"This is more than a movie. This is an experience we had to share with humanity to show people who are having their own mountain crashes how to be resourceful and how not to give up," he says of consulting with Bayona on the making of Society of the Snow. "Human beings undergo a transformation in cases like this. There is a real metamorphosis from being a rugby player to becoming a survivor of a plane crash. I believe people have that potential."

Society of the Snow, a film based on Pablo Vierci's book from 2008, was partially filmed at the actual location where the plane crash occurred. Although the 1972 disaster has been depicted on screen previously, notably in director Frank Marshall's 1993 film Alive and as an inspiration for Yellowjackets, this is the initial instance where the survivors and families of the deceased have granted permission for their actual names to be utilized.

"At the heart of the book, there is this message that says that when everything has been taken from someone, you still have a chance of deciding what to do—why do you want to live? For whom do you want to die?" Bayona told The Hollywood Reporter. "It’s the first time we’re telling the story of the whole society and that was very important."
How did the plane crash?