Now Showing: Jonestown

Jonestown
Drama
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Josh Brolin, Jeff Daniels, Vincent D'Onofrio, Radha Mitchell, Boyd Holbrook, Gabriel Macht, Michael Stuhlbarg, Victor Garber

Plot: On November 14, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan (Jeff Daniels) and a group of government officials and media representatives took a plane down to Georgetown, Guyana to visit and investigate the goings-on at Jonestown, the community formed by the Peoples Temple and their leader Jim Jones (Josh Brolin). For the next three days, the Peoples Temple's lawyers, Mark Lane (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Charles Garry (Victor Garber), refuse Ryan's group access to Jonestown. On November 17th, Ryan informs the lawyers that they are going to be there that afternoon, regardless of Jones' schedule or willingness.

At 2:30 pm, Ryan's group flew in to the Port Kaituma airstrip, 6 miles from Jonestown, along with the lawyers. When the group arrives at the gates, Jones is just finishing the last rehearsal on how to convince Ryan's group that everyone was happy and in good spirits. Jones initially only allows Ryan and three others into Jonestown, with the rest not gaining access until after sunset.

That night, the Ryan delegation attended a reception in the pavilion. While the party received a warm welcome, Jones goes on a tirade about government conspiracies and martyrdom and decries attacks by the press. Two Peoples Temple members, Vernon and Monica, pass a note to reporter Don Harris (Gabriel Macht), mistaking him for Ryan, reading "Dear Congressman, Please help us get out of Jonestown."

Ryan and three members of his group spend the night in Jonestown. The other members of the Ryan delegation, including the members of the press, are told that they have to find other accommodations, so they spend the night at a small cafe near the airstrip.

Early in the morning on November 18th, eleven Temple members walk out of the colony toward train tracks to hop a train to Matthew's Ridge. When the press arrives at Jonestown that day, Jim Jones' wife Marceline (Radha Mitchell) gives them a tour of the settlement. That afternoon, two families come to the Ryan delegation and ask to be escorted out of Jonestown. Jones decides to grant the two families permission to leave along with Vernon and Monica. Under the pavilion, Don Harris hands Jones the note written by Vernon. Jones tells the reporters that Vernon, like others who left the community, will do everything they can to lie and destroy Jonestown.

Shortly before the truck leaves for the airstrip, Temple member Larry Layton (Boyd Holbrook), demands to be part of the group. While most of the Ryan delegation departs Jonestown on a large dump truck back to the airstrip, Congressman Ryan and Richard Dwyer (Vincent D'Onofrio), a representative of the U.S. Guyana Embassy, stay behind to process any additional defectors. Shortly after the truck departs, Temple member Don Sly grabs Ryan while wielding a knife. Ryan isn't hurt, but Dwyer strongly recommends that Ryan leave Jonestown. Ryan does and promises to return at a later time to address the dispute and states that he would describe Jonestown in basically good terms. The truck stops when they receive word of the attack on Ryan. They return to Jonestown to get Ryan and head to the airstrip.

With the group having grown in size, they have to charter an extra plane, a six-passenger Cessna. Larry Layton is a passenger on the Cessna, which takes off first. When the Cessna has taxied over to the far end of the airstrip, Layton produces a gun and begins shooting the passengers. Monica and Vernon are both wounded. Dale Parks, one of the defectors, manages to disarm Layton.

At the time, passengers are beginning to board the other, bigger plane. A tractor with a trailer attached driven by members of the Temple's Red Brigade security squad approaches the plane. When the tractor gets within 30 feet of the plane, the Red Brigade opens fire on the aircraft while two Red Brigade members circle the plane on foot. Congressman Ryan, Don Harris and three others are killed. Nine others are injured in or around the plane. The Cessna's pilot, along with the copilot of the other plane, flee in the Cessna to Georgetown.

Back at Jonestown, Jim Jones announces a meeting. Jones informs the lawyers, Lane and Garry, not to attend the meeting as tension against them is high. They are escorted to a guest house several hundred feet from the pavilion. Before the meeting, aides prepare a metal vat filled with poisoned Flavor Aid. When the assembly gathers, Jones tells them that one the people on the planes is going to shoot the pilot, that the plane will crash down in the jungle, and that they better not have any children left when it's over, because they'll be killed. Jones urges the Temple members to commit suicide. The airstrip shooters then return to Jonestown and inform Jones that the congressman is dead. Jones announces the news of Ryan's death to the assembly.

Lane and Garry become frightened when a group of men run into a nearby building and take out rifles and ammunition. Two of the men go towards the lawyers with their rifles semi-ready. They announce to the lawyers that they are going to die for the battle against fascism and racism. Lane tells the men that they will write down the history of what the Temple believes in. The men like the idea. Lane then asks the men for a way out of Jonestown. One of the men points towards the jungle and towards Port Kaituma. The attorneys then run into the jungle.

The group begins to drink the poison. Parents poison the children. The poison causes death in five minutes. After drinking the poison, the people are then escorted down a wooden walkway leading away from the Pavilion. Those unwilling to drink the poison are shot. Jones waits for the poison to take effect in everyone before shooting himself in the head.

Later that day, three Temple members who were out on assignment arrive back in Jonestown and see the aftermath. They find five people who managed to survive: a hearing impaired man missed the announcement and pretended to be dead, one man slept through it, one man hid under a building, one man ran into the jungle, and a little boy hid in a nearby tree. Jonestown is now shown deserted and little remains of the settlement outside of an abandoned truck and an old oil tank turned on its side.