Alive | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Frank Marshall |
Screenplay by | John Patrick Shanley |
Based on | Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter James |
Edited by | |
Music by | James Newton Howard |
Production companies | |
Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 125 minutes [1] |
Country | United States [1] |
Language | English |
Budget | $32 million [2] |
Box office | $82.5 million |
Alive is a 1993 American biographical survival drama film based on Piers Paul Read's 1974 book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors , which details a Uruguayan rugby team's crash aboard Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.
Filmed in the Purcell Mountains in British Columbia, the film was directed by Frank Marshall, written by John Patrick Shanley, and narrated by John Malkovich. [3] It features an ensemble cast including Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, Vincent Spano, Bruce Ramsay, John Haymes Newton, Illeana Douglas, and Danny Nucci. One of the survivors, Nando Parrado (portrayed by Hawke in the film), served as the technical advisor for the film.
A group of photographs of the Stella Maris College's Old Christians Rugby Team are seen as Carlitos Páez points out several members of the team and reflects on the accident in a brief monologue.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flies over the Andes on October 13, 1972. The raucous rugby players and a few of their relatives and friends are eagerly looking forward to an upcoming match in Chile.
Upon emerging from clouds, the plane encounters turbulence and collides with a mountain. The wings and tail are separated from the fuselage, which slides down a mountain slope before coming to a stop. Six passengers and one flight attendant are ejected from the plane and die. Antonio, the team captain, coordinates efforts to help the injured. Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino, both medical students, aid the injured. Another six passengers soon die, including both pilots and Nando's mother, Eugenia. Nando, who sustained a head injury, falls into a coma, and his sister Susana has suffered harsh internal injuries.
As the sun sets, the survivors make preparations for the night. Canessa discovers that the seat covers can be unzipped and used as blankets. The survivors go inside the fuselage and curl up beside one another to stay warm. Antonio, Roy Harley, and Rafael Cano plug the gaping hole at the end of the fuselage with luggage to keep out the wind. Two passengers die overnight. With nothing to hunt or gather on the mountain, Antonio declares they will use rationing when the survivors find a tin of chocolates and a case of wine. After seeing a plane fly past, they think it dipped its wings, and the survivors celebrate. Expecting to be rescued the next day, everyone except Javier, his wife Liliana, and Antonio eat the remaining chocolates. This causes a quarrel among Antonio and several others.
Nando regains consciousness. After learning of his mother's death, Nando watches over Susana vigilantly. Knowing she will die of her injuries within a few days, he vows to set off on foot and find a way out of the mountains. When Carlitos reminds him that he will need food, Nando jokingly suggests eating the flesh of the deceased pilots to give him the strength to survive the journey to find help. Susana dies from her injuries. The survivors listen to a radio for word of their rescue but are devastated to hear that the search is to be called off after nine days.
After great debate, the starving passengers decide to eat the flesh of their dead relatives and friends. Zerbino, Rafael, and Juan Martino set off to search for the tail of the plane in hopes of finding batteries for the plane's radio to transmit their location. Among pieces of the wreckage, the teammates find additional corpses, but return to the group with news that the tail of the plane is likely a little further away. Later in the week, an avalanche strikes the plane and fills much of the interior with snow. Eight of the survivors, including Antonio and Liliana, are smothered to death by the snow. The remaining 19 survivors are forced to stay inside the plane when they realize there is a blizzard outside.
A second team, made up of Nando, Canessa, and Antonio "Tintin" Vizintin, sets out and find the tail of the plane. Unable to bring the batteries to the fuselage, they return to the fuselage to get Roy, who is thought to have experience with electrical equipment. They bring him to the tail of the plane to see if he can fix the radio. When Roy is unsuccessful, the team decides to return to the fuselage.
Federico and Alberto die from their injuries, as does Rafael, leading Nando to convince a reluctant Canessa to search for a way out of the mountains, taking Tintin with them. Two days into the journey, they send Tintin back to the fuselage so they can appropriate his rations and continue on their own. After a 12-day trek, the two escape the mountains and alert the authorities to their companions' location. Two helicopters, one of which has Nando and Canessa on board, appear overhead of the survivors on the mountain, leading the remaining 14 survivors to celebrate their impending rescue.
In the present, Carlitos describes how the survivors later returned to the site of the crash and buried the corpses under a pile of stones, marked with a cross. The memorial to the 29 deceased and 16 survivors is shown.
The film opens with a monologue by an older Carlitos Paez played by John Malkovich (uncredited). The names of the people who died in the disaster were changed for the film. There were three key exceptions: Eugenia and Susana Parrado (Nando Parrado's mother and sister, respectively), and Liliana Methol (Javier Methol's wife).
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 62% of 29 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.3/10. [4]
David Ansen of Newsweek said that, while, "Piers Paul Read's acclaimed book ... paid special attention to the social structure that evolved among the group ... Marshall ... downplays the fascinating sociological details—and the ambiguities of character—in favor of action, heroism and a vague religiosity that's sprinkled over the story like powdered sugar." [5]
Others, such as Ray Green, praised the tactful nature of the film stating that, "despite the potential for lurid sensationalism, Marshall manages to keep his and the film's dignity by steering an effectively downbeat course through some grim goings on thanks in no small manner to the almost allegorical ring of Shanley's stylized dialogue." [6] Green continues by describing the film as, "thrilling and engrossing as it is at times, Alive is more than an action film—in its own way it is also a drama of ideas, and of the human spirit as well."
Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed two-and-a-half stars out of a possible four. He praised the "first-rate cast" and cinematography. Yet he wrote: "There are some stories you simply can't tell. The story of the Andes survivors may be one of them [due to the] sheer enormity of the experience." [7] He also questioned the realism of how normal the actors' bodies looked after portraying two months of near-starvation. [7]
The film grossed $36.7 million in the United States and Canada and $45.8 million internationally for a worldwide total of $82.5 million. [8] [9] [10]
A companion documentary, Alive: 20 Years Later , was released at the same time as the film. It includes interviews with the survivors, as well as documentary footage of the rescue. The 30th Anniversary Edition of Alive: The Miracle of the Andes (on DVD) includes this documentary in the Extras section.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster and the Miracle of the Andes.
The Christian Brothers College of Montevideo, commonly referred as Stella Maris College – Christian Brothers or just Christian, is a private, co-educational, not-for-profit Catholic primary and secondary school run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland. The school is located in the residential neighborhood of Carrasco Norte, Montevideo, Uruguay. The school's headmaster is Patricia Ponce de Leon. The school is a member of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), currently offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP). The college also offers valuable international exams such as the IGCSE programs and the A levels. It has a long list of distinguished former pupils, including economists, engineers, architects, lawyers, politicians and even F1 champions.
Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay is a Uruguayan businessman, producer, motivational speaker, author, and television presenter, and former rugby player and racing driver. He is one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed in the Andes on 13 October 1972. After spending two months trapped in the mountains with the other crash survivors, he, along with Roberto Canessa, climbed through the Andes mountains over a 10-day period to find help.
Alive: 20 Years Later is a 1993 documentary film produced, directed and written by Jill Fullerton-Smith and narrated by Martin Sheen. The documentary focused on the lives of the 16 survivors, all of whom were Uruguayan, of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. It also discussed their participation in the production of the 1993 feature film Alive.
Bruce Ramsay is a Canadian film, television and stage actor.
Javier Alfredo Methol Abal was an Uruguayan businessman and lecturer, known for being one of the 16 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.
Gustavo Carlos Zerbino Stajano is an Uruguayan businessman, motivational speaker, sports executive and former rugby union player. He is known for being one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plane crash that occurred on October 13, 1972 in the Andes.
Roberto Fernando Jorge François Álvarez, better known as Bobby François, is a former Uruguayan rugby player and agricultural producer, known for being one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in the Andes Mountains in 1972.
Roberto Jorge Canessa Urta is a Uruguayan paediatric cardiologist, motivational speaker, and former rugby player. He is one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972. He was portrayed by Josh Hamilton in the 1993 feature film Alive and by Argentine actor Matías Recalt in the 2023 Spanish feature film Society of the Snow.
Carlos "Carlitos" Miguel Páez Rodríguez is Uruguyan entrepreneur and former rugby player. He is one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972.
Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains is a 2007 documentary film which tells the story of a rugby team from Uruguay whose plane, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. The documentary recounts their struggle to survive for 72 days.
Carlos Páez Vilaró was a Uruguayan abstract artist, painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and constructor. He took an active role in the search for survivors of the 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the Andes, as his son Carlos Páez Rodríguez was a passenger.
Old Christians Club, or simply Old Christians, is a Uruguayan sports club from the Carrasco neighbourhood of Montevideo.
I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash is a 2010 television documentary recounting the tragedy of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 from the perspective of survivor Nando Parrado. It is a 2-hour special with reenactments of the October 13, 1972 crash and the 72-day struggle for survival that followed, including details of the 60-kilometre (37 mi) trek out of the mountains by Parrado and fellow survivor Roberto Canessa. I Am Alive was produced by AMS Pictures and premiered on the History Channel on October 20, 2010. It was released for DVD on February 22, 2011.
The Andes Museum 1972 is located in The Old City in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay.
Mount Seler is a mountain located on the border between Argentina and Chile on the western rim of the Glacier of Tears cirque in the Andes mountain range. The mountain was first summitted in December 1972 by Nando Parrado, and shortly thereafter by Antonio Vizintin and Roberto Canessa, survivors from the nearby crash site of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. They made the ascent with the intent of finding civilization. At the summit, Parrado used lipstick to write "MT. SELER" on a plastic bag, which he placed under a rock. Nando named the mountain after his father Seler Parrado, who was his motivation to survive.
Society of the Snow is a 2023 survival drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and based on Pablo Vierci's 2009 book of the same name, which details the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's experience in 1972 after Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes mountains. The cast is composed of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, most of whom are newcomers.
Numa Turcatti Pesquera was a Uruguayan law student, known for being one of the victims of the 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plane crash. He is portrayed by Enzo Vogrincic in Society of the Snow (2023), where his character serves as the film's narrator.
Francisco Domingo Abal Guerault was a Uruguayan rugby player. He was part of the Old Christians Club and was considered one of the best rugby players in his country. In 1970 he was part of the Uruguayan rugby team.