‘Last Days’: Sundance Review

Dir: Justin Lin. US. 2025. 120 mins.

John Allen Chau became famous in death. The 26-year-old made headlines around the world when he was killed during what he believed was the “ultimate mission” to bring Christianity to the uncontacted indigenous people of North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal. They did not welcome his message and his body has never been retrieved. Last Days tries to work out what drove this lost boy to risk and ultimately lose his life. While director Justin Lin’s thriller-inflected approach is periodically absorbing, the scattered structure and episodic nature of the plot works against him as it slides towards an overly sentimental conclusion.

Lightweight script

The film - based on a script by Ben Ripley drawn from Alex Perry’s Outside Magazine article ’The Last Days of John Allen Chau’ - marks a return to Sundance for Lin, whose debut Better Luck Tomorrow played there in 2002. Since then Lin has notched up blockbusters including Star Trek Beyond and five Fast & Furious films, so this certainly marks a change of speed. While the strange-but-true nature of the story is eye-catching - and has already led to National Geographic documentary The Mission - its combination of family drama and scrutiny of radical Christianity might be a tricky sell for audiences.

A gripping opening sequence provides an early hook as we see John (Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Sky Yang) paddling his kayak towards the North Sentinel shoreline, only to be met by a barrage of arrows, captured in a way that makes them seem about to zip through the cinema screen. From there, the action flashes back to 2014, when John is about finish at the Christian Oral Roberts University. A graduation dinner indicates tensions in his family of the traditional sort: his Chinese immigrant father Patrick (Ken Leung) presents him with a stethoscope for use at medical college, but John’s mind is already drifting away from the concerns of the body to more spiritual matters.

From here on, Lin cycles through a trio of plot strands. There’s a suspicion that the sheer number of producers involved - including Keanu Reeves at executive level - is partially responsible for the action feeling pulled this way and that. In the main storyline, we follow John as he embarks on various far-flung missionary expeditions, while his dream of converting the Sentinelese gradually takes shape.

In a secondary fictional story, presumably included to inject some energy, police inspector Meera (Radhika Apte, Sister Midnight) locks horns with her sexist superior (Naveen Andrews) when, after getting wind of John’s plans, she races to try to locate him before he can contaminate the indigenous islanders. Apte is strong but poorly served by a script that hints at but never commits to her backstory. This element also takes up so much screen time that John risks being marginalised within his own movie.

Finally, there are occasional visits back to John’s family, in which Patrick gets to look increasingly worried while John’s white American mum (Claire Price) organises prayer meetings for her son.

Among those John meets on his travels are Chandler (Toby Wallace), who helps to fuel his radical plans and, later, a young woman Melanie (Marny Kennedy, magnetic in a small role) whose practical nature emphasises how far John has drifted from everyday reality.

Cinematographer Oliver Bokelberg makes handsome use of the various locations, finding contrast between the bustling daytime streets and nights dominated by deep greens and blues, although nothing quite matches up to the surprising point-of-view shots offered in the opening Sentinelese encounter.

Yang commands attention in the central role, as we watch John beef up as his fervour increases. But there’s only so much internal conflict he can convey given the lightweight script. While the screenplay flirts with deeper things, it ultimately suggests a decidedly simplistic driver for John’s actions that is presented via an intercut flashback scene that oozes sentiment. It might have been better for John to remain an enigma, but Last Days can’t resist offering us chapter and verse.