Chad Allen: End of the Spear : Dr Quinn Times

Behind the Scenes
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Photos courtesy of Chad Allen Online and Stephen Caudill. Used with permission.
For more behind scenes photos and up to date news on the film visit End of the Spear

In End of the Spear, Chad Allen plays a dual role as one of 5 missionaries who were speared to death by an African tribe and as the son of one of the missionaries who returns to the tribe.

The screenplay for End of the Spear was written from the perspective of Mincaye one of the Waodani tribesmen from the spearing raid that killed the North American missionaries. The film is the story behind the true life documentary Beyond the Gates.

That film told the true story of how North American families became part of a Stone Age tribe in the Amazon jungle, after that same tribe had speared to death their loved ones.

"The film as described on its website, combines interviews with character story telling to carry the audience from the early 1950's to the present day across two continents and three languages as well as from the Stone Age to the twenty first century."

Jim Hanon, Director/Writer, writing in a "director's journal" explains

: "The story begins in the Eastern Amazon Basin with interviews of the actual Waodani, who had speared five missionaries in 1956, a story made famous in Life Magazine. The Waodani were known at the time as Aucas and were the most violent society ever documented. Six out of every ten adult Waodani deaths were from homicide.

"The wife of one the men and sister of another went to live with the tribe after their loved ones were speared. Within two years the homicide rate in the tribe dropped over ninety percent.

"Years later the son of one of the men who was killed moved his family from Florida to live with the tribe. His children learned to call one of the elders in the tribe 'grandfather,' even though he was one of the same men who killed their real grandfather.

"This is a story of how love can transform any situation and how faith makes a family from the most opposite of people," he said.

Hanon said Beyond the Gates was made so that this story, that reveals so many insights about faith and family could be discovered by a broad audience.