Cutthroat Island is a 1995 adventure swashbuckler film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman from a story by Michael Frost Beckner, James Gorman, Bruce A. Evans, and Raynold Gideon.

Critical reactions were generally negative, and the film was one of the biggest box-office bombs in history, with losses of $147 million when adjusted for inflation.

[8] It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the biggest box-office bomb of all time,[9] and significantly reduced the bankability and Hollywood production of pirate-themed films until 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

In 1668 Jamaica, having escaped a trap set by authorities, Morgan Adams hunts down her paternal uncle and fellow pirate Dawg Brown after he kidnaps her father, Black Harry.

When she is recognized from her wanted poster and barely escapes with her crew and Shaw, corrupt Governor Ainslee vows to find her after learning of the treasure's existence.

After regaining consciousness, Shaw finds Reed, who leads him into a trap set by Dawg, Ainslee, and Scully, who have joined forces and intend to split the treasure.

In a 2023 interview, original writers James Gorman and Michael Frost Beckner explained they had a development deal with Disney, after their Western spec script Texas Lead and Gold had created buzz in the early 1990s.

Among the differences from the later versions were the island being volcanic and more secret, and a backstory involving four men (including Spanish and British officers) sacking a gold shipment and hiding the treasure before being betrayed.

The script would jump ahead in time, with the men now in different social positions (like the Spaniard being the Governor of Portobello) and Shaw, a more ruthless character in this version, learning of the existence of the treasure.

Harlin convinced producer Mario Kassar to cast Davis, who was until then known for light comedies, hoping it would turn her into an action-adventure star.

Carolco, already deeply in debt when the film entered preproduction, initially budgeted $60 million for the project and pinned its hopes for survival on its success.

Carolco also sold a $20 million interest in Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls, Last of the Dogmen, and Stargate,[11][12][13][14][15] and aggressively marketed Cutthroat Island to overseas distributors, promising them it would be a sure hit.

Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, Jeff Bridges, Ralph Fiennes, Charlie Sheen, Michael Keaton, Tim Robbins, Daniel Day-Lewis and Gabriel Byrne all turned down the role of Shaw before Matthew Modine agreed to do the role,[18] partly due to his experience as a fencer.

[19] Oliver Reed was originally cast for a cameo as Mordechai Fingers, but was fired after getting in a bar fight and attempting to expose himself to Davis while intoxicated.

The site's consensus reads: "Cutthroat Island may aspire towards the earnest thrills of classic swashbucklers, but a distinct lack of charm and stilted script make this adventure a joyless hodgepodge of the pirate genre's flotsam and jetsam.

"[32] Time Out London commented that "we get Geena Davis doing the all-action honours, and a hotchpotch script that seems to think pirate movies are so funny in themselves the need for more humour is superfluous.

"[18][21] Empire gave the film two stars out of five, stating, "It's mindless entertainment, but its critical and commercial failure doomed the pirate genre to a watery grave," while complimenting the locations and the set pieces: "The film is at its best in the gorgeous locations and the huge (we're talking Harlin - Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger - huge) set-pieces, concluding in a wild sea battle that is more John Woo on water".

[34] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a three-out-of-four-star rating, commenting: "This is, in short, a satisfactory movie – but it doesn't transcend its genre, and it's not surprising or astonishing.

"[35] Susan Wloszczyna from USA Today stated: "If the sight of half-naked, tattooed sailors firing cannons at each other shivers your timbers, climb aboard.

[36] Harlin was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director for his work on the film, but "lost" to Paul Verhoeven for Showgirls.

[40] The failure of Cutthroat Island is also credited with significantly reducing the bankability of pirate-themed films, which recovered only with the production of Walt Disney Pictures' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003.