Film Review: Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall

5 Stars

By Joseph Beyer | Nov. 1, 2025

Imagine walking into a soundproof studio that only a handful of people even know about, watching robotic un-manned cameras come to life as they follow your every move, sitting down to be interviewed deeply about how you view your life and mortality, and then walking away knowing the world won’t ever know what you say until after your death.

Such is the high-concept but deeply moving convention of a new, very secretive docuseries from Netflix that has no airdate until someone in their unknown archive of interviews passes away.

On October 1, 2025, the famed scientist, researcher, primatologist, activist, and ethologist Dr. Jane Goodall passed away from cardiac arrest at age 91. Her death set in motion a detailed set of memorials that culminated in the release of the first episode from the vault from Netflix.

Famous Last Words is based on a Danish TV2 series from creator and host Mikael Bertelsen, who would sit with the subject and slowly peel back the layers of their life, reminding them along the way that this interview would outlive them and only be shown later, giving them full freedom to frame it all and leave behind a riveting testimony of life—both the success and the regrets.

In the new version from Netflix, host Brad Falchuk takes this role. His demeanor, admiration, and gentle nudges to Goodall to confess anything she feels have made the interview inspirational and unforgettable. With no music to inflate the inherent drama or underscore the back and forth, Famous Last Words runs only 55 minutes.

The set resembles a kind of cosmic void where truth and only truth can exist and is lit in the style of a Catholic confessional booth. The format of the show—and the reality that Goodall is aware that she’ll be talking to us only when she’s gone—feels uncomfortable at first and reflects our societal aversion to even speaking about death and how we view it.

Like so many challenges she faced, Goodall seems content to face this one head on as she sits down to a sip of whisky and brings her famous stuffed monkey toy “Mr. H” along with her as a reminder of the journey they have both been on…and the mysteries of what might be next after we are gone.

In a style that naturally moves toward death by starting at birth, Goodall remembers the people and events that shaped her and why, and how they led one after another to her sainthood in the eyes of the public and an environmental justice movement that was just getting started.

The burdens she faced as a cultural hero, the secrets of her love life and relationship with two husbands, her connection with her son, and her predictions about the future are all laid bare. The elegant simplicity of the conversation, and what it means, is clear throughout.

It’s hard to root for a series to continue when it means someone we likely admire and miss is gone, but it’s an extraordinary gift to those they leave behind and a remarkable act of bravery.

In the most harrowing transition and climax, host Falchuk leaves the room and Goodall is left alone to address the world she has already departed by the time we see it. She shares her last moments with us as she wants to and as only she can.

“I would say I was somebody sent to this world to try to give people hope in dark times because without hope we fall into apathy and do nothing,” Goodall says with conviction.

Famous Last Words is streaming only on Netflix, which will not announce who it has invited to be interviewed, nor who they may have interviewed already. Episodes are only released posthumously after the subject’s death, and likely contain mature themes and language.