Jon Bokenkamp, the creator of the new Apple TV+ thriller The Last Frontier, has crafted what he calls a “love letter to ’90s summer blockbusters.” The series follows U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick, whose quiet life is upended when a prison transport plane crashes in remote Alaska, setting dozens of violent inmates free.
We at FandomWire spoke with Bokenkamp about the show’s origins, balancing high-stakes espionage with small-town drama, and the questions he hopes to raise about justice. Check it out below!
Jon Bokenkamp The Last Frontier Interview
FandomWire: You’ve described the show as a “love letter to ’90s summer blockbusters.” Beyond the big action, what specific elements from that era were you trying to capture?
Bokenkamp: Well, I think what I mean by that is that these were movies where we go to escape, right? We don’t necessarily have to be super self-reflective, although I think there are elements of that in this. But they’re movies that allow people to gather together in a theater and escape the world for a little while, forgetting about their problems.
And so that’s really what I mean by it being one of those old action flicks. That said, a lot of those movies had a big hook that would draw you in, and then you go on that ride. This obviously has a significant hook in terms of the concept itself, and we lean into that. So yeah, I’m a fan of those kinds of movies, and I hope we meet the bar by trying to live in that space for a little bit.
FandomWire: I’m curious, when you were coming up with the story, was your first idea the plane crash? When did that come into it, and how did the rest of the story come from it?
Bokenkamp: It’s a weird process. For whatever reason, I gravitate toward this. Originally, it was, “What would happen if a prison transport plane crashes in Manhattan, and they shut down the bridges and tunnels and say, we have three days to go find these inmates?”. You know, that then becomes, “Well, maybe it would be more interesting if it was in the middle of nowhere, right?” I live in Nebraska in a very small town. Maybe that’s a more stark juxtaposition of a lonely U.S. Marshal living in the middle of nowhere and these federal inmates who are all incredibly dangerous, and clashing them together.
Inevitably, what happens is, whatever the concept, you end up very quickly realizing this story is just about these people. Who are they? Who is Frank Remnick? Who is Sydney Schofield, the CIA operative who’s going to have to work with him? How do they get along? How do they not? That’s ultimately what I’m most excited about with the show is sort of sitting with those characters and unraveling them.
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FandomWire: Putting it in a small town works so well because Frank is so down-to-earth, but you’re also balancing it with this global conspiracy. How do you approach writing that to make sure the high-stakes espionage also works well with the small, character-driven stuff?
Bokenkamp: Well, that’s a great question. I think it’s a little bit of a checkerboard, I guess I would call it. You’re living with these characters who are sort of taking in this story, and it’s new to them and they’re feeling overwhelmed. And then I find it to be a nice, fresh breath to skip over to D.C. where there’s some completely different story that’s unfolding. Let’s take a breath from the madness of this plane crash and start at another place. So it’s a little bit of a balance between those two.
I also think it helps to draw some distinctions between the characters themselves. You know, Sydney Schofield is somebody who’s from the city, who’s international, who speaks many languages. Frank is a guy who’s a small-town guy. He doesn’t really understand her. As the characters start bumping up against each other, I think the more interesting things become.
FandomWire: At its core, Frank has this small-town, personal sense of justice, which is pitted against a much larger, detached global agenda. Through that clash, what questions are you hoping to raise about where true authority and justice really come from?
Bokenkamp: I think what’s interesting about that territory is less about government conspiracy and that sort of stuff, and more about what it does to Frank internally. What is he willing and able to survive? How is he able to push back? What does it say about him?. So on one level, yes, there is a conspiracy. I love a good ’70s thriller, you know, like The Parallax View or Klute, any of these thrillers that lean into the conspiracy space.
But for me, the show is really more about the guy at the center of it, who’s trying to hold on to what he believes is right and is watching it be slowly chipped away, and wondering if he can hold on to some shred of humanity in the process.
Jon Bokenkamp co-created, wrote, and executive-produced The Last Frontier, which is now streaming on Apple TV+.
