Alive

Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow swept Andes are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash.

• Director:Frank Marshall
• Genre:Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller
• Runtime:118 minutes

Cast

Ethan Hawke : Nando Parrado
Vincent Spano : Antonio Balbi
Josh Hamilton : Roberto Canessa
Bruce Ramsay : Carlitos Páez
John Newton : Antonio ‘Tintín’ Vizintín (as John Haymes Newton)

The film opens with a series of photographs of the fictional Stella Maris College’s Old Christians rugby team. Carlitos Páez (John Malkovich) explains that the pictures were taken by his father and points out several members of the team, including himself as a young man (Bruce Ramsay), Álex Morales, Felipe Restano, Nando Parrado (Ethan Hawke), and Antonio Balbi (Vincent Spano). (The real Nando Parrado appears in the last photograph of the series, as the fictional team’s coach.) Carlitos then reflects on the accident in a brief monologue, speaking of heroism, the unintelligibility of how a person will behave in such a situation, solitude, and faith––all of which become recurring themes in the film.

The camera cuts to an image of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flying over the Andes in 1972. The raucous rugby players, and a few of their relatives and friends, are eagerly looking forward to the upcoming match in Chile. Nando’s sister, Susana, praises the beauty of the mountains and happily observes that the plane will be landing in twenty minutes. Then, with a hint of concern, she adds, “It’s clouding up a bit.” During the descent, the plane goes through several air pockets and the passengers become worried. Javier and Lilliana Methol hold hands, and Carlitos recites the Hail Mary prayer. When the plane emerges from the clouds, the pilots see that they are on a collision course with an unknown mountain peak (later called the Glacier of Tears).

The pilots’ attempt to clear the peak is unsuccessful. First, the right wing and the tail of the plane hit the rocks and come off. Then, the left wing hits another peak and comes off. Six passengers, still in their seats and with their safety buckles fastened, are yanked out of the plane by the extreme suction. The fuselage sails over a ridge and slides down a mountain slope before coming to a complete stop. Nando flies forward into the wall of the cabin, hits his head, and goes into a coma. The impact of the final crash kills one of the pilots and fatally wounds the other. After rejoicing that he himself is alive, Antonio turns to find that his teammate, Álex, is dead beside him. 19-year old Roberto Canessa (Josh Hamilton), a medical student, is the first to take action and assist the injured. Antonio, the team captain, orders the other medical student, Gustavo Zerbino, a more timid man, to help Canessa. Federico Aranda has received a deep gash in his left leg, but insists that the injury isn’t serious. A hysterical Carlitos claims he saved the plane by praying to the Virgin Mary. Bobby François, a nonchalant nihilist, steps outside for a smoke, and is joined by Carlitos. Gustavo finds an older couple curled up by the luggage, dead. Canessa attends to Felipe’s severe head wound and leaves Gustavo with the fatally wounded man, to assist other passengers. Federico crawls over to Mrs. Alfonsín, whose legs have become permanently entangled in the seats behind her and is being crushed, to comfort her and offer her moral support. Antonio and Roy Harley pull up a couple of seats to find Alberto, severely injured but alive. Pablo Montero approaches Gustavo with a piece of metal protruding from his belly; having no anesthetic or surgical tools, Gustavo distracts the patient and pulls the bar out with his bare hands. Nando’s mother, Eugenia, is found dead and carried outside. Susana, in a state of shock, calls to her dead mother, saying that she wants to go home, while Canessa wraps her head. In all, twelve die on the day of the crash. Read more

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