In 1978, more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple died in the jungle of Guyana, most from cyanide-laced punch, in what became known as the largest mass murder-suicide in modern history. Stanley Nelson's film traces how Jim Jones built his church from a racially integrated Indianapolis congregation into a movement with real political power in San Francisco, and why thousands of followers trusted him enough to give up their homes, savings, and eventually their lives. Surviving members speak on camera about the sermons, the faith healings, and the slow tightening of control that turned a utopian community into a compound patrolled by armed guards. Archival recordings from Jonestown itself, including Jones's own voice on the tape made as the deaths were underway, sit alongside footage of Congressman Leo Ryan's fatal visit that triggered the final massacre. The film treats its subjects as believers rather than victims of simple delusion, and that choice is what makes the ending land as tragedy instead of spectacle.