2026 Hungry

• Director: James Nunn
• Writers: James Nunn
• Stars: Madison Davenport, Tracey Bonner, Joaquim de Almeida, Michel Curiel, Samantha Coughlan, Olivia Bernstone, Jim Meskimen
• Runtime: 93 minutes (1 hour 33 minutes)
• Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd3arEu-r8w

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A rogue hippopotamus in the Louisiana swamp makes sport of a tour group there to see the gators. It’s a very serious movie, supposedly loosely based or inspired by the action board game “Hungry, Hungry Hippos,” but it’s not for kids.

It takes a little while to get to the mayhem, but it’s pretty realistic in how it gets there. It was a better than average people vs nature creature feature.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a swamp, with all the usual wildlife. There’s an alligator out there, but something big that we don’t see eats it. Credits roll.

It’s New Orleans. Sistine (Tina) and Hannah talk to Rodrigo about an alligator tour in the bayou. Tina gets the phone call that she’s been fired for taking her approved vacation days.

In the morning, the girls get on “Gator Joe’s” tour bus. There’s an older guy Tim, his daughter Sally, and her son, Mike, along as well. Dionne is there too. Rodrigo is their driver and tour guide.

The group stops at the gift ship for a look at the trinkets and bones. Mr. Walker explains that the most dangerous creature he ever killed was a hippopotamus in Africa. He explains that they’re vegetarian, but they’re still more dangerous than you’d think. He explains that at the turn of the century, hippos were brought over here as a food source to replace cows, but it never caught on.

The boat leaves, and Rodrigo homes in on the alligators, which all have tracking devices on them. They arrive where “Big Ben,” the largest alligator is supposed to be, but he doesn’t appear. They soon find Ben, torn into pieces, on the bank of the river. Tim gets scared; Dionne wants in closer for a better photo. They all start to argue.

Something big hits the boat and capsizes it. Rodrigo gets injured, and everyone gets on the bottom of the capsized boat. Some of them climb into nearby trees. Rodrigo admits that they’re off course, as he took a bribe from Dionne to see Big Ben.

Hannah thinks old man Tim, a retired firefighter, is pretty hot. Dionne just wants out of all this. Sistine is depressed about her mother’s medical bills and her lost job.

The hippo returns, smashes into the tree, and knocks Hannah into the water. Tim and Sistine jump in to help, but both Tim and Hannah become hippo chow. They all see what kind of animal they’re dealing with now.

Back at Gator Joe’s they notice the boat is five hours late returning. Walker has a tracker on all the boats and goes looking for them, alone.

Next, we get a contrived scene where Sistine has to dive under the boat to retrieve the tracker and finds Hannah’s body under there. They pour gasoline in the water to scare off the hippo. They retrieve the tracker and turn it on, which alerts Walker as to where they are.

The group watches as Walker’s boat approaches in the dark; he says it’s impossible that it could be a hippo. Everyone gets into his boat. Dionne goes berserk and pushes Mike into the water, and he’s promptly swallowed.

Walker says there’s a change of plan: they’re all getting back up into the trees. He’s got some tranquilizers, but they might not be enough for the huge hippo. Sally, who just lost her father and her son, jumps into the water and swims off into the fog.

The hippo attacks, bites Walker in the leg, but Rodrigo shoots it with one of the tranquilizers before dying. Walker, Sistine, and Dionne get in Walker’s boat, which is out of fuel, and start rowing. Walker talks about an old plan to farm hippos in Louisiana, and this one must be a leftover from that.

The trio stops at an old abandoned gator farm. Walker thinks that maybe they grew the hippos here. They find many large cages and generations of skeletons. They find a baby hippo, but then the big one attacks.

The plan is to burn the place to the ground and hope someone sees the fire. Before they can do that, Dionne locks Walker in a room with a big baddie. Dionne wants to go back to the boat, but Sistine wants to sit on top of the cages and wait for help to arrive. Dionne pays for her stupidity.

In the meantime, Sistine releases the trapped baby hippo. The big one leads the baby away as helicopters approach. As she flies away, Sistine sees the hippos playing in the river.

Brian’s Commentary

From the name and subject matter, I was expecting this to be funnier: “Hungry Hungry Hippos The Movie” or something like that. It’s actually a fairly standard people-versus-wildlife horror movie.

The first fifteen minutes or so, as the characters arrive and the tour starts, all seems very authentic, the way this sort of tour actually works.

The hippo looks surprisingly real. Overall, the whole thing was far better than I expected.

Kevin’s Commentary

I too was surprised by how serious the movie is. The game is much zanier.

Everything was seeming pretty realistic until they got to the gasoline fire on the surface of the water, a measure meant to keep the hippo away, that burned way better and longer than it should have. But other than that, the effects are good.

And as she flew away, the baby hippo said, “Thank you lady. When I get big I won’t eats you.”

I was expecting the worst, but it ended up being a decently entertaining movie.