The Fifth Monkey (1990) Plot Summary Explained

After being bitten by a venomous snake, Cunda endured a painful recovery by the river where he experienced a vivid hallucination of four chimpanzees sitting in the water. When he returned home fully healed, he found exactly four chimpanzees waiting for him, matching his vision precisely. This timing convinced him they had arrived for a purpose greater than coincidence, leading him to interpret them as a mystical or divine gift meant to transform his fortunes.

Foreshadowing: The river vision foreshadows the chimpanzees's arrival and their central role in Cunda's life.

• supernatural gift
• chimpanzees
• vision
• hallucination
• snake bite

The film presents this as part of the supernatural mystery surrounding the chimps. After Cunda's vision at the river, the four chimpanzees appear at his home without explanation. Cunda tries to shoo them away but they remain, as if drawn to him specifically. The exact mechanism of their arrival is left ambiguous, aligning with the mystical tone of the story.

• chimpanzees
• arrival
• mystery
• supernatural

The chimpanzees proved impossible to control through conventional means. Unlike trained animals or livestock, they would not remain restrained and resisted any attempt to tie them. This forced Cunda to coax them along the journey instead of leading them, making the trek through the rainforest significantly more difficult and time-consuming.

• rope
• journey
• chimpanzees
• control
• difficulty

Cunda's primary motivation was earning enough money to marry a widow in his village. His current work catching snakes for scientists paid poorly, and he faced stiff competition from other suitors. Believing the chimpanzees were a supernatural gift sent to change his fate, he reasoned that selling them in the city would fetch a much higher price than his current trade could ever provide, giving him the financial means to achieve his dream of marriage.

• city
• selling
• money
• marriage
• ambition

When Cunda and the chimpanzees wandered into a gold-panning camp, he was forced to work to pay off an old debt he owed there. The camp's harsh conditions and meager wages made escape difficult, and his obligation kept him trapped until he could devise a plan to retrieve the chimpanzee that had been taken as payment and escape with all of them.

• gold camp
• debt
• forced labor
• escape

Cunda, the four chimpanzees, and the adults from a nearby village were kidnapped by mercenaries operating in the area. During the captivity, Cunda and the chimpanzees managed to escape, aided by a village woman who refused to abandon him. Together, they fled the mercenary camp into the surrounding wilderness, though the specifics of their escape plan are not detailed in the summary.

• mercenaries
• kidnapping
• escape
• village woman

The village woman joined Cunda during the escape from the mercenaries and refused to leave his side. Throughout their journey and subsequent time in the small town, she developed a growing attraction to Cunda. Her loyalty and refusal to abandon him during the dangerous kidnapping situation evolved into romantic interest, complicating Cunda's existing ambitions and his developing bond with the chimpanzees.

• village woman
• loyalty
• attraction
• romance

When Cunda and the group arrived in the small town, a sequence of events led to one of the chimpanzees disappearing. The exact circumstances of this disappearance are not specified in the summary, but it represents another loss Cunda must endure as he navigates his increasingly complicated situation.

• disappearance
• chimpanzee
• town
• missing

After arriving in the small town and losing one chimpanzee to the confusing chain of events, Cunda found himself needing a way to survive and care for the remaining chimpanzees. A wealthy local woman, Mrs. Watts, took it upon herself to care for the chimpanzees. Cunda became her servant, tending to the chimpanzees on her behalf, effectively trading his freedom and independence for a new master and a new set of circumstances.

• Mrs Watts
• servant
• wealthy woman
• chimpanzees
• town

By the story's end, Cunda found himself torn between three conflicting desires: his original goal of earning money for marriage, his growing affection for the village woman who remained loyal to him, and his deepening bond with the chimpanzees he had originally intended to sell. He wrestled with whether to maintain his current arrangement with Mrs. Watts or to liberate the chimpanzees and reject the life he had fallen into. The story leaves this dilemma unresolved, with Cunda facing an uncertain future.

• decision
• dilemma
• freedom
• captivity
• choice

The title references Cunda's supernatural vision of four chimpanzees in the river, which preceded the arrival of four actual chimps at his home. The 'fifth monkey' alludes to Cunda himself, perhaps the one who connects to the supernatural realm, or the fifth element that completes the group. The title encapsulates the mystical premise that these chimpanzees were sent to Cunda for a purpose beyond ordinary understanding.

• title meaning
• fifth monkey
• supernatural
• vision