sailboat lost at sea movie

9 of Our Favorite Lost-At-Sea Movies

• Best Movie Lists
• Science Fiction Movies
• Classic Movies
• Movies For Kids
• Horror Movies
• Movie Awards
• Animated Films
• Emerson College
• The New School

While survival films know no bounds in terms of locale — the Andes, Alaska, outer space, and on — there’s nothing quite as punishing as being completely lost, abandoned and left to fend for yourself in the middle of the open ocean.

“All is Lost” — the critically acclaimed nail-biter starring Robert Redford (and if for some strange reason you don’t care for Redford, well, he’s the only one in it) as an unnamed man fighting for his life in the middle of the Indian Ocean — has brought renewed interest in the lost-at-sea genre, a genre that’s not just filled with nightmarish, completely unfathomable scenarios (and sharks) but tales of heroism, resilience, self-discovery and the triumph of the human spirit.

If you enjoyed “All is Lost” and are on the hunt for a few other films where the primary character(s) spend a majority of the running time set adrift, here are a few suggestions. And you may notice that we’ve left out a closely related cousin of the lost-at-sea film: marooned-on-a-desert-island flicks. While there are some good ones out there (“Castaway,” “The Blue Lagoon” and, of course, “Swiss Family Robinson”) they’re just not the same.

Have any favorite lost-at-sea films that you’d like to add to the list?

1. Abandon Ship! (1957)

Ack. Pity the man — in this case, proto-hunk Tyrone Power — who is left to decide which of the 27 shipwreck survivors stranded on a nine-person lifeboat must be thrown overboard as a massive storm approaches, a storm that would surely swamp the overloaded dinghy if more than a few unfortunate souls aren’t sacrificed by being set adrift in the middle of the Atlantic. Also known as “Seven Waves Away,” the plot of this stressful British survival drama is loosely based on the real-life sinking of the William Brown off the coast of Newfoundland in 1841. Martin Sheen starred in a made-for-television remake in 1975.

2. Lifeboat (1944)

To tweak a tagline of a certain long-running MTV reality show, Alfred Hitchcock’s heralded — and harrowing — adaption of a John Steinbeck survival-at-sea yarn is an exploration of what happens when seven-ish strangers trapped on a tiny lifeboat in the middle of the North Atlantic stop being polite ... and start getting real. Considered by many to be among Hitchcock’s finest works, this wartime production from 20th Century Fox even manages to incorporate one of Hitch’s traditional cameo appearances despite its “limited-setting” status. Keep an eye out for him in a newspaper advertisement hawking a fictional weight loss drug called “Reduco.”

3. The Deep (2012)

While “Life of Pi” (see below) managed to make serious waves at the 85th Academy Awards (best director, score, cinematography and visual effects), this engrossing, existentialist stranded-at-sea drama based on the true story of a blessedly blubbery fisherman named Guðlaugur Friðþórsson captured the hearts of Icelandic critics and filmgoers alike and served as that country’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar. Criminally overlooked in this country, Baltasar Kormákur’s "Djúpið" is about an ordinary man touched by an extraordinary miracle ... and how a little extra body fat can come in real handy when your fishing boat has capsized off the coast of Iceland and you, as the soul survivor of the accident, are forced to swim for six hours in frigid waters before trekking across a treacherous lava field to find help.

4. The Disappeared (2012)

Rough seas, raw skin, rations and lots and lots of rowing. Released in 2012, a big year for lost-at-sea survival films, this Canadian import from director Shandi Mitchell about six men fighting for their lives in the North Atlantic takes a decidedly different approach than its peers, focusing more on storytelling than gimmicks and special effects. The result is a powerful film that’s at turns breathtakingly beautiful and excruciating to watch.

5. Life of Pi (2012)

It just doesn’t feel right to describe the Ang Lee-helmed adaptation of Yann Martel’s “unfilmable” 2001 bestseller as a lost-at-sea picture. While it technically is a movie about being set adrift in the middle of the great blue nowhere — the plot involves a polytheistic Indian teen who, following a shipwreck that claims the lives of his entire family, becomes stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific for 227 days in the company of a ravenous Bengal tiger named Richard Parker — the ocean-bound setting is more or less a vehicle for feel-goody musings on faith, spirituality and the power of storytelling. While some may find the film a touch too treacly, there’s no denying its astonishing technical showmanship. The phosphorescent whale breach scene is worth the price of admission alone.

6. Open Water (2003)

“The Blair Witch Project” meets “Jaws” in this psychologically punishing — and partially true! — tale of a bickering yuppie couple who, while awaiting rescue after being stranded during a scuba excursion in the Bahamas, become delicious déjeuners for a marauding gam of peckish great white sharks. If 80 minutes of treading water, circling dorsal fins, shaky camera work and high anxiety is your idea of a fun night in front of the television, the filmed-in-Mexico sequel to this low-budget sleeper hit isn’t too shabby, either.

7. The Reef (2010)

While we’re on the topic of films about marooned people being eaten by large predatory fish, this extraordinarily stressful — and scary — Australian film expertly combines your standard capsized boat premise with gruesome, great white terror. But seriously, the manner in which this particular lone shark stalks the film’s five ill-fated sailmates is so brutal, so relentless that it feels like your watching a classic 1980s slasher film in which everyone is wearing wetsuits.

8. Triangle (2009)

While it’s difficult to easily explain the plot of this head-scratcher of a psychological thriller (co-starring a pre-“Hunger Games” Liam Hemsworth!), you could say it’s like “Groundhog Day” (minus the comedy) meets the “The Shining” (minus the snow) meets “Memento” (minus the Polaroids) in the middle of the ocean. Seriously, never before in cinema history has a luxury cruise liner been quite so nightmarish. Aussie actress Melissa George’s unflinching, tour de force will haunt you while the ominous vibes that permeate this complex, stranded-at-sea creep-fest — tagline: “Fear Comes in Waves” — are truly hard to shake.

9. Two Came Back (1997)

Sure, it’s a bit on the hokey side but you have to hand it the Christmas movie specialists at the Hallmark Channel for taking a risk on something a touch more, err, harrowing. Based on the true story of teen sailing trip gone terribly wrong — it’s an adaptation of Deborah Scaling Kiley’s “Albatross: The True Story of a Woman’s Survival at Sea” — the film features the gratuitous drinking of sea water, severely chapped lips, sharks, lifeboat-bound freak-outs and decent performances by Melissa Joan Hart and the late Jonathan Brandis, who, as two of the stranded teens, could have really used some help from Darwin the dolphin and Salem the cat.

• Shark Movies: History and Top Films
• The Top 10 War Movies of the 2000s
• The Horror-Western Genre
• Snowy Scares: Horror Movies to Feed Your Winter Need
• The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli
• The 15 Best Horror Movies That Spark Ocean, Water Fears
• Movies About Creatures of the Ocean
• Movies About the War in Afghanistan: Best and Worst
• 12 Creepy-Crawly Movies That Will Have You Reaching for the Raid
• Point-of-View (POV) and Found Footage Horror Movies
• Great Summer Movies for Kids and Families
• The Scariest Demon Possession and Exorcism Horror Movies
• 10 Classic Princess Movies to Delight Kids
• Top 10 Comedy Movies of 2012
• Best and Worst War Movies About Basic Training
• The Best and Worst Love Stories in War Films

Best Movies About Being Stranded at Sea

Films about being stranded at sea are some of the most exhilarating and terrifying out there. From Dead Calm to Life of Pi, here are the best.

Looking back, there are a surprisingly large number of movies that are about being stranded at sea. There is good reason for this: when looking to make a truly hard-hitting movie, what could be more terrifying than the feelings of hopelessness and fear associated with being stranded, miles from land with chances of survival getting slimmer by the minute? Add in an extra threat of, say a human-eating shark, or even escalating friction with the other unfortunate souls you may be stranded with, and you have a recipe for pure terror.

Updated September 22, 2022: If you love a good pulse-pounding, stranded at sea film, you'll be happy to know we've updated this articles with additional content and titles.

The fear factor is upped by the fact that a lot of these stories are not wild fantastical tales, but are scenarios that feel far closer to home and are situations that anyone of us could potentially find ourselves in. In fact, a large percentage of these types of movies are based on true stories . Admittedly, due to the popularity of these gripping films, which can often be shot on a low budget, the market has become slightly oversaturated in recent years, with countless sequels and rip-offs flooding the scene, so to speak. With this in mind, below are 10 of the best movies about being stranded at sea.

10 Dead Calm

If you’re only going to feature three superb actors in your movie, you could do a lot worse than the combined greatness of Sam Neil, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane. While out sailing in an attempt to try to take their minds off the loss of their son, a married couple come across a stranded stranger. They offer kindness and help, but as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that not everything is as it seems with the stranger. A genuinely tense thriller, Dead Calm is a fine example of creating an engaging and exciting movie without needing a huge budget.

Not only has this group of pals found themselves capsized and stranded out at sea, they’re also being stalked by a great white shark. Unlike numerous shark-based movies before (and after) it, The Reef used real footage of sharks in the movie , according to Screen Rant , instead of practical or CGI effects, which always run the danger of making the sharks look unrealistic and, at times, downright ridiculous. Definitely one of the more genuinely scary shark flicks, The Reef never eases up on the tension, keeping viewers glued to the edge of their seats for the entire 90-minute run time. Maybe it's not the most original movie on the list, but certainly one of the most exciting.

Related: Exclusive: Andrew Traucki and Teressa Liane of The Reef: Stalked on Their Allegorical Shark Movie

Titanic is proof that ‘bigger’ is not always better. The RMS Titanic was carrying 3,320 people when it was destroyed by a giant iceberg, the majority of who did not survive the aftermath. The real-life tragedy portrayed in James Cameron’s harrowing 1997 movie manages to perfectly capture the feelings of fear, panic and hopelessness as we spend time in those final moments with the passengers stranded at sea after the ship begins sinking.

Obviously, the sheer scale of death and destruction was certainly impactful, but it felt even more personal as we spend nearly 3 hours with the two lead characters, Rose and Jack, following their forbidden romance and rooting for them throughout. After allowing the audience to develop this tightly intimate bond with these two characters, we’re left devastated as, spoiler alert, it does not end well.

7 Open Water

Yet another movie on this list made all the more terrifying by the fact that it is based, albeit rather loosely, on a true story. This time, Open Water concentrates on an American couple who go scuba diving while on vacation, but find themselves stranded at sea and surrounded by sharks as their tour boat accidentally leaves them behind. Shot out at sea on an ultra-low budget, this actually adds an immense sense of realism and intensity, creating for a nerve racking 80 minutes in which the viewers hearts are in their mouths the entire time.

6 White Squall

A white squall is the occurrence of a sudden, violent windstorm at sea, one which hits without warning. The lack of the usual warning signs, like black clouds, makes them near impossible to avoid when out at sea, as evidenced by the skipper (played assuredly by Jeff Bridges, in one of his more overlooked performances) and his class of students on a school sailing trip in White Squall .

Needless to say, the result was catastrophic, ending in tragedy, and the skipper is put on trial. Based on the real-life sailing boat the Albatross, which sank in 1961, director Ridley Scott not only focuses on the trauma of the event itself, but also spends plenty of time developing the characters beforehand in a coming-of-age style plot which makes the tragedy even more hard hitting for the audience.

5 All Is Lost

Legendary silver screen icon Robert Redford headlines the Golden Globe-winning survival drama All Is Lost , in which the Hollywood great portrays a veteran mariner who finds his vessel adrift at sea following a debilitating collision with a storage container. The man must fight to survive a vicious incoming storm without the help of any navigation equipment or a radio to call out for help, and the riveting picture chronicles his relentless crusade to make it out alive and back to his loved ones. AlI Is Lost features almost no dialogue and only utilizes Redford's immense talent as the sole character of the film , bringing the lost mariner's desperation and fear to life in a spectacularly moving fashion.

Like Titanic , this is based on a real-life event , just on a much smaller scale. No less harrowing for the viewer, Adrift stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as a couple who are stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after Hurricane Raymond in 1983, and must find their way to Hawaii with a damaged boat and no radio.

Like James Cameron did with Titanic , the film not only focuses on the disaster and survival aspects of the story , but also highlights the intimate bond and romance between the two leads, allowing the viewers to become fully invested in their well-being. Even from the safety of your own couch, the rollercoaster of emotions you’re taken through is mentally draining — one can only imagine what it would have been like to have been there, lost at sea.

3 The Shallows

Inspired by her husband Ryan Reynold’s minimalist movie Buried , which takes place entirely in a coffin, Blake Lively teamed up with director Jaume Collet-Serra and writer Anthony Jaswinski for this stranded at sea survival horror. This time around, the story follows a surfer (played by Lively) instead of a sailor, who gets stranded out at sea, only to find herself under threat from a great white shark.

Interestingly, the majority of The Shallows was shot in a tank using blue screens for effects, with the shark being entirely computer generated. Somehow, the result is still ultra-realistic, making you feel as if you are right there in the water with her, kind of the Blair Witch Project of stranded at sea shark movies.

2 The Poseidon Adventure

The very notion of being lost at sea is terrifying all in itself, but throw in the element of a capsized ship on the verge of being completely consumed by water and the stakes get even more dicey. The '70s classic disaster film The Poseidon Adventure centers on the titular ocean liner as it is tragically overturned by a destructive tsunami, trapping its unsuspecting inhabitants and leaving them to figure out how to escape the stranded ship.

Related: These Movies Will Make You Second Guess Ever Getting on a Boat

The spine-tingling flick went on to earn 8 Academy Award nominations and won two, with critics lauding it for its pulse-pounding tension, outstanding visual effects and commanding performances. Since its release, The Poseidon Adventure has gone on to become a cult film and is a knockout example of the disaster genre.

1 Life of Pi

One of the most critically lauded movies of its year, Life of Pi was nominated for a total of 11 Oscars, winning four. The premise revolves around a 16-year-old Indian boy named Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) who is stranded on a lifeboat with a dangerous Bengal tiger after surviving an ocean liner shipwreck. The movie is captivating from start to finish: we follow Pi’s tale as the pair learn to trust each other in this visually stunning masterclass in storytelling. Its incredible technology and deeply allegorical substance results in one of the most mesmerizing movies about begin stranded at sea.

OUTSIDE FESTIVAL JUNE 1-2

Don't miss Thundercat + Fleet Foxes, adventure films, experiences, and more!

GET TICKETS

The Real Survival Story Behind ‘Adrift’

Tami Oldham Ashcraft, the subject of the new Hollywood lost-at-sea film, describes what her 41-day ordeal was like in real life and how the movie compares

Heading out the door? Read this article on the Outside app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

On October 12, 1983, Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her fiancé, Richard Sharp, found themselves in the path of Hurricane Raymond as they sailed a 44-foot yacht across the Pacific Ocean. The experienced sailors were delivering the luxury boat Hazana from Tahiti’s Papeete Harbor to San Diego on what was supposed to be a routine passage. Instead, the Category 4 storm whipped up violent waves and catastrophic winds that eventually capsized the small craft. In the ensuing chaos, Ashcraft suffered a serious head injury that rendered her unconscious for 27 hours. When she awoke, Sharp was gone.

Alone at sea and awash with grief and shock, Ashcraft mustered the courage to guide the battered Hazana toward the nearest landfall—1,500 miles away, in Hilo, Hawaii. She worked furiously to rig the one remaining sail and a partial spinnaker pole to gain steerage for the boat. Since the electronics were shot in the flooded vessel, Ashcraft had to rely on a sextant and a watch to navigate across the open ocean. “I ran the risk of being off the latitude of Hawaii, so that was always really heavy on my mind,” she says. “If I did not get to Hawaii, I would die.”

Despite scarce rations and serious injuries, Ashcraft made it to Hilo Harbor 41 days later. Nearly a decade after, she began writing a memoir, Red Sky in Mourning , which, after she self-published it, was released by a Hachette imprint in 2002. (Dey Street recently reissued the book under the title Adrift ). Among the book’s admirers were screenwriters Aaron and Jordan Kandell. They turned it into a screenplay that became Adrift , a $35 million film adaptation of her story. The movie, directed by Baltasar Kormákur ( Everest , The Deep ) and starring Shailene Woodley as Ashcraft and Sam Claflin as Sharp, hits theaters this month.

We spoke with Ashcraft about what it was really like to endure those days at sea, her reaction to the film, and the surprising way she began healing from her ordeal.

On How She Learned the Skills to Prepare Her for Survival at Sea: “It was hands-on, just by what I call ‘jumping off the continent.’ I learned first on my dad’s Hobie Cat and then during my first Pacific crossing in 1979. I was always interested in plotting the course on the chart and seeing where we were. I wasn’t a master navigator by any means, but I enjoyed it. Once it became a life-and-death situation, I got real good, real quick.”

On Finding Hope During the Darkest Moments: “First of all, having that half of a spinnaker pole. I still had one little sail left, even though all the other sails went overboard. Once I got that up and I had steerage, I could actually move the boat. Then all these little things started being put in place. Finding that I had a quarter of a tank of water, that was a huge turning point. Finding my watch in the bilge so that I could find out exactly where I was on the chart instead of just sailing by latitude. There were a lot of little things that kept me going.”

On One Surprisingly Emotional Moment From Adrift : “The one scene that kind of really threw me is when Shailene is leaning over the side, putting the duct tape on the hull. Just seeing her alone, with no land in sight, with that wrecked boat—oh my gosh, it just brought me right back. It was just so surreal. It was like, God, that was me. I just wept.”

On What She Thought About During Her 41 Days at Sea: “I thought about Richard all the time. I thought about our life together, I thought about my family. Your mind just races and runs around. I would think, ‘Have I completed the things I wanted to do in my life?’ Then there’s the whole shout out to the universe: ‘If I live, I promise I won’t ever do this or that or whatever!’ I mean, you’re just making promises to the universe. It’s very humbling, and it really puts you in your place.”

On Dealing with Grief and Survival at the Same Time: “I had to talk to myself and tell myself, ‘I have to quit crying.’ I had to quit crying because I was losing so much water, and I didn’t have a lot of water. A lot of the grief was really muted, really shoved back because of the survival and having to keep pushing forward. It really wasn’t until I was back on land, and I could relax and not have to worry about dying, that the grief started surfacing. It was really, really difficult.”

On What People Should Know About Richard Sharp: “He had a very good sense of humor, and people were drawn to him. He was a people person. I’m a little bit more reserved, so we made a good couple in that way. He was very well read, he was a pretty smart guy, and he was an adventurer. That’s what drew us together: quenching our adventurous spirit. Being a sailor, it’s hard to find a compatible relationship with someone. I mean, when you’re sailing with someone, you’re with them 24/7. He was just a very genuine, beautiful person.”

On What She Did After Surviving: “I just kept myself distracted and kept moving forward. I went back to sea for many years. I think it was cathartic for me to get back to sea, to get back to what I loved to do. That was kind of my therapy, I guess. My first trip was about six months of sailing through Fiji’s islands on a crew. After we got in a little bit of a gale, the owner of the boat goes, ‘You’re not afraid, are you?’ I said ‘Afraid? I’ve seen the worst! I’m not afraid of this. This is nothing compared to what I just experienced.’”

On What She Hopes Viewers Take Away from Adrift: “I’m just very pleased that it’s being told at a time when there’s such an empowerment of women. Like Balt [Baltasar Kormákur] says, it’s always these survival stories of man against wolves or man against the sea. I think it’s a time to show some of the strengths that women have, that they can overcome all kinds of obstacles in their lives. I’m hoping the movie shows that no matter what’s thrown your way, you just gotta dig deep. If you can just hang on, get through it, be strong, and have perseverance, then on the other end you’re gonna come out of it OK.”

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we may earn a small commission. We do not accept money for editorial gear reviews. Read more about our policy.

Popular on Outside Online

Enjoy coverage of racing, history, food, culture, travel, and tech with access to unlimited digital content from Outside Network's iconic brands.

Healthy Living

• Clean Eating
• Vegetarian Times
• Yoga Journal
• Fly Fishing Film Tour
• National Park Trips
• Warren Miller
• Fastest Known Time
• Trail Runner
• Women's Running
• Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
• FinisherPix
• Outside Events Cycling Series
• Outside Shop

© 2024 Outside Interactive, Inc

• The Real Story Behind 'Adrift'
• What Happened During 'The P...
• Shipwrecks That Ended in Ca...
• Awesome Tragic Old Shipwrecks
• Grisly Murders That Happened On Or Were Directl...
• Skeletons on the Shores of ...
• The Sunken SS Andrea Doria
• The Graveyard of the Atlantic
• They Called It 'Murder Island'
• Creepiest Ghost Ships Ever ...
• The Legend of the Hollow Ship
• Ghost Stories from the Ocean
• Disappeared & Never Found
• Haunting Pics of Underwater...
• Are These Pics of Nautical ...
• Satellite Views of Famous S...
• The Mysterious Mary Celeste
• The Horrifying Tale of the ...

The Real-Life Story Behind The Shipwreck Movie 'Adrift' Is Almost Unbelievable

The film  Adrift  (2018), starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, tells the story of two sailors who manage to survive some incredible odds. A seemingly standard harrowing Hollywood premise, the film is actually based on the true story of Tami Oldham. At only 23 years old, Tami Oldham Ashcraft survived being  lost at sea  for 41 days after a hurricane ravaged her boat and killed her fiancé, Richard Sharp. She sailed 1,500 miles in a battered yacht, somehow keeping herself alive after the devastating hurricane by repairing the boat and setting a course for land. Oldham faced 41 days of unimaginable physical and emotional turmoil, at some points even hallucinating and hearing voices. But her tenacity and sailing experience allow her to make it to Hawaii alive, against the odds.

The film adaptation of the Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp story stays pretty faithful to their ordeal – but, of course, with some Hollywood license taken that suggests it may not be entirely as somber. The Tami Oldham Ashcraft survival story is one of sheer grit and determination to live – a struggle that continued long after the ordeal itself.

In The Movie, Oldham Finds Sharp – But In Real Life, He Was Gone

The major difference between the movie and real life appears in the trailer:  Richard Sharp survives the storm . In real life, he was torn from his safety harness by the waves and Tami Oldham never saw him again. But in the movie, she finds him in the water the next day, clinging to a life boat, badly injured but alive.

While this looks like a huge departure from the true story, subtle hints tell viewers that things may not be as they seem. In the trailer, Sharp mentions how hallucinations are common when you sail alone. So it remains open to possibility that Oldham simply imagines Sharp is still there with her.

Their Sailing Experiences Led Them To A Fateful Job Offer To Transport A Yacht

Twenty-three-year-old Tami Oldham and her fiancé, Richard Sharp, had been sailing together around the South Pacific Islands for about six months when they received a job offer in September 1983. The owners of the Hazana , a 44-foot yacht, wanted Oldham and Sharp to sail it from Tahiti to San Diego , a journey of 4,000 miles.

As avid sailors, the couple agreed to take on the delivery of the boat – a decision that would permanently change the course of their lives.

They Unexpectedly Encountered A Late-Season Storm, Hurricane Raymond

In October 1983, Hurricane Raymond thrashed the Pacific Ocean. The Category 4 storm produced 140-knot winds and 40-foot high waves, an extremely dangerous situation for a 44-foot yacht to sail into. Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp underestimated the severity of the storm, and after initially trying to outrun it , they tried to swing north to avoid its path.

As hard as the couple fought against the hurricane, it simply overwhelmed them and their boat.

Oldham Last Heard Sharp Scream Before She Was Knocked Unconscious

With the storm worsening, Richard Sharp told Tami Oldham to go below deck. As she went below, she heard Sharp scream before the boat pitched forward . She smacked against the wall and fell unconscious for 27 hours, waking up to find the storm over. But when she went looking for Sharp, she only found his safety tether hanging over the side of the boat. 

Oldham was heartbroken, but didn't have time to properly grieve for her husband-to-be. She put her feelings aside and pushed through the tasks needed to be done for survival. She spent the next 41 days repairing and sailing the yacht on her own, eating canned food and peanut butter and charting her course home.

The Storm Destroyed Most Of The Boat's Equipment

Against 40-foot waves and wind up to 140 knots, the Hazana   rolled and flipped end-over-end . Loose items smashed upon the walls, and water partially flooded the cabin. The masts floated in the water nearby, ripped off by the hurricane winds. Worse, the boat's critical electronics – the engine, radio, emergency signal, and navigation device – were all destroyed.

On her own, Tami Oldham rigged up a makeshift sail and pumped the water out of the cabin. She managed to repair the yacht enough to make it the 1,500 miles to Hilo, HI.

Oldham Saved Herself While Suffering A Major Head Injury

The boat and its contents were not the only things damaged by the storm. After slamming against the wall, Tami Oldham suffered a major head injury. Just like the rest of the boat, Oldham bandaged up her head as best she could and fought through it.

Though she survived, she said the injury left her unable to read a book for six years.

She Had Nothing But A Sextant And A Watch To Guide Her To Hawaii

Though the storm ruined most of her navigation devices, Tami Oldham still had a map, a watch, and a sextant (a centuries-old navigational device  used to measure the distance between celestial bodies in order to determine latitude and longitude while at sea).

Using the sextant, Oldham figured out her position in the ocean and found the currents that would take her to Hawaii. Today, she  wears a tiny replica of a sextant as a pendant to remind her of how she found her way home.

At One Point, Oldham Suffered A Full Mental Breakdown

Being alone at sea gets difficult even in the best of circumstances. Tami Oldham endured her loneliness while also injured, grieving the loss of her fiancé, and fearing she might never make it back to land. At one point in her journey home,  she experienced a full mental breakdown , lying completely catatonic for two days. She was "mentally fried," unsure she would be able to carry on.

Luckily, Oldham began to hear an "inner voice" that told her to get back up. By listening to it, she was able to power through and continue sailing to Hawaii.

Her "Inner Voice" Stopped Her From Committing Suicide

In a  Chicago Tribune interview, Tami Oldham described the pain of losing the man she loved :

Definitely the hardest part was dealing with Richard being gone. There were times I didn't even want to live anymore because I didn't know how I was going to go on. I was never going to fall in love again.

At one point during her ordeal, Oldham decided to end it all – she grabbed the shotgun from the ship's cabin and put the barrel in her mouth . Yet that inner voice told her no – it wasn't her time to go yet.

When asked about the voice, she responded:

I think it was my inner spirit, quite frankly. It was my spirit. People want to convince me it was God, but I don't know. I think, personally, it was my inner spirit.

Oldham Wishes She Sought Help For PTSD Sooner

For Tami Oldham, readjusting to life after the hurricane took another kind of tenacity. While in "survival mode" on the boat, she focused on the tasks needed to be done rather than mourn the loss of her partner; back on land, surrounded by people, not as many distractions existed.

She spoke of the mental trauma she endured in an interview with the Chicago Tribune , and reveals a wish that she had sought help for PTSD :

I wish I had because I definitely had some severe post-traumatic stress syndrome. I really wish I had taken the time to do that. I'm fairly headstrong, so I'm always, "Oh, I can get through this on my own." Now looking back, at times I really needed some professional help.

Oldham's Mother Had A Premonition That Something Was Wrong

Thousands of miles away from her shipwrecked daughter in San Diego, Tami Oldham's mother knew something was wrong. After Hurricane Raymond hit, Zonna Pennell began to have strange dreams, strange enough she viewed them as premonitions : "There was a guy outside a boat looking through a porthole. It was blurry. I saw Tami and she had something red on her head – a gash."

Pennell started going to the Coast Guard office every day to ask about her daughter, but was never even told about the hurricane. She only heard from Oldham after the ordeal was over.

She Wrote A Book About Her Experiences, Which Was A Part Of Her Healing Process

As a part of her grieving process, Tami Oldham wrote a book called Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea , a project she began around eight years after the accident. At the time it was released, her two daughters were too young to read the book or understand what their mother had been through – they only knew that "Mommy was in a hurricane."

Although the book was initially rejected by several publishers , Oldham went ahead and published it herself. When a literary agent discovered it, those same publishers went into a bidding war for the story. Oldham's book formed the basis for the film  Adrift.

In Spite Of The Trauma She Endured, Oldham Still Loves To Sail

When asked by the Chicago Tribune how she feels about sailing today, Tami Oldham's response said a lot about her inner strength:

I just love it. I'm passionate about it. I kind of parallel [the hurricane] to being in a car accident. You get back in the car or, like they say, back on the horse. I couldn't wait to get out of the States and get back to some tranquility and get back to the water again. But it definitely made me a lot more cautious.

Today she lives on San Juan Island, WA, a place where she can practice the hobby that not only saved her life, but also gives it joy.

• Adventure Entertainment
• Historical Entertainment
• Fact vs. Fiction

Visiting the mysterious empty and sunken vessels of the deep blue sea.

• Tickets & Showtimes
• Trending on RT

24 Movies Trapped At Sea

Water, water everywhere, and not a damn way to get home. That’s this week’s gallery theme: Movies where we see people trapped on the open seas, inspired by  Adrift , starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as two young lovers whose boat is incapacitated after sailing directly into a catastrophic hurricane (and with Claflin’s character suffering from a life-threatening injury). Likewise, the movies in this gallery see heroes under immense pier pressure when their boats get hijacked, destroyed, or worse of all, disappeared all together.

Note: Because a lot of movies fall under this theme, we’re not including submarine movies ( Das Boot ,  Below ,  Black Sea ) or movies where the heroes can generally head home at any time ( Jaws ,  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou ).

Related News

The 100 Best Movies Over 3 Hours Long, Ranked

All 96 Best Picture Winners, Ranked by Tomatometer

Golden Globes Best Picture Winners by Tomatometer

More 24 Frames

24 Predictions For 2019 (According To The Movies)

24 Best Movie Posters of 2018

24 Great Monster Movie Posters

December 31, 2018

December 27, 2018

August 7, 2018

Related News & Interviews

March 12, 2024

March 10, 2024

January 7, 2024

Movie & TV News

Featured on rt.

All A24 Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

May 24, 2024

Walton Goggins Talks The Ghoul’s Thirsty Fans and Fallout’s Western Influences on The Awards Tour Podcast

Vote For the Best Movie of 1999 – Round 1

May 23, 2024

Mad Max Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

May 21, 2024

Top Headlines

• Cannes Film Festival 2024: Movie Scorecard –
• All A24 Movies Ranked by Tomatometer –
• Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch –
• Mad Max Movies Ranked by Tomatometer –
• Mad Max In Order: How to Watch the Movies Chronologically –
• Cannes 2024 Red Carpet Arrivals –

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Entertainment

41 Days Stranded at Sea: The Harrowing, Heartbreaking Real-Life Story Behind New Movie 'Adrift'

"It's amazing what you can do when you have to survive," says shipwreck survivor Tami Oldham Ashcraft

Spoiler Alert! This story contains major spoilers about the plot of the new movie Adrift .

The summer of 1983 started out like a fairytale adventure for 23-year-old globetrotter Tami Oldham Ashcraft.

The California native got engaged to her British boyfriend, Richard Sharp, and several months later the two experienced sailors set out on a dream trip from Tahiti to San Diego on a luxurious 44-foot sailboat. Less than two weeks into their trek, the pair — played by Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin in the new movie Adrift — were trapped in a devastatingly strong hurricane that changed their lives forever.

Ashcraft, who originally detailed her ordeal in a 1998 self-published memoir Red Sky in Mourning , says that although she and Sharp received radio warnings about the developing storm, which started out as a tropical depression and quickly gained in intensity and speed, they were unable to outrun it.

“We ran from it for three days trying to figure it out, because it kept changing direction,” Ashcraft recalls to PEOPLE. “The storms are going twice your speed. We couldn’t make that kind of time with the boat to get out of the way.”

When the hurricane fully descended upon them on Oct. 12, Sharp had sent Ashcraft below deck to rest. The last thing she remembers before the boat capsized and she was knocked unconscious is her fiancé screaming.

“When I woke up from being knocked out for 27 hours, I didn’t know where I was,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Where am I?’ The boat’s half-full of water at that point, I couldn’t even really remember anything. Then I started moving and unlatching myself [from her safety suit and various debris], looking around going, ‘Oh my God. Richard. Where’s Richard?'”

All she could find of Sharp in the midst of the wreckage was his broken safety tether hanging lifelessly over the boat. While the reality of her grave situation swept over her, so did the awareness that she was badly injured — her head was split open behind her hairline and she had a serious gash on her leg — and drifting aimlessly somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“They were both bad. My head injury I could keep clean somewhat, keep bandages on it,” says Ashcraft. “Thank goodness it’s underneath my hairline so you can’t see it. It splayed my head wide open, and I just bled. My leg I kept hitting on everything, and then there was so much water in the boat. It would just stay wet all the time. I was super worried about my leg. Then I started ripping up t-shirts and stuff when I ran out of bandages.”

After she self-administered first aid, Ashcraft’s next key survival move was crafting a makeshift sail from some of the debris on the boat and setting course for Hawaii — 1,500 miles away — which she was able to do via her navigation skills.

“What saved my life was knowing celestial navigation, that I could navigate by the sun and get myself somewhere,” Ashcraft says. “You have to do three sights a day, and sometimes I would have to do four. Doing all the mathematics required for that really helped me to focus.”

RELATED VIDEO: Two American Women and Their Dogs Rescued After Five ‘Hopeless’ Months Lost At Sea

It also helped keep her mind off her grief over losing her fiancé in such a tragic way.

“I had to tell myself onboard that I couldn’t cry anymore, because I was losing way too much water,” Ashcraft says. “My water supply was very limited. I just had a big talk with myself. That inner strength to survive is so strong. You just don’t realize it, until you’re put in a really crucial time that you have to survive. It’s amazing what you can do. That just comes from within really. Then keeping your mind active.”

Ashcraft survived 41 days adrift in the Pacific, subsisting on peanut butter and willpower, before she approached Hilo, Hawaii and was picked up by a Japanese research vessel after sending up a flare around 4 o’clock in the morning.

The ship’s crew members “were shocked,” she recalls. “I was exhausted. I was way underweight — I’m 5’8″-5’9″ and I weighed about 100 lbs. I didn’t even go to the hospital. Can you believe that? I can’t believe nobody sent me to the hospital.”

When Ashcraft returned home to San Diego, the weight of her near-death experience and the loss of her first love fully set in, and she face a long recovery from her injuries, physically and mentally.

“I had the head injury and I couldn’t even read a book for nearly five years. I couldn’t finish sentences, my short term memory was really bad,” she says. “Seeing couples together, that sort of thing, was hard. I had nightmares. I was consumed for years and years with thinking about it. I then realized after five or six years that I could choose when to start thinking about him and the experience. I started realizing, ‘Oh, I’m not consumed by this all day now.'”

Although Ashcraft says her physical injuries healed well enough that she never went to a hospital for medical attention, she regrets not seeking out help from a therapist or counselor.

“I wish I had gotten some professional mental help. I think I could have sped up my recovery a little bit more,” she says. “Not so much the grieving but the mental recovery of reading and that kind of thing. They can give you projects to work on and things, and also just make sure that you’re going around the right track.”

Ashcraft says it took her a full five years before she was able to come out of her mental fog and feel joy again. She returned to the water almost immediately — only these days she prefers power boating to sailing when she navigates near Washington’s San Juan Islands, where she lives with her family, husband Ed, a contractor, and her two daughters.

“We’ve been a boating family,” she says. “I think it teaches the children so much more about life.”

Ashcraft still speaks publicly about her incredible survival story to groups like the Navy Survival School. “I’m glad to help, although I’m sorry I was in that situation. Now I choose when I want to think about it. For many years I was consumed by it and a lot of that had to do with just moving on in life,” she says. “It’s still in your heart. It’s just in a different way.”

Adrift is now playing in theaters.

Related Articles

× Do you know these Musicians from their Movies?

Best Lost At Sea Movies

Lost at sea movies have been a popular genre in Hollywood for decades, captivating audiences with tales of survival, courage, and the human spirit. From classic black and white films to modern blockbusters, there have been countless movies that have explored the theme of being stranded at sea. In this article, we will take a look at some of the best lost at sea movies, along with 13 song examples that perfectly capture the mood and atmosphere of these films.

1. “Life of Pi” (2012) – Directed by Ang Lee, “Life of Pi” tells the story of a young man who survives a shipwreck and is stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The film is a visually stunning masterpiece that explores themes of survival, faith, and the power of storytelling. The song “Pi’s Lullaby” by Mychael Danna perfectly captures the ethereal and mystical tone of the film.

2. “All is Lost” (2013) – Starring Robert Redford as a solo sailor who must battle the elements after his yacht is damaged at sea, “All is Lost” is a tense and gripping thriller that showcases Redford’s acting prowess. The song “Excelsior” by Alex Ebert is a haunting and atmospheric track that perfectly complements the film’s sense of isolation and desperation.

3. “Cast Away” (2000) – Tom Hanks delivers a powerhouse performance as a FedEx employee who is stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash in “Cast Away.” The film explores themes of survival, loneliness, and the resilience of the human spirit. The song “End Credits” by Alan Silvestri captures the emotional journey of the film’s protagonist.

4. “Adrift” (2018) – Based on a true story, “Adrift” follows the harrowing journey of a couple who are stranded at sea after a hurricane destroys their boat. Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin deliver powerful performances in this gripping survival tale. The song “Stay” by Kygo ft. Maty Noyes adds an emotional depth to the film’s narrative.

5. “The Perfect Storm” (2000) – Starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, “The Perfect Storm” tells the true story of a fishing boat caught in a massive storm off the coast of New England. The film is a thrilling and intense ride that showcases the power of nature and the bravery of those who face it head-on. The song “The Storm” by Jerry Goldsmith captures the tension and drama of the film’s climax.

6. “Lifeboat” (1944) – Directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, “Lifeboat” is a tense and claustrophobic thriller that takes place entirely on a lifeboat after a ship is sunk by a German U-boat during World War II. The film explores themes of survival, morality, and human nature. The song “Main Title” by Hugo Friedhofer sets the tone for the film’s suspenseful atmosphere.

7. “Open Water” (2003) – Based on a true story, “Open Water” follows a couple who are left stranded in shark-infested waters after their scuba diving tour boat accidentally leaves them behind. The film is a chilling and realistic portrayal of the dangers of the open ocean. The song “Sharks” by Les Baxter adds a sense of dread and tension to the film’s suspenseful moments.

8. “The Shallows” (2016) – Starring Blake Lively as a surfer who is attacked by a great white shark and stranded on a rock in the middle of the ocean, “The Shallows” is a tense and thrilling survival tale. The song “Toothy” by Marco Beltrami and the song “Sway” by Dean Lewis perfectly capture the film’s sense of danger and desperation.

9. “Dead Calm” (1989) – Starring Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill, “Dead Calm” follows a couple who encounter a deranged sailor while sailing in the Pacific Ocean. The film is a tense and suspenseful thriller that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. The song “End Credits” by Graeme Revell adds an eerie and atmospheric touch to the film’s unsettling atmosphere.

10. “In the Heart of the Sea” (2015) – Directed by Ron Howard, “In the Heart of the Sea” tells the true story of the Essex, a whaling ship that was attacked by a massive sperm whale in 1820. The film explores themes of survival, sacrifice, and the destructive power of nature. The song “Arriving at In the Heart of the Sea” by Roque Baños captures the epic scale and drama of the film’s seafaring adventure.

11. “The Blue Lagoon” (1980) – Starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, “The Blue Lagoon” follows two young children who are shipwrecked on a deserted island and must learn to survive on their own. The film is a romantic and sensual tale of love and survival. The song “Theme from The Blue Lagoon” by Basil Poledouris perfectly captures the film’s idyllic and dreamy atmosphere.

12. “Lifeboat” (2017) – Directed by Oliver Kyr, “Lifeboat” is a gripping and intense thriller that follows a group of survivors who are stranded on a lifeboat after their ship is sunk by a mysterious force. The film explores themes of survival, trust, and betrayal. The song “Lifeboat” by Oliver Kyr adds a sense of urgency and tension to the film’s suspenseful moments.

13. “The Reef” (2010) – Based on a true story, “The Reef” follows a group of friends who are stranded on a capsized boat in shark-infested waters after their boat hits a reef. The film is a tense and terrifying survival tale that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. The song “The Reef” by Rafael May perfectly captures the film’s sense of danger and desperation.

These are just a few of the best lost at sea movies that have captivated audiences over the years. Each film offers a unique and compelling take on the theme of survival and the human spirit. Whether it’s a harrowing tale of a solo sailor battling the elements or a romantic story of love and survival, these films have something for everyone.

Common Questions:

1. Are lost at sea movies based on true stories?

– Some lost at sea movies are based on true stories, while others are works of fiction inspired by real-life events.

2. What are some common themes in lost at sea movies?

– Common themes in lost at sea movies include survival, isolation, courage, and the resilience of the human spirit.

3. Do lost at sea movies always have a happy ending?

– Not all lost at sea movies have a happy ending. Some films explore darker and more tragic themes of loss and sacrifice.

4. What are some common dangers faced by characters in lost at sea movies?

– Characters in lost at sea movies often face dangers such as sharks, storms, dehydration, starvation, and isolation.

5. Are there any comedic lost at sea movies?

– While most lost at sea movies are serious and dramatic in tone, there are a few comedies that have explored the theme of being stranded at sea.

6. Are there any lost at sea movies that focus on the psychological effects of being stranded?

– Yes, some lost at sea movies delve into the psychological effects of isolation, fear, and desperation on the characters.

7. What are some of the most iconic lost at sea movies of all time?

– Some of the most iconic lost at sea movies include “Life of Pi,” “Cast Away,” “The Perfect Storm,” and “All is Lost.”

8. How do filmmakers create realistic ocean scenes in lost at sea movies?

– Filmmakers often use a combination of practical effects, CGI, and water tanks to create realistic ocean scenes in lost at sea movies.

9. Are there any lost at sea movies that focus on the bond between humans and animals?

– Yes, films like “Life of Pi” and “The Shallows” explore the unique bond between humans and animals in the face of adversity.

10. What are some of the challenges actors face when filming lost at sea movies?

– Actors filming lost at sea movies often face physical challenges such as working in water for long periods of time, as well as emotional challenges in portraying the desperation and fear of being stranded.

11. How do filmmakers create tension and suspense in lost at sea movies?

– Filmmakers use a combination of music, sound effects, cinematography, and editing to create tension and suspense in lost at sea movies.

12. Are there any lost at sea movies that focus on the aftermath of being rescued?

– Yes, some lost at sea movies explore the aftermath of being rescued, including the psychological and emotional toll it can take on the characters.

13. What are some of the most memorable performances in lost at sea movies?

– Performances by actors such as Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” and Robert Redford in “All is Lost” have been praised for their emotional depth and authenticity.

14. Are there any upcoming lost at sea movies to look out for?

– While there are always new lost at sea movies in development, one upcoming film to look out for is “Against the Ice,” starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as a Danish explorer stranded in the arctic.

In conclusion, lost at sea movies have long been a popular genre in Hollywood, offering audiences thrilling tales of survival, courage, and the indomitable human spirit. From classic black and white films to modern blockbusters, these movies have captured the imagination of viewers around the world. Whether it’s a harrowing tale of a lone survivor battling the elements or a romantic story of love and survival, there is a lost at sea movie for every taste. So grab your popcorn, settle in, and prepare to be swept away by the drama and adventure of these captivating films.

Related Posts:

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

The odds of surviving 13 classic 'lost at sea' movies

And by that I mean, my odds of surviving.

Adrift (2018)

Shailene Woodley plays the real-life survivor Tami Oldham who got caught in a hurricane and had to sail on her own towards Hawai'i with a broken boat. In honor of her heroism and harrowing story, I tried to put myself in her terrible, waterlogged shoes.

My chance of survival: 2%

First, I know nothing about sailing. Tami had no chance of rescue and needed to sail herself to safety. I would never be able to do that, with or without Sam Claflin as a love interest.

Life of Pi (2012)

My chance of survival: 20%

If I remember correctly, Pi survives mainly by cowering in a minature raft he floats on to hide from the tiger. I am better at hiding than I am at sailing. But still, I get very hungry.

The Deep (2012)

My chance of survival: 1%

This Icelandic movie is based on a true story about a fisherman who survived in the freezing ocean after his boat capsized. I am always cold, even in my office. I would be very bad at this.

The Finest Hours (2016)

My chance of survival: 80%

This is a movie about a Coast Guard rescue mission. And a historically successful one! I can be rescued by Chris Pine.

The Deep (1977)

My chance of survival: 0%

I do not know how to scuba dive and also I am very scared of it, and so I would immediately panic and breath too much or too little and screw up my lungs in the way that you're not supposed to when you're scuba diving.

The Disappeared (2012)

My chance of survival: 30%

Because htis film is about six men stranded after their fishing boat sinks, I feel like I could survive just by following directions and hoping no one eats me.

Open Water (2003)

See my earlier answer about scuba diving, and then throw in sharks.

The Reef (2010)

I'm not a terrible swimmer, and even though sharks are super scary, statistically, they probably won't eat me. So if I could stick to the group and make it to a shallow section of the reef where I could stand, I could probably wait it out until I was rescued by a fishing boat.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

My chance of survival: 25%

Again, I'm basing my odds here on not having to rely on any of my own boat knowledge. If I make it out of this one, it's mostly luck.

All Is Lost (2013)

My chance of survival: 10%

Look, I'll say again: I don't know how to sail. But Robert Redford only had a shot at making it out if he was rescued, and I'm banking on those odds.

Titanic (1997)

My chance of survival: 85%

Women and children first, people. Since I almost certainly wouldn't fall in love with a rougish third-class artist, I wouldn't jump out of the lifeboat at the last minute in time to push him off a door.

In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

My chance of survival: 50%

Whales are scary, and so are shipwrecks, but in this imaginary scenario, I have Chris Hemsworth to help me survive.

The Perfect Storm (2000)

My chane of survival: 0%

The storm is perfect for a reason. RIP me.

Related Articles

20 Best Sailing Movies of all Time

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

June 15, 2022

If you have been looking forward to curling up on the couch, grabbing a bowl of popcorn, and watching some captivating movies, this can be a good time. A good sailing movie can be perfect given that you'll hear a few lines that you're already familiar with when on the dock or setting sail.

This can be a perfect time to binge-watch some of the best sailing movies.

So in no particular order, we'll highlight 20 of the best sailing movies of all time. From the brutal and dramatic tales of man vs. sea to inspirational explorations and expeditions, we've covered it all. Keep reading and you'll be inspired while waiting to get off dry land when it's safe to do so.

Table of contents

All is Lost (2013)

For lone sailors, All is Lost is probably the best movie to give you a glimpse of what might go wrong for you if you decide to sail the big blue ocean alone. With a near-mute performance as an old man who loves sailing alone, Robert Redford puts in an almost quasi-silent performance by portraying the ordeal of what a lone sailor can undergo when the sea turns on you.

Directed by JC Chandor, there's only one person on the screen throughout the film. He's all alone in the vast sea with his damaged boat. He has to become tough, resourceful, and calm even when things turn against him. Single-character movies are a rarity even today but this is a great survival film that perfectly depicts what could happen even to the hardest lone sailors out there.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Directed by the talented Peter Weir, this critically-acclaimed movie was nominated for 10 Oscars and won for best cinematography and sound editing. Depicting the return of the high-seas adventure, this movie is skillfully and meticulously adapted from the historical novel by Patrick O'Brian set during the Napoleonic Wars and starring Russell Crowe.

Crowe plays an arrogant captain who pushes his ship crew to the limits while trying to capture a French warship. This movie offers action-packed battle scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This movie gives you an insight of what sailors undergo in their struggles to make it through the high-seas alive.

Captain Ron (1992)

With little sailing experience but with an inherited yacht moored on an offshore island Martin Short hires charismatic Captain Ron to take them back to Florida. The voyage isn't as easy as they expected as they have to face pirates, breakdowns, and other obstacles. They all get more than what they bargained for.

Portrayed by Kurt Russell, Captain Ron depicts the misadventures of a nominal sailing character that is hired by an upper-middle-class father to guide a yacht through the Caribbean. From the marine accidents, pirates, guerilla carnivals to malfunctioning equipment, and Russell's croaked absurdities, this movie is just full of double humor and worthy performance. 

Wind (1992)

As one of the biggest races in competitive sailing, America's Cup is often associated with rich people competing in weird-looking boats. But this movie changes this as it takes viewers through the eyes of tanned and rugged Will Parker as played by Matthew Modine. He's hired by a self-made millionaire (Cliff Robertson) to lead his crew in the competition.

Together with his girlfriend Kate who is an equally skilled sailor, Parker intends to win America's Cup but Kate is thrown off the crew leaving Parker angry. When the crew loses America's Cup to the Australians, Parker decides to form his own syndicate to win back the cup. 

White Squall (1996)

This movie follows a young man's adventure movie that follows a group of high school students who boards the brigantine ship called Albatross for their senior year at sea. They sail to the tip of South America and back. They get to accept responsibility, learn how to be sailors, and grow up.

The skipper of the ship, Christopher Sheldon together with the 13 teenage boys set sail for an eight-month voyage. The boys soon discover Sheldon's psyche gradations, rattling tension, and freak storms that sink the ship. As a sailor, you'll be disturbed by the fact that four students and two crew members drown, leaving skipper Sheldon facing a fierce tribunal, tortured conscience, and grieving parents and students.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

As one of the greatest epic movies of the 1960s, English Captain Bligh is on a sea voyage to transport breadfruit from England to Jamaica. He is so abusive that he gets on the nerves of his crew members, especially 1st Lieutenant, Fletcher Christian.

Tension eases when they reach Jamaica and the crew indulges in the island's lifestyle but the captain claps some members of his crew in irons as they try to desert. Further abuses lead Fletcher to inspire a mutiny against the Captain. Fletcher and his men set the Captain and his loyal members afloat in a rowboat. This movie offers a realistic depiction of a larger-than-life character that most sailors are known for. 

Dead Calm (1989)

Starring Billy Zane, Nicole Kidman, Sam Neil, and a gorgeous 60 ft. ketch, Dead Calm revolves around a mass-murderer who kidnaps and seduces a young beautiful woman after leaving a husband to die on a vessel whose crew he has just murdered.

This movie was filmed in the Whitsundays Islands of Australia, which is one of the best sailing destinations in the world. Bringing forth an epic combination of deadly sailing conditions , complete isolation from the rest of the world, and a skillful villain aboard the vessel, this movie is thrilling and will leave you looking behind your back whenever you're out there on the sea.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

This adventure-comedy follows the high journeys of Steve Zissou, a character adaptation of French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It follows his ocean expedition when tracking the ‘jaguar shark' that apparently ate his partner, Esteban.

Esteban had been working with Zissou on a documentary about mysterious circumstances by a shark. This is a sharp film with lots of fun and adventure on the sea.

Kon-Tiki (2012)

Legendary Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl believes that the South Sea Islands were originally colonized by South Americans. Thor, who fears water and doesn't know how to swim, partakes on a voyage in 1947 to prove his belief. Together with five crew members, set sail from Peru on a balsa-wood ancient raft.

Even though their only modern equipment is a radio, they have to navigate through the ocean while relying on stars and ocean currents and they achieve the impossible after exhausting three months at the sea. This is a very spirited adventure that depicts what's possible when we believe in our dreams. 

Maidentrip (2013)

A 14-year-old sailor by the name Laura Dekker sets sail on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to become the world's youngest sailor. Laura sets out from Holland and sails throughout the world. Apart from the occasional foul language that Laura uses now and then on the documentary, this is an excellent film that shows what one can achieve when he/she lives her dream and works hard towards achieving it.

The documentary, however, doesn't suggest that Laura is alarmingly young to sail across the unforgiving Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Instead, she's depicted as an independent outsider who is looking for paradise in a never-ending sea. 

Adrift (2018)

In most cases, sailors seem to never anticipate that they may sail directly into a catastrophic hurricane and this is exactly what Richard Sharp and Tami Oldham do when they sail directly in one of the worst hurricanes ever recorded in history.

Tami awakes in the aftermath of the hurricane to find their boat in ruins and Richard is badly injured. And because they do not have any hope that they would ever get help or get rescued, Tami is left with two options: sit there and perish or find strength and determination to save herself as well as the only man she's ever loved.

Turning Tide (En Solitaire) (2013)

In this daring tale, this movie portrays how a fearless sailor known as Yann Kermadec finds a lot of obstacles in his biggest race as a two-hander named Turning Tide falls flat. In a nail-biting tension, the story begins when Kermadec replaces the main skipper in the Vendee Globe on short notice.

After some smooth sailing, things go eerily wrong for the sailor as his ship is damaged and he's forced to anchor off the Canary Islands to repair it. When he gets back on his journey, he soon discovers that a Mauritanian teenage boy has sneaked inside the boat and he has no option but to sail with him at least until they cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

An old Cuban angler known as Spencer Tracy is so unlucky that he hasn't caught any fish in 84 days. And despite the commitment of a young boy to bring him food, the angler fears that he's forever lucky but catches a small fish on his 85th day, so he decides to keep fishing.

When one of his many fishing lines hooks a large marlin, he decides not to go back to the shore until he reels it in. For almost two days and nights, he has no choice but to sit there and do everything he can to redeem himself from what seems like a perpetual failure.

Morning Light (2008)

By entering the TRANSPAC, which is one of the world's best open-ocean competitions, 15 young men and women prepare for a sailing adventure of their lives. With world-class teachers, these sailors begin intense training in Hawaii but only reach a climax in an elimination process that comes in the form of who-stays-and-who-goes process.

This documentary follows these sailors for six months as they embark on a 2,300-mile sailing ordeal, which starts in Los Angeles and ends in Honolulu.

The Perfect Storm (2000)

Created by Wolfgang Petersen, The Perfect Storm is a blockbuster that's big on visuals and depicts an action-packed escapade on the water as Captain Billy Tyne and his crew set on a fishing expedition aboard a ship known as Andrea Gail.

They're soon caught up in a catastrophic destructive storm when they decide to risk the storm and have to deal with a very powerful hurricane. At the height of their fishing expedition, their ice machine breaks down and the only way to ensure that their catch doesn't go stale is by hurrying back to the shore to sell their catch. This is exactly why they decide to risk their lives and it doesn't turn out as they expected.

Captain Phillips (2013)

When Captain Richard Phillips takes command of an unarmed container ship known as MV Maersk Alabama from the port of Salalah in Oman, they anticipate that they'll be attacked by Somali Pirates on their way to Mombasa, Kenya.

They attack the ship and Captain Phillips has to use his wits and diplomacy to negotiate with the pirates and save his crew. 

Maiden (2018)

As the saying goes; what a man can do a woman can do even better. This is exactly what's depicted by this sailing movie that follows the life of Tracy Edwards as she leads the first all-female crew when competing in the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Covering 33,000 miles and lasting for nine months, this is a truly grueling race that depicts the corrosive sexism that still exists in the sailing world as well as the ocean terrors that sailors have to deal with during voyages or competitions. 

Chasing Bubbles (2016)

This is a captivating documentary that follows the journey of Alex Rust who is a free spirit who gives the normal life to sail around the world. Alex is brought up as a farm boy but becomes a stock trader in Indiana. At the age of 25, he decides to abandon his life in Chicago, buys a modest sailboat known as Bubbles and embarks on a very unique free-spirited voyage. It takes him three years to sail around the world and to quench his insatiable curiosity while meeting great people and fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a free soul.

This is a breathtaking travelogue that depicts the sailing life of a truly absorbing character.

180° South (2010)

Directed by Chris Malloy, this is a sailing documentary that covers the journey of Jeff Johnson as he travels from Ventura, California to Patagonia in Chile. He does this to retrace the same trip covered by Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins in 1968.

While the two initial explorers made the journey on the land, Johnson travels by sea using a small boat.

Deep Water (2006)

This movie follows the true-life story of Donald Crowhurst, an inexperienced British sailor who enters the Golden Globe, which is the first nonstop boat race in the world. Donald puts up his home as collateral to gain financial backing to compete in the race but soon finds himself on the wrong end of things as he enters the race under-prepared.

Related Articles

I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

by this author

Entertainment

Most Recent

What Does "Sailing By The Lee" Mean?

October 3, 2023

The Best Sailing Schools And Programs: Reviews & Ratings

September 26, 2023

Important Legal Info

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.

Similar Posts

How To Choose The Right Sailing Instructor

August 16, 2023

Cost To Sail Around The World

May 16, 2023

Small Sailboat Sizes: A Complete Guide

October 30, 2022

Popular Posts

Best Liveaboard Catamaran Sailboats

December 28, 2023

Can a Novice Sail Around the World?

Elizabeth O'Malley

4 Best Electric Outboard Motors

How Long Did It Take The Vikings To Sail To England?

10 Best Sailboat Brands (And Why)

December 20, 2023

7 Best Places To Liveaboard A Sailboat

Get the best sailing content.

Top Rated Posts

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. (866) 342-SAIL

© 2024 Life of Sailing Email: [email protected] Address: 11816 Inwood Rd #3024 Dallas, TX 75244 Disclaimer Privacy Policy

Lost at sea: The Rose-Noelle story

Share this article

The crew from the Rose-Noelle after 119 days at sea. From left: Phillip Hofman, Rick Hellriegel and Jim Nalepka. Photo / Supplied.

The story of the Rose-Noelle, Abandoned, is showing on Sunday Theatre

It was the story of the year: four men - John Glennie, Rick Hellriegel, Jim Nalepka and Phil Hofman - back from the dead after surviving a shipwreck, storms and starvation.

When the four desperate survivors of the wreck of the 12.6m Rose-Noelle clawed their way up through steep Great Barrier bush to tell the world they were back, Media clamoured for the story. The TVNZ helicopter jostled for space on the tiny Great Barrier beach against a helicopter hired by the fledgling TV3. Paul Holmes nailed an exclusive with the Rose-Noelle's skipper John Glennie, and Penguin signed him up to write a book. The Rose-Noelle story was a ripper.

Three days into its voyage, at 6am on June 4, 1989, a massive wave - so big it roared like a freight train - came out of the darkness and flipped the 6.5 tonne trimaran upside down like a bath toy, trapping the four terrified men in the darkness, sea water pouring in through the open hatch.

From that moment what was an adventure trip to Tonga turned to a struggle for survival as they drifted, lost at sea, for 119 days.

The signal from the EPIRB locator beacon they set off was not picked up and on June 13, John's 48th birthday, it stopped working. The men were alone.

By all accounts, the wreck should have drifted towards South America, its occupants slowly starving to death. Any other year, with a different weather pattern, only skeletons would have remained.

Instead, the winds and currents pushed the stricken trimaran in a wide loop, eventually washing it up on a remote part of Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. A miracle, those with faith proclaimed.

Maybe, maybe not, sceptical Customs and marine investigators thought at the time.

Captain Mel Bowen, then with the Maritime Transport Division of the Ministry of Transport, was asked to help investigate the men's claim.

He started his inquiries with a healthy doubt of suspicion.

"I was paid to doubt," he says.

As garbled reports of four men surviving for four months by clinging to the upturned hull of a trimaran, Bowen - an experienced seafarer - knew something wasn't right.

One of the men was clean shaven, the others had trimmed beards and hair. They were wearing clean clothes. And where were the salt sores, the scourge of anyone in constant contact with salt water?

They were thin, yes, but otherwise outwardly fit and healthy. No signs of scurvy.

If they had been drifting in the Pacific for four months, why hadn't they floated towards Chile, as expected?

Quietly watching the four men, Bowen thought they seemed vague, confused, unsure of details.

Bowen, now retired in Rotorua, smelled a rat. Customs smelled drugs.

The timeline was right. Four months to get to South America to collect drugs and back for a drop off at the Barrier.

Had a navigational error caused the Rose-Noelle to hit rocks and break up just as they were about to land? Bowen, never much of a desk-sitter, headed straight out to Great Barrier to visit the spot - Little Waterfall Bay - where the Rose-Noelle had slowly ground itself to pieces as the yacht hit an offshore reef.

His job was to find clues, evidence which would back up the men's garbled story. Bowen and the local Barrier policeman, Shane Godinet - who had collected the four survivors in his truck when news first came through - ran down through the bush to the tiny beach and climbed back up again, trying to find evidence of a spot where the men said they had camped in the bush for a night, sharing a can of food in the darkness.

Then he and Godinet began searching the shoreline and, donning dive gear, searched the site where the Rose-Noelle had ground itself to death.

This search helped convince Bowen that Glennie was not a drug runner; that the Rose-Noelle had been a beautifully built and well-equipped yacht which was Glennie's home. Up from the water came Glennie's bicycle and a chef-sized wok from the yacht's superb galley.

"In the event what we found was a jumble of household effects." Most telling was the yacht's topsides. Where unmarked paint should have been, instead barnacles grew - only possible if the yacht had been floating upside down for months. A few days later Barrier resident Dave Medland searched the wreck site and spotted something glinting in the water. It was four cycling medals, two belonging to Glennie and two his father had won.

Medland also found some American coins, the left-over change when Glennie and his brother sold their first trimaran, Highlight, in Los Angeles, after sailing around the Pacific in the 60s. And he found a drill which he took home, cleaned up and plugged in. After four months under water, the drill still worked.

It was after Glennie, Hellreigel, Nalepka and Hofman had been questioned closely, and separately, by investigators that some of the mystery was cleared up.

The men had lived in a small space inside the wreck, not on top of it. They had rigged up a water catchment system and, after the upturned yacht grew barnacles and became a floating reef, had started to catch fish using a gaff. Glennie had repeatedly dived into the submerged cabin, feeling his way around for the stocks of food he knew were there. Trays of unripe kiwifruit gradually ripened, and rationed out, gave them precious vitamin C.

After clambering ashore and spending a night in the bush, they had broken into a bach on the Barrier, where they had washed, shaved, trimmed their hair, changed into clothes they found in a wardrobe and cooked themselves a meal. And they had slept the night. The next day they heard a phone ringing in a nearby property.

Twenty years ago Great Barrier still had an old-fashioned party line. A nearby resident, Peter Speck, heard the phone ring and picked it up. His voice - and later his visit to the back on a farm bike - was the first outside human contact the men had had in four months.

Speck couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. Four men lost at sea for four months suddenly reappearing in his neighbour's bach.

More than three months earlier an Air Force Orion had spent two days searching an area between the Kermadec Islands and Tonga - miles from where the Rose-Noelle was drifting - based on what was thought to be a garbled message from the yacht giving its position. But faced with little information about the yacht's intended course, the search was abandoned.

With no signal from the EPIRB distress beacon, Search and Rescue officials concluded that something "catastrophic" had happened to the yacht.

In the New Zealand Water Safety Council's bulletin of Aug/Sept 1989, the four Rose-Noelle crew were listed as "drowned" in the vicinity of the Kermadec Islands.

Instead, they were huddled in a cramped space, wet and cold, with nothing to do but day-dream about food and fresh water.

Apart from Hellreigel and Nalepka, who knew each other from Anakiwa's Outward Bound, the four men were strangers, with little in common.

Twenty years later, the three remaining men - Hellreigel died of a brain tumour two years after coming ashore - are still estranged.

None of them have kept in touch, even after an event that inextricably bound them together.

Glennie moved to the United States, married and started a new life based firmly on land. Hofman and his wife Karen had their fifth child, Rose, sold their boat and moved from Picton to Waiheke Island. They later bought a trimaran and lived aboard before settling in Auckland's Mt Wellington.

The Herald on Sunday was unable to contact Nalepka but, after helping Hellreigel's wife Heather nurse Rick as his brain tumour progressed, he returned to the United States. He later came back to New Zealand, qualified as a nurse, worked at Nelson Hospital and married a New Zealander.

Former Great Barrier policeman Shane Godinet is semi-retired in the Far North's Henderson Bay, after leaving the Barrier for Houhora police station in the 90s. He still has scrapbooks full of newspaper clippings and photos from the Rose-Noelle and says the survival story is never far from his mind.

He has the Rose-Noelle's flag framed at home and intends to make a desk ornament using a couple of Glennie's American coins and a winch from the wreck.

Looking back, he says, the four men were lucky to survive even their arrival at Great Barrier. The tiny beach near Little Waterfall Bay, where the yacht hit rocks, was the only part of that coast that was not sheer rock. The men would have been unable to get out of the water, Godinet says.

"Another 50m either side where they hit the rock and they would have been dead. We would have just found wreckage."

Latest from New Zealand

Taradale make it 10 in a row

Taradale have scored four tries or more in all 10 games this season.

Murderer's prison release 'unnecessarily delayed'

John Tamihere: The big winners of next week's Budget are not Māori

Two men found 'motionless' in Newmarket pool were deliberately holding breath

Cracking open the truth

15 Best Thriller Movies That Will Make You Afraid of the Ocean

Lifejacket required!

The oceans encompass most of the planet, but explorers have only scratched the surface of what lies beneath. What lurks below in the murky depths of the sea has an innately unsettling quality. Stories of krakens hiding in ocean waters waiting to wreck passing ships, man-eating sharks poised to pounce on unsuspecting swimmers, and sirens luring sailors to Davy Jones’ locker are commonplace in history.

Many filmmakers have tried to appeal to our preternatural fears of the unknown, and some have been wildly successful in tapping into what’s so scary about the ocean. Sometimes they use a mythological beast to play on our phobias, and other times it’s just the force of nature itself – it's clear that underwater movies about the ocean aren't going anywhere. There's no shortage of especially thrilling and scary ocean movies that dive into unexplored depths of this sub-genre. If you don’t already have thalassophobia, or an intense fear of the ocean, these best deep sea movies may change your mind.

15 'Sphere' (1998)

Director: barry levinson.

Directed and produced by Barry Levinson , father to Euphoria ’s Sam Levinson , and based on a novel by Michael Crichton , Sphere takes an A-list cast and puts them through a wringer. The film is more of a work of mind-bending science fiction than a conventional horror film. However, there are plenty of things to be afraid of, such as typhoons, jellyfish, and enormous squids.

While the film garnered mostly unfavorable reviews upon its initial release, it quickly gained a cult following thanks to its distinctive setting and an unsurprisingly charismatic Samuel L. Jackson . Sphere emphasizes the realization that humans just do not know what actually is happening miles below sea level.

Rent on Apple TV

14 'Underwater' (2020)

Director: william eubank.

Few authors have been as successful in exploiting people’s fear of the unknown as H. P. Lovecraft . Underwater is a movie that plays on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos , with their version of the Great Old One resting peacefully at the bottom of the ocean until his slumber gets disturbed, to horrifying results. Kristen Stewart gives a fantastic performance as a beleaguered mechanical engineer just trying to survive with a ragtag band of scientists.

One of the best ocean thriller movies, the film is extremely suspenseful, as it practically throws the protagonist into the fray as everything around her ignites and malfunctions. Despite featuring some of the scariest sequences in a horror film in recent years, Underwater was released in the dump month of January. Despite its financial failure, the film deserves to be viewed by and unnerve a larger audience.

Watch on Hulu

13 'Open Water' (2003)

Director: chris kentis.

Scuba diving is all fun and games until your boat leaves you behind in the middle of the ocean with no way to contact help. That is the disturbing premise of Open Water , which is made even more shocking because it is based on a true story. Things only get worse for the American couple stuck at sea as sharks surround them and exhaustion sets in.

People often have unpleasant ideas about what might occur if they get lost at sea. That Open Water was based on a tragic reality for a pair of divers makes this shark horror movie set at sea possibly the most frightening one. It effectively places the audience in the couple’s mindset as they experience the horrific reality of being at the whim of Mother Nature.

Based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark-infested waters after their tour boat has left.

Watch on Tubi

12 'Deep Rising' (1998)

Director: stephen sommers.

As if contagious diseases, electricity going out, and running out of shrimp aren’t worrisome enough when you’re on a cruise ship, Deep Rising shows it could always be worse. The action horror film depicts skeevy mercenaries seizing control of a luxurious cruise liner just before a monstrous kraken threatens the vessel. The ensuing chaos results in plenty of carnage for the ship as the monster unleashes a few surprises.

The Mummy ’s Stephen Sommers understands not to take things too seriously, and the ensemble appears to be having a good time with the B-Movie storyline. There are some genuinely terrifying sequences in Deep Rising , and the combination of physical and early CGI effects works brilliantly to produce some truly disturbing images.

Watch on Hoopla

11 'The Reef' (2010)

Director: andrew traucki.

The Reef is an Australian horror survival film about a group of friends whose boat starts to sink in the middle of the ocean as they’re being hunted by a great white shark. The gang sees an island off in the distance and must make the agonizing decision between staying with the doomed ship or swimming to shore.

It’s difficult not to be terrified of sharks, even though the actual harm they represent to swimmers is negligible. Still, The Reef knows that once you’re in the sharks' territory, they’re in charge , and they’ve got razor-sharp teeth to prove it.

Watch on Amazon Prime

10 'Triangle' (2009)

Director: christopher smith.

Triangle shifts focus from monsters of the deep to the modern myth surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. Jess ( Melissa George ) meets up with her buddies for a lovely day out on the water until calamity strikes. Something traps Jess and her friends in a deadly temporal loop in the film , with no apparent way out.

A lively and tightly written story that both literally and metaphorically throws the audience for a loop propels Triangle . The best feature of the film is Melissa George’s outstanding performance, who really sinks her teeth into the brainy subject. This is among the best ocean horror movies that demand multiple viewings to really appreciate the puzzle pieces the writer and director layout.

This psychological thriller follows a group of friends stranded on a yacht in the Bermuda Triangle, where they board a passing ship only to experience terrifying temporal distortions and duplications of themselves.

Watch on Shudder

9 'DeepStar Six' (1989)

Director: sean s. cunningham.

Many of these flicks include giant sea monsters , and it’s easy to see why in DeepStar Six . In one of the best deep ocean movies, a group of military personnel and scientists band together to defend their undersea station from attacks by a massive sea scorpion. The combined power of a leviathan and the helplessness of being confined in water makes for interesting viewing.

DeepStar Six can be sluggish at first, but once it gets going, it pushes the pedal to the metal. The film does an excellent job of depicting individuals in heightened fight-or-flight mode in the face of a crisis that is beyond the regular confines of people’s understanding of nature.

Rent on Amazon

8 'Leviathan' (1989)

Director: george p. cosmatos.

Leviathan came out at the same time as several other underwater creature features, including Deep Star Six , and features a similar plot line about an attacking sea creature. The movie makes the case for its existence because of impressive practical effects by legendary special effects artist Stan Winston and underappreciated direction by George P. Cosmatos , father to Mandy 's Panos Cosmatos . Leviathan creates a stressful atmosphere filled with watery nightmares that lurk within and outside the subterranean station.

Like John Carpenter ’s The Thing , which came out around the same time, critics and audiences were too eager to dismiss the film, and it, too, needs to be revisited. The ensemble cast, led by RoboCop ’s authoritative Peter Weller , does an excellent job of communicating the dreadful ramifications of their situation.

7 'The Cave' (2005)

Director: bruce hunt.

The Cave pushes the boundaries of thrill-seeking as a team of divers led by two brothers explore an underwater cave teeming with secrets. The movie had the unfortunate timing of releasing at the same time as The Descent , with both featuring beastly creatures attacking a group of underground explorers.

Despite a somewhat formulaic plot, The Cave does a terrific job in its own right, with stunning creature visuals that evoke fright . Several sleekly directed scenes, including a pulse-pounding cliff sequence, will make you never want to cave dive.

6 'Cold Skin' (2017)

Director: xavier gens.

Although Cold Skin takes place above ground, it does an excellent job of exposing oceanic terrors. An unnamed man ( David Oakes ) travels to a remote island to work as a weather watcher, but gradually learns of the island’s terrifying truth. He eventually joins forces with a lighthouse keeper to repel assaults from beings emerging from the sea.

The film is very stressful and claustrophobic, particularly when the men are confined inside the lighthouse. The enigmatic creatures of Cold Skin can be both horrifying and sympathetic , but they mostly likely inspire viewers to never accept jobs in remote islands.

Watch on Prime Video

5 'Adrift' (2018)

Director: baltasar kormákur.

Adrift is categorized as a survival drama rather than a horror or thriller film, but despite the absence of action, it has thrilling aspects that can keep the audience's attention. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur , the film is based on the actual account of a couple (played by Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin ) who set out on an ocean trip only to be slammed by a big hurricane, leaving them trapped in the middle of the sea with no means of contact, navigation or supplies.

Adrift 's suspense comes from the protagonists' fight to survive in the face of a huge storm and their subsequent struggle while stuck at sea. The realistic depiction of the deadly storm inspires a sense of horror and unease, reminding audiences of the awe-inspiring power of the planet.

Adrift (2018)

4 'the meg' (2018), director: jon turteltaub.

The Meg is a sci-fi action film about a deep-sea vessel that is attacked by a giant shark that was thought to be extinct. Directed by Jon Turteltaub , the plot follows a group of scientists as they attempt to stop the titular shark before it does more harm.

While some may criticize its CGI and plot holes, its wild action sequences and entertainment value more than make up for its cheesier aspects. The Meg embraces its B-movie approach and has an undeniable ability to generate tension and a sense of danger. This is especially evident in scenes where the shark, a giant ancient predator, attacks and hunts the protagonists, who are completely vulnerable underwater.

Watch on Max

3 'All Is Lost' (2013)

Director: j. c. chandor.

Director J.C. Chandor 's All Is Lost is a survival drama film about a man (masterfully played by Robert Redford ) who finds himself alone aboard a sailboat in the middle of the Indian Ocean after colliding with a shipping container and starts taking on water. The movie follows the challenges he encounters as he battles the elements and attempts to fix his boat.

All Is Lost is largely about man vs nature, with little dialogue and no flashbacks. The thrilling parts in the survival drama come from the man's efforts to survive against the worsening conditions and the damage to his boat. Redford does an incredible job of portraying the struggles of isolation against someone as terrifying as the ocean.

all is lost

2 'the shallows' (2016), director: jaume collet-serra.

The Shallows , directed by Jaume Collet-Serra , is a survival horror film about a surfer called Nancy ( Blake Lively ) who becomes trapped on a rock 200 yards from shore as a great white shark circles the limited area between her and safety. The film follows her as she attempts to escape and return to shore.

The Shallows does a phenomenal job of generating a stressful and tense environment. The protagonist's fight to survive while stuck on a rock with a predator watching her results in some terrifying moments. Lively's convincing acting is the true star of the movie, which deserves more attention in the niche genre.

The Shallows

1 'jaws' (1975), director: steven spielberg.

Jaws is a classic thriller that needs no introduction. Directed by Steven Spielberg based on Peter Benchley 's eponymous 1974 novel, the movie follows the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, as he tries to defend beachgoers from a great white shark that has been attacking and murdering people.

Widely considered one of the most influential films ever made, Jaws is often credited for the bad reputation great white sharks still have today . It also became the pioneer of the summer blockbuster, thanks to brilliant marketing tactics and its innovative cinematic techniques. No one will soon forget its legendary theme, which likely still inspires a feeling of dread in anyone who hears it.

Watch on Netflix

NEXT: The Best, Scariest Horror Movies Set in Broad Daylight

New movie tells the story of 4 USF, NFL football players who became lost at sea

CLEARWATER, Fla. — In 2009, four friends became lost at sea after their boat capsized off the coast of Clearwater.

A movie will now be made about the 43-hour ordeal in the Gulf of Mexico.

Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player, was the only person to survive. The U.S. Coast Guard found him clinging to the engine mount of the capsized boat.

Will Bleakley, along with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, died during the ordeal.

Schuyler wrote a book called "Not Without Hope." The non-fiction book is now being turned into a movie with the same title.

"We can’t bring them back to life, but what we can do is try to tell a story that lets people know how they lived, not just how they died, and that’s what we’re setting out to do," said Rick French, the film's producer.

Rick French, producer with Prix Productions, said filming is taking place in the island state of Malta.

"It follows Nick and his three friends as they embark from Clearwater on a fishing trip, 70 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, and unfortunately, the boat capsizes after the anchor gets stuck," said film producer Rick French.

Crews are using huge water tanks, which were also used in films like "Captain Phillips." French said Florida is not ideal for film production, saying the state lacks film tax incentives and huge water tanks.

"We are likely to come to Clearwater to do some exterior shots to help establish where the film is set for authenticity, but it probably will not include any of the lead actors because we’ve already shot those roles, and honestly, that’s a byproduct of the lack of state incentives for film and the fact that Florida doesn’t have the kind of open water facility that we need to shoot a major motion picture like this and do it safely," said French.

The movie features Zachary Levi, who will play Nick Schuyler, and Josh Duhamel, who plays the U.S. Coast Guard Captain at the time.

"Everyone worked together as teammates, as you would expect, guys who played football and were used to working together to execute a play. In this case, they worked together to try to save each other. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to beat Mother Nature and the elements."

The film is expected to be released in the fall of 2024.

Report a typo

Sign up for the Morning Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information.

Now signed up to receive the morning headlines newsletter..

Local News & Weather. Watch Live and Free 24/7.

50 Best Sea/Ocean Movies (2000-2017)

1. The Admiral: Roaring Currents

2. 300: Rise of an Empire

3. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

4. Life of Pi

5. Kon-Tiki

6. Moby Dick

8. Longitude

9. Captain Phillips

10. All Is Lost

11. The Perfect Storm

12. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

13. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

14. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

15. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

16. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

18. Finding Nemo

19. Finding Dory

20. Shackleton

21. USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage

22. Northmen: A Viking Saga

23. In the Heart of the Sea

24. The Admiral

25. Admiral

26. The Finest Hours

27. The Pirates

28. Open Water

29. A Hijacking

30. The Reef

31. Cast Away

32. Against the Sun

33. K-19: The Widowmaker

34. The Beach

35. Big Miracle

36. 12 Paces Without a Head

37. The Shallows

38. Swallows and Amazons

39. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

40. Blackbeard: Terror at Sea

41. Treasure Island

42. Blackbeard

43. Captain Sabertooth and the Treasure of Lama Rama

44. Chasing Mavericks

45. 72 metra

46. The Icebreaker

47. Black Sea

48. Fool's Gold

50. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

More to explore, recently viewed.

‘True Love’ sets sail for summer

W ATKINS GLEN, N.Y. ( WETM ) – The True Love Schooner was built in 1926 and since then, it has sailed its way through the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and many other waterways before making its way here to Watkins Glen.

“It’s had a life of its own. it’s had some glorious moments and some not so glorious moments; just like anyone else’s life,” said Captain & Owner Terry Stewart.

With all of the true love’s stops, it somehow made it into pop culture history.

“The boat spent a lot of years with a few different owners up until its famous time in the movie High Society with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby in 1956. After that movie fame, it was highlighted with the song ‘True Love’ written by Cole Porter and the boat made its way to the Caribbean and spent about 40 years in St. Thomas,” said Stewart.

Now, it makes up to 350 trips through Seneca Lake; all depending on weather and tourism. 

“We try to encompass the highlights of the southern tip. We’re wind dependent, so we use what wind we get. But, we always get to the famous painted rocks and the salt plant where they produce 1,200 tons of salt a day and Hector Waterfalls, the third tallest waterfall in New York State,” said Stewart.

Captain Terry Stewart says learning how to sail is a lost art.

“Learning how to orient the boat to the wind makes it sail like an airplane flies. Using Bernoulli’s Principle and setting the sails just right, you can make yourself go without any fossil fuels whatsoever,” said Stewart.

For the crew that paint and clean the boat, it ignites their passion for sailing.

“Being on a boat that’s almost 100 years old is just a really cool fact to me and being part of maintaining it is also I take good pride in. It’s just a good environment. You know, it’s fun to be on the lake and you see tons of new people every day and have all of these cool interactions with individuals. So, I really enjoy that social aspect of it,” said Crewmember Spencer Beaver.

“I take great pride in actually knowing that we’re keeping the boat from fading away into history, you know. Like each step, who knows how many generations have worked on the boat, painted the same pieces, varnished the same pieces. Who’s raised the sails and done all that stuff. We’re just doing our part in history, you know keeping her afloat,” said Crewmember Brock Sgrecci.

The True Love will celebrate 100 years in 2026. The captain and crew are in the planning stages of what special events will happen for the anniversary.

For more information on the True Love Schooner, click here .

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WETM - MyTwinTiers.com.

Watch CBS News

11 presumed dead, 9 rescued after fishing boat sinks off the coast of South Africa

Updated on: May 20, 2024 / 7:38 AM EDT / CBS/AFP

A South African minister on Sunday said that 11 fishermen, who went missing when a trawler sank off the coast of the country on Friday, are presumed dead.

"I wish to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the 11 crew members who are now presumed deceased," Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, said in a statement . "The families of the bereaved fishermen have been informed that the search has been called off," she added.

The fishing vessel ran into difficulty and sent out a distress signal on Friday before sinking in the South Atlantic -- just 30 nautical miles off the Cape of Good Hope.

South Africa's lifeboat organization, the National Sea Rescue Institute, previously said 20 crew had been on board the missing trawler.

Nine survivors were found by other fishing vessels on a life raft. The organization said that the survivors were not injured and were brought to shore aboard a fellow fishing vessel during the night.

Lifeboats from Hout Bay and Table Bay on the Cape, along with helicopters and airplanes from private Cape Town operator Aerios Global were launched but difficult weather conditions and a lack of sightings brought the search to an end.

The organization said the search was being conducted in 3 to 4 meter sea swells and 10 to 15 knot winds.

"Thoughts and care are with the fishermen's families and the fishing company in this difficult time," the organization said.

An investigation into the cause of the sinking has been launched.

• South Africa

More from CBS News

More than 100 feared dead in massive landslide in Papua New Guinea

Hiker mauled by grizzly in Wyoming played dead; bear won't be pursued

Colombia moves to protect legendary shipwreck holding billions in treasure

2 climbers die on Mount Everest, 3 still missing

Color Scheme

• Use system setting
• Light theme

Scientists say orcas are just playful teens, not attacking boats

Hundreds of dangerous boat-ramming incidents over the past five years have cast orcas as deep-sea villains plotting to take back the ocean.

But the killer whales causing mayhem off Europe’s Iberian Peninsula might actually just be bored teenagers - at least, that’s the leading theory among a group of more than a dozen orca experts who have spent years studying the incidents.

Since 2020, members of a small group of killer whales have rammed into at least 673 vessels off the coasts of Portugal, Spain and Morocco - causing some to sink. The Spanish and Portuguese governments responded by tasking a group of experts with determining what was causing the whales to strike rudders, which are used to steer ships, and how to stop it.

The group, which includes biologists, government officials and marine industry representatives, on Friday released a report outlining their hypothesis: The orcas just want to have fun, and in the vast - and rather empty - open waters, the boats’ rudders are a prime toy.

“This looks like play,” said Naomi Rose, a senior scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute who was part of the working group. “It’s a very dangerous game they’re playing, obviously. But it’s a game.”

In most cases, the scientists found, the orcas approaching the vessels come from a group of about 15, mostly juvenile, whales. They typically approach slowly, almost as if to just bump the rudders with their noses and heads. But even young orcas average between 9 and 14 feet long, so the rudders would often get damaged or destroyed when the whales touched them, said Alex Zerbini, who chairs the scientific committee at the International Whaling Commission, a global body focused on whale conservation.

“There’s nothing in the behavior of the animals that suggests that they’re being aggressive,” said Zerbini, who is also part of the working group. “As they play with the rudder, they don’t understand that they can damage the rudder and that damaging the rudder will affect human beings. It’s more playful than intentional.”

Though orcas are known for their whimsy antics - like using jellyfish, algae and prey as toys - the researchers believe their playfulness has reached new levels in the Iberian Peninsula because of the rebound in the bluefin tuna population, their main source of food. In past decades, when orcas faced a tuna shortage, much of their time was spent trying to hunt down food. But once the tuna population bounced back, whales suddenly “have all this leisure time on their hands because they don’t have to eat every fish they find,” Rose said.

It’s not yet clear why the orcas are attracted to rudders or how they became fascinated by them in the first place. Still, Zerbini said it could have started with one curious, young killer whale that was perhaps enthralled by the bubbles surrounding a moving ship.

“Maybe that individual touched a rudder and felt that it was something fun to play with,” he said. “And, after playing, it began propagating the behavior among the group until it became as widespread as it is now.”

In other words, it became a ridiculous fad - not unlike, say, the viral Tide pod or cinnamon challenges.

It wouldn’t be the first time that killer whales mimicked a particular craze. In the past, some populations have taken to wearing dead salmon as hats or playing games of chicken, Rose said. And, just like human fads, the trends have a tendency to make comebacks years later, she added.

“My guess is that juveniles who see their older siblings or parents wearing salmon hats or doing some other fad sometimes remember these things as adults and think, ‘This is funny. Let’s do it again,’” she said. “These animals are cultural and sophisticated thinkers, and they’re just incredibly social.”

Orcas, Rose said, are similar to people in many ways. For instance, each population has a particular culture, language and food staple. Orcas and people also mature at a similar pace and, much like humans, female whales do so faster than males.

When it comes to the rudder bumping, Rose said, most of the whales involved are male juveniles and teens, meaning they are between the ages of 5 and 18. Fully grown males - over the age of 25 - are not participating in the antics. And while some adult female whales have been spotted at the scene of the incidents, “they seem to be just sort of keeping an eye on their kids, who are doing the actual playing,” she added.

For sailors though, the practice is no game. Rose said she worries about frustrated mariners launching flares or other devices to deter whales. Not only could those measures deafen or harm whales, they might backfire by “making the game even more fun for them,” she said.

“The more dangerous it is for the orcas, the more thrill they seem to get out of it,” she said.

So what’s a better way to stop the boat-ramming? According to researchers: taking away the orcas’ toys - or, at least, making them less fun to play with.

The working group proposed several methods that will be tested this summer, Zerbini said. One involves replacing rudders’ typically smooth surfaces with abrasive or bumpy materials. They will also test a device that makes banging sounds around vessels and have suggested that boats hang rows of weighted lines, which orcas dislike.

“We don’t want to see more boats being sunk and we don’t want to see people in distress,” Zerbini said. “But we also don’t want to see the animals being hurt. And we have to remember that this is their habitat and we’re in the way.”

Video Embed Code

Video: In 2023, Marine biologist Mónica González explained the latest theories of why orca whales were attacking vessels off the coast of the Iberian peninsula.(c) 2024 , The Washington Post

All those EVs are great, but where will the electricity come from?

As part of my career of over 30 years in the energy industry, I led the effort to complete Oregon’s portion of the West Coast’s “Electric Highway.”

site categories

Doc talk podcast unpacks crisis plaguing film festivals, sundance inviting bids to ditch park city, breaking news.

IFC Films Acquires Academy Award Winner Adam Elliot’s ‘Memoir Of A Snail’ Starring Sarah Snook

By Matt Grobar

Matt Grobar

Senior Film Reporter

More Stories By Matt

• Venice Prize-Winner Hanna Västinsalo Prepping Sophomore Feature ‘Will O’ The Wisp’
• Felix Solis Joins Horror Film ‘The Necklace’ From Director Juan Pablo Arias Munoz
• Independent Artist Group Signs ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Alum Ashley Benson

EXCLUSIVE : IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Memoir of a Snail , a stop-motion drama from Adam Elliot — the writer-director behind the Academy Award-winning 2004 short Harvie Krumpet .

Related Stories

Bleecker Street, Shivhans Pictures To Co-Release ‘Love Me’ Starring Kristen Stewart And Steven Yeun In U.S.

Neon Acquires ‘Alpha,’ Next Film From Palme D’Or Winner Julia Ducournau

Also starring Eric Bana ( The Dry ), Kodi Smit-McPhee ( The Power of the Dog ) and Jacki Weaver ( Silver Linings Playbook ), Memoir of a Snail was produced by Elliot and Liz Kearney and exec produced by Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson. An Arenamedia production, the project received major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Anton and Charades. Developed and produced in association with VicScreen, it was financed with support from Soundfirm, Mind the Gap Finance, Jameker, Shadowlane and the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund.

Additional territories will be co-sold by Paris-based Charades and London-based Anton.

“It is an honor to be partnering with IFC again who truly understand indie cinema and in particular the unique requirements of handling stop motion animation,” said Elliot in a statement to Deadline. “My films are personal and somewhat eccentric, yet I know IFC has the skill and nuance needed to deliver my stories to new and existing audiences. I am so thrilled they will be partnering to spread Grace’s melancholic tale to film lovers who like to laugh and cry at the same time.”

Shooman negotiated the deal for IFC Films, with Charades’ Carole Baraton and Anton’s Louis Balsan repping the filmmakers.

Must Read Stories

Sorrentino pic gets 9-minute standing-o at cannes; read the review.

A24 Lands ‘Death Of Robin Hood’ Starring Hugh Jackman And Jodie Comer

Mark ruffalo in talks to co-star with chris hemsworth in amazon mgm’s ‘crime 101’, ‘furiosa’ revving $80m-$85m ww bow; ‘garfield’ consuming $30m+ u.s.: preview.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

No comments.

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.