The Best Survival Movies Streaming Now
Plus, a guest fills in for The Office Episode of the Week!
Have you ever thought about why we are drawn to survival movies? Is it because we like to imagine what we would do in that scenario? Or is it a form of escapism where we watch a character in an extreme environment that we will never experience? It can be both of those things, but I think our affinity for survival movies goes deeper. In the same way we love underdog against-all-odds stories, we enjoy seeing a human refuse to give up. There’s something base about our desire to witness the tremendous will to live in dire circumstances.
We’ve got some of those stories for you today. These films involve survival against extreme weather, wolves, a deserted island, a huge rock, and deranged parents. Get ready, things are about to get desperate.
Drew recommends…
127 Hours (streaming on HBO Now)
You’ve probably heard the true story, even if you haven’t seen the movie. A mountain climber in Utah gets his arm trapped beneath a boulder. He’s stuck in a canyon in the middle of nowhere with no one coming to find him. This is the story of Aron Ralston, who had to resort to extraordinary measures to save himself by cutting off his own arm in 2003.
In order for a survivor movie to succeed, you have to have a compelling actor at the center of it all. Think Tom Hanks in Castaway or Matt Damon in The Martian. This needs to be someone the audience wants to spend essentially an entire movie watching on screen. As Ralston, James Franco fits this mold in one of his best performances. He’s the right amount of charismatic, peculiar, and relatable to carry this film from start to finish. Franco also nails the heavy dramatic scenes, which are not easy when you are solo acting.
The director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) has always been known as a frenetic, fast-paced filmmaker, but here he gives himself a unique challenge by bringing this style to a film about a character who is literally stuck. What might at first appear to be a strange marriage of director and material turns out to be an unexpected success. We are never bored while Aron figures out how to free himself, thanks to Franco’s excellent work and Boyle’s kinetic flair.
This all might sound like a grueling experience to sit through, and it can be at times, but this only makes the ending all the more rewarding. For a film that depicts an unimaginably desperate situation, 127 Hours has a surprisingly moving and uplifting climax. I don’t often get teary during movies, but I can recall going all misty-eyed near the end of this movie when I saw it in theaters almost ten years ago. Aron’s story is so unthinkable that when he emerges with his life you can’t help but feel buoyed as you watch it.
The Grey (streaming on Hulu)
Liam Neeson fights wolves in the snow. I mean, what more do I need to type?
The Grey surprised me, because I assumed this would be a ridiculous and unrealistic movie where Neeson defeats a bunch of wolves with his bare hands. That’s not really what The Grey is. Instead, we get an intense survival story packed with fear and dread. The story follows Neeson as a marksman for an oil company that drills in Alaska. Basically, he shoots wolves that threaten the drillers out in the Alaskan tundra. When a plane carrying Neeson and the oil workers goes down, they have to find a way to survive as a pack of timberwolves stalk them through the unrelenting cold.
This film came in the middle of Liam Neeson’s (ongoing) Taken-era run of action flicks. I’m too lazy to look up all their titles, but there are a ton of movies since the first Taken that feature a stone-faced Neeson on the poster holding a gun. I haven’t seen all of these (and unless you’re a Neeson-ologist, you probably haven’t either), but The Grey seems like the most unique (and possibly best) of the Neeson action hero genre. He mostly gives the same performance in all of them, but here he truly convinced me he was an Alaskan oil driller with personal demons and a complicated home life.
While the plot contains nerve-wracking sequences where the plane crash survivors (led by Neeson of course) do their best to evade the hungry wolves, only to get picked off one by one, The Grey is actually fairly contemplative in its quieter moments. Neeson’s character reckons with his past suicidal thoughts as he now fights for his life in the snowy wilderness. And while the ending was not universally approved, I really admired it. No spoilers here, but it struck me as very true to the character. Come for “Neesons vs. wolves” but stay for the resonant story.
Billy recommends…
Swiss Army Man (streaming on Netflix)
There has never been a survival story told quite like this. We have Paul Dano who has been stranded on an island and the first scene shows him trying to kill himself. A somber beginning shoots us into an incredibly silly tale of a man facing his own insecurities through the new friend he finds. Who might be dead. Or a hallucination that can fart so hard that you can drive him like a jet ski and his boner acts like a compass.
Don’t let the boner compass deter you from seeing this one. I actually hope it makes you want to watch it more because there are few movies that are as silly and endearing as this one. It is a love story, a survival epic, and a buddy comedy all mixed into one movie. Hank (Paul Dano) finds Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), whose origins are a mystery. A man that is originally thought dead and is reincarnated into a human version of a Swiss Army Knife. Hence the title of Swiss Army Man, and it seems like Manny reveals more of his abilities as Hank teaches him more about the world around him.
In this one we get a beautiful story about dealing with anxiety, depression, and the importance of friends in the process of all that. For all of his life Hank has felt like an outcast and the fear that gave him locked him out of many impactful relationships. Manny, his living dead friend, is the only person he has been able to connect with ever. A sad reality, but it is wonderful to see two buds joke and have fun while each learning a ton. Manny learning how to be human again and Hank learning how to live with his anxiety through having to survive a traumatic experience of being stranded and alone.
The humor in this one carries such a strange plot and the soundtrack that was created by the directors is a beautiful compliment to a budding friendship. Swiss Army Man is not one of the best movies I have ever seen, but it is one of the most rewarding movie experiences I have ever had. In a world of unoriginality, it is nice to see such an original tale reveal such a sweet story.
Mom and Dad (streaming on Hulu)
This might be my favorite movie tagline of all time: “They brought you into this world. Now they’ll take you out.” Mom and Dad is a spin on a survival zombie tale where parents across the world all of a sudden have the urge to kill their children because of a faulty TV signal. Now, with such an insane premise, who do you think will be cast in this movie? That’s right! Nicolas Cage.
The skill of creating a fun B-movie is probably one of the hardest things a director can do. These movies are meant to be cheesy and eccentric, but a bad script and bad actors can make a purposefully crazy movie into a bad one. Lucky for me and all of you this does not fall into that category. Parents trying to kill their kids is such a dark and absurd premise that it brought a smile to my face the entire movie.
I feel weird for smiling, but kids trying to survive the rage of Nicolas Cage is a dream come true. The reviews of this movie are pretty hilarious and I feel completely on the mark. I think there are deeper meanings in this one. In a review by Adam White he observes, “Mom and Dad is both a torrid exploitation cinema throwback, and a metaphor for a generation of kids screwed over by their elders.” Movies, even the most insane, have something beneath the surface. The best ones masking their themes so that the audience can enjoy the ride more. Mom and Dad does that brilliantly and for that reason I hope you get a bunch of friends together and watch this one. It is worth it.
Streaming TV Corner
What we’re watching this week
Drew: Unbelievable (streaming on Netflix)
Last week Netflix released an excellent miniseries that dramatizes the real-life investigation into a serial rapist in Washington and Colorado around ten years ago. From the synopsis, you can probably guess that this is not always a comfortable show to watch, but Unbelievable has incredible empathy for the victims and lets you see how much work law enforcement puts in to catch the perpetrators. The show really gets going about halfway into its eight episodes when the two lead female detectives team up to do everything they can to find the truth. If you are into true crime stories, this is not one to miss.
The Office Episode of the Week
Drew: I’m mixing it up this time and bringing in my wife Emily for The Office Episode of the Week. Here she is on a very important episode in The Office history:
Emily: “Niagara” (Season 6, Episodes 4 & 5)
This two-part Season 6 gem is the one where everyone travels to Niagara Falls for Jim and Pam’s wedding and is arguably 47 of my favorite minutes of television of all time. Every moment of these two episodes is either heartwarming, hilarious, or both. It will make you FEEL things.
Part 1 highlights include Jim’s adorable rehearsal dinner toast, Michael trying to explain Pam’s premarital pregnancy to her conservative grandmother, and Dwight telling a girl at the bar that he owns “9 and ¾ horses”.
Then, in Part 2 we transcend into TV moments that I return to over and over again when I’m looking to smile through my tears. Including, but not limited to:
The epic dance number down the aisle to Chris Brown’s (who DYLA does not endorse) “Forever”
Jim cutting his tie in half in an effort to make Pam feel better about wedding day mishaps
Jim and Pam sneaking away from everyone to go get married on the Maid of the Mist
THIS LINE: “The boat was actually Plan C. The church was Plan B. And Plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her.“
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please pass it along to a friend, share it on social, or shout it from the nearest mountaintop. We’d appreciate it.
If you’d like to read past newsletters, hit up our archive.