Consciously self-reflexive and co-written by Hopper and Rebel Without A Cause screenwriter Stewart Stern, The Last Movie follows a Hollywood movie crew in the midst of making a western in a remote Peruvian village. When production wraps, Hopper, as the baleful stuntman Kansas, remains, attempting to find redemption in the isolation of Peru and the arms of a former prostitute. Meanwhile, the indigenous community have taken over the abandoned set and begun to stage a ritualistic re-enactment of the production – with Kansas as their sacrificial lamb. Among the most storied productions of the New Hollywoood Era, Hopper was given carte blanche by Universal for his next directorial feature after the tremendous commercial success of Easy Rider, and writer-director-star took the money and ran – literally – staging The Last Movie in Peru at farthest remove from the Hollywood machine.
