Society Of The Snow, A Desperate True Story Like YellowJackets

If you love a limited Netflix series and hate sifting through the not-so-great ones, let me steer you in the direction of Society of the Snow. For movie lovers who like nothing more than to sit back with a survival story, this time based on real events. In 1972, a Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes Mountains left 29 survivors on a snowy barren landscape. Also assisting in the success of the film is the screenplay extracted from a book of the same name, released in 2009 by Pablo Vierci.

Director J. A. Bayona is a Spanish filmmaker responsible for iconic movies like The Orphanage and The Impossible as well as a solid installment of Jurassic Park with Fallen Kingdom. Society of the Snow is another well-earned feather in this talented human’s cap. Bayona is very talented at creating a dramatic opening in the titles as mentioned earlier. Society of the Snow is no different, featuring a jaw-clenching plane crash just shy of 13 minutes into the run time.

Society of the Snow True Story

A small voiceover introduces the sentiment of the movie as a whole, Society of the Snow is not something you watch to make yourself feel better. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions and taps into the notion of faith without ever having to say anything bad about it. A man reads a short story about a plane crash and how 40 passengers and 5 crew members boarded an aircraft. As the camera sweeps over thousands of miles of white by the time the man finishes reading, only a small blotch can be seen. A crashed plane in the middle of nowhere with people who are still alive.

Some say it was a tragedy, others call it a miracle. What really happened? What happens when the world abandons you? When you have no clothes and you’re freezing. When you have no food and you’re dying. The answer is in the mountains.

Quote from the beginning of Society of the Snow

If you’re a fan of the awesome series Yellowjackets, you may immediately think about it while watching Society of the Snow. After the quiet beginning featuring a glimpse of the crashed Air Force flight, the narrative kicks in with a close-up of a rugby team in the middle of a match. Instilling the idea of healthy rivalries, commitment to the Church, and camaraderie among a group of men about to travel overseas Society of the Snow seeks to make sure you care about each of them as individuals. A more prominent reason the run time exceeds the two-hour mark but is worth every extra minute.

Surprisingly, the Society of the Snow movie excels in tension-building moments and the terror of desperation. Laying out the facts of the ordeal in its most simple terms is almost enough. After the plane was split in two, 45 human lives were reduced to 16 survivors who were all allowed back into a different society from whence they came.

Bayona’s spectacular vision of the crash is the type of ordeal that makes you hold your breath. But even after the remnants of the carcass of the plane slide to a miraculous stop, it’s impossible to ignore the chances of survival are slim. What I found profound in Bayona’s vision of this story is the portrayal of the rise and fall of the pivotal survival movie champions.

The personalities offer up the mindset that all is not lost to encourage the participation of those remaining. As the numbers start to drop both in temperature and heartbeats, Society of the Snow marks a giant hole of empathetic impact by ensuring each of the real-life victims’ names and an epitaph are shown on screen.

If you’ve nothing better to do than Netflix and Chill, Society of the Snow will leave you feeling lucky to be alive.

Director J.A. Bayona.
Writers J.A. Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana and Jaime Marques.
Stars Enzo Vogrincic, Agustín Pardella and, Matías Recalt.

Society of The Snow Trivia

Society of the Snow is rated

4.5 Weightloss for movie roles out of 5