Film

The 33

Name: The 33
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2015
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Kate del Castillo, Juliette Binoche, James Brolin

Period drama

A glossy, big-budget retelling of the 2010 San José mine collapse, in which 33 Chilean miners survived 69 days trapped half a mile underground. Antonio Banderas anchors an international cast playing men whose ordeal became a global media event. It's earnest, occasionally corny, but carries real weight from the true story beneath the Hollywood sheen — good for anyone who wants triumph-of-the-human-spirit without cynicism.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy true-life endurance stories where the tension comes from logistics, bureaucracy and stubborn teamwork rather than from gore or cheap shocks, and you don't mind a crowd-pleaser's warmth.

Skip it if this is a sincere, fairly conventional Hollywood telling, so if you want a gritty documentary edge or a sharper, more unsettling take on the disaster, look elsewhere.

What it asks of you: At two hours, its shape is steady and unhurried, with long stretches given to the families and officials waiting outside, and a warm, earnest tone that rarely turns dark.

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

If you liked this

Apollo 131995

The gold standard for true-story crisis drama: calm procedure, ticking clock, and a nation watching. Ron Howard makes technical problem-solving feel like the tensest thing in the world.

But You already know exactly how it ends, and the movie doesn't try to surprise you otherwise.

Sully2016

Clint Eastwood strips a real emergency down to its bones — quick, precise, and about a man who did his job perfectly and still got interrogated for it.

But It's short and narrow in scope; if you want sprawling ensemble drama, this isn't it.

Deepwater Horizon2016

Same DNA as The 33 — working men, corporate negligence, a disaster nobody signed up for — but louder, angrier, and shot like an action film.

But The politics are blunter and the tension is more about explosions than endurance.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The 33

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Nostalgia for the Light2010

Same desert, same country, same questions about what the earth hides and what it takes to keep looking — but told as memory and metaphor instead of reenactment.

A hypnotic Chilean documentary set in the same Atacama Desert, weaving astronomers searching the sky with mothers searching the sand for the disappeared. Philosophical, strange, and unforgettable.

But No plot, no rescue, no catharsis — it's meditative and slow, closer to poetry than drama.

Everest2015

A true story of ordinary people trapped by nature's indifference, with a starry ensemble and the same interest in the families waiting at home.

But It's bleaker and colder — literally and emotionally — with less redemptive uplift.

Captain Phillips2013

Tom Hanks in a true-story hostage situation that's really about endurance and quiet dread rather than action heroics.

But It's tenser and more claustrophobic than triumphant — less feel-good than The 33.

The Impossible2012

Another real disaster told through both the people trapped and the families searching, with the same mix of horror and hope.

But It's harrowing in a more visceral way — expect real distress, not just tension.

127 Hours2010

Strips the ensemble away entirely for one man, one canyon, and pure will to survive — the intimate cousin of The 33's larger-scale ordeal.

But It's graphic and unflinching in a way that turns some viewers away entirely.

Alive1993

Plane crash survivors in the Andes facing impossible choices — the granddaddy of the modern true-survival genre, unsentimental and gripping.

But Dated effects and pacing show its age next to slicker modern versions.

The Perfect Storm2000

Working men against nature's indifference, with the same interest in the town left waiting onshore while the men fight for their lives.

But The ending offers none of the relief The 33 does — go in braced for that.

The Wages of Fear1953

Working-class men risking death for a paycheck, bound together by fear and dependence — the same moral engine, decades earlier and with none of the sentiment.

Four desperate men drive trucks of nitroglycerin across South American mountain roads for money they badly need. Existential dread has rarely been this gripping.

But Black-and-white, subtitled, and merciless — it offers tension without any of The 33's comfort.

The Descent2005

Takes the literal premise — people sealed in darkness underground, running out of everything — and pushes it into nightmare, showing how thin the line between survival drama and horror really is.

A group of women become trapped in an uncharted cave system, and what starts as claustrophobic survival horror turns into something much nastier.

But It's a horror film — genuinely frightening, occasionally gory, built to unsettle rather than uplift.