| Director | Terence Young |
|---|---|
| Box office | $1.4 million |
While American white hunter Ken Duffield is off leading a safari, Mau Mau rebels attack his farm, slaughtering the labourers and his livestock. Duffield's young son Charley and Aunt May defend their home against the mass attack but they do not know that their houseboy Jeroge (a corruption of Njoroge) is actually a Mau Mau general. Inside the farmhouse, Jeroge murders Aunt May with a machete and Charley is killed with May's rifle.
When Duffield returns to his destroyed homestead, the police have obtained information about Jeroge's role in the affair. Surmising that Duffield will use his hunting expertise to track down and revenge himself on the terrorists in general and Jeroge in particular, they escort him back to Nairobi and revoke his hunting licence until the situation and Duffield cools down.
Duffield spends his exile in Nairobi drinking and gathering information about Jeroge from his African friends. He gets his chance for revenge when the rich Sir Vincent Brampton, accompanied by his flunky Brian Sinden and his young American trophy fiancée Linda Latham, arrive in Nairobi. They are keen to hire Duffield to lead a safari so that Sir Vincent can kill a legendary man-eating lion named Hatari (Swahili for "risky" or "dangerous"). Duffield knows that Hatari resides in an area which Jeroge is known to frequent, and that Sir Vincent can use his influence to get his hunting licence back.
Setting off on safari with his boss boy Jerusalem and Odongo, Sir Vincent suspects Duffield is not interested in hunting lions when he carries a Sten gun; Duffield explaining "you never know what kind of animals you may find". Sir Vincent has his suspicion confirmed when Duffield jumps out of his Land Rover to join the police in a firefight against the Mau Mau and is keen to extract information from the prisoners.
Duffield keeps his promise to bring Sir Vincent and his party to Hatari's turf in the land of the Maasai, where the audience witnesses a traditional Maasai lion hunt. But his plans face peril when a police radio report reveals that an unknown member of the safari is a Mau Mau plant. In addition, the obsessive Sir Vincent is determined to get sole credit for killing Hatari and therefore unloads Duffield's rifle, while Linda decides to take an excursion down a crocodile-infested river in a rubber dinghy. Another police radio report warns that 200 Mau Mau prisoners have escaped and are headed towards Duffield's safari to link up with Jeroge.
Sir Vincent is so obsessed with killing the lion that he fires at Duffield. In the midst of this situation, Hatari the lion appears on a ledge above Sir Vincent and pounces. Although the lion is killed it has fatally wounded Sir Vincent. In a final scene, the group and local police, have to each take arms to defend themselves against an onslaught from Mau Mau attackers, and Duffield's Sten gun is put to use.