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The film is bookended by an interview with a survivor of the 1972 Andes flight disaster, now middle-aged, played by John Malkovich in an uncredited cameo. A 14 Jan 1993 LAT article noted the scene was included so that viewers who were unaware of the real-life story would know in advance that some people survived; otherwise, director Frank Marshall feared the film would be a “horrific” viewing experience. Although an article in the 18 Apr 1993 The Independent (London) states that Malkovich plays a middle-aged “Carlitos Paez,” his specific identity is not made clear in the film.
Opening credits include the title of the film, accompanied by the statement “Based on a true story.” They conclude with the following title cards: “1972. A South American rugby team together with some friends and relatives crosses the Andes to play a game in neighboring Chile.” The film ends with the following statement superimposed over footage of the victims’ mass grave in the Andes: “This film is dedicated to the 29 people who died on the mountain and the 16 who survived.”
A 10 Jan 1993 NYT article noted that film rights to Piers Paul Read’s best-seller, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, were optioned in 1974, the year the book was published, by United Artists (UA). Palomar Pictures was set to produce, and screenwriters Harold Pinter and William Goldman were rumored to be involved. UA considered building a town in the Andes mountains for filming, then selling it to the Chilean government to be used as a ski resort. However, in 1976, a low-budget Mexican film about the ordeal, titled Survive!, was looped into English and released in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures, causing UA to scrap its plans. Paramount took over the option in 1978. A 15 Oct 1979 DV brief announced Tony Scott would direct, and Edgar J. Scherick Associates would produce. A 14 Feb 1980 DV item noted Steven Zaillian had been hired to write the script and Michael Seymour would be production designer. However, rising costs kept Paramount from moving forward. The project then “ricocheted from studio to studio” throughout the 1980s, as stated in the 14 Jan 1993 LAT, going through over ten drafts in eighteen years. A 10 Apr 1987 LAT item noted that Steven Zaillian’s script had recently been named one of the ten best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood by American Film writer Stephen Rebello.
In 1990, former Paramount executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, now head of Walt Disney Pictures, set out to green-light a picture about the Andes disaster but discovered Paramount still owned film rights to Piers Paul Read’s book. In Oct 1991, Katzenberg negotiated a co-production deal between the studios, wherein they would co-finance the estimated $20-million budget and split distribution rights according to a coin toss, which awarded domestic rights to Disney, and foreign rights to Paramount. A 10 Sep 1991 NYT article described the joint production as a rarity at the time, especially between Disney and Paramount, which had reportedly been feuding for years.
Katzenberg brought the project to producer Kathleen Kennedy and her husband, director Frank Marshall, who was planning to direct Swing Kids (1993, see entry) as his next project. However, Marshall was so enthralled by the idea of Alive that he immediately signed on to direct, in lieu of Swing Kids. Kennedy and Marshall traveled to Uruguay and recorded hours of interviews with fourteen of the survivors over the course of three days, marking the first time any filmmakers had personally met with the survivors. Although Monte Merrick, and later Paul Attanasio, were commissioned to rewrite the script, their versions were thrown out and John Patrick Shanley, whose script for the 1987 film Moonstruck (see entry) had won an Academy Award, and who was known as an accomplished playwright, was brought on. Kennedy stated that she and Marshall sought out a playwright because the story, with its single setting on the mountain, unfolded like a play. Shanley reportedly finished a new screenplay in three-to-four weeks at the end of 1991. In Shanley’s version, the scope of the narrative was reduced. Previous versions had included scenes showing the parents’ search for the crash victims, and more of “Roberto Canessa” and “Nando Parrado’s” ten-day trek to Chile. The only scenes added to the film that were not in the book were two cliffhanger scenes in which survivors nearly fall to their deaths during expeditions.
A 10 Jan 1992 Screen International item reported that actor Vincent Spano was the first to be cast. Filming began 16 Mar 1992 in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to the 31 Mar 1992 HR production chart and production notes in AMPAS library files, where the $1.5-million crash sequence was filmed on soundstages at Bridge Studios. On 27 Mar 1992, production moved to Panorama, British Columbia, where the bulk of the seventy-two-day shoot took place on the Delphine glacier, at an elevation of 9,500 feet. The location was chosen over terrains scouted in the Swiss Alps, U.S. Rocky Mountains, and South American Andes, because filmmakers were able to shoot “above the tree-line” on the glacier at a lower elevation than the other spots. During filming, temperatures dropped as low as twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Cast and crew stayed in a resort that ran helicopter expeditions for advanced skiers. Transportation to the fuselage set required a fleet of five helicopters that had to make twenty-five round trips to transport all 150 actors and crewmembers. An emergency camp was set up to provide overnight accommodations in case of inclement weather, and was used twice by crewmembers. A forty-five-person crew filmed for three weeks at even higher altitudes in the Canadian Bugaboos mountains, where Nando and Roberto’s trek to Chile was filmed. Mountain rescue experts ensured safety in both locations by probing for hidden crevasses and avalanches.
Cast members underwent a restrictive diet and exercise program under the supervision of a physical trainer from Hollywood, CA, and an exercise physiologist. Ethan Hawke reportedly lost more than twenty pounds over the course of production. While a 27 Sep 1992 LAT item stated the “human meat” eaten by the actors was pork, another item in the 3 Feb 1993 Long Beach Press-Telegram quoted an interview with Vincent Spano, in which he claimed they ate colored tofu.
Several survivors visited the set, including Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino. Nando Parrado, who acted as technical advisor, was on set daily.
According to the 14 Jan 1993 LAT and 3 Mar 1993 HR, the plane crash sequence produced by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) included live-action and blue-screen footage, stunt work, “model and miniature manipulation,” matte paintings, optical composites, rear-screen projection, and digital wire removal. The opening shot of a plane flying through the Andes mountains consists of 600 frames of a miniature airplane against a filmed backdrop. Three Naval smoke generators were used to fabricate clouds. Two fiberglass airplane miniatures, eight-feet long with eight-foot wingspans, were constructed with breakaway tails and wings. One was lightweight for motion-control photography, and the other, used for the crash, weighed 200 pounds. A miniature set, 20x50 feet, was built in the ILM parking lot, including a tiny mountain range made with black foil sprayed with foam, and canvas covered in baking soda to resemble snow. For the shots depicting passengers being thrown from the airplane, a set was built twenty-five feet above the soundstage floor. Stunt performers were yanked out of the fuselage by cables, and fell onto air bags as the fuselage was rocked on a gimbal mount.
Principal photography ended on 25 Jun 1992. The film, which ultimately cost $25 million, was set to be released on 6 Nov 1992, as stated in an 11 Oct 1992 LAT brief. However, the release date was pushed to Jan 1993 to give Touchstone Pictures more time to develop a strong marketing campaign, which, according to a 27 Sep 1992 LAT article, emphasized the inspirational aspect of the story, and downplayed the cannibalism. Although an early version of the trailer included a discussion about eating the dead to survive, it was cut so that the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) ratings board would approve the trailer for general audiences. Although filmmakers were reportedly anticipating a PG-13 MPAA rating for the film, it was ultimately rated R, due to the intensity of the plane crash sequence.
Critical reception was tepid. The 13 Jan 1993 DV called the film a “well-crafted effort” but an “uphill marketing climb,” and complained that the characters’ personalities and looks were not distinct enough to tell them apart. The 15 Jan 1993 LAT review echoed the latter sentiment, stating that it took the entirety of the film to figure out “who is whom,” and complained that although the film was well-done, it did not transcend its material.
A 20 Jan 1993 DV article reported that Alive took in an unexpected $8.6 million in its first four days of release over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. The article attributed the surprise success to the marketing campaign and well-placed television advertisements aimed at teenagers. The promotional campaign also included a seven-city tour featuring three of the survivors: Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, and Carlitos Paez.
A documentary titled Alive: 20 Years Later, shot by Australian director Jill Fullerton-Smith, was aired on the British television network, BBC1, on 18 Apr 1993. The documentary included behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film, and was later included as an extra in a home video release of the film.
A 13 Oct 2002 LAT brief reported that fourteen survivors from the Uruguayan Old Christians rugby team finally held the match against the Old Boys Chilean team thirty years after it had been thwarted by the 1972 Andes disaster.

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