Coppola moved the story from colonial Africa to 1960s Asia, but retained much from Conrad's text – including the character Kurtz, a crazed renegade.

Conrad's Kurtz is a respected ivory trader who goes deep into the jungle on lucrative, but murderous expeditions. Likewise, Coppola’s Kurtz is a decorated US soldier, who ignores the rules of war to slaugher communists with an army of tribesmen.