Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains

Whether or not you can recall the details, you’ve heard the story: a group of plane survivors are trapped in the freezing mountains. To survive long enough to be rescued, they must eat the flesh of their dead friends and family.

This tale, which involved a 1972 plane crash in the Andes mountains, is told by the 16 surviving members out of a flight of 45. The young Uruguayans were on their way to a rugby match in Chile along with some friends and family. They would not be found for 72 days.

This material sounds awfully grim. A plane crash, a subsequent deadly avalanche, and over a dozen men forced to resort to cannibalism. However, what Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains accomplishes is remarkable – it’s an unflinching view of the human spirit. It’s about brotherhood forged through disaster. At the end of the film, when the 16 remaining survivors bring their 19-year-old children to the site, anybody with a beating heart will be moved to tears. Not because of the horrors, but because of the tremendous display of courage and will.

The story was immortalized in the 1974 bestseller Alive, which was later made into a feature film starring Ethan Hawke in 1993. This, however, is the first time that the survivors have come together to recall the story in their own words. Luckily for the film, each survivor speaks in great poetic elegance – certainly thoughts carved by over thirty years of contemplation. 

Gonzalo Arijón, the director of the film, was a childhood friend a few survivors. Using the interviews, reenactments, and footage he shot of the survivors going back to the crash site, he weaves together an incredibly suspenseful tale. For instance: two of the survivors trekked for over 10 days to find civilization. In all, they covered over 40 miles of mountains and rough terrain. As they recall the experience (accompanied by appropriate reenactment), you fear for their lives. You know that they make it out fine, but it still seems like such a impossibility that they’ll survive. 

Regarding the cannibalism, the film never reenacts it nor do they go into detail about how they prepared the flesh. This is for the better. What the survivors recall about it is the intimate religious ceremony that it represented. Just as Jesus Christ was said to have offered his body to his disciples, the survivors interpret their ritual in the same way. The dead were providing sustenance and the means to continue on living. In some way, their memory remains through the lives of the survivors.

Stranded is remarkably touching and absolutely unforgettable. It can be bleak, but at it’s heart it’s a film about love, friendship, and determination. NetFlix members can watch the film through the Instant View service. It’s a must see.

Rating: