History Film / Jonestown

[[caption-width-right:261:"[[WesternAnimation/{{Daria}} What lesson can we learn from this?" "BYOB]]?"]]

''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'' is a 2006 documentary by Stanley Nelson, which aired in 2007 on Creator/{{PBS}}'s ''American Experience''. It charts the story of the Rev. UsefulNotes/JimJones and his People Temple, from their noble beginning in TheFifties, to their controversial history in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco in TheSeventies, to the notorious mass suicide at their Guyana compound in November 1978. The film lacks any narration, instead allowing the story to be told by former Temple members themselves.

The film is noted for being much more respectful about the event than other TV documentaries, some of which have tried to replay the story from a more sensationalistic angle. ''Jonestown'' takes a more subdued route and treats the carnage dead seriously. It received the Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

** Jones' "death tape", in which he tells his followers that the Temple has failed and that their only course of action left is "revolutionary suicide."
-->"If we can't live in peace, we can ''die'' in peace."

* CaptainErsatz: InUniverse. Although the tragedy at Jonestown gave the English language the phrase "DrinkingTheKoolAid", the poisoned punch at Jonestown was not Kool-Aid, but a knockoff brand called "Flavor-Aid".
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Jonestown was depicted as a paradise in Temple films and enticed many followers to leave for Guyana permanently. Once they arrived, they were never allowed to leave, were forced to live and work in spartan conditions while Jones lived in comparable luxury, and were routinely tormented by Jones and his drug-addled madness.[[note]]Ironically, the promised utopia was actually close to the truth... until Jones and the bulk of the church started moving there. A community that had been generally happy and able to survive pretty well on subsistence farming suddenly had to deal with large, abrupt increase in population. Between that and Jones' insanity, things went downhill fast.[[/note]]

* CorruptChurch: Jones can be heard saying "blasphemous" things about God, Heaven, and the Bible. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the Temple evolved into more of a Marxist political organization than a religious one as he became more power-hungry and paranoid. Jones had always used religion for his own personal ends and didn't really hesitate to discard the church's purported pentecostalism for Marxist ideology. At some point it seems he started to [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believe the lies]] he'd told.

* DarkMessiah: Jim Jones' life ambition was to die a martyr. To that end, he spent years mixing with the social potpourri of San Francisco, cultivating a church of impressionable people who believed the world was on the brink on nuclear annihilation.
* DeathOfAChild:
** Tim Carter, one of the few Temple members to leave Jonestown alive on the day of the massacre, recalls watching his son die from cyanide poisoning.
** Carter's story comes at the same time we hear the actual audio recording of the beginning of the massacre, in which children were forced to take the poisoned punch first. Young kids can be heard screaming in the background while Jones tells his followers to keep going. The entire sequence is a ten minute installment of NightmareFuel.* DeathSeeker: Jones not only applied this trope to himself, but to everyone and everything around him. The film suggests that Jones had always sought death; as a kid, he held funerals for (and allegedly killed) stray animals. Several incidents are described which suggest that Jones had planned a mass suicide years before the move to Guyana.
* DoomedExpedition: Leo Ryan's fact-finding mission to Jonestown. Jones's death squad rolled up and shot Ryan and his delegation as they were boarding the plane. Back at the compound, Jones claimed no involvement in the attack, but "prophesied" the Congressman's death from a stray shot by his guards (he was actually shot more than twenty times). As Jones' self-discipline later started to slip and he admitted to ordering Ryan's murder.

* DramaticIrony: Jim Jones denouncing euthanasia from the pulpit. "Who's going to decide who and when a person is going to die? We must never allow that!"
* DrinkingTheKoolAid: The massacre was the TropeCodifier, though not necessarily the TropeMaker (what they actually drank was a Kool-Aid CaptainErsatz called "Flavor Aid").
* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they were tricked or forced into doing it.[[note]]Jones couldn't have done what he did alone. He had plenty of true believers/henchmen who were happy to help, including but not limited to Annie Moore, Sharon Amos, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, Larry Schacht and all those who assisted him with giving/injecting the cyanide; Larry Layton and the other airstrip assassins; the guards with guns and crossbows that ringed the pavilion that prevented people from leaving; and Jones' wife Marceline, who helped coax people into drinking the poisoned punch. These were Jones's co-conspirators, not his victims.[[/note]] Jones is widely considered to be the only person who ''really'' committed suicide as he [[DirtyCoward shot himself in the head rather than drink the poison]] like his followers.
* EverybodysDeadDave: The reaction of the few survivors, who are clearly still haunted by the events they describe in their interviews. (The presence of Jones's gun-wielding goons ensured that hardly anyone survived; of the over 900 people in Jonestown only four managed to escape.)
* FakingTheDead: Jackie Speier tried to do this during the airstrip shooting. This didn't stop one of the Temple shooters from hitting her point blank.

* AGodAmI: As time went on Jones started to view himself as an inerrant Godlike figure, and many of his followers agreed (while other more pragmatic followers overlooked these claims because they felt the cause was the important thing).

* InterfaithSmoothie: Despite starting out as a Pentecostal pastor, Jones became increasingly critical of Christianity as time went on and began preaching a concept he called "apostolic socialism". Then he quit bothering with that and [[AGodAmI flat-out declared himself God]]. The general thrust throughout this evolution was his was the only road to an egalitarian paradise.
* KubrickStare: Former member Hue Fortson describes an incident where a female member who expressed romantic interest in Jones was stripped naked and denigrated in front of the entire Temple. Fortson noticed Jones giving her this over his sunglasses while sporting a SlasherSmile.

* MaskOfSanity: One follower remembers an incident in the San Francisco Temple where Jones asked everyone to gather and drink from a vat of punch, before telling them that they just drank poison and were about to die. Then she tells everyone that there was no poison and that they have just taken a [[SecretTestOfCharacter test of loyalty]]. It makes you wonder how long Jones planned the mass poisoning in advance.

* PhotoOpWithTheDog: Horrible as Jones was, he was a hero by impoverished blacks and white liberals for championing civil rights and often providing legal services and nursing homes for his followers.
* PlotArmor: Pointedly {{averted}}. Congressman Leo Ryan, likely out of naivete, seemed to think he had this when he told Vernon Gosney, a Temple defector, that he had "the congressional shield of protection around you." Gosney looked at Ryan as if he were "totally insane." Both Gosney and Ryan were shot at the airfield, the latter fatally.
* PrecisionFStrike:

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: One of the greatest RealLife examples out there. Jones started as a weird but friendly child that grew into a young man who believed in racial equality and socialism as a way to improve other people's lives. He then decided that TheEndJustifiesTheMeans, then got DrunkWithPower, and then things got worse. Much worse.

** He'd also announce loyalty tests where {{Fake Defector}}s would ask their friends to help escape Jonestown, and they would be required to denounce them. Of course this also discouraged genuine defectors from seeking help from family and friends.

* SinisterShades: His trademark look[[note]]intended to hide the redness in his eyes caused by heavy painkiller and amphetamine abuse[[/note]].

* AStormIsComing: [[PlayedStraight Played eerily straight]] in RealLife. On the day of the massacre, hours before the vat was brought out, a severe thunderstorm pours torrential rain on the settlement. Survivor Tim Carter remarks that it was "as if evil itself had blown into Jonestown."

-->'''Christine Miller:''' I look at all the babies and I think they deserve to live.
-->'''Jim Jones:''' I agree, but what's more [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth they deserve peace.]]
* UncannyVillage: Jonestown, which was purportedly built as a left-wing utopia but gradually evolved into a dystopia.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Before Guyana, Jones had a popular following among liberals and radical leftists in the United States, owing to the political and social activities of the Peoples Temple. In particular, Jones managed to forge links with UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco politicians George Moscone, Harvey Milk, and Willie Brown, as well as Vice President Walter Mondale and First Lady Rosalyn Carter.
* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana.[[note]]Jones was never truly fully benevolent. During his early preaching days he claimed he received prophetic messages about congregants (he had his inner circle call up congregants' friends and family, and dig through people's trash to find out information about them) and had "faith healings" where he claimed to cure cancer (the "cancer" he claimed he pulled out of people's bodies were just chicken giblets he had hidden up his sleeve) and heal serious injuries (again, members of his inner circle pretending to be disabled and then "miraculously" cured). Also, public beatings and humiliations of his congregants began many years before he moved to Guyana, as did the draining their bank accounts. On some level, Jones had always been an abusive fraud.[[/note]]

* WouldHurtAChild: Jones demanded that that the poison be given first to the Temple's children.

* DeathSeeker: Jones not only applied this trope to himself, but to everyone and everything around him. The film suggests that Jones had always sought death; as a kid, he held funerals for (and allegedly killed) stray animals. Several incidents are described which suggest that Jones had planned a mass suicide years before the move to Guyana.

* InfantImmortality:
** {{Averted}}. Tim Carter, one of the few Temple members to leave Jonestown alive on the day of the massacre, recalls watching his son die from cyanide poisoning.
** Carter's story comes at the same time we hear the actual audio recording of the beginning of the massacre, in which children were forced to take the poisoned punch first. Young kids can be heard screaming in the background while Jones tells his followers to keep going. The entire sequence is a ten minute installment of NightmareFuel.

* AffablyEvil: Jones' early Temple films show him enthusiastically describing the positive atmosphere and social safety nets the Temple affords to its members. He was also heavily involved in the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, which won him significant support from the black community and liberal activists. Even skeptics who tried to confront Jones were suddenly charmed by his good looks and magnetism. He was ''that'' persuasive.

* AnswersToTheNameOfGod: Jones' mother, Lynetta, was a religious fanatic who believed she had given birth to the Messiah. Here's his favored sales pitch, meant to entice newcomers to his flock, though in hindsight we know what it really means.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Once Congress got a whiff of what was going, Jones figured the party was over, so he poisoned all of his prisoners to send a message to the government.
* TheCaligula: As Jones' mental health deteriorated, so did Jonestown in standard of living and the treatment of human beings. He lived like an emperor for several months, surrounded with worshipers and vice, and bided his time until his tax-evading drug den inevitably drew the attention of news outlets. Then he struck.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Jonestown was depicted as a paradise in Temple films and enticed many followers to leave for Guyana permanently. Once they arrived, they were never allowed to leave, were forced to live and work in spartan conditions while Jones lived in comparable luxury, and were routinely tormented by Jones and his drug-addled madness.[[note]]Ironically, that wasn't too far off from the truth... until Jones and the bulk of the church started moving there. A community that had been generally happy and able to survive pretty well on subsistence farming until Jones arrived permanently and it exploded in population, between that and Jones' insanity, things went downhill fast.[[/note]]

* EverybodysDeadDave: The reaction of the few survivors, who are clearly still haunted by the events they describe in their interviews. (The presence of Jones's gun-wielding goons ensured that hardly anyone survived; of the over 900 people in Jonestown only four managed to escape).

* ForTheEvulz: One academic called Jonestown a Bergen-Belson of mind control. Jones read L. Ron Hubbard's ''Dianetics'', studied Hitler, admired Idi Amin, praised Kim Il-sung, glorified Joseph Stalin, borrowed heavily from Chairman Mao's reeducation literature, and believed he was the reincarnation of Lenin.

* InterfaithSmoothie: Despite being a pentacostal pastor and preached "apostolic socialism," he later preached Christianity had lied to its followers. At various points he admitted to being an atheist and agnostic, though he declared himself a prophet, an avatar for various religious figures, or a god himself so it's unclear what he really believed. The general thrust was the only road to paradise is through Jim Jones.
* KubrickStare: Former member Hue Fortson describes an incident where a female member who expressed romantic interest in Jones was stripped naked and denigrated in front of the entire Temple. Fortson notices Jones giving her this while sporting a SlasherSmile.
* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: Part of Jones' rants over the Jonestown speaker system were claims that America had gone full "fascist" and were sending all of their minorities to concentration camps.

* MaskOfSanity: One follower remembers an incident in the San Francisco Temple where Jones asked everyone to gather and drink from a vat of punch, before telling them that they just drank poison and were about to die. Then he tells everyone that there was no poison and that they have just taken a [[SecretTestOfCharacter test of loyalty.]] It makes you wonder how long Jones planned the massacre in advance.

** Meanwhile, at the Temple's offices in Georgetown, high-ranking member Sharon Amos killed her three children (one an adult who willingly allowed it), then herself (with help from her adult daughter).

* PhotoOpWithTheDog: Horrible as Jones was, he was a hero to the black community for championing civil rights and often provided them with legal services and nursing homes for the elderly. Once they were on the hook, Jones convinced them to drain their savings and fork it over to his church, where it was funneled into one of several Swiss bank accounts.
* PlotArmor: Pointedly {{averted}}. Congressman Leo Ryan, perhaps out of naivete, seemed to think he had this when he told Vernon Gosney, a Temple defector, that he had "the congressional shield of protection around you." Gosney looked at Ryan as if he were "totally insane." Both Gosney and Ryan were shot at the airfield, the latter fatally.

* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: A very dark example. It is noted that Jones' early sermons had a lot in common with African-American churches, which made him popular with that demographic at a time when segregation was the norm. It is also theorized that Jones may have related with the Civil Rights Movement through his own ostracization from society.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: One of the greatest RealLife examples out there. Jones started as a weird but friendly child that grew into a young man who believed in racial equality and socialism as a way to improve other people's lives. He then decided that TheEndJustifiesTheMeans, got addicted to drugs and power, and it got worse. Much worse.

** How Jones characterized the many "White Night" meetings, where he'd gather his followers, convince them they were under attack, and have them pledge one-by-one that they were willing to die for the cause (and at least twice Jones actually gave them what he said was poison). Which is why it took a while for everyone to realize that the final meeting was the real thing.
** He'd also announce Loyalty Tests where {{Fake Defector}}s would ask their friends to help escape Jonestown, and they would be required to denounce them. Of course this also discouraged genuine defectors from seeking help from family and friends.
* SinisterMinister: Jones changed his gimmick depending on the audience. Pentecostals tended to respond to the hard sell, while the beatniks were enticed by his Marxist ideology. Jones dropped the act once the converts arrived in Guyana, revealing that he believed in neither God nor heaven, though he believed himself to be God or at the very least a prophet.
* SinisterShades: His trademark look, which he claimed was either to minimize distractions while he was meditating, or even to shield his followers from the divine spark in his eye. The shades were actually to hide the redness in his eyes caused by heavy painkiller and amphetamine abuse.

* AStormIsComing: [[PlayedStraight Played eerily straight]] in RealLife. On the day of the massacre, hours before the vat is brought out, a severe thunderstorm pours torrential rain on the settlement. Survivor Tim Carter remarks that it was "as if evil itself had blown into Jonestown."

* UncannyVillage: Jonestown, which was purportedly built as a left-wing utopia but gradually evolved into Jones' dystopian fiefdom.

* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana.[[note]]Jones was never truly fully benevolent. During his early preaching days he claimed he received prophetic messages about congregants (he had his inner circle call up congregants' friends and family, and dig through people's trash to find out information about them) and had "faith healings" where he claimed to cure cancer (the "cancer" he claimed he pulled out of people's bodies were just chicken giblets he had hidden up his sleeve) and heal serious injuries (again, members of his inner circle pretending to be disabled and then "miraculously" cured). Also, public beatings and humiliations of his congregants began many years before he moved to Guyana, as did the draining their bank accounts. On some level, had always been an abusive fraud.[[/note]]

* CorruptChurch: Jones can be heard saying "blasphemous" things about God, Heaven, and the Bible. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the Temple evolved into more of a Marxist political organization and moved away from being a traditional church. Jones was a pentecostal preacher who used religion for his own personal ends and later discarded pentecostalism for Marxist ideology. At some point it seems he started to [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believe the lies]] he'd told.

* DeathSeeker: Jones did not only apply this trope to himself, but to everyone and everything around him. The film suggests that Jones had always sought death; as a kid, he held funerals for (and allegedly killed) stray animals. Several incidents are described which suggest that Jones had planned a mass suicide years before the move to Guyana.
* DoomedExpedition: Leo Ryan's fact-finding mission to Jonestown. Jones's death squad rolled up and shot Ryan and his delegation as they were boarding the plane. Back at the compound, Jones claimed no involvement in the attack, but "prophesied" the Congressman's death from a stray shot by his guards (he was actually shot more than 20 times). As Jones' self-discipline later started to slip and he admitted he did order Ryan's murder.

* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they tricked or forced into doing it.[[note]]Jones couldn't have done what he did alone. He had plenty of true believers/henchmen who were happy to help, including but not limited to Annie Moore, Sharon Amos, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, Larry Schacht and all those who assisted him with giving/injecting the cyanide, Larry Layton and the other airstrip assassins, and the guards with guns and crossbows that ringed the pavilion that prevented people from leaving, and Jones' wife Marceline who was one of those who coaxed people into drinking the poisoned punch. They were not victims, they were collaborators and fellow perpetrators.[[/note]] Jones is widely considered to be the only person who ''really'' committed suicide as he shot himself in the head rather than drink the poisoned flavor aid like his followers.

* {{Cult}}: One of the most notorious and enduring examples in history. While the label "cult" is [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment sometimes controversial for other groups]], ''everyone'' agrees that Jonestown was the real thing.

* ApocalypticLog: Jones' "death tape", in which he tells his followers that the Temple has failed and that their only course of action left is "revolutionary suicide."

* CameraAbuse: NBC cameraman Bob Brown was amongst those killed in the airstrip shooting. Footage from his camera, which had fallen to the ground, shows the Temple shooters climbing out of the dump truck and shooting at Ryan's delegation.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Jonestown was depicted as a paradise in Temple films and enticed many followers to leave for Guyana permanently. Once they arrived, they were never allowed to leave, were forced to live and work in spartan conditions while Jones lived in comparable luxury, and were routinely tormented by Jones and his drug-addled madness. [[note]]Ironically, that wasn't too far off from the truth... until Jones and the bulk of the church started moving there. A community that had been generally happy and able to survive pretty well on subsistence farming until Jones arrived permanently and it exploded in population, between that and Jones' insanity, things went downhill fast.[[/note]]

* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they tricked or forced into doing it. [[note]] Jones couldn't have done what he did alone. He had plenty of true believers/henchmen who were happy to help, including but not limited to Annie Moore, Sharon Amos, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, Larry Schacht and all those who assisted him with giving/injecting the cyanide, Larry Layton and the other airstrip assassins, and the guards with guns and crossbows that ringed the pavilion that prevented people from leaving, and Jones' wife Marceline who was one of those who coaxed people into drinking the poisoned punch. They were not victims, they were collaborators and fellow perpetrators.[[/note]] Jones is widely considered to be the only person who ''really'' committed suicide as he shot himself in the head rather than drink the poisoned flavor aid like his followers.

* InfantImmortality: {{Averted}}. Tim Carter, one of the few Temple members to leave Jonestown alive on the day of the massacre, recalls watching his son die from cyanide poisoning.

* InterfaithSmoothie: Despite being a pentacostal pastor and preached "apostolic socialism," he later preached Christianity had lied to its followers. At various points he admitted to being an atheist and agnostic, though he declared himself a prophet, an avatar for various religious figures, or a god himself so he wasn't truly an atheist. The general thrust was the only road to paradise is through Jim Jones.

* OffingTheOffspring: A massive example. Jonestown's children were the first to be given the cyanide-laced punch. Their parents led them to the vat, where they were either forcibly injected or had the poison squirted into their mouths.

* PhotoOpWithTheDog: Horrible as Jones was, he was a hero to the black community for championing civil rights and often provided them with legal services and nursing homes for the elderly. Once they were on the hook, Jones convinced them to drain their savings and fork it over to his church, where it was funneled into one of several Swiss accounts.

* PrecisionFStrike: Jones, as quoted by Tim Carter: "[[DepravedBisexual I can fuck you in the ass if you want.]]"

* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: A very dark example. It is noted that Jones' early sermons had a lot in common with African American churches, which made him popular with that demographic at a time when segregation was the norm. It is also theorised that Jones may have related with the Civil Rights Movement through his own ostracisation from society.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: One of the greatest RealLife examples out there. Jones started as a weird, but friendly child that grew into a young man who believed in racial equality and socialism as a way to improve other people's lives. He then decided that TheEndJustifiesTheMeans, got addicted to drugs and power, and it got worse. Very worse.

* TheSociopath: By the time of Ryan's visit, Jones was a controlling, egotistical, abusive, promiscuous madman. He soons orders the death of Ryan, he ordered his followers to kill their children and commit suicide.

* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana. [[note]]Jones was never truly fully benevolent. During his early preaching days he claimed he received prophetic messages about congregants (he had his inner circle call up congregants' friends and family, and dig through people's trash to find out information about them) and had "faith healings" where he claimed to cure cancer (the "cancer" he claimed he pulled out of people's bodies were just chicken giblets he had hidden up his sleeve) and heal serious injuries (again, members of his inner circle pretending to be disabled and then "miraculously" cured). Also, public beatings and humiliations of his congregants began many years before he moved to Guyana, as did the draining their bank accounts. On some level, had always been an abusive fraud.[[/note]]

''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'' is a 2006 documentary by Stanley Nelson, which aired in 2007 on Creator/{{PBS}}'s ''American Experience''. It charts the story of the Rev. Jim Jones and his People Temple, from their noble beginning in TheFifties, to their controversial history in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco in TheSeventies, to the notorious mass suicide at their Guyana compound in November 1978. The film lacks any narration, instead allowing the story to be told by former Temple members themselves.

* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they tricked or forced into doing it. [[note]] Jones couldn't have done what he did alone. He had plenty of true believers/henchmen who were happy to help, including but not limited to Annie Moore, Sharon Amos, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, Larry Schacht and all those who assisted him with giving/injecting the cyanide, Larry Layton and the other airstrip assassins, and the guards with guns and crossbows that ringed the pavilion that prevented people from leaving, and Jones' wife Marceline who was one of those who coaxed people into drinking the poisoned punch. They were not victims, they were collaborators and fellow perpetrators.[[/note]]

* {{Cult}}: One of the most notorious and enduring examples in history. While the label "cult" is [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment sometimes controversial for other groups]], ''everyone'' agrees that Jonestown was the real thing.

* TheCaligula: As Jones' mental health deteriorated, so did Jonestown in standard of living and the treatment of human beings. He lived like a Maharajah for several months, surrounded with worshipers and vice, and bided his time until his tax-evading drug den inevitably drew the attention of news outlets. Then he struck.

* TheCaligula: As Jones' mental health deteriorated, so did Jonestown in standard of living and the treatment of human beings. He lived like a Maharaja for several months, surrounded with worshipers and vice, and bided his time until his tax-evading drug den inevitably drew the attention of news outlets. Then he struck.

* EverybodysDeadDave: The reaction of the few survivors, who are clearly still haunted by the events they describe in their interviews.

* UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco: Where the Peoples Temple reached its peak in terms of membership and political influence.

* CorruptChurch: Jones can be heard saying "blasphemous" things about God, Heaven, and the Bible. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the Temple evolved into more of a Marxist political organization and moved away from being a traditional church. Jones was a pentecostal preacher who used religion for his own personal ends and later discarded pentecostalism for marxist ideology. At some point it seems he started to [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believe the lies]] he'd told.

* ForTheEvulz: One academic called Jonestown a Bergen-Belson of mind control. Jones read L. Ron Hubbard's ''Dianetics'', studied Hitler, admired Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin and Kim Il-sung. Jones also borrowed heavily from Chairman Mao's reeducation literature, and believed he was the reincarnation of Lenin.

* ForTheEvulz: One academic called Jonestown a Bergen-Belson of mind control. Jones read L. Ron Hubbard's ''Dianetics'', studied Hitler, admired Idi Amin, called Castro "Uncle Fidel", borrowed heavily from Chairman Mao's reeducation literature, and believed he was the reincarnation of Lenin.

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydHRESPjBxg The whole film can be viewed here]].

-->'''Jim Jones:''' I agree, but what's more [[TooGoodForThisSinfullEarth they deserve peace.]]

* ThinkOfTheChildren: Used to justify the mass murder of children and their parents. "They'll torture our children here."

* PhotoOpWithTheDog: Horrible as Jones was, he was a hero to the black community for championing civil rights and often provided them with legal services. Once they were on the hook, Jones convinced them to drain their savings and fork it over to his church, where it was funneled into one of several Swiss accounts.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: How Jones characterized the many "White Night" meetings, where he'd gather his followers, convince them they were under attack, and have them pledge one-by-one that they were willing to die for the cause (and at least twice Jones actually gave them what he said was poison). Which is why it took a while for everyone to realize that the final meeting was the real thing.

* AffablyEvil: Jones' early Temple films show him enthusiastically describing the positive atmosphere and social safety nets the Temple affords to its members. He was also heavily involved in the CivilRightsMovement, which won him significant support from the black community and liberal activists. Even skeptics who tried to confront Jones were suddenly charmed by his good looks and magnetism. He was ''that'' persuasive.

* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: Jones' sermons, being geared toward post-CivilRightsMovement black audiences, were full of this. While initially justified, they soon evolved into obsessive anti-government paranoia.

* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they tricked or forced into doing it. [[note]] Jones couldn't have done what he did alone. He had plenty of true believers/henchmen who were happy to help, including but not limited to Annie Moore, Sharon Amos, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, Larry Schacht and all those who assisted him with giving/injecting the cyanide, Larry Layton and the other airstrip assassins, and the guards with guns and crossbows that ringed the pavilion that prevented people from leaving, and Jones' own wife Marceline who, along with Katsaris, coaxed people into drinking the poisoned punch. They were not victims, they were collaborators and fellow perpetrators.[[/note]]

* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they tricked or forced into doing it. [[note]] Jones couldn't have done what he did alone. He had plenty of true believers/henchmen who were happy to help, including but not limited to Annie Moore, Sharon Amos, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, Larry Schacht and all those who assisted him with giving/injecting the cyanide, Larry Layton and the other airstrip assassins, and the guards with guns and crossbows that ringed the pavilion. They were not victims, they were collaborators and fellow perpetrators.[[note]]

* DrivenToSuicide: For almost the entire Jonestown settlement, on an enormous scale. Although some of the survivors would call it a [[PopCultureOsmosis mass murder instead of]] [[BeamMeUpScotty a mass suicide]], since they tricked or forced into doing it.

* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana. [[note]]Jones was never truly fully benevolent. During his early preaching days he claimed he received prophetic messages about congregants (he had his inner circle dig through people's trash to find out information about them) and had "faith healings" where he claimed to cure cancer (the "cancer" he claimed he pulled out of people's bodies were just chicken giblets he had hidden up his sleeve) and heal serious injuries (again, members of his inner circle pretending to be disabled and then "miraculously" cured). Also, public beatings and humiliations of his congregants began many years before he moved to Guyana, as did the draining their bank accounts. On some level, had always been an abusive fraud.[[/note]]

* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana. [[note]]Jones was never truly fully benevolent. During his early preaching days he claimed he received prophetic messages about congregants (he had his inner circle dig through people's trash to find out information about them) and had "faith healings" where he claimed to cure cancer (the "cancer" he claimed he pulled out of people's bodies were just chicken giblets he had hidden up his sleeve) and heal serious injuries (again, members of his inner circle pretending to be disabled and then "miraculously" cured). Also, public beatings and humiliations of his congregants began many years before he moved to Guyana. Jones, on some level, had always been an abusive fraud.[[/note]]

* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana. [[note]]Jones had always been a fraud and abusive. During his early preaching days he claimed he received prophetic messages about congregants (he had his inner circle dig through people's trash to find out information about them) and had "faith healings" where he claimed to cure cancer (the "cancer" he pulled out of people's bodies were just chicken giblets) and heal serious injuries (again, members of his inner circle pretending to be disabled and then "miraculously" cured. Also, public beatings and humiliations of his congregants began many years before he moved to Guyana. Jones, on some level, had always been an abusive fraud.[[/note]]

* DoomedExpedition: Leo Ryan's "fact-finding mission" to Jonestown. Jones's death squad rolled up and shot Ryan and his delegation as they were boarding the plane. Back at the compound, Jones claimed no involvement in the attack, but "prophesied" the Congressman's death from a stray shot by his guards (he was actually shot more than 20 times). As Jones' self-discipline later started to slip and he admitted he did order Ryan's murder.

* VillainProtagonist: Jones starts out very much a protagonist, but becomes more of a villain as his power and paranoia grow. He becomes a full-blown monster by the time the Temple settles in Guyana.