Alive (1993)

Director:

Frank Marshall

Writers (WGA):

Piers Paul Read (book)
John Patrick Shanley (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | Thriller

Tagline:

They survived the impossible...by doing the unthinkable.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Rugby | Rugby Team | Mountain | Stranded | Snow

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

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)
David Kriegel	...	Gustavo Zerbino
Kevin Breznahan	...	Roy Harley
Sam Behrens	...	Javier Methol
Illeana Douglas	...	Lilliana Methol
Jack Noseworthy	...	Bobby François
Christian J. Meoli	...	Federico Aranda
Jake Carpenter	...	Alberto Artuna
Michael DeLorenzo	...	Rafael Cano (as Michael De Lorenzo)
José Zúñiga	...	Fraga, the Mechanic
Danny Nucci	...	Hugo Díaz

Also Known As:

Alive: The Miracle of the Andes

MPAA:

Rated R for crash scenes too intense for unaccompanied children.

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | South Korea:15 | USA:R (Certificate #32112) | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:12 | Norway:15 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Film Andes S.A.

Trivia:

Cameo: [Nando Parrado]the coach of the team. He can be seen in photo still of the group at the beginning of the film

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Antonio is scolding the others for eating all the rations, the reflections of several crew members, a lighting unit, and a mic are visible in one of the survivor's sunglasses.

Quotes:

Nando: Between these mountains somewhere there's a green valley. See those mountains over there? There's no snow on them.
Roberto Canessa: Those mountains must be fifty miles away. You think you can walk fifty miles?
Nando: If we have to, we will.
Roberto Canessa: I can't.
Nando: Yes you can.
Roberto Canessa: I can't. I'm not as strong as you.
Nando: Do you know what it is that we've lived this long the way we have? Seventy days? It's impossible. It's impossible and we did it. I'm proud to be a man on a day like this. Alive. That I lived to see it, and see it in such a place. Take it in. I love you, man. It's beautiful. It's God. And it'll carry us over every stone, I swear.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Seinfeld: The Abstinence (#8.9)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

Do You Know The Way To San Jose?

The best that could have been done.

Critics often fault Alive with petty complaints: Gee, wasn't the avalanche a convenient plot device? Why didn't the plane have signal flares? How come the survivors were all those pretty boys? Why don't we see the dramatic search? In doing so, they're faulting reality: The avalanche really did happen when and how it was portrayed. The wreckage really did lack signal flares. The plane really was chartered by a bunch of ruggedly handsome young men -- what else do you expect from a rugby team? And yes, the search was dramatic (the moment when Roberta Cannessa's father learned that his son is alive is one of those stranger-than-fiction moments), but it was enough of a task to compress the survivors' story into a feature film. The search would have comprised another film entirely on its own.

How do you compress nearly three months of terror and tedium into less than two hours while still holding the attention of the audience? It's a daunting task, and Alive manages quite nicely. With technical consulting provided by crash survivor Nando Parrado, Alive captures the look and mood of the crash site, and sketches in the relationships among the passengers of the ill-fated flight.

It leaves many strange questions hanging (Where, in this plane full of mostly unmarried adults, does Nando come up with two tiny red sneakers?) and those questions are best answered by reading the book. And watch Alive again. Things become clearer with multiple viewings.