Headscratchers / The Jungle Book (1994)

• How was Boone planning on getting all of the treasure out of Monkey City? His reinforcements had all been claimed by either the jungle or the ancient ruins and he had no means of transporting all the gold.
  • By the time he'd lost so many people to the jungle that he wouldn't be able to transport the gold, he'd probably passed the point of reason where he was just focusing on achieving his immediate goal without thinking about the long-term issues he'd have to overcome afterwards.
  • Speaking of long-term issues, he also has no supplies, is sporting a nasty arm injury, and he's in the middle of the jungle without a guide to take him back to the fort. Even if he did manage to get back, Colonel Brydon had already beaten him there with Mowgli's help, and would no doubt be in a "shoot treasonous officers" mood if he saw Boone again. Trying to bribe him with the bag of treasure wouldn't work, either: Brydon could simply confiscate it and have him executed, anyway.
• Why would Boone want Mowgli dead before they've even found Monkey City?
  • He was becoming increasingly jealous and frustrated with Mowgli's existence by that point; add in the fact that he makes it clear he's not a particularly rational thinker and we don't have to attach 'reason' to his motives.
  • Possibly also because he fears that Mowgli will find out that he allowed his father to be killed by Shere Khan and would get his revenge.
  • It was Buldeo, not Boone, who abandoned Nathoo to Shere Khan's mercy. Boone seems the same approximate age as Mowgli and Kitty, so he would have been a kid when that happened, too. He probably has no idea about Nathoo at all.
• How exactly was Dr Plumford able to save Baloo? By the looks of things, it took Mowgli more than a few hours to run back to the village to try to inform him and presumably a similar amount of time to reach the road to Jaipur where he saved Plumford's life. Combine that with the time it must have taken him to lead the doctor to where Baloo was and the time it must have taken for Plumford to arrange for Baloo to be moved elsewhere in order for Plumford to properly perform his surgery, and the chances of Baloo surviving for that long with two very serious gunshot wounds are highly unlikely.
• Naturally, having spent so many years living in the jungle and learning how to hunt and fend for himself in the wild, Mowgli's survival skills and animal instincts would be on point and the movie emphasizes this to us many times. However, despite his good sense of smell and hearing, his survival skills are very inconsistent - he can hear when people are nearby in the jungle and yet is very easy to sneak up on. Also, when Boone tries to have Mowgli captured the first time, Mowgli throws many of his opponents off when they try to ensnare him with a net - he does this with ease and overpowers each one ... and yet later on when just one of those opponents that he previously outmatched attacks Mowgli one-on-one, Mowgli struggles against him ... HOW?
• The sand-trap in the temple comes equipped with large drainage holes in the ceiling to further ensure (along with the drainage holes along the walls) that the tomb is filled with sand as the ceiling is lowered until it covers the crypt like a lid. However, the ceiling itself is far too narrow for as much sand as there is gushing out to be stored inside it. Where are those vertical sand-torrents coming from?
• Harley has served in the British Army for 25 years but he hasn't been promoted past the rank of sergeant?
  • Perhaps Colonel Brydon denied him that for some disobedience, which made Harley unfit to be promoted a higher rank. Which is probably why Harley told him off when his betrayal is exposed.
• When the caravan was attacked, some of the escorts are explicitly killed, but not all of them. At least two were simply knocked off their horses. This would hurt, no doubt, but it wouldn't be instantly fatal, would it? So, with that in mind, once they got back up, why didn't they offer to help, or go back to the fort and get reinforcements? Did Mowgli insist that the jungle was too dangerous for anyone but him to navigate through? Were they too injured and had to be taken back for recovery?

---