Iguana

Set at the dawn of the 19th century, Oberlus [Everett McGill], a harpooner on a whaling ship, endures constant ridicule and brutal abuse from his fellow sailors. His right half of the face is grotesquely disfigured by hummocky outgrowths, earning him the nickname Iguana. After a brutal beating, he escapes to Hood Island, an uninhabited refuge. There he is discovered by a team led by captain Gamboa [Fabio Testi], who brutalizes him and binds him for punishment, though Iguana manages to escape and hide in a cave. The ship leaves the island, and Gamboa orders that sailor [Sebastián] [Michael Madsen] be tied to a post on the coast as punishment for letting Iguana escape. Oberlus finds Sebastián and proclaims himself King of Hood Island and Sebastián his first slave, forcing him to cook his meals.

Declaring revenge upon the world, Oberlus enslaves two other sailors thrown ashore after a shipwreck. He keeps his captives in a cave with a disguised entrance. One day, a ship carrying [Carmen] [Maru Valdivielso] and her fiancé [Diego] [Fernando de Juan] moors near the island. Oberlus takes them prisoner. Oberlus kills Diego and makes Carmen his concubine. The ship’s captain, assuming Carmen and Diego to have died in the storm, does not look for them, but sails away.

One day, Oberlus notices the arrival of his former whaling ship. At night, he climbs on board, kills two sailors on the deck, takes Gamboa prisoner, and sets the ship alight, having previously locked the hull. Gamboa fights Oberlus, but is killed by him.

resigned to her fate, Carmen tells Oberlus that she is pregnant with his child. Months later, the captain of the ship Carmen and Diego arrived on, returns with a group of armed sailors. They begin their search and Oberlus has to flee to the other end of the island with pregnant Carmen and his surviving prisoners. Carmen gives birth, but Oberlus takes the child, saying that he will not allow him to suffer as he did, implying that the child is disfigured as he is. With the child in his arms, he enters the sea, intending to drown himself and the child.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:35