If you have just watched J.A. Bayona’s new feature Society of Snow, and previously have watched Showtime’s flagship series Yellowjackets you probably have jumped to the conclusión that it is basically the same plot: A sport team have to survive in the middle of the deadly nature after a plane crash in the middle of nowhere, and its members have to do the unthinkable to survive. But, is The Society of Snow based on Yellowjackets? Or is it the other way around?
1 ^ Society of the Snow is a based on a real tragedy
First things first, Society of the Snow is based on a real tragedy: the crash of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the middle of the Andes in October, 1972. The Old Christians Rugby team was in the flight, on their way to Santiago de Chile. After 72 days exposed to hunger, anthropophagy (otherwise known as cannibalism) and the deadly elements, sixteen passengers were found alive.
2 ^ J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow is not the first retelling of the events of Flight 571
Actually, The Society of the Snow is the third film to retell the story of Flight 571. The first one was Survive! a mexican film released in 1976, shortly after the real events. Alive, starring Ethan Hawk and Josh Hamilton, was the second film about Flight 571, and it is very well known for being the American retelling of the story. And of course, there are numerous documentary films and tv series about the tragedy, featuring interviews with the survivors. But feature films with actors, just those three.
3 ^ Yellojackets took key plot elements of the tragedy, but it’s not a retelling
To summarize, Yellowjackets indeed took key elements of the Flight 571 tragedy and first make a gender swap, making the main characters females in a soccer team, instead of male rugby players. Second, Yellowjackets was set in a way more favorable landscape than the deadly Andes mountains, with the passengers being stranded in the forests close to the rocky mountains in Canada. Third, the time the passengers spent lost in Yellowjackets was way longer, nineteen months instead of 72 days in the case of the Flight 571 tragedy. Of course, in the real story and the fictional one, cannibalism and survival is one of the main themes.
But the most important change in Yellowjackets is the infusion of mythological elements within the story. Of course we are not going to spoil you, so you probably will have to check it on yourself.
El Sabanero X 