Alive (1993)

Amazing. This movie gets me every time, its truly incredible what human beings are capable of. Those guys walked across a mountain range with nothing to get help and they made it.

Made me even more scared of flying.

I recall this being gruelling viewing. Didn't they resort to cannibalism?

Wikipedia write up on real events on which the movie is based.

I don't know what would have been more terrifying. The plane crash or getting stranded in the high Andes.

A disturbing movie

i remember going to see it at the theater and everyone laughed when they crashed. ruined the moment.

In 1993 it was definitely a conversation-starter. When the film started, I knew I'd starve instead of eating other people, and yet, by the time the ones who abstain start dying, I thought they were stupid for dying instead.

Maybe if they could only eat people they knew, but, IIRC, the survivors had quite the larder up there in the Andes between the team and other passengers on the flight. And once one person breaks the taboo and has some nourishment, it'd be tougher to abstain.

But then, once you're back home, how do you look at people or meat in general?

There is caloric content in human flesh.

Amateurs

My favorite movie.

R10 That's right, and we did it first, more than 100 years before.

If zombies can eat human flesh, why can’t we?

There was a book about it, I read it back in the 1970s. It did cover much of the mindset of the survivors and what it took for them to resort to cannibalism. After they had gone through all the toothpaste and other barely edible items, one of the guys decided to cut a few slivers of meat from the buttocks of one of the pilots. He figured that the pilots were responsible for the crash, so why not at least try to make good use of their corpses. A few survivors refused, and they progressively got weaker and sicker. Their poor shelter in the damaged fuselage was occasionally hit by avalanches, killing more of their group. Some survivors were plagued terribly by constipation from a lack of fiber. The book was Piers Paul Read, I thought it was fascinating.

I won't lie, I totally want to see the photo of the half eaten human leg referenced in that wiki article. It was published in many newspapers at the time but I am having no luck finding anything. Don't judge me, bitches.

Apparently they even ate the heads and genitals of the dead passengers. Just... I could never do it. I'd rather starve.

Needed more brains, cops, and ambulance drivers....

[quote]Apparently they even ate the heads and genitals of the dead passengers.

Cock!

Its what's for dinner!

I seem to recall from either that book mentioned earlier, or another article that after a while they started to crave salt. So they put bits of brain on top of some metal to slightly heat it and had at it. (Apparently, brains are salty, who knew?)

I think something to keep in mind - they were pampered well cared for boys - not men - most friends since childhood - many related. As I recall one of the boys studying to become a Dr did most of the "cutting" of bodies because he was better able to separate it in his mind - a lot of the younger guys would eat and try not to think about where it came from. Starving to death isn't quick - plus if you have a childhood friend urging you to eat and stay strong because your mother and sister were waiting for you to come home. - I can see as a group they fought to "stay alive" - that said they made a pact that family members were off limits.

i imagine penis would be rather rubbery

Just saw it and loved it though, let's face it, its a very Disneyesque version of the story. The snowboarding on the seat that once held a dead teammate, whooping it up like it's the frat house... no. just no.

I think maybe I found the leg photo. I was picturing gnaw marks, but it looks more like it is partially amputated.

R23, yikes.

I only watched it a few times for the realistic effects of the plane crashing which opens the movie. I was bored with it after that.

There was another movie based on the tragedy that came out before "Alive" called "Survive!" I remember seeing it advertised on TV when I was a kid.

The book Alive is fantastic. It's so well written that you feel like you're with the team through the whole ordeal.

Is the cannibalism what fucked up Ethan Hawke’s teeth?

I’d tell you, OP, but then I’d have to eat you.

It was a very big deal at the time.

"My sister, my dinner, my sister, my dinner..."