When director Justin Lin’s new indie feature “Last Days,” about 25-year-old missionary John Chau who was killed when he made contact with an isolated tribe, ran into financial woes, the filmmaker (also known for blockbusters in franchises like “Fast and Furious” and “Star Trek”) fortuitously got a call from Keanu Reeves.
Sitting with TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Lin shared that the film ran into trouble while getting off the ground. Reeves helped turn things around.
“It was this one moment where everything fell apart,” Lin said. “I think with all independent experiences you just don’t know. It’s a roller coaster. At that point, I thought it was all going to be done. We have angels along the way that come and really help us. In this case, I got a call from Keanu Reeves who heard that we were having some problems and he said, ‘Look, I want to help,’ and it was really inspiring.”
Reeves doesn’t have a producer credit on the film — he simply helped Lin by making calls and getting the financing together because he wanted to.
Lin continued, “I’m lucky enough to be in a position and have resources to say, ‘You know what? Let’s just go. Let’s just have a start date.’ I honestly don’t know how, like, it was just something in my head, and I just thought, ‘We’re going to make this no matter what.’ And that moment, it kind of changed everything. It kind of set us up. I started meeting the best of humanity and all these people from around the world came and joined us. That’s how we were able to get this film going.”
The film marks Lin’s return to indies and tells the true story of John Chau, who at 25 years old journeyed to the remote North Sentinel Island determined to convert the isolated tribe to Christianity. He was killed, and Lin’s film attempts to explain what compelled Chau to do something so risky. Sky Yang, Marny Kennedy, Toby Wallace and Naveen Andrews also star.
Watch the full interview with Lin and the cast of “Last Days” in the video above.
