If Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game taught us anything, it was the art of survival in the face of such merciless adversity. The South Korean drama hones in on the fundamental qualities that one may not have typically associated with survival. It discards fitness, strength, and physical prowess as key attributes, and instead focuses on one’s intelligence, ingenuity, innovation, and craftiness.
Similar to Squid Game, there have been several films over the years that have depicted the art of survival, and the various methods and techniques deployed by characters to survive the most trying of circumstances. From dismembering yourself to using your own feces for food, these are the most intense and interesting survival techniques in movie history.
7 Gerald’s Game
Friskiness in the bedroom can involve all sorts, from lapping up chocolate-flavored lubricant and role-play, to the employment of an assortment of plugs, utensils, and vibrating paraphernalia. In the screen adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel, the underrated Mike Flanagan movie Gerald’s Game, the intimate acts of foreplay leave a woman handcuffed to the bed after her husband dies suddenly.
Tied to the bed, with no access to food or water, hallucinations begin to take hold, and soon Jessie must attempt to differentiate between what is real and what’s a figment of her imagination. She manages to roll a paper straw and drink from the water left above her on the bedpost, giving her time to evaluate the situation she’s in, and thus, conjures the idea of peeling back the skin on her hand to free herself from the handcuffs. Whatever you think of the film, that is one of the most disturbing scenes in movie history.
6 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
After the colossal popularity of its maiden movie, the fanfare around the Star Wars franchise reached fever pitch. Returning with The Empire Strikes Back as its second installment certainly didn’t disappoint. In it, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) manages to revive a hypothermia-ridden Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), by sheltering him inside the body of his deceased Tauntaun before being rescued. Climbing inside the corpse of a dead animal for warmth is certainly an extreme and clever survival technique.
5 Alive
Based on the real-life tragedy and miracle of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the 1993 film, Alive details the hardships faced by the survivors after their plane crashes in the Andes, leaving 29 people dead. With no way of contacting anyone for help, the 16 survivors are left to contest with the elements, as well as with the stark lack of food and water.
While cannibalism is viewed as very much an acquired taste, with its roots tied to prehistoric times, out of sheer desperation and determination to live, those that remained very literally feasted on the carcasses of the dead. Survival ultimately has no morals.
4 Cast Away
If you're still awaiting an overdue FedEx delivery, there’s a chance, albeit slim, that it has washed up on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific along with an unfortunate pilot. Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away follows Chuck Noland, a delivery pilot whose plane crashes while in a storm.
After surviving, he washes up on the beaches of an uninhabited island. Not only did he manage to survive on the island for four years, but he managed to partially spare his sanity by giving life to an inanimate object in Wilson the Volleyball, who through countless one-way conversations seems to stave off loneliness, boredom, and insanity.
3 The Revenant
The period action drama featured the combination of Alejandro G. Inarritu and Emmanuel Lubezki for their second consecutive Academy Award wins for Best Director and Cinematography, respectively, after 2014’s Birdman. The breathtakingly shot survival and retribution picture The Revenant, with its sprawling landscapes, intense natural light, and rich use of woodland, is such an immersive piece of movie-making.
Following a bear attack, frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is left for dead by his team, and through unbending resilience and painstaking grit, he drags himself through the icy terrains of South Dakota. While his adrenaline-fueled persistence is a survival technique in itself, Glass’ methods of cauterizing his wounds and catching fish using a stone fish trap are both actions of a seasoned wildlife expert.
2 The Martian
Irrefutably one of the best sci-fi flicks of the 2010s, and arguably of the last 20 years, Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a cinematic triumph. Matt Damon portrays astronaut Mark Watney, who is left stranded on Mars after his team believes him to be dead. With dwindling supplies, Watney self-documents his struggles as he hopes to be delivered from his fast-approaching demise.
Through ingenuity and innovative resourcefulness, Mark conjures up a technique that will prolong his existence. Using his own excrement as fertilizer, Watney manages to harvest Potatoes that remarkably keep him alive for over a year. Not only is his discovery life-saving, but it provides the nourishment his body requires, and is there a better, more abundantly versatile food than potatoes?
1 127 Hours
From Trainspotting and 28 Days Later to Slumdog Millionaire and Sunshine, Danny Boyle’s approach to capturing gritty realism in its most palpable, tangible form has made him one of the most revered directors of his time. Whether it be a group of heroin addicts shooting up, blinding children with scalding hot metal, or slum kids plunging head-first into pools of human feces, Boyle never runs out of ways to shock and amaze.
In his 2011 movie, 127 Hours, the British filmmaker depicts the true story of Aaron Ralston (James Franco), a mountain climber who, after a fall, finds himself stuck in a canyon, with his arm very literally lodged between a rock and a hard place. The film offers a graphic portrayal of Aaron’s unwavering will to survive, going to extreme lengths to do so.
As the hours turn into days and all hope seems lost, Aaron leans on several techniques that may just save his life, from drinking his own urine and designing his own pulley system to going to the lengths of self-amputation. Without the use of anesthesia, and using a blunt Swiss Army knife, the hiker saws through veins, bone, and cartilage in order to free himself from the grips of certain death. It's a grueling, intense scene made all the more powerful by the fact that it's real.