Like Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid game taught us everything, it was the art of survival in the face of such relentless adversity. The South Korean drama takes a closer look at fundamental qualities not usually associated with survival. It dismisses fitness, strength, and physical prowess as key attributes, focusing instead on one’s intelligence, ingenuity, innovation, and cunning.
Equivalent to Squid game, several films have been made over the years that have depicted the art of survival, and the various methods and techniques used by characters to survive the most difficult of circumstances. From chopping yourself up to using your own feces for food, these are the most intense and interesting survival techniques in movie history.
7 Gerald’s game
Freshness in the bedroom can be anything from chocolate-flavored lube and roleplay to using an assortment of plugs, utensils, and vibrating paraphernalia. In the film adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel, the underrated film Mike Flanagan Gerald’s gamethe intimate acts of foreplay leave a woman handcuffed to the bedside after her husband dies suddenly.
Tied to the bed, with no access to food or water, hallucinations begin to surface, and soon Jessie must try to distinguish between what is real and what is fiction. She manages to roll a paper straw and drink from the water left on the bedpost above her, giving her time to evaluate the situation she’s in, which is how she comes up with the idea of getting her skin peel off his hand to free himself from the handcuffs. Whatever you think of the movie, it’s one of the most disturbing scenes in movie history.
6 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
After the colossal popularity of the first film, the fanfare around the Star Wars franchise reached fever. Return with The Empire strikes back because the second part certainly did not disappoint. In it, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) manages to revive a hypothermia-ridden Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) by protecting him in his dead Tauntaun’s body before he is rescued. Climbing into the corpse of a dead animal for warmth is certainly an extreme and clever survival technique.
5 Empathize
Based on the true tragedy and miracle of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the 1993 movie, Empathize describes the hardships faced by the survivors after their plane crashed in the Andes, killing 29 people. With no one to contact for help, the 16 survivors must battle the elements and the stark lack of food and water.
While cannibalism is seen as a very acquired taste, the roots of which are linked to prehistoric times, out of sheer desperation and determination to live, those who remained literally enjoyed the carcasses of the dead. Ultimately, survival has no morals.
4 Cast away
If you’re still waiting for an overdue FedEx delivery, there’s a slim chance it’s washed up on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific along with a hapless pilot. Robert Zemeckis’ Cast away follows Chuck Noland, a delivery pilot whose plane crashes during a storm.
After surviving, he washes up on the beaches of a deserted island. Not only did he manage to survive four years on the island, but he also partially succeeded in sparing his sanity by giving life to an inanimate object in Wilson the Volleyball, which through countless one-way conversations seems to prevent loneliness, boredom . insanity.
3 The Revenant
The historical action drama featured the pairing of Alejandro G. Inarritu and Emmanuel Lubezki for their second consecutive Academy Award wins for Best Director and Cinematography, respectively, following 2014’s bird man. The breathtakingly shot survival and retaliation photo The Revenantwith its expansive landscapes, intense natural light and rich use of forests, is such a compelling piece of filmmaking.
After a bear attack, frontier Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is left for dead by his team, and through unyielding resilience and painstaking perseverance, he drags himself through the icy terrains of South Dakota. While his adrenaline-packed persistence is a survival technique in itself, Glass’s methods of cauterizing his wounds and catching fish with a stone fish trap are both actions of a seasoned wildlife expert.
2 The Martian
Arguably one of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s, and perhaps of the last 20 years, Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a cinematic triumph. Matt Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, who is stranded on Mars after his team believes he is dead. With supplies dwindling, Watney self-documents his struggle as he hopes to be delivered from his fast-approaching doom.
Through ingenuity and innovative ingenuity, Mark conjures up a technique that will prolong his existence. Using his own feces as fertilizer, Watney manages to harvest potatoes that remarkably keep him alive for over a year. His discovery is not only life-saving, but also provides the nutrition his body needs, and is there a better, more versatile food than potatoes?
1 127 hours
By Trainspotting And 28 days later Unpleasant 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 respected directors of his time. Whether it’s a group of heroin addicts shooting up, blinding kids with scalding hot metal, or slum kids diving headfirst into pools of human feces, Boyle never has enough ways to shock and amaze.
In his 2011 film, 127 hoursthe British filmmaker depicts the true story of Aaron Ralston (James Franco), a mountain climber who gets stuck in a ravine after a fall, with his arm literally getting stuck between a rock and a hard place. The film graphically depicts Aaron’s relentless will to survive, going to great lengths to do so.
As the hours turn to days and all hope seems lost, Aaron leans on various techniques that just might save his life, from drinking his own urine and designing his own pulley system to going to the extreme of self-amputation. Without anesthesia and with a blunt Swiss army knife, the hiker saws through veins, bones and cartilage to free himself from the grip of certain death. It’s a grueling, intense scene made all the more powerful by the fact that it’s real.