THE MISSION – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

As a youth, John Chau fell in love with the exploits of Robinson Crusoe, dreamed of living in the trees on the beach, and believed God had adventures planned for him.

At just twenty-six, he was so focused on one adventure—evangelizing to the indigenous people on an isolated island east of India—that it took his life.

The new documentary The Mission examines Chau’s fatal 2018 trip to the Andaman Islands, where the hunting-gathering society of the Sentinelese have fascinated anthropologists and historians for more than a century—and where Chau’s death made worldwide headlines.

No one knows what occurred in his last moments; investigators think the Sentinelese killed him, given their hostility to outsiders. In his diary, Chau noted how they shot arrows at him when he approached in a kayak, piercing the Bible he held. Although he retreated, he decided to try approaching them again. Fishermen helping him spied his body on the shore.

Writers and directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State) weave a riveting narrative using Chau’s diaries and social media posts, video archives, watercolor-like animation, and thoughtful interviews. Yet The Mission, distributed by National Geographic Documentary Films, proves most enticing when it questions romanticized narratives about unexplored lands, from historical accounts to films and TV programs—including one from National Geographic in the 1970s.

Chau’s father, Patrick Chau, wrote a letter to the filmmakers, who use an actor’s voiceover and animation to illustrate his thoughts, along with excerpts from John Chau’s diary. These provide a poignant intimacy, coupled with John Chau’s frank and exuberant social media posts and video footage.

The first moments of the film, in fact, show John filming his own shadow on the beach, his camera held aloft. An actor reads what were among his last words: “I plan on arriving on the shores of an island where an unknown number of people live… Lord, is this Satan’s last stronghold?”

The youngest of three children, John Chau enjoyed evangelical mission trips to Mexico in high school and fell in love with the outdoors, working as a first responder in a national park. While studying at Orel Roberts University, he became enthralled with the idea of visiting isolated people and bringing them the word of God.

His father, a doctor who came to the United States as a refugee from China, finds a “distorted, hidden colonial or imperialist agenda” in such talk. At family gatherings, he says he and John often had to “agree to disagree” on the matter.

The film shows how John dove into research about the Sentinelese, sharing password-encrypted emails with friends who supported him. He absorbed missionary stories about young men who gave their lives to spread Christianity to native peoples, as well as work from historians and authors such as Adam Goodheart. Goodheart wrote about the Sentinelese in The American Scholar and in this year’s book, The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth.

He too approached their island but was cautious enough “not to push it.” Noting his own hubris in his twenties, when “danger seemed abstract and improbable,” Goodheart adds that perhaps John thought he was in God’s hands.

The Mission doesn’t identify its interview subjects easily, which muddies the narrative at times, especially as John’s final trip gets under way. Nevertheless, it provides a thoughtful criticism of missionary work, which one former missionary says doesn’t consider how outside beliefs—and exposure to disease—might harm indigenous peoples.

A representative from All Nations, a Missouri-based evangelical organization, counters that it’s important to give such people “the opportunity to say yes or no to Jesus,” not decide for them. All Nations describes how it trained John and other missionaries to interact with indigenous people, using actors with mock weapons. No one acknowledges this roleplay might leave someone woefully unprepared for a real encounter. Instead, The Mission shows one friend preaching about John as a martyr, using his death to call others to action.

Then again, that aligns with the narratives that portray White or educated explorers as “superior,” as Goodhead says, flattering us while erasing native people’s humanity. In showing the seductive power of certain stories, and the one that John’s father says locked in his son “like an arrow on a fully pulled bowstring,” The Mission crafts a tale that’s hard to forget.