The True Story of Society of the Snow
These survivors defied the odds. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the harrowing true story behind the Netflix movie “Society of the Snow”.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 "If I die, I give you permission to feed off my body."
00:02 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the harrowing true story
00:06 behind the Netflix movie, "Society of the Snow."
00:09 "Some say it was a tragedy. Others say it was a miracle."
00:14 As "Society of the Snow's" opening monologue explains,
00:19 the events of late 1972 are described as both a tragedy and a miracle.
00:24 On October 13th that year, Flight 571 departed from Montevideo, Uruguay,
00:29 heading toward Santiago, Chile.
00:31 The flight, going on a common route, which headed south from Montevideo to cross a lower
00:38 point of the Andes mountain range, then turned northwards again to reach Santiago,
00:42 and was only supposed to take 90 minutes.
00:44 Instead, it took over 10 weeks, or 72 days to be exact,
00:56 for the passengers to leave the mountains and reach Chile.
00:59 Many passengers belonged to the old Christian's Club rugby union team,
01:03 and were on their way to a match in Chile. They also brought their family members on the flight.
01:08 Blame for the crash rests on the co-pilot's shoulders.
01:16 The pilot in command was training him on the route, but it's still not clear why,
01:20 when the co-pilot appeared to read the instruments wrong, the pilot in command didn't take over.
01:25 Ultimately, the co-pilot, Dante Lagorara, believed he had overshot Curicó,
01:31 the point where he was supposed to turn north.
01:33 Neither the pilots nor air traffic control realized that a huge mistake had been made,
01:37 and Flight 571 turned north long before it should have.
01:41 As it tried to descend, they soon saw they were on a collision course for the mountains,
01:46 and they couldn't regain enough height in time.
01:54 As seen in the movie, the plane struck a mountain ridge,
01:57 tearing it in half, cutting off the wings and crashing at the top of a mountain.
02:01 Of the 45 people aboard the plane, 12 died immediately due to the crash,
02:13 and on the first night, five more. Their only shelter from the elements was the plane fuselage,
02:19 but it was little help against the severe weather, which hit -22 degrees Fahrenheit at night.
02:25 The plane had some food, but this ran out quickly,
02:28 and they resorted to eating anything they could find,
02:31 including leather straps and cotton seat filling.
02:34 The only silver lining in all of this was that being on a snow-capped mountain,
02:39 they were able to melt the snow and get fresh water.
02:46 None of them had any survival training, but luckily,
02:49 there were two medical students on the plane, Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zardino.
02:54 They were able to treat the wounded, though many still tragically perished.
02:58 Despite the search effort beginning only an hour after the plane was expected to land in Santiago,
03:06 with planes passing over the survivors and wreckage three times,
03:10 it was eventually called off after eight days.
03:13 [Spanish]
03:15 It was impossible to see the white plane against the snowy mountains from the air,
03:28 and it wasn't believed that anybody could have survived,
03:30 but dozens were still alive at this point.
03:40 However, they'd run out of food and began to get sick.
03:44 Knowing that help wasn't coming anytime soon,
03:46 they made the now notorious decision to use the bodies of the deceased passengers for sustenance.
03:52 In "Society of the Snow," we see the survivors agonize over this,
04:04 and how it was a crime and a sin not to mention that those people were their family and friends.
04:09 But it soon became clear that if they were going to survive at all, it was necessary.
04:13 To make it easier to accept, they compared it to organ donation, or communion.
04:24 Considering it took another two months to be rescued,
04:26 we know that if they hadn't done this, they all would have perished.
04:37 The situation got even more dire on October 29th, though, when there was an avalanche.
04:42 In a 2024 interview, Roberto Canessa revealed that in his opinion,
04:46 the avalanche was more horrific than the decision about the food supply.
04:49 He said that he was buried alive,
05:00 and that they were trapped in the fuselage during a blizzard for four days.
05:04 Eight more people died during this ordeal.
05:07 They dug their way out when the storm ended,
05:09 but had to wait for the snow to melt for the fuselage to be exposed to the air again.
05:13 After this, they began putting together a plan to get help.
05:22 With the weather beginning to ease up,
05:27 remembering that as this is the Southern Hemisphere,
05:30 the summer months are December to February,
05:32 they started to explore beyond the crash site.
05:34 After various failed attempts to descend the mountain,
05:45 though one expedition did result in them finding the plane's tail section and some more food,
05:50 and more deaths,
05:51 the final and ultimately successful expedition began on December 12th.
05:55 [Spanish]
05:57 This was almost two months exactly from the day the plane crashed.
06:09 [Spanish]
06:11 Initially, Nando Parado, Roberto Canessa, and his team
06:19 were the only ones who were able to get to the crash site.
06:22 [Spanish]
06:24 Initially, Nando Parado, Roberto Canessa, and Antonio Bizzini left
06:29 after constructing a large quilt that could be used as a sleeping bag during their descent.
06:33 But there was another blow to morale when they realized that they weren't as far west as they believed.
06:38 They were much deeper in the Andes,
06:40 and the trek to leave the mountains would be long and dangerous.
06:44 It became clear that they hadn't brought enough food for the three of them,
06:47 so Bizzini turned back.
06:49 [Spanish]
06:51 Parado and Canessa weren't convinced they would survive the trek,
06:55 but decided to attempt it anyway,
06:57 and thank God they did.
06:59 It took 10 days, but finally,
07:01 Parado and Canessa escaped the snow and the mountains,
07:03 and found themselves in the Chilean countryside.
07:06 It was still an extremely rural area, however,
07:09 and it took a while for them to find anybody who could help.
07:11 [Spanish]
07:14 [Spanish]
07:16 Eventually, though, they came across an arriero,
07:25 a man with a pack mule, and using a note tied to a rock,
07:29 were able to get a message to him by throwing the rock back and forth across a river.
07:33 [Spanish]
07:35 The authorities were notified, and Parado and Canessa were housed
07:42 and given real food for the first time in months.
07:45 Just a day after they'd been rescued,
07:47 three helicopters arrived to ascend the mountain
07:49 and find the remaining survivors as soon as possible.
07:52 [Spanish]
07:54 Nando Parado volunteered to go with them as a guide,
08:02 though we can't imagine it was easy to go back up that mountain.
08:05 [Helicopter]
08:07 [Screaming]
08:10 [Helicopter]
08:12 The helicopters had a strict weight requirement,
08:17 which meant that unfortunately, all the survivors couldn't be rescued at once.
08:21 [Spanish]
08:23 Six were brought down on December 22nd,
08:28 and the remaining eight on December 23rd.
08:30 [Spanish]
08:35 In total, 16 people of the original 45 survived the ordeal,
08:40 spending 72 days in nightmarish conditions in the heart of the Andes Mountains.
08:45 Though this is where Society of the Snow ends,
08:47 with the survivors safe and receiving medical treatment,
08:50 the story isn't quite over.
08:52 As we all know, the 1972 disaster is infamous because of what they did to survive,
08:57 namely eating the dead.
08:59 Stories began to circulate almost immediately,
09:02 with photos taken of the crash site showing partially consumed remains appearing in the press.
09:07 Horrifically, speculation began that the survivors had actually killed their family and friends for food,
09:12 which they absolutely hadn't.
09:14 [Spanish]
09:16 They were forced to hold a press conference mere days after being rescued to address what had happened,
09:22 explaining what they had done, why they had done it,
09:25 and that the survivors who'd had the chance, i.e. those who hadn't died immediately,
09:30 had agreed to this, to help their friends survive.
09:33 [Spanish]
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09:52 In the decades since, while the entire story is very harrowing and maybe distressing for some to hear,
09:59 we know that it was truly a matter of life and death.
10:02 [Spanish]
10:10 They all would have died if they hadn't done this.
10:12 The deceased were finally laid to rest at the crash site,
10:15 and today, there's a memorial and an altar.
10:17 What was left of the plane was burned.
10:20 There's also a museum dedicated to flight in Montevideo, the Andes Museum 1972.
10:26 Many of the survivors have spoken and written about their ordeal,
10:29 with Parado becoming a race car driver and motivational speaker,
10:33 and Canessa ultimately qualifying as a doctor.
10:35 [Spanish]
10:45 Some of them have even returned to the mountain and the crash site in the years since being rescued.
10:49 Eduardo Strauch in particular says that returning helps him to remember those they lost.
10:54 Let us know whether you watched Society of the Snow and what you thought of it.
10:58 It's a difficult story to hear, but an important one to be told,
11:01 about how even against insurmountable odds,
11:04 when the entire world is against you, you can persevere and make it out alive.
11:09 And that was the true story behind Society of the Snow.
11:12 [Spanish]
11:19 [Music]