You’ve probably seen the posters or scrolled past it on a streaming menu: a family stranded in a desert that used to be an ocean. Honestly, the premise of the movie Survive (2024) is enough to give anyone a bit of an existential crisis. But as people start digging into the cast of Survive 2024, things get a little confusing.
Is it the Sophie Turner project? Or that French thriller everyone is talking about on Reddit?
Let’s clear the air right now. The 2024 film Survive is a French-produced survival thriller directed by Frédéric Jardin. It’s got a small, tight-knit cast that has to carry the entire weight of a world where the poles have flipped and the water has literally vanished.
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The Core Players: Who is actually in the cast of Survive 2024?
The movie doesn’t rely on a massive ensemble. It’s intimate, which makes the horror of their situation feel way more claustrophobic.
Andreas Pietschmann as Tom
If you watched the mind-bending Netflix series Dark, you’ll recognize Andreas Pietschmann immediately. He played "The Stranger" (Middle Jonas), and he brings that same weathered, intense energy here. In Survive, he plays Tom, a father trying to celebrate his son’s birthday on a boat before the world decides to turn itself inside out. Pietschmann is great at playing characters who look like they’ve seen too much, and he’s basically the emotional anchor of the first act.
Émilie Dequenne as Julia
Julia is the heart of the film. Émilie Dequenne is a powerhouse in French cinema—you might know her from Brotherhood of the Wolf or her breakout role in Rosetta. In this film, she has to go from a panicked mom to a full-on warrior. It’s a physical role. She’s crawling through sand, fighting off weird deep-sea creatures, and dealing with a leg injury that’ll make you wince.
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Lucas Ebel and Lisa Delamar as Ben and Cassie
These are the kids. Ben is the birthday boy, and Cassie is the sister who is almost always wearing her headphones—a plot point that honestly frustrated a lot of viewers because she keeps missing cues of danger. Lucas Ebel and Lisa Delamar do a solid job of playing "useless-turned-capable" teens.
The Supporting Danger
Arben Bajraktaraj as The Man with the Harpoon
Every survival movie needs a human threat, and Arben Bajraktaraj is terrifying. You might remember him as the Death Eater Antonin Dolohov in the Harry Potter movies. He shows up in Survive as a mute, nameless antagonist who is just... stabby. There’s no big monologue explaining why he’s evil. He’s just there, and he’s a nightmare.
Wait, What About Sophie Turner?
This is where the Google search results get messy. There is a project called Survive starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins. It started as a Quibi series back in 2020. Because Quibi died a swift death, that series was re-edited into a feature film and released in some regions around 2024.
If you are looking for the "airplane crash in the snow" movie, that’s the Sophie Turner one. But the cast of Survive 2024 usually refers to the Frédéric Jardin film with the "ocean-turned-desert" plot. It’s a bit of a "Deep Impact" vs. "Armageddon" situation, just with the same title.
Why the cast had a tough job on this set
The movie was shot in just 20 days. That is insanely fast for a sci-fi thriller.
With a budget of about five million Euros, they couldn't afford huge sets or thousands of extras. Most of the movie is just these four or five people in a wasteland. They filmed in Morocco to get that "dead ocean floor" look, which meant the actors were dealing with actual heat and sand.
Honestly, the chemistry between Pietschmann and Dequenne is what keeps the first twenty minutes from feeling like a boring home movie. When the "polarity reversal" hits (which is some wild pseudo-science, let’s be real), their transition from a happy couple to terrified survivors feels earned.
Does the cast of Survive 2024 make it worth watching?
Look, the reviews are... mixed. Some people love the "dream logic" and the weird Moebius-style visuals. Others are annoyed by the characters making questionable choices (like Tom walking up to a guy with a harpoon while being completely unarmed).
But if you like creature features, the cast sells the terror of the "crab horror" well.
"The brand of crab horror on offer here is something you would have found at the very back of a video shop back in the day." — Outnow.ch
It's a "B-movie" with "A-list" European talent.
Actionable Insights for Fans
- Watch the right one: Check the thumbnail. If you see sand and a boat, it’s the 2024 French film. If you see snow and a plane, it’s the Sophie Turner re-edit.
- Look for the sub: If you can, watch the original version with subtitles. Some viewers have noted that the English dubbing for the French cast is a bit jarring and loses some of the emotional nuance.
- Follow the actors: If you liked Andreas Pietschmann, go watch Dark or 1899. If Émilie Dequenne impressed you, check out Close (2022).
To get the most out of the experience, try to ignore the wonky science of the "ocean relocation" and focus on the performances. The cast of Survive 2024 does a lot with very little, turning a bizarre premise into a tense 90-minute sprint.