Things immediately start to go wrong, as the group isn't well prepared for the heat and insects, and the journey becomes creepy. The poorly drawn map leads them to a Mayan village, where the grievously poor inhabitants appear at first disinterested, and then hostile to the foreigners. The Mayans try to force the vacationers to leave the area. Unmoved by the villagers pleas, they find an almost-hidden trail that they follow to the ruins.
Gun, rifle, and bow-and-arrow wielding Mayan villagers then will not allow the kids to leave. They are forced to climb a large hill covered in vines and red flowers. The situation turns increasingly disturbing as they find Henrich's corpse, covered in the vine and flowers. Further investigation uncovers numerous other corpses covered in the plant, and the plant, it turns out, secretes an acidic sap that burns them all when it is crushed.
A ringing cell phone at the bottom of the mine under the hill lures Pablo, but the rope breaks as he attempts to retrieve it and he falls, breaking his back. Eric is injured slightly trying to rescue him. Gradually, the group discovers that the vine is sentient and carnivorous as it begins to lure them to their deaths, one by one, perfectly mimicking the voices of others.
Jeff and Mathias amputate Pablo's legs after the plant eats part of them. Amy is the first to go, strangled by the plant while Jeff, angry at her for being drunk, ignores her struggles, mistaking for strangled cries for sickness. The plant enters Eric's wound and, though they remove the bulk of it, Eric insists it's still inside him as he repeatedly cuts himself in an effort to get it out.
Jeff is able to hold the group together to a certain extent, always with new ideas about how to conquer their challenges. But he is ultimately killed by the villagers' arrows while trying to sneak past them. Air-headed and distressed Stacy--who has held hope until the last that the other two Greeks will arrive to save them--leaves Pablo unattended, and the plant kills and eats him. Eric flays himself alive trying to remove the plant, which has begun to take over his body again, and then accidentally kills Mathias with his knife when Mathias attempts to stop him. With only Eric and Stacy left, Eric begs her to kill him and put him out of his misery, which she ultimately does. Then, she slashes her wrists on the path at the base of the hill as a warning to others, but the plant moves her away, just as it did other warning signs put up by other victims.
The Mayans leave. Three days later, Pablo's two Greek friends, with a few Brazilians, climb onto the hill to seek out their traveling companion, bringing several others with them.
*THIS IS A SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK..NOT THE MOVIE.*
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