Film

Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains

Name: Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
Genre: Documentary, History
Released: 2007
Cast: José Pedro Algorta, Roberto Canessa, Alfredo Daniel Delgado Salaberri, Daniel Fernández Strauch, Roberto François Álvarez

A harrowing documentary where Uruguayan rugby players recount their 72-day ordeal in the Andes after a 1972 plane crash. Told entirely through survivor testimony and archival footage, it's an intimate portrait of human endurance, impossible choices, and the bonds forged in extremity. Essential viewing for anyone drawn to survival stories rooted in real courage.

TMDb rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a survival story told in the survivors' own unvarnished voices, where the drama comes from endurance, faith and unlikely friendship rather than from staging or spectacle.

Skip it if you need a fast pace or a lot of cinematic flourish, since this is a sit-down documentary of talking heads and archival-style recollection that lingers on the long, cold waiting.

What it asks of you: Just over two hours of patient listening, with a slow, steady rhythm, and a willingness to sit with heavy subject matter while people calmly recount the grind of each day.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Alive1993

The dramatized telling of this same crash, with Frank Marshall directing and Ethan Hawke leading an ensemble cast. It gives you the emotional arc and human stakes in vivid, visceral form—the counterpart to the documentary's firsthand accounts.

But Some find the 1990s filmmaking dated, and dramatization can feel reductive after hearing the real survivors speak for themselves.

Touching the Void2003

Joe Simpson's near-fatal Peruvian climbing accident told through his own voice and reconstructed sequences. It has the same intimate, survivor-centered approach and builds unbearable tension despite you knowing he lived to tell it.

But The climbing footage can feel monotonous to non-climbers, and it's relentlessly dark about human fragility.

Meru2015

A documentary about three climbers attempting a dangerous Himalayan peak, balancing personal stakes with breathtaking mountain cinematography. It captures the psychological toll of high-altitude survival with the same gravity as *Stranded*.

But Less about survival triumph, more about the obsession that drives climbers—if you want straightforward heroism, this complicates it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Milk of Sorrow2009

Both are South American stories about surviving the unseeable—one physical catastrophe, one the lingering aftermath of violence. Both ask what it means to carry survival forward.

A Peruvian magical-realist film about historical trauma passed through generations. It shares *Stranded*'s examination of how survival changes those who endure it, but approaches it through dream logic and cultural memory rather than documentary realism.

But It's oblique and visually strange; if you expect linear narrative or clear resolution, this will frustrate you.

Free Solo2018

Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan without ropes—pure, focused tension about a single man against the mountain. The documentary captures extraordinary courage and the thin margin between life and death with unflinching clarity.

But Some viewers find the premise irresponsibly reckless rather than inspiring; the tension can feel artificial if you resent the choice itself.

Grizzly Man2005

Werner Herzog's portrait of Timothy Treadwell, a man who lived among grizzly bears in Alaska. It's a meditation on obsession, nature's indifference, and how we construct meaning from catastrophe—thematically close to *Stranded*'s moral reckoning.

But It's more philosophical than plot-driven, and Herzog's narration can feel arch; it won't give you the catharsis of survival triumph.

The Rescue2021

The Thai cave rescue of 2018 told by the divers and officials who saved thirteen boys and their soccer coach. It's recent, gripping, and captures real people under impossible pressure making impossible decisions.

But The outcome is known and perhaps overexposed in media; some find the documentary less moving than the real-time news coverage was.

Balto1995

An animated film about the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska—a survival story with dogs and mushers fighting blizzard and isolation. It carries genuine stakes and the same theme of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

But It's a family film, so the emotional register is different; if you want adult gravity, this softens it.

127 Hours2010

James Franco as Aron Ralston, trapped by a boulder in a Utah canyon for five days. Danny Boyle's direction is visceral and intimate, capturing one man's mental and physical battle against the mountain with unflinching intensity.

But It's graphic and claustrophobic; the self-amputation sequence is brutal, and some find Franco's performance a touch theatrical.

Sherpa2015

A documentary about the Sherpa climbers of Everest, focusing on the 2014 avalanche that killed sixteen men. It shifts perspective from climber to guide, examining exploitation and class within survival narratives.

But It's less about personal triumph and more about systemic injustice; if you want inspiration, this offers critique instead.

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner2002

Both center survival as the core human story, but *Atanarjuat* locates it in cultural tradition and landscape memory rather than modern disaster. Both ask: what does it take to keep going?

An Inuit film (in Inuktitut) about a man hunted across ice and tundra. It's a survival narrative rooted in a specific culture and landscape, with the same elemental stakes as the Andes crash—man against nature, endurance as moral act.

But It's in a language most don't speak, the pacing is unhurried, and it's as much mythology as thriller.