Alive: Human Resilience in the Andes Plane Crash

The movie "Alive" is a shocking true story of an Uruguayan Rugby Team that crashed their plane in the middle of the Andes mountains. The Uruguayan plane crash carrying 45 passengers to Chile unfortunately resulted only with the survival of 16 students. Through a traumatic shocking experience, the movie reenacts the event of the crash. This movie demonstrates various examples of the importance of psychological and physiological needs in our daily lives. It also outlines how the survivors had to accomplish particular essential needs in order to ensure their physiological and psychological health.

The movie "Alive" is a fascinating story that demonstrates heroism and faith through a team mainly consisted of teenage boys. In addition, this movie emphasizes and displays the perseverance and interminable will to survive and pull through together by manipulating different tools and objects to meet their needs. This remarkable movie provides many examples and insights for the vital needs that were met by various characters. It is well known that without the 4 basic human needs of excitement, affection, recognition and security; one cannot be psychologically sound or stable.

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In this movie; the psychological need of excitement is displayed where Rafael, Juan and Zerbino diverge from their usual routine and slide down the mountains after finding the tail end of the plane. They strived to find excitement on a small scale even in the horrific situation that they were placed in. The act of bonding, support and cooperation such as peer encouragement, hugs and optimistic discussion displayed acts of affection and recognition.

The affection was widely spread through the kind words and caring actions, while recognition was also demonstrated by peer praise for logical and helpful suggestions.

Such example is shown when Canessa praises Carlitos for the suggestion to use the plane seats to walk around the snow and the seat covers to use as blankets. The survivors create positive feelings and self esteem to make each other feel valued and respected. As a result, the positive environment in the team allow themselves to feel accepted and appreciated. In addition, the effort to make a warm environment for everyone in the plane demonstrated the act of law/rules. The team were able to achieve familiarity with each other and practiced a somewhat predictable routine throughout the day.

Each character acquired a certain role or job (such as examining the wounded, distributing food, etc) during the day which gave a sense of comfort and security to the team. These 4 psychological needs are equally essential to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs are equally essential to the 4 psychological needs for survival in the movie "Alive". For hydration, the team had wine and the invention of a contraption that converted snow into water. Oxygen, rations of chocolate and the flesh of the deceased for food met the physiological part of needs.

The team rationed their resources fairly to ensure that there would be sufficient resources for every individual. Safety needs were also met when Antonio (the captain of the team), Canessa and Carlitos put themselves in charge of the team and were able to take over and position things in order. This provided safety and protection to the team as it brought certainty and stability to the group. The need of love is displayed throughout different scenes of the movie; for instance when Alberto and Federico are bonding on the hammock.

The act of love is shown when Federico looks after Alberto although they are both badly injured and he encourages Canessa to take care of Alberto instead of himself. Furthermore, Nando taking care of his wounded sister Susana and Canessa looking after his injured peers display the action of love and care. Instances such as the confidence to treat the injured and encouraging words of friends are a few examples of the esteem needs. Treating the injured is a very delicate and difficult task to accomplish because it takes a great deal of confidence and determination to perform.

The confidence is built upon the esteem and the belief in oneself to be good or worthy enough to be capable of aiding others. The effort that Zerbino and Canessa made to look after the injured are examples of cognitive needs. Although Zerbino and Canessa do not have much experience within the medical field, they remain to help their wounded peers. The attempt to treat their wounded peers would be an example of cognitive needs because Zerbino and Canessa attempt to try things out and master their skills.

In addition, Nando's determination to find a way out of the Andes mountains shows his self-actualization needs because he is devoted to finding rescue. Another example of self-actualization needs would be displayed under the Catholic faith that everyone in the team carries out, except for Vito because he was an agnostic. The team were devoted to their Catholic faith as they prayed and sang the "Hail Mary" every night. Their devotion to their Catholic faith attempted to display themselves living up to their full potential.

These various needs that were met ensured the survival of the team as it helped them stay alive and be psychologically stable. The transcendence need that was met in the movie "Alive" would be exemplified after Nando, TinTin and Canessa encountered rescue and helped the rest of the team reach the same self-actualization that they have desperately aspired. The most essential psychological needs out of excitement, affection, recognition and security for survival is believed to be both affection and recognition. These are considered to be the important psychological needs because affection allowed the team to feel loved and important.

The affection provided by one another were one of the important basic needs to help the peers stay psychologically sound. The team did not have any family to rely on and the survival depended on the cooperation and teamwork from one another. The affection provided a positive environment because the peers were looking after one another. Without affection, the team would feel negative and depressed which would result in a low chance of survival because it would create negative feelings among everyone. An example would be when the peers often exchange "I love you's" to each other as a sign of encouragement and appreciation.

The team also have occasional gatherings around the fire and continue to have a sense of humour around each other to lighten up the mood and make it positive. Furthermore, recognition was also an important need because it boosted the positivity of the environment around them. Recognition from one another allowed the peers to feel valued and important which helped them persevere for rescue. The recognition displayed from different peers provided attention and displayed the act of love and kindness by allowing them to feel important. This was very essential to the team as it helped them stand strong during a severe situation.

Recognition is displayed when the team members tell Nando that it is Rafael's birthday and they give him a small birthday gathering along with a lit cigarette on a small ball of snow as a birthday cupcake. In conclusion, the spectacular movie "Alive" demonstrates a wide variety of examples to human physiological and psychological needs. The movie is a remarkable film about a remarkable event that is a very uplifting and hopeful. It explains to the audience the vital needs that a human needs in order to survive through such a traumatic experience.

The various characters displayed different kinds of actions that met the necessary needs in order to survive. These needs were vital to the team as it helped them survive the chaotic position that they were placed in. Although the team were inexperienced, the 4 psychological needs as well as Maslow's hierarchy of needs helped the team survive to this day and it teaches the audience a traumatic yet heroic tale about the experience of the Andes Mountains. To this day, the 16 survivors continue to live on their life after the unthinkable tale of the Andes Mountains.