How to Survive

Basically a good film spoiled by two things: 1. you never find out why the plane did not arrive and 2. it is not clear what happens to one of the characters at the end. I also found myself wondering how on earth they carried all the food! The tension builds nicely however and it is certainly worth a watch.

Four campers fly to an island off the coast of Alaska for a vacation in the unspoiled wilderness. At the end of their stay they wait for the plane to return to pick them up... and they wait... and they wait. Eventually they realise that nobody is coming and that it is up to them to get back to civilisation.

Well made film but really more of a drama than an action or adventure piece. Nicely acted by all concerned, pretty good photography and well directed by Mr. Jerry (who hasn't done anything else since, according to the IMDb, which is a shame).

If you'd prefer a more typical adventure film give Survival Quest (with Lance Henriksen) a spin. Very underrated film in my opinion.

A lot of 20-something testosterone fueled drama in this film. I could have done without that. Reminds me of young men driving 60 mph in a school zone and bar fights.

They repeatedly did everything wrong. A bunch of 12-year old boy scouts would've done better.

And why do women always make fawn eyes over the stupidest male in any group?

What I'm saying here is there are a lot of cliches in this script. The screenplay coulda been better. The casting is not great; the cinematography could been better.

Why did I give it 8 stars? Because it was filmed on Kodiak Island and I love real outdoor adventure that doesn't involve animation or superheroes. I also like independent films and

This film could very well be a high schooler's, low budget, poorly acted Film Class final project. ...And the student only got a B-. Watchers can't develop any sort of connection to these shallow characters. SKIP IT!

I was interested at the end of the film to see if it had any connection to a real story but I'm cannot find any reference on the net or in the film. So this is fiction......a good story.....Another aspect that attracted me to watch the film is that I watch many survival programs (Bear Grylls, Naked and Afraid, Duel survival, Alaska Bush People, etc, etc) and I watched in concern that these people weren't written with many survival skills. I guess, since they were written to be "normal people never expecting be in that situation" and to have quite a lot of supplies (some food, matches, fishing poles, knife, rope, etc) that this was intended to be seen less for the survival aspect (from the title) but the drama between the four people involved as they realize over time (and agonizing a viewer like me WAY TOO MUCH TIME) that no one is coming to get them and they must act to save themselves. If you like a medium drama about survival, this film will be entertaining to you.