Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Intense, based-on-a-true-story survival tale is riveting.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Alive
What's the Story?
In 1972, a Uruguayan rugby team is on a small plane bound for Chile. While crossing the Andes Mountains, the plane loses power and crashes. The crash splits the plane in two, and as the survivors attempt to come to grips with the situation, they remain convinced that a rescue plane will find them very soon. When they learn through a patched-together radio that the search parties have left them for dead, the survivors must find a way to go on living with hardly any food or enough shelter to survive the brutally cold temperatures. As they struggle to remain alive and to take care of the wounded, the survivors are faced with a terrible dilemma: With no food, their only means of maintaining enough strength to find help is to eat from the flesh of their dead companions. Faced with the slimmest chances of survival, Nando (Ethan Hawke) must put aside his grief over the loss of loved ones who died and find the strength and willpower to find a way to rescue himself and those who have continued to cling to life several weeks after the crash.
Is It Any Good?
This film pulls no punches in showing the horrors of the actual plane crash and the many ways the survivors respond to the shock. The real takeaway from Alive, however, is not that the survivors were forced to resort to eating the meat from the bodies of their dead companions -- although that is the best-known aspect to both the true story and the movie. What really emerges here is a testament to spirituality, willpower, and perseverance in the midst of life-or-death conditions. The desperate measures they employ to survive are not exploited for a cheap and easy sensationalism but are shown to be passionately argued, pro and con, through the prisms of survival, ethical, and spiritual concerns, to say nothing of revulsion at the idea itself.
No one in the story is brave, virtuous, and rational all the time, and what comes through are the assorted psychological mechanisms the survivors employ as the days turn into weeks. Spirituality and prayer are shown and discussed, but unlike so many movies that talk of religious belief, it's not heavy-handed but a reflection of the faith inherent in these characters.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about movies in which characters must survive disasters and harsh climates. What do you think is the appeal of these kinds of movies?
How far would you go to survive? Would you make the same decision the characters in this story do?
How is spirituality addressed in this movie? Does it seem heavy-handed, or is it a reflection of who the characters are and one of the ways in which they struggle to make sense of what's happening to them?
Movie Details
- In theaters : January 15, 1993
- On DVD or streaming : October 8, 2002
- Cast : Ethan Hawke , John Malkovich , Vincent Spano
- Director : Frank Marshall
- Studio : Buena Vista
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Friendship , History
- Run time : 126 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : strong violent content and language
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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