‘The Last Descent’ actors discuss new movie about Nutty Putty Cave tragedy
“I don’t think we go into approaching a story thinking, ‘This is a sad story.’ We look at it as a whole — and what it is is the relationship of John and Emily,” said Alexis Johnson.
Chadwick Hopson, left, and Alexis Johnson, who star in "The Last Descent," laugh during an interview for the "What Say Ye?" podcast on Wednesday in Provo. At right is Landon Henneman, who plays a rescuer in the film.
Chadwick Hopson, left, and director Brian Halasima during filming of "The Last Descent." The new film retells the 2009 story of hiker John Jones, who died in nearby Nutty Putty Cave after getting trapped between the rocks.
Actress Alexis Johnson, right, plays John Jones' wife, Emily Jones-Sanchez, left, both shown here during production of "The Last Descent."
Landon Henneman, who plays Adam, one of the rescuers, in "The Last Descent," during filming.
"The fact that they were open to spill the beans on all that was a real help for me," Landon Henneman, far right, said of the Jones family.
“One thing I never tried to do was imitate John," Chadwick Hopson, far left, said. "I wanted to try and capture what John made other people feel instead.”
The fate of John Jones is among the more memorably tragic ones to come out of Utah County.
For those unfamiliar: Jones was visiting his family in Utah in 2009 when he went for a hike in Nutty Putty Cave, west of Utah Lake. During his descent down the cave, Jones got stuck in a small crevice more than 100 feet below ground level. While rescue crews were able to communicate with John and provide him with water, they couldn’t extricate him. John died down there, leaving behind a wife, Emily, and a young daughter. Emily was also pregnant with their second child.
That story came to the big screen this weekend in “The Last Descent,” a new film by local filmmaker Isaac Halasima that’s playing in theaters across Utah.
We sat down with three of the film’s actors — Chadwick Hopson, who plays John; Alexis Johnson, who plays Emily; and Landon Henneman, who plays Adam, a member of the rescue crew — to discuss “The Last Descent,” and what it was like to tackle such a harrowing story.
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As one might imagine, the movie is profoundly sad — most who see the movie already know the outcome beforehand. Viewers will be inclined to gain affinity for John and his young family while simultaneously tempering the hope that comes with such affinity.
“I don’t think we go into approaching a story thinking, ‘This is a sad story.’ We look at it as a whole — and what it is is the relationship of John and Emily,” Johnson explained. “And unfortunately, destiny meets us all. And we don’t know when that is.”
Part of preparation for the film was getting to know John’s family, as well as Emily. Part of that has been understanding the nature of the grief this tragedy triggered. For a while, the family and rescue crews thought they had a good chance of getting John out. To have those hopes dashed — to be put on that kind of emotional rollercoaster — makes the wounds that much deeper. Hopson, Johnson and Henneman wanted to portray their characters accurately, but not at the expense of the individuals and families affected by John’s death.
“I honestly didn’t want to push the family to give me information, to revisit something that they didn’t want to volunteer,” Hopson said. However, the Jones family shared what they could about John, which were stories. Emily also kept a blog before and after John’s death, and the team pulled from those stories as well.
“I had stories and stories and stories,” Hopson continued. “One thing I never tried to do was imitate John. I wanted to try and capture what John made other people feel instead. The moment that I started to imitate him is the moment I felt like I would be untruthful — because there just wasn’t enough information out there.”
Henneman’s character, Adam, spends significant time with John in the cave. Much of “The Last Descent” focuses on the kinship that builds between the two men in their brief time together. The real-life Adam, however, decided not to work with the film crew, which made the Jones family’s involvement all the more crucial.
“It was so helpful, just from each of their perspectives, and they’re so different in how they feel about things,” Henneman said of the Jones family. “And just the fact that they were open to spill the beans on all that was a real help for me. I think for the project as a whole, without that on board, it wouldn’t have been as on point as it could’ve been. If I put myself in their position, with my family … it would be a very hard thing for me to discuss. So I have a lot of respect for them.”
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While “The Last Descent” doesn’t dive into the Mormon theology that the characters espouse, the movie is undoubtedly about faith generally, and doesn’t shy away from that. Hopson and Johnson don’t belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they naturally became much more familiar with it during filming. Johnson went with Emily to General Conference at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and Hopson attended church with Emily. Their portrayals feel accurate. It’s easy to imagine they’re actually LDS — and that they’re actually a real couple: On the flight to Utah for the film’s premiere, Hopson and Johnson were mistaken for the couple on ABC’s reality show “The Bachelor.”
“So we nodded and went on our way — ‘Tell your friends that you met the Bachelor,’ ” Hopson recalled with a laugh.
“The Last Descent” is Isaac Halasima’s first full-length feature film — he had previously directed music videos for Imagine Dragons. His hand is in every aspect of the film, from writing to directing to producing to scoring to sound editing. It’s an impressive debut for such a young filmmaker. Hopson, Johnson and Henneman all spoke glowingly of the young director.
“Isaac is a name that we’re going to be talking about for a long time to come,” Hopson said. “I’ve worked with a lot of different directors, and none of them are like Isaac. They’re all different, they’re all amazing, but the way his mind works is on another level.”
“He had a vision the whole time, and it just taught me to trust,” Johnson added. “This guy doesn’t sleep. I don’t know how he does all this.”
”The Last Descent” is playing now in Larry H. Miller Megaplexes across Utah County and Salt Lake County, as well the Carmike Wynnsong in Provo. The full interview with Hopson, Johnson and Henneman will be on the upcoming episode of the “What Say Ye?” podcast, available Monday afternoon at WhatSayYePod.com.