LONDON, United Kingdom — In Prime Video’s film The Wrecking Crew, Jason Momoa stars as a reckless, intoxicated police officer who returns to Hawai’i after two decades away to investigate the attack that killed his father. The storyline closely mirrors Momoa’s own journey, having been born in Hawai’i, then living in mainland Iowa, before returning to the islands to pursue his education and career. This movie highlights deep connections to native Hawai’ian land and communities, echoing both Momoa’s life and the broader struggles faced by native residents.
Throughout the film, Momoa’s character travels the island with his older half-brother, played by Filipino–American actor Dave Bautista, and together they come across a native Hawai’ian community that is embroiled in a land dispute. This reflects ongoing real-world tensions surrounding land rights in Hawai’i, where native communities often face threats from external development interests. In an exclusive Philstar.com interview, Momoa elaborated on the film’s themes about the lands that were taken from native Hawai’ians and how public perceptions frequently overlook the lived realities of the island’s people.
If someone wanted to come in and build a casino, they could just do it,
Momoa remarked, highlighting how the fictional plot’s conflicts could easily happen in reality.
In actuality, that’s on my side of the island, that’s our reservation, that’s land that we were put on.
He emphasized the theme of “coming home” shared by both himself and his character Jonny, describing it as a return to roots and family, tied by an unbreakable connection to their origins.
When [Jonny] comes home, it’s just like getting back into his roots and family,
Momoa explained.
Whether that umbilical cord stretches out, home’s always home, and he needs to find himself again.
Dave Bautista Recognizes Momoa’s Dedication to Hawai’i’s Culture
Dave Bautista, who plays Momoa’s on-screen brother, praised Jason Momoa’s longstanding commitment to defending Hawai’i and its heritage. The two co-stars have shared a brotherly bond since the 2019 series See, where they also portrayed siblings. Bautista noted Momoa’s consistent advocacy for the islands, its history, and its culture, which is expressed across many of his acting projects.
If you’ve paid attention throughout his career, [Jason] has always been someone who’s stood up for the islands, their history, their culture, and he expresses that through his art and almost every project that he does,
Bautista said.
Director Ángel Manuel Soto Highlights Native Communities in Film
Ángel Manuel Soto, director of The Wrecking Crew, stressed the importance of including the Hawai’ian community storyline and fought to retain it despite pressure from Hollywood producers to remove it. Soto, who hails from Puerto Rico, connected the struggles depicted in the film with similar conflicts faced by his own Puerto Rican community involving contested land rights and outside development projects.
If somebody said like ‘Why don’t we cut this scene out,’ I’m not doing the f***ing movie,
Soto stated firmly. He viewed this segment as essential for authentically representing indigenous experiences, not just for Hawai’i, but as a broader universal issue.
The filmmaker insisted on shooting in real locations inhabited by Hawai’ian families living on disputed land, rejecting the idea of using constructed sets.
That location is real, none of that is built, all the people you see are people that live there,
Soto explained.
I wanted to do that purposefully. We became good friends with the community.
Soto described how the community portrayed in the film is actively organized, distributing food and supplies while banding together to protect their land.
People like to talk s**t about marginalized communities, but I wanted to show the world that these are not faceless people. They live there, they exist, they laugh, cry, do everything just like us, and they’ve been protecting a land that’s rightfully theirs [yet] always under threat of crony capitalism coming in.
By drawing parallels between Hawai’i and Puerto Rico, Soto underscored recurring themes of indigenous resistance to large-scale luxury tourism developments and private infrastructure projects. He specifically mentioned opposition to a private airport and mega-residential developments in Puerto Rico, which locals fight for the same reasons as the Hawai’ians featured in the movie.
Being able to have that in the movie, not just for Hawai’i and its population, but also as a Puerto Rican who is able to show the world that this happens elsewhere, it was a non-negotiable,
Soto reiterated.
The Film’s Wider Cast and Cultural Significance
The Wrecking Crew showcases a diverse ensemble including Claes Bang, Frankie Adams, Roimata Fox, Temuera Morrison, Morena Baccarin, Stephen Root, and Filipino-American actor Jacob Batalon. The film’s focus on native communities brings attention to issues rarely portrayed in mainstream cinema, offering a candid look at indigenous peoples’ relationships with their land amid modern pressures.
The presence of actors such as Momoa and Bautista, who are closely connected to native and Pacific Islander heritage, adds authentic depth to the narrative. The movie highlights the struggles of Hawai’ian families defending their ancestral home while emphasizing the complicated bonds of identity and belonging.
With rising awareness of these conflicts spurred by films like The Wrecking Crew, conversations on land rights and cultural preservation in Hawai’i and other indigenous regions may gain momentum, potentially influencing public opinion and policy. The film invites viewers to reconsider how marginalized communities are perceived and urges recognition of their ongoing fight to protect traditional lands from exploitation.
