Other caves were used for climbing shots. The scenes of the rescue workers' base camp were shot around Nutty Putty Cave, which was sealed after the tragedy with Jones' body still inside. "The Last Descent" was filmed entirely in Utah. Halasima watched movies where the hero dies, such as "Titanic" and "Ghost," to study how they were made. Even when you hit the end and they know it, can you make it something they'll never forget? I like that challenge." "It's like 'Titanic,' in that everybody knows the end," Halasima said. One challenge of writing the story is that many people - especially folks in Utah, who were gripped by the news coverage of the rescue attempt - know the story's tragic outcome. "He assured us all along the way that if we were unhappy, the movie would never get made," Jones-Sanchez said. Halasima let Jones-Sanchez read every draft of the script. Part of Halasima's research was interviewing Jones-Sanchez about her husband, their courtship and three years of marriage - events the film shows in flashback. "It shows something that can inspire, from a bad situation." "It's more than what people see and think, about a poor guy who dies in a cave," Halasima said. It's my home, it's everything I am."Īs he researched the story, he learned more about John Jones as a person, which bolstered his resolve to get the movie made. "If you want to make an impact, make it about somewhere you know," Halasima said. The Nutty Putty story came to mind immediately. A few years later, Halasima - whose past work includes directing music videos for Imagine Dragons, the internationally known rock band that started in Provo - was looking to make his first feature film. "I'd gone in it, in the front, and kind of said, 'That's it, that's enough,'" he said. Halasima, born in Provo and raised in Pleasant Grove, knew Nutty Putty's reputation as a popular spot for spelunkers - and a dangerous one. 24, 2009, when he heard the news reports that Jones, a 26-year-old medical student and experienced climber, had gotten stuck in Nutty Putty Cave, just west of Utah Lake. Halasima was working as a film editor in Salt Lake City on Nov. "But if she even hesitated, I wasn't going to do it." "If she said, 'Let's do this,' I'm in," he said. Halasima said getting approval from Jones-Sanchez was paramount in making the movie, reported The Salt Lake Tribune ( ). The distributor - Salt Lake City-based Excel Entertainment, owned by the LDS Church-operated Deseret Book - aims to release it elsewhere later this year. 16 in 14 Utah theaters and one in Arizona. The movie, "The Last Descent," opened Sept. "We thought that would be worth sharing." "We learned some life-changing lessons from the whole experience," Jones-Sanchez said. After talking it over, discussing the sensitivity of reliving that tragedy, Jones-Sanchez and the Jones family gave Halasima permission.
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