The film depicts the real-life events of the crash of Flight 571 — from the day Uruguay's Old Christians Club rugby team left for a match in Santiago, Chile, to 72 days later when 16 survivors finally came home.
"Society of the Snow" is based on the remarkable true story of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes. For 72 days, 16 people managed to survive, dealing with extreme cold, starvation, and dehydration. Survival expert Cat Bigney explains how complicated surviving in those conditions would really be.
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.
While the movie is plenty harrowing, it's also a moving account of how those who lived through the now-infamous 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 banded together to overcome nearly two and a half months of starvation, frigid temperatures, and extreme weather events while trapped on a remote glacier high in ...
The charter flight was carrying the team to a match in Santiago, the Chilean capital. 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.
Who are the real survivors of Society of the Snow?
Survivors Joaquin de Freitas Turcatti, Daniel Fernandez Strauch, José Luis “Coche” Inciarte, Antonio “Tintin” Vizintín, Ramón “Moncho” Sabella, and Gustavo Zerbino are all credited to have appeared in the Society of the Snow, according to Screen Rant.
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.
While two of them spent that night inside the fuselage alongside the survivors, the other two set up a separate tent, shocked at the site and what it meant. It wasn't until December 23 that the second helicopter rescue arrived and retrieved the remaining survivors, who had made it through 72 days.
Its propeller sliced through the fuselage. Two more passengers fell out of the gaping hole in the rear. The fuselage crashed onto the snow and careened 725 metres (2,379 ft) down the steep slope of the glacier at 350 km/h (220 mph), rammed into a snow bank and came to a sudden stop.
Were the survivors of the Andes plane crash cannibalism?
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.
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.
On December 20, the pair spotted another human: Sergio Catalán Martínez, a Chilean herdsman. After the man brought help the next day, Parrado and Canessa led authorities to the 14 other survivors. After 72 days lost in the Andes, they were all finally safe.
Why didn't they start a fire in Society of the Snow?
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.
'Society of the Snow' is something new. LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Gustavo Zerbino watched “La Sociedad de la Nieve,” the 1972 plane crash survivor felt as if he was being submerged “into boiling water,” reliving the roughly 70 days he and his teammates were stranded in the snow-covered Andes mountains.
All the sources claim they hiked 60 km in ten days until they encountered Sergio Catalan at the confluence of Rio del Azufre and Rio del Portillo rivers.
Did the actors of Society of the Snow lose weight?
“This is why sometimes you will get, at the Oscars, the awards for the actor and the makeup at the same time—because it's very difficult to separate.” Though the actors did lose weight as the production went on, there were limits, which is where Martí and his team's prosthetics came in.
How long were the people stranded in Society of the Snow?
The survival thriller directed by J. A. Bayona tells the story of the 1972 Andes flight disaster and how 16 people were able to survive 72 days in the Andes, in temperatures of -22 degrees Fahrenheit.
Why did it take so long to rescue Society of the Snow?
Throughout the course of the actual rescue, the deployed team contended with the harsh elements of the Andes mountains and struggled to recover everyone. According to Time, the helicopters dispatched to the crash site could only airlift six of the remaining 14 survivors out to safety due to bad weather.
Why were they peeing black in Society of the Snow?
Black pee from dehydration was just one of the many ways the movie showed the extreme conditions the survivors and the fallen faced, along with starvation, hypothermia, and other injuries. With the odds so stacked against them, the ending of the movie and the rescue become even more miraculous.
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. Sergio Catalan, the herdsman who encountered Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa after their 10-day trek through the Andes from the crash site, died in 2020 at the age of 91.
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.
What did the survivors think of Society of the Snow?
Real-world survivors of the Andes flight disaster approved of Society of the Snow, showing that it captured the harrowing aspects of the event. The film depicted the difficult experiences of the survivors with emotionally resonant accuracy, including the use of cannibalism for survival.
Which is more accurate, Alive or Society of the Snow?
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.
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.
