In early 2024, the Netflix production of Society of the Snow was released worldwide. The film, directed by the Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona, narrates the superb story of the Miracle of the Andes, an event that started as a horrific tragedy and then went on to become a strong example of human resilience overcoming the most horrific obstacle of all. Society of the Snow was shot in 2022 in four countries and constitutes one of Netflix’s most ambitious projects. It’s been acclaimed by viewers and critics from all over the world, and it’s set to make a dent in the award season of 2024.

Society of the Snow Release Date December 22, 2023 Director J.A. Bayona Cast Enzo Vogrincic , Simon Hempe , Rafael Federman , Santiago Vaca Narvaja

Read our Review of Society of the Snow

The True Story of the Miracle of the Andes

The film tells the true story of Flight 571, which in October 1972 was taking 45 passengers from Uruguay to Chile. Most of them were members of a rugby team, and the rest were those who had been convinced by the players to take a short and cheap trip to another country. Unfortunately, the plane went down in the middle of the Andes Mountains, but a large party survived the crash. Details of how they survived are for you to discover in one of Netflix’s best features to date.

But Society of the Snow isn’t the first feature that tells the story of the 1972 Andes flight disaster. In 1976, the world saw the release of the Mexican feature Survive!, a mediocre film that was quickly forgotten by audiences and critics who didn’t connect with the film’s low production value and terrible performances. However, in 1993, Hollywood would get its turn to adapt the story. Based on the 1974 book by Piers Paul Read, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, the film was Hollywood’s best attempt to produce a decent story about the tragedy.

Alive is the film by Frank Marshall that, 30 years before Society of the Snow, depicted the extraordinary story of those who fell in the Andes but refused to die in the extreme cold. We don’t always recommend watching other iterations of the same story unless they’re absolutely worth it. To call Bayona’s film a remake is blasphemy, as it is simply another version of the story that was once told in Marshall’s very intense epic Alive, a film you should definitely watch before Society of the Snow.

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What Is Frank Marshall’s Alive About?

In Alive, not much preamble is given about who’s on the plane. We only learn through an interview with one of the survivors (John Malkovich in a very good and short performance) that somehow they made it through. Cut to a Fairchild FH-227D entering the rocky area of the Andes Mountains. On the flight, the boys are being reckless, and the crew can’t control them. The pilots are unaware of what’s taking place in the back and seem comfortable as they cross the snowy area. But then disaster strikes, and the plane goes down.

The fuselage stopped suddenly on the snow, and many perished as they got trampled by moving metal. Others stood without any injuries. The first night was absolute torture because of the cold and shock. The next day, they started to ration the food while waiting for the rescue parties. More days passed until they were able to turn on a hand radio, during which they heard the unthinkable. The rescue efforts had been called off. They had been left for dead.

Alive Release Date January 15, 1993 Cast Ethan Hawke , Vincent Spano , Josh Hamilton , Bruce Ramsay , John Newton Runtime 2hr 8min

Attitudes clashed, and everyone seemed to rely on a different kind of faith. Some prayed, while others lost the will to live. Nando Parrado, a survivor whose mother and sister perish early on in the film, declares that they will only survive if they eat the bodies of those who died. Someone grabs a glass shard and becomes the first to eat human flesh.

However, days still pass, and there’s no clear goal as to why they should be trying to survive. It’s not until Parrado decides he will somehow walk out of the mountains. The group resists at first because they’ve just gone through the horrors of a deadly avalanche. However, with Roberto Canessa and Antonio “Tintín” Vizintín by his side, Nando leads the way out of the mountains. What follows is one of the most strenuous tests of human will that’s been documented in history.

Why Is Alive so Intense?

Marshall’s knack for special effects meant that the film would rely heavily on disaster sequences. 1993 was a year that saw the release of films like Jurassic Park and Cliffhanger, both prime examples of special effects shots that proved big steps in film technology. Alive wasn’t going to pass on the wave. Since its production was announced, viewers were expecting a good depiction of the disaster sequences in the film.

For this reason, the most important scene in the film is the plane crash, of course. The early CGI and spectacular practical effects made you feel part of the horrific experience. Curiously, it runs longer than required and longer than the depicted scene in Society of the Snow. The plane crash in Alive is much better than the one in Bayona’s film, but it’s because of the attention to detail and great editing with the mix of special effects and miniature pieces.

For some, it was the most traumatizing part of a movie that uses shock as the entry point. Hearts raced after the plane slid through the valley at extreme speed. Nevertheless, the film also does a great job of depicting the avalanche that happens midway through the film. It’s claustrophobic, rich in detail, and very dark. Needless to say, it’s a riveting sequence that allows you to experience the scale of the event, much more than the plane crash scene.

Related: What Actually Happened to the Crash Survivors After Society of the Snow?

What’s Great About Alive?

It’s impossible not to compare Alive with Society of the Snow. But is it worth deciding which one’s better? They’re both extremely different films, from their production value and the emotional aspect of the experience to the depictions of the survivors that made it back alive. Alive is a much more Hollywood-driven film that complies with every rule in the book. Using American actors whose main language was English had always been a weak point, but did that make it a bad film? Absolutely not. It’s a good enough adaptation that uses creative freedom to portray an uplifting movie without digging deep into the uncomfortable facts of the true story.

Alive is a high-profile survival story starring Ethan Hawke at the peak of his career. His performance was solid, but he stood out in a film that didn’t need his heroism. To talk about his figure being essential is to recognize how important Parro was to the group’s survival. But he wasn’t the only one. This collective effort is the most emotional trigger of Society of the Snow, a film that fully displays the team effort the survivors had to use in order to keep themselves sane.

The film was Hollywood’s response to the need for an adaptation of the Miracle of the Andes. In 1993, you couldn’t release a film of this size in a foreign language and starring unknown faces. It wouldn’t have worked. Instead, Marshall focused on creating a visceral experience that would shock those who were not familiar with the story. Not even the theme of cannibalism is huge in the film. It was just another piece of the puzzle to use in order to solve the mystery of how they survived.

When it comes to revisiting underrated films from the ’90s, Alive should be there. The film’s direction is spot on, as are the score and special effects. Disaster films weren’t very popular at the time, and if there’s one thing that can be said about Alive, it’s that it’s a great disaster film that, unlike others, relies on an extraordinary true story. This one is great proof that if there’s a thing such as a miracle, and the world experienced one in 1972, it started when a large group survived a plane crash in one of the most hostile environments on Earth.

Rent Alive on Vudu

Society of the Snow is a Netflix production, so let’s keep celebrating the movies at the streaming platform with the following video: