In 2018, John Allen Chau, the outdoors lover-turned-missionary who grew up in Vancouver, Wash., was killed at age 26<\/a> trying to evangelize the largely uncontacted Indigenous people of India\u2019s North Sentinel Island. Since then, he has become a figure of global fascination, the posthumous subject of numerous articles, a 2023 National Geographic documentary<\/a> and, now, the narrative feature \u201cLast Days.\u201d Directed by Justin Lin of the \u201cFast & Furious\u201d franchise, it\u2019s a dramatized retelling of the tragic story that\u2019s, in part, about Chau\u2019s life growing up in Washington before culminating in the final days that led to his death.\u00a0<\/p>\n The film, set to release Oct. 23 at area theaters, also attempts to be a study of Chau himself. Drawing from the Outside magazine article \u201cThe Last Days of John Allen Chau\u201d<\/a> by acclaimed journalist and writer Alex Perry, \u201cLast Days\u201d explores how Chau lived in addition to how he died. For Perry, who consulted on the film, Chau was someone who came out of a specific religious and regional context. He was similar to another well-known Pacific Northwest missionary, Portland-born and -raised Jim Elliot, who was also killed when attempting to evangelize an isolated group of Indigenous people in Ecuador, and someone whom Chau lived in the long shadow of growing up. As Perry began to look more into Chau\u2019s life, he discovered a crossover that extended to a shared passion for the outdoors<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJohn grew up not so far away from where Jim Elliot\u2019s house was,\u201d Perry said. \u201cThat whole thing was a real revelation to me. The idea that there was a part of the missionary, Christian, evangelical world that was hiking bros and adventure sports guys and rock climbers and mountain climbers. It fused everything that the Northwest is famous for with evangelical Christianity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In his research, Perry discovered that North Sentinel Island was considered to be the greatest challenge in the Christian missionary world, not unlike scaling the highest mountain. It was often spoken about akin to extreme sports, Perry said, and the island\u2019s allure \u2014 that it was the greatest risk a missionary could take \u2014 was what ultimately drew Chau in.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI set myself the task to get into John\u2019s mindset,\u201d Perry said, recounting how this critical outdoors element gave him an entry point to answer the lingering questions he had. \u201cWhat is the mindset of someone who would do something that\u2019s got a very good chance of killing them? It\u2019s very similar to writing a piece about a mountaineer who has fallen off a big mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n Before he attempted to climb his mountain, Chau learned of missionary work as a kid at Vancouver Christian High School. It was there where, according to The New York Times<\/a>, Chau first encountered Joshua Project, the missionary website that would reshape his short life. It introduced him to this kind of missionary work and the Sentinelese people, instilling in him a desire to go to their island. After graduating, Chau attended a “missionary boot camp\u201d that he used to further prepare for what would be an ultimately fatal trip to North Sentinel Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n The film received mixed reviews when it premiered at this year\u2019s Sundance Film Festival \u2014 with some critics arguing it was structured more like an adventure film and that it ultimately didn\u2019t have the depth this tragic story needed \u2014 but Perry feels \u201cLast Days\u201d is fair and nuanced. He said he had many conversations with writer Ben Ripley as he wrote the script, later visiting the set and being consulted on the edit. He said a new cut, which was made after the premiere and includes new footage, is \u201cway improved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n