With the release of The Shallows this weekend, the latest survival thriller that features Blake Lively vs. Shark, we add one more film to the canon of other great survival films. Survival films feature ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations and have to fight for their lives. Whether it’s a solo survival or a group survival, true or fictional, it usually ends up being Man vs. Nature. Some of these films offer hope at their conclusion, while others take the more cynical route, where fate or circumstance or just plain bad luck interfere with these people. In each case, however, it’s the simple plight of humanity that we connect with — that instinct to just survive that make these films worth every re watch. Not everyone will survive. We root for them anyway. Check out seven of the best survival films below. Warning —there will be spoilers for most of these films.
When you think “survival film,” the first one that probably pops into your head is 2000’s Cast Away, so it’s going first on this list. Cast Away stars Tom Hanks, a FedEx executive who survives on a deserted island for four years after his plane crashes. For 90 percent of the film, Hanks is by himself as he struggles in figuring out the way of the land. He keeps track of the days by scraping tallies on a rock, he excels in a previously unrealized job goal (dentistry), and eats so much crab that the mere thought of it later makes him sick. And let’s not forget one of the best friendships to ever grace the screen — between Hanks and Wilson the volleyball. If you don’t tear up during the scene where Wilson floats away, then you can see yourself out. Throughout the film, we watch Hanks’ character desperately cling on to hope and can’t fault him when he can’t.
127 Hours is the true story of canyoneer Aron Ralston (James Franco) who got trapped by a boulder in an isolated canyon in Utah back in April 2003. The film features video logs Ralston made in order to keep his spirits up as he slowly tried chipping away at the boulder that pinned his hand with a pocket knife. Days and futile escape attempts later, Ralston finally decides to cut off his own hand in order to live, and does so by fashioning a tourniquet out of Camelbak tube insulation and uses a carabiner to tighten it as he cuts away at his own hand. 127 Hours is a movie that begs the question — if you were ever in a similar situation, would you be able to do it? Making Aron Ralston’s story that much more realistic when we try to picture ourselves in the same desperate mind-set and not feeling at all relieved when we inevitably conclude that we could never imagine going to those lengths.
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2010’s Buried is one of those films that gives me extreme anxiety, not only because it’s just an hour and a half of Ryan Reynolds in a pine box, but also because the ending suggests just how small and insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. Reynolds’ Paul Conroy doesn’t survive his ordeal, which in itself is sad. But Rodrigo Cortes’ tight, claustrophobic directing of the film, and the fact that Paul only has a cellphone and disembodied voices from that cell phone as a connection to the outside allows us to feel like we are buried alive with Paul. Paul talks to Dan Brenner, the head of the Hostage Working Group, who assures Paul (and us) that they are doing everything they can to find him. This hope lasts all the way up to the very last seconds of the film. The end is a one-two punch in terms of devastation. 1) The coffin they were digging up wasn’t Paul’s, so therefore, Paul is going to die from suffocation as the sand fills his coffin, and 2) who they actually dig up is Mark White, a guy who Dan had said was saved three weeks before in a similar situation as Paul. Those revelations — Paul’s going to die, no one is going to find his body, and he and Mark didn’t matter enough for the American government to really try to find — is completely sobering and devastating.
Last year’s The Martian offered a completely different sentimentality than Buried, in that it was all about sentimentality (in a good way). What is often regarded as Cast Away-in space, The Martian is about astronaut/botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who has to figure out how to survive on Mars after his crew mates accidentally leave him there during a freak storm. Unlike Buried, which sees a government that doesn’t try hard enough, this film’s entire climax of Watney being rescued is broadcast on live television for the whole world to see. A lot of scenes are dedicated to NASA arguing about the best way possible to save Watney, interspersed with Watney’s comical video logs. In short, this film sees an entire world come together to save just one man. It’s an inspiring tale of one man’s survival, but also of one world working together for the first time in history. It doesn’t get much better than that.
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Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity got a lot of buzz for its stunning visuals and use of 3D that made Ryan Stone’s (Sandra Bullock) fight for survival in space seem very real and atmospheric. The emotional line of this film is the irony that Ryan doesn’t much want to live because she’s still dealing with the death of her kid. Watching her find her determination and will power to survive (with a little help from George Clooney) makes her first steps onto land at the end that much more rewarding. It’s a simple ending — there’s no reunion with anyone on Earth, just Ryan and a remote island. But those hesitant steps forward feel almost like a rebirth for Ryan. Though she has many miles to go (again, she’s not in space anymore but now on what looks like a deserted island), but you get the sense that everything is going to be okay.
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Another film most people remember for its amazing visuals, Life of Pi is a survival movie that features a young boy lost at sea with only a bengal tiger for company. For a survival movie, the boat was Pi Patel’s only sanctuary from the ocean, but instead, that sanctuary also holds the presence of the tiger, giving Pi just one more hurdle to overcome. Watching the two of them circle one another and then ultimately depend on one another to survive is moving and harrowing, making this survival film more than just about one man’s survival, but two beings who have to learn how to get a long.
Though it was just released, The Shallows is a great example of turning a simple survival plot into something more. That something more has everything to do with the character of Nancy (Blake Lively), who we learn about in small increments but completely understand where she’s coming from at all points during the movie. Also, this movie is just plain cool. From director Jaume Collet-Serra’s fantastic directing to the beautiful cinematography, The Shallows does a great job of putting us in this terrifying, yet highly unlikely situation and somehow making us care.
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