In The Last Frontier, when a prison transport plane crashes in the remote wilderness of Alaska and dozens of violent inmates are suddenly set free, everything is turned upside-down for US Marshal Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke), who is tasked with bringing them back and keeping the town safe. Things get even more complicated when he begins to suspect the crash may not have been an accident, but rather part of a well thought out plan with far reaching and dangerous implications.

Showrunner, executive producer, and writer Jon Bokenkamp recently spoke with SciFi Vision about where the concept for the series came from, keeping up the momentum, the difficulties he faced, casting, music, and more.

The first two episode are available now on Apple TV+. Watch the interview and read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:   So, I mean, obviously you created this. Where did the idea come from? How did it all come to be?

JON BOKENKAMP:   The idea probably started with a horrible fear of flying, and then, I don't know, evolved into trying to find a fun engine for a show, right? The idea of a prison transport full of inmates crashing in the middle of nowhere, our one lone U.S. marshal, who's in a pretty sleepy town, having to contend with that. What does that mean for him? What does it mean for his community, for his family? Like that became, started to feel like something that I might want to live with for a while.

SCIFI VISION:   Right. Hopefully it doesn't make you more scared to fly though! That was the only thing I was going to add.

JON BOKENKAMP:   It's weirdly become sort of therapeutic. I would look at edits of the show on my computer at a time. I download them and I'm sort of giving notes. And I remember at one point sitting on a plane watching the footage of this plane crashing. I think the person next to me was like, “What are we watching?” Maybe look at that later. But no, I'm working on that.

SCIFI VISION:   Okay, good. I feel like lately when I watch TV shows, even ones I really like, it kind of takes a while to get into it. This one's like, bam, bam, bam. I mean, it takes you in right away. Talk about keeping up that pace and momentum, and was that difficult to do throughout the season?

JON BOKENKAMP:   I'm glad that you bring that up, because that is something that we were very intentional about. And maybe it's just a short attention span, but I do like a frenetic, muscular engine that really pushes you forward in a story. And we wanted to do that upfront with the opening sequence and sort of grab you by the collar and say, “This is the world we're going into.”

Keeping that alive is a little bit of a balancing act, because while it's the hook that sort of draws you in, and while I think we do have that pace throughout the season, it only works if you're able to step back and kind of have some quieter moments and some character moments and really take a breath.  And that's one of the things I think is most fun about the show is the ability to step away from the wild, spectacular action, and then just sit with these characters and hear from them in a sort of surprisingly intimate way. So, it's a balancing act for that, I believe.

SCIFI VISION:   That's fair. Talk about casting. There's such a stellar cast on this.

JON BOKENKAMP:   Well, look, we've got a great cast starting with Jason Clarke, who sort of in a weird way to me, embodies Frank. I think this is a little bit different for him. I think he is so good at portraying almost a warmth, you know, that there's something about Frank's values that might seem out of step or old fashioned, and I think Jason is fantastic at that.

Dominic Cooper is sort of unexpected and super fun in the part.

And I think, then Hayley Bennett, there's something about Hayley, there's something mysterious about her, something, even when it's not speaking and just sort of throwing a look makes you kind of lean in and go, “Wait a minute, what's she thinking?” And I think that alchemy of those three creates a very interesting world. I think they're all fantastic in the show.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I love it. So, other than what you've talked about, what are some of the other difficulties you had creating this show? I mean, I'm sure that the plane crash in and of itself was probably really hard to create.

JON BOKENKAMP:   Do you mean physically, about shooting it, or story-wise or?

SCIFI VISION:   Just in general, whatever was difficult for you, challenging for you.

JON BOKENKAMP:   I think, to me, the story is always the hardest part. That's the main thing I work with. So, the story is always the hardest part, trying to surprise yourself and find those turns, which I'm really happy with.

I think we had a great team. In terms of shooting, it was a very difficult shoot. It was very physical. It was bone chillingly cold. By the end of the shoot, it was hot and there was no snow. We shot over six, seven months, you know? So, even though the show takes place over eight or ten days, we were out there for months. And the physical aspects of the show, while I didn't have to contend with them as much as the cast did, the crew, I think they show up on screen, you know?

I talked to Sam Hargrave about this early on in the show. “How did you make extraction? The first extraction was so hot and sweaty, and you could really feel it. How do you do that?” And he's like, “You go there, you get hot and sweaty.” And he's like, “And that's what we're going to have to do here.” As a guy whose background is in stunts, he wants everything to be practical. He wants it to be physical and tangible and right there. So, when you're seeing breath, it's that cold. I think any of the cast would tell you, it almost alters their performance or shifts it. You can feel it when you're really in those elements, and I thought that was fascinating to see unfold.

SCIFI VISION:   Well, I really enjoyed it. I liked the music too.

JON BOKENKAMP:   Oh, thank you.

SCIFI VISION:   That was another thing that stuck out to me.

JON BOKENKAMP:   Yeah. I absolutely love the music in the show. I think we had a great, Ariel Marx was our composer, who was fantastic. Yeah, the use of some fun music hopefully sets a different and unexpected tone.