在这部人猿泰山动作/冒险片中,约翰和艾丽丝·克莱顿乘船去非洲。叛变者把他们涂成褐色。父母死后，新生的泰山被一只名叫卡拉的大猩猩带走。后来男孩找到了他父亲的刀，并用它成为猿猴之王。救了克莱顿一家的水手宾斯被阿拉伯奴隶主关押了十年，他找到了年轻的泰山，然后前往英国通知他的亲属。一位科学家来证实宾斯的故事。泰山，现在是个男人，杀死了杀死卡拉的本地人；当他们的首领被杀时，黑人村民用礼物和祈祷安抚泰山。科学家的女儿简被一个土著人带走，被泰山救了出来（泰山烧毁了这个土著村庄），受到了他的强烈爱戴（“泰山是男人，男人不强迫女人的爱”），最后张开双臂接受了他。
The plot follows the novel more closely than does any other Tarzan movie. John and Alice Clayton take ship for Africa. Mutineers maroon them. After his parents die the newborn Tarzan is taken by a great Ape, Kala. Later the boy finds his father's knife and uses it to become King of Apes. Binns, the sailor who saved the Claytons and who has been held by Arab slavers for ten years, finds the young Tarzan and then heads for England to notify his kin. A scientist arrives to check out Binns' story. Tarzan, now a man, kills the native who killed Kala; when their chief is killed the black villagers appease Tarzan with gifts and prayers. The scientist's daughter Jane is carried off by a native, rescued by Tarzan (who has burnt the native village), aggressively loved by him ("Tarzan is a man, and men do not force the love of women"), and at last accepts him with open arms.
