| Director | Monte Hellman |
|---|---|
| Genre | adventure film |
| Runtime | 88 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $3 million |
The film takes place at the beginning of the 19th century. Oberlus (Everett McGill), a harpooner on a whaling ship, is regularly subjected to ridicule and abuse by other sailors. The right half of his face is bizarrely disfigured and covered with hummocky outgrowths, which leads him to being nicknamed Iguana. One night, after a brutal beating, Oberlus escapes to the uninhabited Hood Island. He is soon discovered by a team led by captain Gamboa (Fabio Testi). Gamboa brutally tortures Oberlus and ties him up for further punishment, but Iguana manages to escape and hides himself in a cave. The ship leaves the island and Gamboa orders that sailor Sebastian (Michael Madsen) be tied to a post on the coast as punishment for letting Iguana escape. Oberlus finds Sebastian and proclaims himself "King of Hood Island" and Sebastian his first slave, forcing him to cook his food.
Declaring revenge upon the world, Oberlus enslaves two other sailors thrown ashore after the shipwreck. He keeps his captives in a cave with a disguised entrance. After some time, a ship holding Carmen (Maru Valdivieso) and her fiancé Diego (Fernando De Huang), is moored near the island. Oberlus takes them prisoner. Oberlus kills Diego and makes Carmen his concubine. The captain of the ship, assuming Carmen and Diego to have died in the storm, does not look for them, but sails away.
One day, Oberlus notices the arrival of his former whaling ship. At night, he climbs on board, kills two sailors on the deck, takes Gamboa prisoner, and sets the ship alight, having previously locked the hull. Gamboa fights Oberlus, but is killed by him.
Resigned to her fate, Carmen tells Oberlus that she is pregnant with his child. Months later, the captain of the ship Carmen and Diego arrived on, returns with a group of armed sailors. They begin their search and Oberlus has to flee to the other end of the island with pregnant Carmen and his surviving prisoners. Oberlus plans to sail away with Carmen on the boat. Carmen gives birth, but Oberlus takes the child, saying that he will not allow him to suffer as he did, implying that the child is disfigured as he is. With the child in his arms, he enters the sea, intending to drown himself and the child.