People usually think they know this story. You mention the 1972 plane crash in the Andes, and the first thing anyone brings up is the cannibalism. It’s a gruesome, knee-jerk reaction. But Society of the Snow, or La Sociedad de la Nieve, isn't really a movie about eating people. Not in the way you'd expect.
It’s about the cold.
The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 went down on October 13, 1972. It carried 45 people, including the Old Christians Club rugby team. They were young. They were athletic. Most of them were just kids, honestly, flying from Montevideo to Santiago for a match. When the plane hit the mountain, it didn't just break apart; it fundamentally shattered the reality of everyone on board.
J.A. Bayona spent years getting this right. He didn't want a Hollywood gloss. He wanted the dirt under the fingernails and the sound of skin cracking in the wind. If you've seen the 1993 film Alive, you've seen a survival story. But Society of the Snow is something else entirely—it's a spiritual autopsy of what it means to stay human when the world forgets you exist.
What Society of the Snow Gets Right About the Andes Disaster
Most survival movies focus on the "hero." You know the type. The guy who takes charge, shouts orders, and eventually saves the day through sheer willpower. Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa are those guys in real life, sure. They walked for ten days through the highest peaks of the Andes to find help. It’s a miracle they survived.
But Bayona chose Numa Turcatti as his narrator.
This was a genius move. Numa wasn't one of the survivors who made it home. By centering the story on Numa, the film acknowledges the 29 people who died. It stops being a "how-to" guide for survival and starts being a eulogy. It’s heartbreaking. You watch Numa—played with a haunting vulnerability by Enzo Vogrincic—slowly waste away while trying to keep the spirits of the others alive.
The technical realism is actually terrifying
They filmed this on location in the Sierra Nevada in Spain, but they also went to the actual "Valley of Tears" in the Andes where the crash happened. The actors didn't just look cold; they were freezing. They lost weight under medical supervision. You can see the literal physical decay.
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The crash sequence itself? It’s arguably the most violent, claustrophobic thing put to film in the last decade. There’s no swelling orchestral music. Just the sound of metal screaming and bones snapping. It’s short. It’s brutal. It’s over before you can even catch your breath.
Why the Cannibalism Debate is the Wrong Way to Look at It
Let's be real. The "anthropophagy"—the technical term they use—is the elephant in the room. For decades, the survivors were hounded by the press about it. In Society of the Snow, the way the survivors discuss the necessity of eating the deceased is handled with an almost religious reverence.
It wasn't a choice made lightly. It was a slow, agonizing realization that they were literally becoming the mountain.
The film focuses on the pact. They told each other, "If I die, you can use my body." That changes the entire dynamic. It’s not a horror movie trope anymore. It’s a donation. It’s an act of love. Honestly, seeing them debate the ethics of it while huddled in the fuselage during a blizzard makes you realize how little most of us understand about true desperation.
They weren't just eating to survive. They were eating so that the deaths of their friends wouldn't be for nothing.
The Avalanche: A Second Tragedy
Most people forget about the avalanche. Imagine surviving a plane crash. You’ve been out there for two weeks. You’ve finally started to find a rhythm, a way to keep the fire of life flickering. Then, at midnight, the mountain tries to finish the job.
The avalanche buried the fuselage while they were sleeping. Eight more people died. For three days, the survivors lived in a tiny, oxygen-deprived tube buried under feet of snow. They had to dig their way out, only to find a world that was even more hostile than before. It’s the turning point of the movie. It’s where the "society" in the title really forms. They didn't just live together; they became a single organism.
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The Role of the Survivors in the Production
One reason Society of the Snow feels so authentic is the involvement of the real survivors. Pablo Vierci, who wrote the book the film is based on, was a childhood friend of the survivors. He knew the people who died.
Carlitos Páez, one of the survivors, actually plays his own father in the movie.
Think about that for a second. He plays the man who spent months refusing to believe his son was dead, eventually reading the names of the survivors over the radio. It’s a meta-narrative layer that adds so much weight to the scene. When "Carlitos" reads the names, you aren't just watching an actor; you're watching a man participate in his own rescue fifty years later.
Small Details You Might Have Missed
The cinematography by Pedro Luque is intentionally harsh. He uses wide shots to show how insignificant the plane is against the Andes. It looks like a speck of dust. Then he cuts to extreme close-ups—cracked lips, sunken eyes, the texture of a dirty rug.
- The color of urine: The film shows the survivors' urine turning black. This is a real physiological detail caused by extreme dehydration and the body breaking down its own muscle tissue (rhabdomyolysis).
- The cigarettes: They had plenty of cigarettes but no food. You see them smoking constantly. It was their only comfort, a way to dull the hunger and the nerves.
- The shoes: Pay attention to the footwear. They had to get creative, using materials from the plane to create gaiters and insulation.
The Ending: No Easy Answers
When Nando and Roberto finally see a man on horseback across a river, it isn't a moment of pure joy. It’s a moment of shock. The rescue is chaotic. The press descends like vultures.
The survivors are ushered into hospitals and interrogated. They have to face a world that can't possibly understand what they did to stay alive. Society of the Snow doesn't end with a "happily ever after." It ends with the survivors looking back at the mountain, knowing they left a huge part of themselves behind in the snow.
It’s a heavy watch. It’s long. It’s painful. But it’s also one of the most life-affirming movies ever made.
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Actionable Insights for Viewers and History Buffs
If you want to understand the full scope of the 1972 Andes flight disaster beyond what you see on Netflix, here are the steps to take for a deeper, more accurate perspective:
Read the Source Material Skip the tabloid accounts. Pick up Society of the Snow by Pablo Vierci. It contains accounts from all 16 survivors, many of whom hadn't spoken publicly for decades before its publication. It provides the internal monologues that even the best film can't fully capture.
Watch the Documentaries For the raw, un-dramatized facts, look for Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains (2007). It features the survivors returning to the crash site. Seeing the actual terrain—the sheer verticality of the peaks they climbed—makes their feat seem even more impossible.
Understand the Geography Open Google Earth and search for the "Glaciar de las Lágrimas" (Valley of Tears). Looking at the distance between the crash site and the Chilean border helps you realize that Nando and Roberto didn't just "walk"—they climbed a 15,000-foot mountain peak with no equipment, no oxygen, and no cold-weather gear.
Support the Memorials The families of the victims maintain the Museo Andes 1972 in Montevideo, Uruguay. If you ever travel to South America, visiting this museum is a profound way to pay respects to the 29 who didn't return. It focuses on the human lives lost, not just the sensationalism of the survival.
Question the Narratives When researching, look for the distinction between "survival" and "resilience." The Andes story is often taught in leadership and psychology courses not for the survival tactics, but for the "horizontal leadership" the group displayed. No one was the boss; everyone contributed what they could, which is the core lesson of the Society of the Snow.