5 Survival stories that were made into movies

Everyone loves a good survival story, and what better way to enjoy them than in the form of a movie? Here are 5 Survival stories that were made into movies that truly deserved their transition to the big screen.

Aron Rolston – 127 Hours

Probably the most well-known survival story of recent times, 127 Hours follows the adventure and living nightmare of Aron Ralston after he got himself trapped in a canyon. After going for a hike in one of his favourite spots he ended up falling down a small canyon and getting his arm trapped under a giant boulder. Over the next 127 hours, he struggled to survive on nothing more than a 330ml bottle of water and 2 burritos before being forced to cut off his arm.

Hugh Glass – The Revenant

Leonardo DiCaprio takes on the role of one of the toughest explorers of all time, Hugh Glass. After joining a party to explore an uncharted region of land, Glass found himself face to face with an angry and very large bear. When hunting game in the woods he startled a grizzly bear who attacked him, and even though he and his companions managed to kill it, Glass was so badly injured they left him for dead. They draped the bearskin over him and left him to die of his wounds, but after waking up with a bust leg and covered in open cuts he still managed to travel alone almost 200 miles.

Sławomir Rawicz – The way back

Rawicz was a Norwegian operative during the Second World War, and after getting sent on a mission found himself in the worst situation of his life. The mission was supposed to be straightforward, find the target installation and blow it up, but he and his team didn’t even make it to shore. They were spotted and shot out of the water, with all his companions either dead or captured, Rawicz managed to swim ashore and tried to hide in the snow-capped mountains with next to nothing.

The 1972 Uruguay rugby team – Alive

By far the most gruesome entry on the list, the film “Alive” doesn’t quite show everything in the same grizzly detail as it happened, probably because they weren’t making a horror film. In 1972 the national rugby team of Uruguay was flying over the Andes mountain range when their plane crashed into one of its peaks. Several dozen people died in the incident but many of them didn’t lose their lives in the crash. Since they were at the top of one of the biggest mountain ranges in the world in freezing temperatures they didn’t have the option of walking out of there, and after a while when people started to drop dead from their wounds or starvation the others had a choice, eat or die.

Christopher McCandless – Into the Wild

An interesting story about exactly what you should “not” do when it comes to survival. McCandless was a drifter for most of his adult life and loved time alone by himself, which gave him the idea to get as far away from civilization as possible. Since he lived in the US the closest and easiest to get to location was the Canadian wilderness, so he grabbed some basic gear and a rifle and headed out. If you intend to live in the wilderness you should bring more equipment than some basic camping gear, a few books, and a small rifle, something he seemed too overconfident to understand. After weeks of just getting by he was cut off by a flood and couldn’t make it back to safety, he was found dead in his sleeping bag weighing the same as an average-sized dog.