Society of the Snow tells a more authentic and dignified story of the Andes plane crash survivors compared to the Hollywoodized version in Alive. The movie portrays the trauma and suffering of the survivors in a tangible way, making their experiences feel more genuine and relatable.
In the end, the story Alive and Society of the Snow are telling might be the exact same one. The details of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash haven't changed. But the way the two movies approach the story – and the care that is taken with the story itself, is very, very different.
Since they were very young when the accident happened, almost all sixteen of them are still alive — Javier Methol and José Luis "Coche" Inciarte died in 2015 and 2023, respectively. The survivors met on October 13, 2022, to pay tribute to the victims 50 years after the crash.
Alive was very good for it's time. However, Society of the Snow is far more accurate to the actual events, and it isn't white washed. I think there is far more tension in Society of the Snow as well. It's English dubbed, so you don't need subtitles.
Society of the Snow offers a fresh perspective on the Andes plane crash with added layers of realism, making it a more accurate depiction than Alive. Society of the Snow has an entirely South American cast, speaking mainly in Spanish, which adds an authentic touch to the story.
The true survival story behind the Oscar-nominated film "Society of the Snow" is almost unbelievable: After a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and its loved ones crashed in the Andes Mountains in 1972, 16 people managed to survive for 72 days, surrounded by snow and ice.
During the 72 days following the crash, the survivors suffered from extreme hardships, including sub-zero temperatures, exposure, starvation, and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 13 more passengers. The remaining passengers resorted to cannibalism to survive.
What do the survivors think of Society of the Snow?
The survivors were so happy with how the movie portrayed their story that they even made small cameos. The movie has some of the most anxiety-inducing scenes I have ever watched, with the plane crash scene making you feel as if you were there with the incredible sound and directing.
Society of the Snow (Spanish: La sociedad de la nieve) is a 2023 survival drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and based on Pablo Vierci's 2009 book of the same name, which details the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's experience in 1972 after Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes mountains.
Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay (born 9 December 1949) is a Uruguayan businessman, producer, motivational speaker and television presenter, and former rugby player and racing driver. He is one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed in the Andes on 13 October 1972.
The plane had 45 passengers and crew when it crashed, carrying friends, family and players of the Old Christians Club rugby team who were travelling from Montevideo in Uruguay to a match in Chile. Thirty-three people survived the crash, but only 16 of them, all young men, were rescued.
The next day, Oct. 13, 1972, the plane took off again and was flying through the Andes when the co-pilot at the controls started to descend, mistakenly thinking he'd cleared the mountain range. The aircraft hit a mountain, breaking both wings off and causing the fuselage to slide down a mountain.
Where are the 1972 Andes plane crash survivors now? Of the 16 survivors, 14 are still alive. José Luis “Coche” Inciarte died in 2023 of cancer, per the AFP, as did Javier Methol in 2015.
What happened to the rugby team that crashed in the Andes?
Uruguayan Air Force flight 571, flight of an airplane charted by a Uruguayan amateur rugby team that crashed in the Andes Mountains in Argentina on October 13, 1972, the wreckage of which was not located for more than two months. Of the 45 people aboard the plane, only 16 survived the ordeal.
The place where the plane crashed was not strategically visible, so it would have been pointless to try to make a fire. Furthermore, they didn't have enough flammable objects to cause such a big fire, which is why the lighter was used for cigarettes but never a signal fire.
Twenty-nine people died, but 16 managed to survive 72 days under the most precarious conditions, without food, adequate shelter, or medical supplies for the injured.
However, a little over an hour into the flight, the pilot misjudged his location and—with clearance from air traffic control—began to descend before the plane had made it out of the Andes. Unable to clear the ridgeline, it struck a mountain, losing both wings and its tail on impact.
Were the survivors of alive the story of the Andes cannibalism?
Of the 45 people on the flight, only 16 survived 72 days of sub-zero temperatures. The search went on for eight days, although bad weather prevented searching for two days. The survivors found little food in the crashed fuselage, and it became necessary for the survivors to eat the frozen bodies of their dead friends.
A group of survivors lived through the plane crash, only to face the frigid cold and snow of the mountains, avalanches and, most famously, a lack of food. As they fought for their lives for more than two months, they fed themselves by cannibalizing the bodies of those who had already died.
33 people initially survived, albeit some had serious injuries. "We crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains," says Parrado. "We were the least likely group to have to endure those conditions."
The decision to make Numa the narrator goes beyond Bayona's intention to tell the story of those who died in Society of the Snow. It is fair to say that it emphasizes that approach as it sets the point of view in the mind of someone who did not make it to the end.
The story of the survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 ends with 16 young men being rescued from their ordeal in the icy mountains of the Andes and taken back home to their families.
