Life imitates art as one of the most influential action movies ever made endures as a priceless gem

What do a seemingly unconnected and wildly different on almost every level bunch of blockbusters including Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy, The Mask of Zorro, Sahara, Fool’s Gold, Six Days, Seven Nights, Knight and Day, The Lost City, and even Aquaman all have in common? Every single one of them owes at least a small debt of gratitude to Romancing the Stone.

Not only was the romantic action adventure a certifiable critical and commercial sensation by virtue of a $115 million tally at the box office and a Golden Globe win for Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy category, but it also showed that relatively unproven director Robert Zemeckis could deliver impeccable crowd-pleasing entertainment, which played a huge part in his next project being a little film called Back to the Future.

It’s been almost 40 years since Michael Douglas’ cocky mercenary and Kathleen Turner’s writer found themselves thrown together to save the latter’s sister, retrieve some hidden treasure, and potentially even fall for each other along the way, but life continues to imitate art as Romancing the Stone‘s surprisingly robust fandom on Reddit continues to shine up the priceless gem of a blockbuster.

Sequel Jewel of the Nile did end up killing the franchise altogether, though, nixing any hopes of having Douglas, Turner, and Danny DeVito reunite for The Crimson Eagle, while legacy continuation Racing the Monsoon was in the works for a hot minute during the 2000s.

A remake or reboot is almost certainly happening eventually, but it won’t be able to dislodge the monolithic standing Romancing the Stone holds over the highly specific subgenre it helped pioneer and nearly perfected in one fell swoop.