10 true survival stories that have been made into movies

There have been hundreds of true survival stories that have been made into movies, most of which are really bad. Every now and then someone produces something worth watching that shows the true nature of what it takes to stay alive. Here are 10 true survival stories that have been made into movies worth seeing.

Alive (1993)

(A photo from the survivor camp after the accident)

In 1972, a Uruguayan rugby team was flying over the Andes mountain range in bad weather when the pilot made a mistake thinking they were much further along the journey. He lowered the altitude of the plane believing they were safe and crashed into the rocks, breaking off both wings on impact and sending the fuselage sliding down the side of the mountain at high speed. Several died in the crash and the rest were trapped high up in a huge mountain range in subzero conditions. Out of the original 45 people on board, only 16 made it out alive after surviving 72 days by eating those who died in the crash or from the cold.

Titanic (1997)

(The Titanic, nicknamed the unsinkable, right up until it sank)

The most famous ship sinking of all time was made into one of the most popular movies of all time and is only one of two movies in history to make over 2 billion dollars on release. The Titanic was the biggest passenger ship in the world at the time and was nicknamed “the unsinkable” because of its sheer size and thick hull. In the early hours of 15 April 1912, the ship hit an iceberg that punctured its side, and the ship sank over a 2-hour 40-minute period. There weren’t as many lifeboats on board as needed, and many people were forced to swim in the freezing waters until help arrived. 1,517 people lost their lives within the space of a few hours from the cold, and only 705 made it out alive on the lifeboats, most of which were women and children.

127 hours (2010)

(Aran Ralston with his new prosthetic arm)

This movie is an excellent example of how much danger being overconfident can get you in. Aron Ralston was traveling through a remote area in Utah called the BlueJohn Canyon, a popular hiking spot filled with lots of rocky valleys and outcrops. He didn’t tell anyone he was going there and ended up falling down a small slit canyon with his arm getting stuck under a boulder. He had no means to call for help and only brought a 330ml bottle of water and two burritos with him. He was trapped for 127 hours before he decided to cut his arm off using a penknife, which he didn’t die from due to the extreme lack of water making his blood so thick he couldn’t bleed to death.

The Revenant (2015)

(An illustration of Hugh Glass fighting the bear that almost killed him)

This one is based on an experienced trapper and hunter called Hugh Glass who lived from 1783 to 1833. He joined an expedition as a hunter to help map an area of South Dakota by providing food and protection to the party. Before they left, Glass went into the forest with a few others to hunt some food for the journey, but while Glass was sneaking through the trees he startled a mother grizzly bear. The bear attacked and mauled him so badly before he could kill it that the others thought he was going to die, so they skinned the bear and left him there under the bearskin as a funeral shroud. When Glass woke up, was covered in wounds and had to walk over 200 miles alone to the nearest fort.

Into the Wild (2007)

(Chris McCandless outside the bus he found and turned into the shelter he died in)

A man named Christopher McCandless lived as a drifter and traveled all over the United States during the late 80s and up until 1992. This is when he decided that he wanted to get away from regular life and find somewhere isolated where he wouldn’t be bothered. He chose Alaska as the perfect location and grabbed the kind of gear you would use when staying on a nice campsite somewhere. He made it to Alaska by hitching rides and walking the last part until he came across an old bus abandoned in the trees, which he quickly made into his new home. The time of year caused the waters in the area to rise and all the rivers cut him off from returning to safety. He was trapped in the Alaskan wilderness with very little gear and lasted for 113 days before he finally starved to death.

Jungle (2017)

(Yossi Ghinsberg)

Yossi Ghinsberg was an explorer from Israel who was traveling across South America in the early 80s. He met up with several other people during his travels who also wanted to go and explore part of the Amazon rainforest in Bolivia, so together they set out for a small village where they could start their adventure. Things quickly went wrong and Yossi was seperated from the others and had to survive for three weeks alone in the jungle. He didn’t even have a knife with him and lacked any kind of survival training, but somehow managed to make it out alive in one of the most dangerous places on earth to be stranded.

Thirteen Lives (2022)

Based on a cave rescue in 2013, this movie shows the story of a soccer team and their coach who became trapped in a cave system in Thailand after it flooded. They were deep underground when the flash flood hit and swept through the cave passages, trapping them within a cavern on the few rocks that were above the water. Because of how fast the water was flowing, it made it extremely dangerous for the divers to reach them, leading to the deaths of two of the rescuers. One died from asphyxiation during one of the early rescue attempts and the other died later from a blood infection he picked up while in the caves.

Apollo 13 (1995)

(The crew of Apollo 13 after their safe return to Earth)

On 11 April, NASA launched its 7th manned mission into space intending to land on the moon. When they were close to their target, one of the oxygen tanks on the service module exploded and damaged various systems on the spacecraft. Over the next few days, the crew struggled to keep things together until they finally returned to Earth. This mission was classed as a successful failure because no one died and the front part of the module they ejected managed to hit the moon.

Touching the Void (2003)

(The Siula Grande mountain, standing at 6,344 m)

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were two ambitious climbers who set out in 1985 to become the first people to reach the summit of the Siula Grande in the Andes mountain range. They did in fact make it to the top, but the weather changed and they were stuck in low visibility in a blizzard. They tried their best to make it down without being able to see, but a fall caused them to get stuck in one of the worst possible situations you could be in. Yates was safely on the rocks but Simpson was hanging off the edge of a cliff, and the rope wasn’t long enough to lower him down. Yates didn’t have the strength to pull him back up and hung on for 90 minutes until a storm put both their lives in danger, forcing Yates to cut the rope.

The Way Back (2010)

(This is Slavomir Rawicz, one of the survivors of the journey at a signing for a book he wrote about it called “The Long Walk”)

During the Second World War, the Russians used a type of prison camp called gulags where prisoners were forced to work in factories or produce something for the war effort. These camps had a very high death rate and it wasn’t unusual for people to try and escape, but it was unusual for them to succeed. The movie follows a group who escaped and managed to walk over 4000 miles through Russia and into India where they met up with allied forces.