Has anyone ever watched this movie? Or Heard about the true story behind the making of the movie?
Did you know that Michael Douglas character was a fictional character made for the movie?
It’s based in 1898 near the Tsavo River closer to Mombasa in Africa. The British wanted to build a railroad that traveled from Mombasa (Modern Day Kenya) to Lake Victoria and from there to Uganda. Which is how it got the name The Uganda Railroad, though some people mocked the building of the railroad and they gave it the nickname “The Lunatic Line”. Those who mocked said it ran from nowhere to nowhere because they thought the railroad was a ridiculous thing to build but it was suppose to bring more people to the center of Africa. This would also improve trade across africa and Europe. British Colonialists hired thousands of laborers that were imported from India to help build the new railroad. This railroad was to cover 580 miles over many rivers and valleys. Surprisingly, it would take over 30 years to build this railroad system. They would reach Nairobi 1899, then on to Kismu near Lake Victoria by 1901 and then they finally reached their last stop in Uganda by 1928.
Africa was nicknamed the Dark Continent because it barely had any industrial progress done on it. The Railroad system was the pride and glory of the British at the time. During 1898 though, was a dark period for beginning of the building the railroad. This is two years after the start of contructing of the new system. They had just reached Tsavo river about 130 miles northwest of Mombasa at the time. John Henry Patterson was put in charge of the construction including the sevaral thousands of workers brought in to build it. They were scattered over about 20 miles of land in small camps alongside the railroad. Patterson was alerted that workers were disappearing but he didn’t believe it was a lion actually attacking the workers. He wouldn’t start believing until maimed bodies of missing workers started showing up and many lion sitings were being reported. Apparently, the two lions were attacking every few days with one attacking the camps and the other attacking the animals and some people in the camps they would hit. They would together hit different camps during each attack. After awhile, the workers would use the thorny branches of the Acacia Tree to build fences around the camps though in one incident the lions got through. One attacked a sleeping worker’s tent and during the attack it accidently grabbed the the worker’s mattress instead. When it realized it didn’t have the person the lion dropped the mattress and ran off. By April, they had covered 40 miles now and Patterson was keeping watch in a tree now to hunt the lions down. Many nights passed and the lions kept getting away.
At one point, Patterson built a contraption that would catch the lions like a caged rat trap. They would put humans with hunting rifles on the side with a barred barricade to keep them alive. On the other side would be an entrance with a trip wire about two-thirds of the way in that the lion would activate to make a door close down on the entrance. Sadly, this contraption didn’t work. One of the lions triped the trap but after being shot at multiple times the lion got out. It wouldn’t be until December 9th for the first lion to be killed by Patterson. He was up on a contruction hunting ledge with a donkey tied close by but the lion ignored the donkey completely anf went right for Patterson. It took two shots to kill the lion. The second lion wouldn’t be killed until December 29th by Patterson with another two shots. He and many other workers had wounded the lions many times over the past 9 months during their reign of terror on the Railroad workers. The lions were nickednamed The Ghost and The Darkness by the locals and workers who feared the two lions. The lions were maneless because they were Tsavo Lions, they have less fur because of the heat but higher levels of testosterone which causes them to be highly agressive.
They supposedly killed over 139 people during the 9 months they were alive. They were taxidermied then sent to the Field Museum in Chicago. When they taxidermied the lions they said that they turned out smaller then how they appeared in real life which was 9ft long from nose to tail tip.
You can read more about the story here:
