The most epic stories are ones that have some basis in reality. These films tell the true stories of individuals who have gone on some of the most legendary adventures of all time. Some lived to tell the tale but others weren’t as lucky.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Catch me if you can is the true story of a jet setting con artist by the name of Frank Abagnale. At the age of 16, Abignale was left so distraught by his parent’s divorce and the ramifications it had on his life that he decided to leave it all behind and create a new life for himself. Abignale decided to create multiple new lives for himself. Armed with a quick wit, a smooth talking mouth and face that looked much older than his actual age, Abignale began to travel the world, taking on multiple identities in the process. In order to do this, he forges a pilot license that allows him to travel for free across the United States. When Abignale is low on money, he simply uses his counterfeiting skills to create fake checks. He quickly pops up on the FBI’s radar which forces him to travel to new cities and frequently assume new identities. He impersonates a doctor, lawyer, and even moves to France with a fake passport before getting caught and thrown into French prison. He eventually is transported back to the United States where he serves a four year prison sentence. It may not have been ethical, but Abignale lived a hell of an adventurous life.
INTO THE WILD
Into the Wild is a film based on a book of the same title that was in turn based on the real experiences of 24 year old Christopher McCandless. A few years before the main events of the film took place, McCandless took a taste of adventure while on a road trip across America, stopping in California, Arizona and South Dakota. After experiencing the freedom that the open road had to offer, he presumably felt a yearning to fill his life with more adventure. The thirst for exploring the unknown, compounded with his dissatisfaction with the status quo of life in America, led to him leaving society behind altogether. As chronicled in both film and his biographical novel, McCandless left behind his name and modern comforts to primal life in the Alaskan Wilderness. He survived off wild game and local plants for more 119 days before he was found dead in an dilapidated bus. We’re unsure of what ultimately caused his demise but after investigation it looked it had something to do with accidentally eating poisonous plants or molding berries.
127 HOURS
127 hours is based on the true story of experienced mountaineer Aron Ralston who embarked on what was supposed to be a day of exploring Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. However, the trip quickly turned into a nightmare that would change Ralston’s life forever. After a day of hiking through the national park, Ralston lost his footing while maneuvering through a narrow canyon pass. On his way down, he was pinned between the wall of the canyon and a massive boulder. Of course Ralston called for help but found himself utterly trapped and alone. After five days, which consisted of unanswered shouts for help, many attempts at freeing his arm, and efforts to cut through his arm off altogether, he discovered a way to use torque and a blunt knife to remove his trapped arm. Ralston found himself free and luckily encountered a vacationing family as he began to make the 8 mile hike back to his car. The family quickly arranged for emergency transport to have Ralston airlifted to the nearest hospital.
APOLLO 13
Apollo 13 is the story of a group of astronauts exploring the final frontier. On April 11, 1970 James Lovell Jr, Kenneth Mattingly III, and Fred Haise Jr. boarded a rocket ship and blasted off into space for what was intended to be NASA’s 7th manned mission into space. They accomplished their goal of making it from the earth to the moon, but a freak accident prevented them from doing so and almost cost them their lives. Just like in the film, the space vessel experienced a glitch that caused one the one of the on board oxygen tanks to explode. This was only 56 hours into the mission but the ship was already more than 205,000 miles away from earth. The ramifications of this accident had sever effects on the ship as a whole. It was unable to and as the temperature on board dropped dramatically, the ships fuel cells were essentially drained, and several of the modules needed to operate the ship smoothly, failed. Miraculously, Apollo 13 made it back to earth and all crew members survived the experience.
TOUCHING THE VOID
In 1985, two English mountaineers named Simon Yates and Joe Simpson traveled to the Peruvian Andes to climb the face of Siula Grande. This wasn’t your average mountain climb, Siula Grande is a goliath 6,344 chuck of rock covered in ice, riddled with loose rocks and subject to being battered with gusts of winds and heavy blizzards. This mattered little to Yates and Simpson who were driven by the thirst of conquest and the call of adventure. While the two mountaineers were descending down the mountain, Simpson took a misstep that resulted in him breaking his right leg. To make matters worse, the climbers were taking much longer than expected in their descent down the mountain and thus were out of fuel for their camping stove. This left them stranded with no way to melt drinking water necessary to survival. A series of even more unfortunate events resulted in Simpson hanging off the side of the mountain, then falling below into an isolated ice crevasse. Yates assumed he was dead and eventually made it back to their base camp. Three days after Simpson fell, he managed to make it back, barely alive with a broken leg. He had somehow beat the odds of survival to make it base camp safely.
KON-TIKI
The Kon-Tiki Expedition set sail across the Pacific Ocean in 1947. It had one goal in store — to make an epic journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. This might not sound like a major feat, but this entire expedition was on a wooden raft. The journey was led by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and was paid for through private loans and equipment donations from the U.S. Army. Despite the limited amount of space on the raft, the Kon-Tiki was able to fit almost 300 gallons of water, hundreds of coconuts, fruit and sweet potatoes along with army food rations. The crew was successful in navigation to the French Polynesian islands and saw the first sign of land after being at sea for 97 days. The Kon-Tiki continued to sail around the islands until it struck a reef. This left the crew stranded on a deserted island. After spending four days without any signs of rescue, they were seen and saved by the native people of a neighboring island.
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