Mainly the difference is that the book has a big battle in the middle that the movie doesn’t have at all, and the movie has a love story that’s nowhere in the book. See below for complete plot summaries of the book and movie.
Book summary
To Kukuanaland
The story is a journey into an unknown region in Africa. The main character is Allan Quartermain, who has had a long and successful career as a hunter. He is commissioned as a guide by two Brits, Captain Good and his friend Sir Henry Curtis, who is looking for his missing brother, who disappeared looking for diamonds. They hire some native servants, including a remarkable individual named Umbopa. They kill a bunch of elephants and bury the ivory to retrieve later; one of the servants is killed by one of the elephants. Following a map drawn in blood by a dying Portuguese explorer, they cross the desert and almost die of thirst before finding the waterhole on the map. They survive, proceeding to climb one of a pair of mountain peaks named Sheba’s Breasts, where, in a cave, they find the remains of the Portuguese explorer. A servant dies of exposure in the cave. In the valley beyond, they see a remarkable stone road, and manage to shoot an animal for food.
Battle for Kukuanaland
They encounter a group of natives that want to kill them, but their strange appearance, their guns, and their lie about being travelers from the stars manage to save them. They are taken to the central village, where the local king gives them hospitality and gifts. But he also demonstrates his cruelty. He and the witch doctor, seemingly the same old woman that the Portuguese explorer left a warning about, conduct a bloody purge. Umbopa, who is actually the lost heir to this kingdom, is nearly killed. However, the travelers and Umbopa plan an armed rebellion, recruiting allies by promising to blot out the moon during the next bloody ceremony, in which the tyrant plans to kill the most beautiful dancer. They prevent her death with the help of an obliging eclipse, which they had read about in a pocket almanac. The travelers and rebel troops take possession of a hill, from which they somehow manage to overcome the loyalist forces. The tyrant is then killed in single combat with Sir Henry.
Return from Kukuanaland
The witch doctor takes the travelers, and the dancer, who has become attached to Captain Good, along the stone road into a mountain that contains the tomb of the native kings as well as the fabled diamonds, and traps them inside. However, she is crushed by the door after her escape is impeded by the dancer, whom she attacks with a knife. The dancer dies, proclaiming her doomed love for Captain Good. The three men escape through a hidden cave passage (with a few handfuls of gems) and rejoin Umbopa, who supplies them for a return journey that will pass through a more reliable desert water source that the locals identified. When they reach this oasis, they find Sir Henry’s brother and his guide; they never made it to the valley. They all return happily to civilization.
Movie summary
To Kukuanaland?
The story is a journey into an unknown region in Africa. The main character is Allan Quartermain, who has had a long and successful career as a hunter. He is seen working as a guide for a hunting party that kills an elephant. He stops the hunters from shooting unnecessarily. Still, one of the servants is killed by one of the elephants. He is commissioned as a guide by two Brits, John Goode and his sister Elizabeth Curtis, who is looking for her missing husband, who disappeared looking for diamonds. The map he followed, which came from an Arab trader who claimed it was 400 years old, indicates Kaluana Village, a river through the jungle, a waterhole in the desert, and a pair of mountains called the White Twins guarding the road to King Solomon’s Mine (diamonds). Allan and Elizabeth argue about their motives for such a dangerous journey, and seem to hate each other. Nevertheless, they and Elizabeth’s brother and Allan’s personal servant set off together with a wagon and a long line of native porters.
To Kukuanaland
A good chunk of the movie is vignettes of local wildlife: some beautiful, some dangerous, some both. Allan thinks Elizabeth will end the quest from discomfort. Instead, she stubbornly persists, as much to prove him wrong as for any other reason. The group negotiates with a tribe for boats to cross the river. They survive a dramatic zebra stampede. Elizabeth cuts her hair so it will give her less trouble. Allan is starting to respect her for her persistence. And her haircut is pretty, not that she wasn’t pretty before. The group encounters Umbopa, a tall native with an exotic hairstyle, and Allan agrees to take him on as a porter. Soon after, the rest of the porters abscond, except for Allan’s personal servant, being unwilling to approach the territory of another tribe. They enter a village and find a white man in a cabin. They ask him for news of Elizabeth’s husband. He says they’re on the right track, but then he tries to have the travelers killed. Allan’s servant dies in the travelers’ flight from the village. The brush with death brings Allan and Elizabeth closer. Allan, Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s brother, and Umbopa cross the desert, stopping at the waterhole, and pass over the mountains.
Kukuanaland
The travelers find a message on a gun that belonged to Elizabeth’s husband, saying he continued onward. He might still be alive! But Elizabeth admits she came looking for her husband out of guilt, not because she loved him, as she claimed. The travelers encounter a native group with haircuts that match Umbopa’s. Umbopa immediately reveals the scars that prove his kingly lineage. He disappears with his new friends, leaving the travelers without an effective translator. They are escorted to the court of the local king, where Allan uses gestures to ask if there are any white men around. The king and his male witch doctor are wearing headpieces decorated with diamonds. When a guy beside the king draws a weapon, Allan shoots him. Perhaps fearing the effects of the gun, the witch doctor indicates that he knows where a white man is, and leads them away to some caves. The travelers enter a small chamber containing a chest of gems… and a skeleton with a knife stuck in his ribs. Elizabeth’s husband is dead. The witch doctor rolls a heavy stone in front of the doorway to the chamber, sealing the travelers in, but they find another exit, and follow a stream out of the cave. The travelers encounter Umbopa and his allies, and go with them back to the king’s court. The king is watching a dance. Umbopa, again revealing the scars, challenges the king to single combat and kills him, thus becoming the new king. Umbopa supplies the travelers for their return journey, and that’s it.
When and Why I Read King Solomon's Mines
The "lost world" novel that inspired Michael Crichton's Congo.
Genre: adventure
Date started / date finished: 22-Feb-25 to 27-Mar-25
Length: 270 pages
ISBN: na
Originally published in: 1885/2000/2018
