The End Of The Spear – Movie Review

The End Of The Spear is a somewhat dark movie, even though it is a true story about Christian missionaries living in an outpost location in the Ecuador rain forest, deep in the Amazon jungle.

It does have key elements of the light shining through the darkness, but this does not show up until much later, and in some ways lacks clarity.

The film was released in 2006, fifty years after the events took place. The essence of the story, is that the goal of the missionaries, was to make contact with, and make friends with the Waodani Indigenous people. The tribe lived and hunted along the Curaray and Napo rivers in the Amazon jungle.

The murders of the five missionary men happened in the Waodani territory on a sandbar on the Curaray River, which had been nicknamed Palm Beach.

The movie does not really capture the full picture of the lifestyle of the tribe. At the time, they were living in almost complete isolation. They resided in multi generational thatched roof longhouses.

The movie does not show much of the routines of everyday life, or life inside the longhouses. Instead it focuses on their activities in the jungle, and the many people who were speared due to internal conflicts. The jungle scenes are dark, chaotic, and hard to follow.

The tribe is documented to have had the highest numbers of homicidal violence in human history. They had religious beliefs about the spirit world, and were deeply superstitious, with many of the murders rising out of those beliefs, as well as a fierce revenge mindset. The internal homicide rate was up to 50% and some researchers believed they were headed for extinction.

The murders toward their own people, was not shown clearly due to the darkness, and hidden aspects of the jungle where most of them occurred.

In sharp contrast, the spearing of the missionaries was out in the open, in broad daylight on a sun drenched sandbar, so the depiction of those murders was fairly graphic.

It is not clear whether or not the missionaries had a full comprehension of the danger they had entered into. There was a language barrier, and once the plane landed, the missionaries naively thought they could extend a hand of friendship, which initially seemed to be accepted.

However, when the tribal leaders went back into the jungle, and started talking about it, their superstitions, and false beliefs about the motives of the missionaries riled them up.

One of them had seen a gun in the plane. It is not clear how they would have known, or even guessed what a gun was. The missionaries did bring a gun for protection, and planned to shoot it in the air to scare them off if they became violent. They were taking some pictures with an old 1950’s style camera. They seemed very naive.

It was rather ominous when two of the Waodani women approached them, and also when the pilot took one of them for a short plane ride. You could see how people who were very wary of foreigners might view this with suspicion, or jealousy.

The missionaries were all young family men in the prime of their lives. One of them was a pilot, and had the yellow plane, which he used to fly over the area looking for a place to land, and also to drop supplies. The tribesmen called the plane the wooden bee.

The pilot, who was the owner of the plane, had a son who was about ten years old at the time. He had a picture of his son in the cockpit. After the men were attacked and speared to death, the one who killed the boy’s father took, and kept the picture of the boy.

Earlier in the story, one of the Waodoni women escaped the jungle fearing they were about to kill her. She sought protection with the missionaries, also known as foreigners. As a result she was able to share some key aspects of their language, lifestyle, and beliefs.

The murders of the five men led to an invasion of sorts, where they were tracked by dogs, and shot at. However, the wives of the men who were killed, pleaded with them to stop the revenge. The brave missionary wives actually moved closer to them, and made efforts to help them.

They went through a bout of sickness, fever, polio, and quarantines. Supplies were dropped down to them, and the missionary women helped nurse them back to health. Gradually some of the tribal people softened.

In addition, the Waodani woman who had left to live with the missionaries, was there to help with the language translations. Many of them knew her. She left after they had killed her sister, fearing she was going to suffer the same fate. 

In my opinion, one of the key weaknesses of the story, is that they did not show much about the sharing of the Gospel message, nor did it show them with copies of the bible.

Surely the missionaries would have had bibles, and been highly motivated to share the Gospel. They did mention prayer, and later some of the Woadani people were reported to have been baptized in the river.

The boy whose father was the pilot of the plane grew up, and moved to the US. Years later one of the missionary wives, who was his aunt, died there. He went back for the funeral, and was encouraged to stay.

Initially, although he had spent his formative years there, he refused to move back, but eventually relented.

During the time he was there as an adult, the tribesman who had killed his father, dug up a piece of the plane, and gave it to him. He then shared the tattered picture of the boy he had saved for all those years. He harboured longstanding guilt over what he had done. He knew in his heart, he had killed an innocent man. 

The son of the murdered pilot was profoundly shocked to see these things. The tribal elder then confessed to him that he had been the one who had speared his father.

It was intensely emotional, and overwhelming. The son of the missionary grabbed a spear, and was tempted to spear the tribesman.

This was a climactic event where the notion of, and temptation for revenge, which was at the heart of all those homicides, once again reared its ugly head.

The son stopped himself, and regained self-control. He ended up forgiving the man, who thought he deserved to die, and believed the revenge would have been justified. This created a bond between the men, and was transformational for the Waodani murderer.

Eventually the son moved back to the US, and his Waodani friend visited him there several times. He was especially in awe of grocery stores, and how fat the Americans were.

He could hardly believe their easy access to so much food. He observed that all they did to get it, was fill a cart with food from the shelves, and then use a small card, which was given right back to them. The visits likely took place in the early 1990’s. 

The message contained within the story is really quite powerful. The forgiveness, courage, overcoming grief, and the bond with the murderer, showed the power of Christian beliefs.

In the end, the goal of friendship was realized, even though the young boy’s father, and four others were brutally sacrificed in order to achieve that goal.

I think from the time of the murders, to when this friendship occurred, was between 1956 and 1994, so it took many years to unfold.

The Waodoni people continue to live in the Amazon jungle, however they are no longer spearing people, and live a peaceful lifestyle. They have learned to use the court systems to help defend their lands and culture.

The movie was worth watching. I would give it a score of 3.5 out of 5. It would have been better if they showed how the missionaries shared the Gospel, and how it was received, since that is the great commission of all Christians. I also think the characters could have been developed with more scope, and depth.

The parts where they were constantly running through the jungle with spears, concealed by vegetation and darkness was overplayed, because it did not reveal much about the actual characters, or the losses the various families experienced as a result of so much violence, and death.

It is hard to imagine how much fear they lived with, not knowing who was the next target, or why. It almost seemed like some of those scenes were filler, without real substance.

The movie did reveal a deep pagan spiritism among them, but it was not explained in any depth. It did seem to contribute to the loss of value for human life, as well as the superstition, and suspicions that led to the impulsivity of the murders.

The fact “The End Of The Spear” is based on a true story, combined with a peaceful outcome, is an example of how people can endure extreme hardship.

More importantly, it demonstrates the capacity to forgive, and for people to change their ways, and ultimately find peace.

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2026). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.