TheSociety of the Snowtrue story is just as harrowing as the tale told in the Netflix movie. Directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible),Society of the Snowtells the story of a plane carrying the Uruguay rugby team to Chili for a match in 1972, only to slam into a mountain in the Andes and crash, the plane breaking into prices. In a miracle, some of the passengers survived, but they were stranded with no one knowing where they were, and they ended up relying on desperate means for survival.
If this all sounds familiar, it is because there was already a movie released about the incident withthe theatrical releaseAlivein 1993. However,Alivereceived mostly average reviews as it created more of an action-survival film.Bayona preferred to make something a little more loyal to the true storyand show how the faith and determination helped these survivors make it through the perilous conditions and come out of it alive.Society of the Snowearned an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film and remains a traumatizing account of a true-life tragedy.
What Caused The Real Plane Crash?
The Pilots Misjudged Their Location
On June 27, 2025, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 took off from Montevideo, Uruguay, with 45 people onboard. There were 40 passengers and five crew members, and it was chartered to take the Old Christians Club amateur rugby team to Chili for an exhibition match. However, the weather was bad, and the plane had to stop in Argentina to stay overnight. The next day,it took off again and charted a course that would fly through the Andes. That is when tragedy struck.
They couldn’t pull the plane up in time and struck a mountain, losing its tail and both wings.
The pilots misjudged their location and after giving the wrong location information, they received clearance from air traffic control to descend. Sadly, since they misjudged where they were, they came out of the clouds and saw the mountains ahead of them. They couldn’t pull the plane up in time and struck a mountain, losing its tail and both wings. The front of the plane slid down the mountain and landed in a valley about 11,500 feet above sea level.
What Happened To The Survivors After The Crash?
After the plane crash, there were 16 members and supporters of the Uruguayan rugby team who survived the 72 days following the incident. While in the harsh conditions of the Andes, the survivors had to survive freezing temperatures, extreme weather events,and threats of starvation while trapped on a remote glacier high in the mountains. Roberto Canessa said in an interview that he figured they were all going to die in the mountains after the crash (viaTime).
“I thought, ‘You’re dead. You are going to know what is in the last frontier of life.'.When the plane lost the wings and tail, it began to slide at an incredible speed. I thought my feet were going to go through the back of my ears. So when it stopped, I couldn’t believe I was alive. It was absurd.”
12 people died when the plane crashed. That left 33 survivors injured and fighting for survival. Five more died the first night, and one more died a week later. This left 27 people still alive. They created shelter out of the plane’s wreckage to survive the harsh winds and weather. They rationed what food and wine they could find in the plane, but that all ran out after one week. They saw planes flying by, looking for them, but their plane was also white and was almost invisible in the snow.
Adolfo “Fito” Strauch
Esteban Kukuriczka
Nando Parrado, one of the survivors, said thatafter food ran out and everyone realized they could die from starvation, they made a deal with each other(viaThe Guardian). “We shook our hands, and we say, ‘If I die, please use my body. So at least you may get out of here. And tell my family how much I love them.” That led to the survivors doing the seemingly unthinkable and eating the flesh of the dead passengers.
Back-to-back avalanches hit the plane and buried the fuselage
On the 17th day, back-to-back avalanches hit the plane and buried the fuselage. Eight of the survivors died immediately. The 19 survivors dug their way out and after three more people died in the next month, there were only 16 people remaining alive.
How Were The Society Of The Snow Survivors Saved?
Two Of The Survivors Hiked The Mountains To Find Help
The movieAliveshowed a lot more about how two people seemingly set out to find help and get everyone rescued.Society of the Snowwas not as interested in that journey to find help as it was in showing how the group banded together to survive until the rescue team finally arrived. What happened was thatNando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, and Antonio Vizintín believed they could scale the mountains and land in civilization. However, they weren’t aware of how lost the pilot had gotten them.
10 Biggest Details Society Of The Snow Leaves Out From The True Story
Society of the Snow is considered to be very authentic to the 1972 Andes plane crash and accounts of survivors, but some key aspects were left out.
“I said, ‘Come on, Roberto, I cannot do it alone. Let’s go.” Parrado recalled (viaThe Guardian). “If we go back, what for? I’m going to die looking into your eyes and who dies first?” The two agreed while Vizintín made a sled and went back to the fuselage. Canessa and Parrado hiked for 10 days and found a campsite. They found a man named Sergio Catalan and gave him a note (viaABC):
“I come from a plane that crashed in the mountains. I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for 10 days. I have 14 friends wounded on the crash site. We need help. We don’t have any food. Please come and get us.”
Catalan traveled for 10 hours and alerted the Chilean Army. Soon,the military arrived and saved Parrado and Canessa. Then, a rescue team flew in and saved the other survivors. They spent 72 days in the wilderness. At the hospital, medical personnel treated them for altitude sickness, dehydration, frostbite, broken bones, malnutrition, and scurvy.
Where Are The Survivors Now?
Many Survivors Wrote Books On Their Experience
Roberto Canessa, who was 19 when the plane crashed,said he feels that J.A. Bayona was the perfect person to adapt their story to film. “This is more than a movie. This is an experience we had to share with humanity to show people who are having their own mountain crashes how to be resourceful and how not to give up,” Canessa said (viaTime). Canessa, who was the main focus of the previous movieAlive, now works as a pediatric cardiologist and a motivational speaker in Uruguay.
La sociedad de la nieveby Pablo Vierci was published on June 02, 2025
Nando Parrado, the second man who helped hike to find a rescue, went on to become a Uruguayan businessman, producer, motivational speaker, author, and television presenter. Parrado co-wrote the 2006 bookMiracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, with Vince Rause, which tells his story from his memories of the event 34 years later. Canessa, Eduardo Strauch, and Carlos Páez Rodríguez also wrote books about the experience.
What Happened To Every Real-Life Survivor After Society Of The Snow
All 16 survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash depicted in Society of the Snow went on to have fulfilling lives. Many wrote books and became speakers.
The story of the survivors was not only told inAliveandSociety of the Snow, but also in a series of documentaries includingAlive: 20 Years Later(1993),Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains(2007), andI Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash(2010).
How Was Society Of The Snow Different From Alive?
Society Of The SnowWas More Accurate To The Real Story
Many years before J.A. Bayona releasedSociety of the Snow, there was a big Hollywood retelling of the incident.Alivecame out in theaters in 1993, directed by Frank Marshall. However, thetwo movies had one huge, important difference.Alicecast Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton in the lead roles of two of the survivors, Nando and Roberto. Meanwhile,Society of the Snowhad an entirely Spanish-speaking cast to bring authenticity to the characters from the true-life story.
Society of the Snowwas concerned with showing how all the survivors made it through the experience.
Alivemostly focused on Nano and Roberto’s 10-day mountain trek, whileSociety of the Snowwas concerned with showing how all the survivors made it through the experience, rather than breaking off and just showing the journey through the mountains. The newer movie also showed how Numa Turcatti, the last person to die before the rescue, played a big role in the group’s overall survival, whereas inAlive, he was mostly a side character.
The realistic descriptions of the incident were also more accurate inSociety of the Snow. The movie was actually shot on location at the 1972 Andes plane crash site (Alivewas mostly shot in the Canadian Rocky Mountains). Also, there are more graphic scenes in the newer movie, with more gore and realism concerning the injuries, deaths, and eventual cannibalism the survivors had to undertake. Finally,Alivenever showed Sergil Catalán, the man who got them help, leaving out an important part of the rescue.
Society of the Snow
Cast
2023 survival movie Society of the Snow tells a stunning story of adversity and human endurance. Directed by J. A. Bayona and based on Pablo Vierci’s 2009 book of the same name, it tells the true story of a plane crash in 1972, which stranded a Uruguayan rugby team high in the Andes mountains. Faced with the grave reality of their situation and on the verge of death, the youngsters turn to cannibalism to survive.
