Suppose there is such a nightmare: you encounter an air crash, the plane crashes, you are lucky enough to survive, and you and 28 other passengers become survivors.
But you crashed on an inaccessible snow-capped mountain, with an average temperature of minus 30°C, no warm clothing, and no food.
Will you lie down and die, or will you try your best to survive?
's worst nightmare is nothing more than this.
However, this is not a dream, but a real event.
And 2 months after the crash, 16 people were miraculously rescued. During this period, they survived by eating the corpses of their companions, but this behavior also fell into ethical controversy.
This incident is the Andes air crash that shocked the world.
The best disaster movie of 2023 "Covenant", completely restored the miraculous story of this air crash.
This movie is adapted from the memoirs of a survivor. It soared to become the most popular movie on Netflix when it was released at the beginning of this year and stayed on the list for a long time.
Let’s talk about it today -
Desperate Covenant
la sociedad de la nieve
Director: J.A. Bayana
Screenwriter: J.A. Bayana/Bernat Villaplana/Jaime· Max/
Nicolas Casalego/Pablo Versi
Starring: Enzo Voglisic/Agustín Padella/Matthias Reicart
Type: Drama/Thriller / History
Release date: 2023-12-15 (Spain)
Film length: 144 minutes
The director is the Spanish director j·a who has directed " Tsunami Miracle " and "Jurassic World 2" ·Bayana .
j·a·Bayana has a special liking for disaster and human nature themes, especially the hard-core performance of disaster scenes.
As early as 2012 when he directed "The Miracle of the Tsunami", j·a·Bayana had the idea of making a movie about the Andes air crash.
finally received a 60 million euro investment from netflix after ten years. After the
film was launched on January 4, 2023, it dominated the list of non-English movies on Netflix for two consecutive weeks, becoming one of the most popular non-English movies in the history of Netflix.
Stills from "Tsunami Miracle"
This is not the first time that the Andes Air Crash has been made into a movie. "Covenant" has been remade twice before.
are respectively 1976's "Cruel Survival" and 1993's "The Last Life" (starring Ethan Hawke).
"The Remaining Life" (1993) stills
I personally feel that the 2023 "Desperate Covenant" is the most realistic and touching among the three versions.
feels the comparison between movie stills and real photos, which can be said to be 1:1 restoration.
Above picture: A still from "Extremis Covenant" Below picture: A real photo
In October 1972, a English rugby team in Uruguay, the "Old Christian Team" , rented Uruguayan Air Force aircraft No. 571 and went to Santiago, the capital of Chile, to participate in a game.
The passengers are all young people in their early twenties, the most carefree age in life.
Little did they know, this was a journey to hell.
On October 13, the plane deviated from its route and crashed on a glacier in the center of the Andes Mountains.
The fuselage was broken into two parts, and 12 of the 45 people on the plane died on the spot.
Five other people died the next morning, and one person died of serious injuries on the eighth day.
The movie restores the horrific details of the plane crash. Many people were squeezed to death in the chaotic cabin, or their legs and feet were broken by seats.
The 27 people who survived faced the harsh environment of high-altitude frozen mountains.
They tried using lipstick to write "sos" on the top of the plane, but there wasn't enough lipstick.
tried to put the luggage into a cross shape again, but it was not obvious in the snow.
Although search and rescue forces from three countries participated in the search for the missing plane, because the plane was white, it could not be seen at all on the vast white ground.
In the following days, although search and rescue planes continued to fly over their heads, they were unable to find them, and their hopes were dashed again and again.
These young rugby players were not discouraged and began to save themselves in an orderly manner. Two medical students on the
team took on the task of treating the injured, collecting materials from the remaining parts of the flight to make splints and bandages.
A team member designed a way to melt snow into water: use sunlight to melt the snow and then drop it into empty wine bottles to obtain drinking water.
To prevent snow blindness, someone made sunglasses from the green plastic visor found in the cockpit and women's underwear.
Use wool seat covers to keep warm and use the seat cushions as snowshoes.
The temperature plummeted to -30°C at night. The survivors blocked the cabin opening with their suitcases and cuddled together to keep warm.
Most of them grew up by the sea, and some had never even seen snow before.
They lack medical supplies and warm clothing.
However, the most fatal thing is the lack of food.
On the plane there were only a few pieces of chocolate, biscuits and a few bottles of red wine.
In the days after the crash, everyone divided their food into small portions and ate a little every day.
Even with strict distribution, their food was finished quickly.
There is only endless white snow and rocks around, without any animals or plants.
People who haven’t eaten for seven days have even started chewing on leather shoes and suitcases.
Everyone finally made a difficult decision: to eat the bodies of their dead companions.
This decision came after a painful ideological struggle, because most of the victims were close friends and classmates.
27 survivors gathered together and made a horrific covenant - "If I die, you can eat me."
On the 10th day after the crash, the survivors began to eat corpses.
A survivor said: "In that situation, the rules of human society no longer belong to us. The rules in the mountains are determined by nature. We must adapt to these rules in order to survive."
Team members with medical backgrounds are responsible for cutting They hid the corpses where no one else could see them so those who ate them wouldn't go crazy.
On the 11th day, the bad news came.
The survivors heard from the plane's radio that the Chilean Air Force had given up searching for the crashed plane and planned to wait until the snow melted before searching for the bodies of the victims.
everyone crashed.
Survivor Carlitos Pazzi described his feelings at the time: "After the hope of being rescued was dashed, all we were left with was a long period of suffering, and our hope was completely shattered."
However, the disaster was not over yet.
On October 29, the 16th day after the plane crash, an avalanche swallowed up the wreckage of the cabin that the survivors relied on for survival.
8 people were killed on the spot, and 19 others were trapped in the cabin for three days before climbing out of the snowdrift.
On November 15, 34 days after the plane crash, three more weak and injured people died, leaving only 16 survivors.
Survivor Parado recalled: "Waiting is full of fear. From a certain perspective, waiting means a death sentence. I keep saying to myself, I must get out of here as soon as possible."
The survivors decided not to sit still and wait for death. , they try to run away for the first time.
On the 36th day after the plane crash, four survivors volunteered to travel eastward, hoping to go to Argentina to seek rescue.
However, this escape ended in failure, and several people almost froze to death.
But they accidentally discovered the broken tail of the plane and the suitcases scattered nearby.
There is a box of chocolates, three meat pies, a bottle of rum, cigarettes, a clean coat, comic books, and some medicines.
They also found some tarpaulins that can be used to make sleeping bags. With sleeping bags, they can spend the night in the snowy mountains.
also means they have the opportunity to travel far away for help.
When the plane crashed, the co-pilot told them before his death: "We have flown over Curico ."
Curico is a small city 100 miles south of Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Based on this inference, as long as you cross the highest mountain in the west, you will reach Chile to the west.
The remaining survivors realized that the only way out was over the mountains to the west.
This narrow escape mission was given to the three strongest players on the team: Roberto Canessa, Nando Parrado, and Antonio Vizinting.
On December 12, the 61st day after the plane crash, he ran away for the second time to seek help.
The three of them made sleeping bags from the plane's insulation cloth, packed enough food for three days, and set off. The goal was to climb over a mountain with an altitude of 5,000 meters and reach Chile to seek help.
Without any mountaineering equipment, no map of the area, no compass, and no experience in rock climbing, they set out to climb the glacier at an altitude of 3,570 meters.
But three days later, when the adventure team finally reached the top of the mountain, what they saw was not Chile, but the endless mountains.
Apparently the co-pilot misjudged the location.
Nando said to Robert: "We may be heading towards death, but I would rather walk to meet death than wait for it to come to me."
They decided that Nando and Robert would continue westward, while the other left the food Give it to them and return to base camp, which will last them a few more days.
After nine days and nights of hard trek, Nando and Robert finally climbed over the snow-capped mountains and entered the river valley.
They hiked an incredible 1 kilometers in extreme life-threatening conditions.
The two of them were dying, looking like skeletons, and all the food they carried had been eaten.
On December 20, luck finally came, and a shepherd riding a horse appeared on the other side of the river.
This is the first time they have seen people outside the snow-capped mountains in 2 months.
Nando and Robert used their last strength to call him for help.
Nando and Robert were rescued and taken to a village.
By this time Robert was so weak that he could barely walk and he had lost half his weight to just 44 kilograms.
Police relayed the survivors' information to the Chilean Army.
On December 23, under the guidance of Nando, the rescue helicopter finally flew to the valley where the disaster occurred, and all the remaining 13 survivors were rescued.
At this time, nearly two and a half months have passed since the crash.
6 survivors were trapped in the snowy mountains for 72 days, and were called the "Andean Miracle" by the media.
However, after they were rescued, cannibalism for survival caused huge controversy.
survivor Canessa said: "Surviving by cannibalizing human flesh was the most painful experience in my life. I asked myself whether it was worth it, and the answer is it was worth it. This was done so that the living could continue to survive. If I were on the ground at that time, corpse, I hope you do the same thing."
The movie "Extremis Covenant" does not use the idea of eating corpses as a novelty to attract attention.
focuses instead on the survivors’ tenacious will to survive and touching friendship.
Faced with the desperate situation, they did not give up and wait for death, and there was no internal fighting according to the law of the jungle.
united as one and helped each other, which was the reason why they were finally rescued.
believes that everyone can gain inspiration and strength from this incident. When
encounters setbacks, you might as well think of these 16 survivors.
tell yourself that if you don’t give up, there will be hope.
* Author of this article: rama
