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The 40+ Best Lost At Sea Movies

The best lost at sea movies of all time chart a course through the uncharted territories of human endurance, capturing the imagination with tales of survival, isolation, and the indomitable human spirit. Set against the vast, unforgiving expanse of the ocean, these films weave narratives that are as deep and poignant as the waters they traverse. They invite viewers into stories where the sea is more than just a setting—it's a character, challenging the protagonists in ways both terrifying and awe-inspiring.

Among these cinematic voyages, Cast Away stands out with its compelling portrayal of solitude and survival, anchored by Tom Hanks' unforgettable performance. Equally stirring, Adrift captivates with its harrowing true story of love and endurance against the merciless Pacific Ocean. These films, among others, beautifully navigate the tumultuous waters of hope, despair, and redemption, offering viewers an unforgettable journey into the heart of the human spirit.

This list wasn't cast adrift without direction; it was meticulously curated by a crew of movie experts who delved into the vast ocean of film to fish out the true pearls. From there, it was up to the watchers, those aficionados of the silver screen, to cast their votes and help steer this collection into the harbor of the must-watch, the best lost at sea movies of all time.

In this enthralling survival drama, director Robert Zemeckis captures the desperate struggle of Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks), a FedEx employee who gets stranded on a remote island after a plane crash. As the narrative unfolds, the audience bears witness to Chuck's intense emotional journey as he seeks to stay alive in an unforgiving environment – from his frantic attempts to signal rescue, to his bond with the enigmatic volleyball Wilson. The film's gripping blend of isolation and existentialism makes it a quintessential tale of being lost at sea.

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Based on a harrowing true story, Adrift follows the lives of young couple Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) and Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin) as they embark on a sailing adventure across the Pacific Ocean. When they encounter a catastrophic hurricane, the pair must confront their own mortality and fight against all odds for survival. With its stunning visuals and exceptional performances, Adrift is a poignant and heart-wrenching take on love, loss, and resilience at sea.

James Cameron's epic disaster romance Titanic revisits the infamous sinking of the RMS Titanic, blending historical events with the fictional love story of upper-class Rose (Kate Winslet) and working-class Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). The film's groundbreaking special effects and set design transport viewers into the heart of the disaster, while the compelling narrative keeps them hooked. Regarded as a cinematic masterpiece, Titanic remains a testament to the power of love amidst chaos and the indomitable human spirit.

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The Perfect Storm

Director Wolfgang Petersen brings Sebastian Junger's bestselling novel to life in The Perfect Storm , a thrilling drama about the ill-fated fishing vessel Andrea Gail and its crew during the “storm of the century.” Starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, the film's relentless action and palpable tension make it a must-watch for fans of high-seas adventure. The gripping storyline, bolstered by a talented ensemble cast, ensures that The Perfect Storm is a stormy voyage worth taking.

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All Is Lost

Robert Redford delivers a tour de force performance in J.C. Chandor's minimalist drama All Is Lost , playing an unnamed man who becomes stranded at sea after his sailboat collides with a shipping container. With virtually no dialogue, the film relies heavily on Redford's emotive acting and Chandor's masterful storytelling to convey the protagonist's desperation, resourcefulness, and resilience in the face of insurmountable odds. All Is Lost stands as a testament to the power of cinema to tell a compelling, human story with the barest of elements.

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Adapted from Yann Martel's novel, Ang Lee's visually stunning and spiritually resonant Life of Pi tells the extraordinary tale of Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma), a young Indian man who survives a shipwreck only to find himself sharing a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. As they embark on a fantastical journey through a captivating oceanic world filled with wonder, peril, and self-discovery, Lee seamlessly weaves elements of magical realism, religion, and philosophy into an unforgettable cinematic experience. Life of Pi 's breathtaking visuals and profound themes make it an essential viewing for anyone seeking solace or enlightenment in a sea of uncertainty.

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Captain Phillips

Paul Greengrass' thrilling biographical drama, Captain Phillips , recounts the incredible true story of the 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking – the first American cargo ship hijacking in over 200 years. Tom Hanks delivers a powerful performance as the titular character, whose resourcefulness and bravery in the face of danger make him an unlikely hero. With its gripping narrative, stellar performances, and intense action, Captain Phillips is an enthralling portrayal of survival and human resilience in the open sea.

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In the Heart of the Sea

Ron Howard's visually striking and ambitious adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's nonfiction book, In the Heart of the Sea , delves into the harrowing true story that inspired Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby Dick . The film chronicles the brutal journey of the whaling ship Essex as it encounters a monstrous sperm whale, leaving the crew stranded in a merciless ocean with dwindling resources and a terrifying foe. With its stellar cast – including Chris Hemsworth star performance – and captivating storytelling, In the Heart of the Sea is a chilling and visceral tale of survival and bravery in the face of insurmountable challenges.

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The Poseidon Adventure

A seminal disaster film from the 1970s, The Poseidon Adventure follows the struggle for survival aboard the SS Poseidon after the luxury liner capsizes due to a massive tidal wave. Directed by Ronald Neame and starring an all-star ensemble cast – including Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Shelley Winters – the film combines high-stakes action and gripping interpersonal drama, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. For fans of classic cinema and maritime thrillers, The Poseidon Adventure is a must-see.

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Angelina Jolie's gripping biopic Unbroken tells the extraordinary true-story of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O'Connell) and his unimaginable ordeal; from crashing into the Pacific Ocean during World War II to surviving 47 days adrift, only to be captured by the Japanese Navy. The film's powerful themes of perseverance, resilience, and the indomitable human spirit make it an inspiring and emotional watch. With its captivating narrative and standout performances, Unbroken is a compelling exploration of survival and redemption in the most trying of circumstances.

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In this chilling horror film, a salvage crew discovers the derelict ocean liner, SS Antonia Graza, and quickly becomes entangled in a web of supernatural terror. Directed by Steve Beck, Ghost Ship masterfully blends elements of maritime adventure and spine-tingling horror to create a uniquely terrifying experience. With its eerie atmosphere, tight pacing, and compelling story, Ghost Ship is perfect for those in search of a thrilling, ghostly adventure at sea.

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Loosely based on actual events, Open Water follows a couple left stranded in shark-infested waters after their scuba-diving excursion mistakenly leaves them behind. The film's gritty, low-budget approach captures the raw intensity of their struggle for survival, creating an unsettling sense of claustrophobia and dread. Directed by Chris Kentis, Open Water is a nerve-wracking, nail-biting thriller that serves as a sobering reminder of the perils of venturing into the unknown.

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The Finest Hours

Based on the incredible true story of the Coast Guard's daring rescue attempt during the 1952 New England nor'easter, The Finest Hours , directed by Craig Gillespie, captures the courageous efforts of four men who risked their lives to save more than 30 stranded sailors. Featuring an exceptional ensemble cast led by Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, this film expertly weaves together thrilling action sequences and poignant character moments to tell a timeless tale of heroism and sacrifice. The Finest Hours ' gripping narrative and emotional resonance make it an unforgettable maritime adventure.

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Based on a true story, The Reef follows a group of friends whose sailing trip takes a horrifying turn when their boat capsizes, leaving them at the mercy of a man-eating great white shark. Directed by Andrew Traucki, the film utilizes real shark footage to create a truly unnerving and authentic experience. With its relentless tension and harrowing depiction of survival, The Reef is a gripping and intense addition to the lost at sea genre.

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Satan's Triangle

This 1975 made-for-television horror film follows an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle. The survivors of a shipwreck are faced with supernatural occurrences and demonic forces that challenge their sanity and survival. With its eerie atmosphere and unique blend of horror and maritime adventure, Satan's Triangle remains a cult favorite for those seeking something beyond the typical lost at sea narrative.

The Shallows

In this tense and visually striking survival thriller, a young surfer named Nancy (Blake Lively) finds herself stranded on a rock just 200 yards from shore with a great white shark circling her. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, The Shallows is a tightly-paced, edge-of-your-seat experience that expertly combines beautiful cinematography with nerve-wracking suspense. As Nancy battles against time, the elements, and a formidable predator, The Shallows delivers a thrilling and visceral tale of resilience and determination.

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The definitive cinematic adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel, John Huston's 1956 film Moby Dick captures the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck) to seek vengeance on the great white whale that destroyed his ship and cost him his leg. With its stunning visuals, exceptional performances, and haunting score, this film dives deep into themes of obsession, revenge, and the unfathomable power of nature. Moby Dick is not only a timeless tale of maritime adventure but also a profound exploration of the human psyche.

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Phillip Noyce's suspenseful thriller Dead Calm follows a grieving couple, played by Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman, as they seek solace on a sailing trip, only to encounter a psychotic man (Billy Zane) who has left a trail of destruction in his wake. As tensions rise and allegiances shift, the characters battle for survival in an increasingly dangerous game of cat and mouse. Dead Calm 's intense atmosphere, strong performances, and unpredictable twists make it an unforgettable addition to the lost at sea genre.

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The 2006 remake of the classic disaster film, Poseidon focuses on a group of passengers aboard a luxury cruise liner who must fight for their lives when the ship is capsized by a colossal wave. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who also helmed The Perfect Storm , this film boasts a talented ensemble cast and impressive special effects. Though the remake may not hold the same classic status as its predecessor, Poseidon still delivers high-stakes action and suspense, making it an enjoyable addition to the lost at sea genre.

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White Squall

Ridley Scott's nautical drama White Squall tells the true story of a group of teenage boys who embark on a six-month educational sailing expedition in the Caribbean, only to be caught in a devastating storm that tests their courage and unity. With its rich character development, breathtaking visuals, and heart-pounding action sequences, White Squall is both a thrilling high-seas adventure and a moving coming-of-age story that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit.

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The inspiring true story of Thor Heyerdahl's daring 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean on a balsa wood raft comes to life in this award-winning film directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. With its engaging characters, stunning cinematography, and thrilling action, Kon-Tiki is both an exhilarating adventure and a testament to the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity. The film's rich historical context and captivating storytelling make it an essential viewing for fans of maritime cinema.

Open Water 2: Adrift

In this sequel to the chilling 2003 thriller, a group of friends on a yachting trip finds themselves stranded in shark-infested waters after neglecting to lower a ladder before diving into the ocean. As fear and desperation mount, the friends must confront their darkest fears and make life-altering decisions in their struggle for survival. Though lacking the raw intensity of its predecessor, Open Water 2: Adrift offers a suspenseful and nerve-wracking exploration of the human psyche in the face of overwhelming adversity.

In Wolfgang Petersen's taut and claustrophobic thriller, a German U-boat crew faces the perils of World War II below the surface while struggling to maintain their sanity within the confined space of their submarine. As the crew members are pushed to their breaking point, The Boat explores the psychological toll of warfare and the bonds forged amid adversity. With its authentic portrayal of life aboard a U-boat and its engaging character dynamics, this film remains a compelling and unique entry in the lost at sea category.

In this mind-bending horror-thriller, a group of friends finds themselves trapped in a time loop while stranded on a seemingly abandoned ocean liner. Directed by Christopher Smith, Triangle combines elements of psychological horror and maritime adventure to create a haunting and disorienting cinematic experience. With its eerie atmosphere, complex narrative structure, and chilling twists, Triangle is an unconventional and unforgettable addition to the lost at sea genre.

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The Guardian

In this gripping action-drama, Kevin Costner stars as a legendary Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer who takes on the challenge of training a young and reckless recruit, played by Ashton Kutcher. The film delves into the perilous world of search and rescue, showcasing the physical and emotional challenges faced by those sworn to protect lives at sea. Directed by Andrew Davis, The Guardian is an engaging and inspiring look at the sacrifices and bravery of those who risk it all in uncharted waters.

This inspiring documentary chronicles the remarkable journey of Laura Dekker, a 14-year-old sailor who sets out to become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe solo. Directed by Jillian Schlesinger, Maidentrip captures the beauty, loneliness, and triumph of Dekker's incredible adventure with breathtaking cinematography and intimate personal footage. A testament to the power of determination and self-reliance, Maidentrip is a captivating and empowering look at the transformative potential of life at sea.

A Hijacking

Tobias Lindholm's tense and suspenseful drama A Hijacking follows the crew of a Danish cargo ship as they are taken hostage by Somali pirates, with the ship's cook serving as the primary focus of the story. As the tense negotiations between the ship owners and the pirates unfold, the film delves into themes of desperation, morality, and the human capacity for survival in extreme circumstances. A Hijacking 's realistic portrayal of modern-day piracy and its gripping narrative make it a must-watch addition to the lost at sea genre.

K-19: The Widowmaker

Based on the harrowing true story of a near nuclear disaster aboard a Soviet submarine in 1961, K-19: The Widowmaker stars Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson as naval officers whose bravery and ingenuity are pushed to the limit in their desperate race against time. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, this suspenseful and emotionally charged film delves into themes of duty, honor, and the sacrifices made in the name of global security. With its gripping narrative, strong performances, and historical resonance, K-19: The Widowmaker is an engrossing addition to the lost at sea genre.

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Directed by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, this 1944 classic follows a group of survivors who find themselves confined to a small lifeboat after their ship is torpedoed during World War II. Hitchcock expertly manipulates the confined setting and tense character dynamics to create a suspenseful and engaging drama that explores themes of morality, survival, and the human capacity for cruelty and compassion in dire circumstances. A groundbreaking and thought-provoking entry in the lost at sea canon, Lifeboat remains an essential viewing for fans of the genre.

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Based on Peter Benchley's bestselling novel, this suspenseful thriller follows a vacationing couple, played by Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset, who uncover a shipwreck filled with valuable treasures and become entangled in a deadly game of greed and betrayal. Directed by Peter Yates, The Deep expertly blends underwater adventure, gripping suspense, and riveting character drama to create a thrilling high-stakes journey into the depths of human ambition and desire. With its memorable performances, lush cinematography, and pulse-pounding action, The Deep (1977) remains an enduring entry in the lost at sea genre.

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In the middle of the ocean, no one can hear you scream.

9 of Our Favorite Lost-At-Sea Movies

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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.

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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.

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Adrift (2018)

When did the events depicted in the adrift movie take place in real life.

In researching Tami Oldham and the Adrift true story, we discovered that the real-life events depicted in the 2018 movie spanned the months of September, October and November 1983. 23-year-old Tami Oldham and her British fiancé, Richard Sharp (34), had been pleasure sailing his 36-foot sailboat, the Mayaluga, for the previous six months. They made the decision to accept a job delivering a 44-foot yacht, the Hazana, from Tahiti to San Diego where it would be received by a new owner. They had been less than three weeks into their 4,000-mile trip when Hurricane Raymond hit. -Chicago Tribune Top: The real Tami Oldham and fiancé Richard Sharp prior to the trip.   Bottom: Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as Oldham and Sharp in the Adrift 2018 movie.

Did they try to escape the hurricane?

Yes. Tami and Richard knew a storm was coming, but they didn't know it would be that bad. They tried to outrun Hurricane Raymond by sailing north, battling 140 knot winds and 40-foot waves as they did their best to keep the yacht afloat. The relentless category 4 hurricane showed no signs of calming. It changed direction and stayed on their tail like a predator. -Mirror Online

Did Tami Oldham's fiancé Richard Sharp survive the hurricane in real life?

No. In real life, as they continued to battle Hurricane Raymond on October 12, 1983, Richard Sharp sent his fiancée Tami below deck to rest. He used a safety line to tether himself to the yacht in an attempt to ride out the storm and keep the boat afloat. The yacht capsized and Tami hit her head when she was thrown against the cabin wall. The force of the blow knocked her out, and the last thing she can remember hearing was Sharp screaming, "Oh my God!" She didn't wake up for 27 hours, and when she did, she went above deck and discovered Richard's safety line hanging off the edge of the boat. Her fiancé was lost at sea. She would never see him again. -Chicago Tribune Tami Oldham remained unconscious for 27 hours after hitting her head when the boat capsized during the hurricane. The severe head injury is visible on Shailene Woodley's character in the 2018 movie. At first, the Adrift movie seems to unfold differently than the true story. Tami wakes up and finds an injured Richard floating in the water as he clings to a small overturned lifeboat that had fallen off the yacht. She gets him back to the yacht where she cares for his broken ribs and shattered leg as he reassures her that she can get them home, despite him describing himself as being "dead weight". However, paying close attention to the movie's trailer reveals a couple other clues to the likely reality of this situation. When Tami (Shailene Woodley) and Richard (Sam Claflin) are having dinner on his boat, he talks about the challenge of sailing and says that "you're either sleep deprived or seasick, and after a few days there's the hallucinations." This clue seems to foreshadow things to come. Coupled with Tami's bad head injury sustained during the storm, it's not hard to start wondering if Richard is merely a figment of Tami's imagination. Clues to this are also found in Tami's memoir Red Sky in Mourning . The Adrift movie's ending will undoubtedly reveal the answer. Tami's memoir , originally titled Red Sky in Mourning , provided the basis for the Adrift movie.

Did she hear a voice when she was stranded on the boat?

Yes. In her book Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea , she talks about hearing a voice, but not that of her lost-at-sea fiancé Richard Sharp. Instead, she described it as an "inner voice" that was audible to her externally three times. It's certainly possible that her head injury and blood loss caused her to believe that she was hearing such a voice. Others believe it was God speaking to her. "I needed guidance and the voice was a real phenomenon," says Tami. "Three times it was audible externally. I've asked the voice to come back, but I never heard from it again. ... The voice kept me on track. I just followed it." -Mirror Online

Was the yacht badly damaged like in the Adrift movie?

Yes. The Adrift  movie true story reveals that nearly everything on the Hazana (pictured below) was broken and strewn about. The masts had snapped off, and like in the 2018 movie, the sails were waterlogged and floated nearby. The cabin was half-filled with water. The engine and radio were broken. The radio device used to indicate the boat's emergency position was down as well, and the electronic navigation system wasn't functional either. -Mirror Online Top: The real Hazana yacht in 1983 after the ordeal at sea.   Bottom: Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin on the movie's version of the yacht. The biggest noticeable difference is the ladder placement.

How long was the real Tami Oldham adrift at sea?

Fact-checking the Adrift movie reveals that after Hurricane Raymond struck and claimed the life of her fiancé Richard Sharp, Tami Oldham remained stranded at sea on the damaged yacht for 41 days. -Mirror Online

How did Tami Oldham survive being stranded for a month and a half on the yacht?

In 2003, she told the Chicago Tribune that she ate canned food and peanut butter, consuming everything from fruit cocktail to sardines.

How did Tami manage to find her way to land?

With the yacht's navigation system broken by the storm, Tami used a sextant to help her find her way home. A sextant is a navigational instrument that can be used to measure the angle of the sun (or another astronomical object) above the horizon. "It saved my life," says Tami. She was then able to work out her latitude using nautical maps. To remember what got her home, Tami wears a triangular-shaped sextant pendant encrusted with a diamond. The only navigational instrument that wasn't broken during the hurricane was a sextant, which measures the angle of the sun (or other astronomical object) above the horizon. It saved her life. Being able to successfully navigate was only part of the challenge; she also needed to keep the yacht afloat and get it moving. She fashioned a pump to prevent the cabin down below from flooding and created a makeshift sail from a broken spinnaker pole and spare storm jib. She eventually managed to get the boat into a position where she could use currents that would hopefully take her to Hawaii. -Mirror Online

Did she stitch the wound on her head?

No. In the film, we see her using sutures to self-stitch the wound shut. "There were sutures on board," Tami wrote in her book, "but I couldn’t bring myself to sew my head shut." Instead, she drew the long wound together and adhered several large butterfly bandages as pus and blood oozed out.

Did Tami consider suicide while stranded at sea?

Yes. Weak, starving, injured, and let down after mistakenly thinking she saw an island on the horizon, at one point during her journey Tami loaded a rifle that was on board and stuck it in her mouth. The internal voice she heard during her journey convinced her to stop. This intense moment is not depicted in the film. While exploring the Tami Oldham true story, we learned that it wasn't the only time her despair had led her to thoughts of suicide. -Mirror Online Tami dealt with years of grief by eventually writing her story down and penning the book Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea . She is pictured on the left more than a decade after the tragedy.

How far did Tami Oldham sail before she reached land?

Tami navigated approximately 1,500 miles over a span of 41 days before reaching Hilo, Hawaii. As she approached the harbor, she saw a large ship on its way out. She shot off several flares before the 200+ foot vessel flashed its running lights and altered course. The ship pulled up alongside the Hazana. The crew lowered down coffee and someone tossed her an apple. They towed her inside the reef and a Coast Guard Auxiliary towed her the rest of the way. Similar to the Adrift movie's ending, as she pulled into the Big Island's Hilo Harbor, she cried tears of joy. -Mirror Online The Adrift movie ends similar to the real-life story.

Did Tami Oldham suffer any lasting injuries?

Yes. When the boat capsized, she struck her head so hard that she couldn't read a book for the next six years. The words leapt off the page as she tried to focus on them. -Mirror Online

Did Tami Oldham continue sailing after surviving being stranded at sea?

Yes. The tragedy she endured didn't stop her from continuing to enjoy sailing. She got right back into it. "I just love it," Tami told the Chicago Tribune . "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." She went on to become a "100-ton licensed captain with more than 50,000 offshore miles" to her credit. Tami did struggle with grief and nightmares, and she spent the first eight years after the accident unable to heal. When she was able to read again, she began to deal with some of her feelings by writing her story down, eventually penning the book Red Sky in Mourning , which inspired the movie. She self-published the book in 1998, and it was later picked up by Hyperion Press and published widely in 2002. Tami says that she never went to counseling but wishes someone would have suggested it. "I definitely had some severe post-traumatic stress syndrome," she stated. "I really wish I had taken the time to do that." -Chicago Tribune Despite the tragedy, Tami never stopped sailing and became a 100-ton licensed captain. She is pictured here prior to the Adrift movie's 2018 release.

Did Tami Oldham ever marry?

Yes. Ten years after losing fiancé Richard Sharp at sea and surviving the ordeal, Tami met a blue-eyed man at a dance. They married in 1994, had two children, and live on San Juan Island, Washington. Tragically, their 22-year-old daughter, Kelli Ashcraft, was taken from them in 2017 as the result of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

Dive deeper into the Adrift true story by watching the Tami Oldham Ashcraft movie interview below.

• Official Adrift Movie Website

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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.”

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The Best Lost At Sea and Shipwrecked Movies

A list of the best lost at sea and shipwrecked movies.

Table of Contents

Nearly three-quarters of the planet’s surface is covered by water. Since no human in history has even been able to stay alive by treading on water—at least not for long—nearly three-quarters of this planet might as well be another planet. The deep, dark ocean is terrifyingly vast, and for a species such as ours that likes to be in control of everything, our inability to control the ocean creates a deep primeval dread.

This is why movies about being shipwrecked or lost at sea have such a perennial appeal—because like all good horror movies, they illustrate that true fear is derived from things we can neither control nor fully know. The following films, whether they strand their protagonists on remote islands or out in the middle of the vast ocean to deal with storms and pirates and whales, involve both fictional tales and true stories about people whose lives are sent into disarray by the sea’s violent whims.

As you will notice, Disney has played a huge role in the shipwreck genre with films such as Treasure Island, Shipwrecked, The Finest Hours, Adrift, and The Little Mermaid , which has a lost ship in it.

Best Shipwrecked Movies

The tarzan series (1932 – 1942).

The 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced the world to a son of the British aristocracy who was marooned as an infant on an island along with his family, who perished at the hands of nature and local animals. Tarzan grew up as as child of an ape tribe. Twenty years after Tarzan’s family was marooned, a young girl named Jane Porter was marooned along with other members of a boating party in the same jungle area where Tarzan was marooned. When Tarzan introduces Jane to primitive jungle living, she decides she likes it more than she likes civilization.

Olympic swimming star Johnny Weissmuller would star as Tarzan in a whopping 12 feature films beginning in 1932 and ending in 1947. The most beloved of those series were the first six, in which he costarred with Maureen O’Sullivan starring as Jane Parker: Tarzan the Ape Man (1932); Tarzan and His Mate (1934); Tarzan Escapes (1936); Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939); Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941); and finally 1942’s Tarzan’s New York Adventure , which convinces the lovestruck couple once and for all that the city is no place for them.

The Disney company would release a fully animated Tarzan in 1999 and direct-to-video sequels such as Tarzan & Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005).

Lifeboat (1944)

This is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser-known achievements that has gained accolades over the years despite the fact that upon its release, it was widely criticized for being too sympathetic toward the Nazi character (Walter Slezak), since England and the USA were at war with Germany at the time.

The plot, based on a story by John Steinbeck, involves a group of Americans who survive a German U-boat attack by gathering on a lifeboat together. They face a moral dilemma after rescuing a Nazi who happened to be on the U-boat that sunk the American boat. 

The film is set entirely on the lifeboat, adding a sense of helpless claustrophobia to the drama.

Treasure Island (1950)

This is the first movie by Walt Disney Productions that featured absolutely no animation and instead was entirely live-action. It’s an adaption of the classic 1883 Robert Louis Stevenson novel about a young boy named Jim Hawkins who befriends a salty buccaneer named Long John Silver as they encounter one misfortune after another in their desperate quest to retrieve a bounty in gold doubloons that are marked on a treasure map.

This 1950 Disney version was the fourth film adaptation of the Stevenson novel. According to Wikipedia , there have been at least fifty remakes or adaptations of Treasure Island.

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

This yarn about a shipwrecked family is based on an 1812 novel of the same name by Johann David Wyss. It is the second adaption of the novel, following a 1940 film version by RKO Pictures.

It involves a Swiss family—parents and their three sons—who flee the Napoleonic Wars in an attempt to relocate to a colony in New Guinea, only to be attacked by pirates during a storm and wind up stranded on a remote island. Being resourceful, the boys help construct a living space for the entire family out of a treehouse, but their violent encounters with the pirates continue unabated. TV Guide praised the film: “It’s a tongue-in-cheek movie that avoids the sappy sentiment of so many ‘family’ films and concentrates on sheer entertainment instead. The scenery is lush and colorful; the film’s success made Tobago a tourist haven for many years afterward.”

Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)

Released in Japan as Matango , this dark film is partly based on a short story by William H. Hodgson called “The Voice in the Night” and involves a group of castaways from a yachting excursion who ignore all warnings not to eat the mutagenic mushrooms they encounter on the island where they’re stranded. The addictive mushrooms cause whomever eats them to mutate into hideous creatures—and the makeup jobs on the mushroom people were so reminiscent of the bombing victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the film was nearly banned in Japan.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

One of the most successful of all the “disaster films” of the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s, The Poseidon Adventure is based on a 1969 novel of the same name. Gathering together five Oscar winners, the plot involves passengers on an ocean liner that is turned upside-down by a tsunami on New Year’s Eve as everyone is reveling in the main ballroom. A small group of plucky adventurers—who, as luck would have it, all happen to be former Oscar winners—attempts a rescue by walking upward toward the ship’s hull and somehow carving open a hole before the massive craft sinks entirely to the ocean’s bottom. The Poseidon Adventure won an Oscar for Best Original Song with “The Morning After.”

Terminal Island (1973)

Released in the UK as Knuckle Man, this movie takes place in an America that has abolished the death penalty. Instead of being killed in the gas chamber, irredeemable convicts are instead sent to Terminal Island, where they can only survive by fighting it out with other dangerous criminals on an island where all dangerous convicts are sent. A civil war eventually breaks out among the convicts, and it is split strictly along gender lines. Roger Ebert says, “The island is furnished with several grass huts, a goat, and apparently, a great beauty salon for the women.”

The Land That Time Forgot (1975)

Set in World War I, this children’s adventure film based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel involving a German U-boat that sinks a British ship and then takes its survivors onboard. Veering off-course, they find themselves in the primitive land of Caprona, an Antarctic nightmare world which is ruled by cavemen and dinosaurs. TV Guide says: “The special effects are unrealistic, as are the dialog and performances. However, despite everything, the picture still makes for great fun.” It spawned a 1976 sequel called The People That Time Forgot. 

The Blue Lagoon (1980)

The Blue Lagoon is the second film based on a 1903 novel about two children who are marooned on a South Seas tropical island paradise but whose family members were killed in the process. As they grow into adulthood together, safely protected from the murderous savages who inhabit the island’s other side, they find that they are experiencing strange attractions for one another. It starred Christopher Atkins as the male lead and Brooke Shields as the girl, the latter of whom was widely criticized for what was thought to be a wooden performance. Roger Ebert referred to The Blue Lagoon as “the dumbest movie of the year.”

Lord of the Flies (1990)

This is the second film version of the classic William Golding novel about schoolboys who wind up stranded on an island and descend into savagery—the first version was in 1963. The boys were on a plane carrying two dozen young cadets that crashed into the ocean near a remote Pacific jungle island. They eventually split into two warring factions until the leader of one faction grinds the other down through brute force and charisma. The title refers to a pig’s head the boys place on a stake to ward off a cave “monster” that they don’t realize is merely the corpse of their crashed plane’s pilot.

Shipwrecked (1990)

A young Norwegian cabin boy is separated from his crew in the midst of a violent sea storm and wakes up alone on a stranded tropical island. He soon realizes that some of his former shipmates were pirates and that one in particular is posing under a fake identity to evade murder charges. In the style of Home Alone, the boy sets traps for his antagonists before they arrive. 

Cabin Boy (1994)

Surrealist comedian Chris Elliott stars as Nathaniel Mayweather, a spoiled-rotten rich “fancy lad” who was invited by his father to board the Queen Catherine to Hawaii but due to his own bumbling winds up on a ship called The Filthy Whore along with a bunch of crusty sea salts who quickly form an intense dislike for him. The crew members put him through a series of comical tortures, including an extended stay on a raft during which he grows so delusional that he hallucinates a giant talking cupcake that spits tobacco at him. 

Titanic (1997)

Robert Cameron’s massively successfully film dramatization of the iconic sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912 became the most profitable film of all time after its release, only to later be eclipsed by another Cameron film, Avatar . Although it tells the story from several angles, it focuses on the love story between a rich teenage girl (Kate Winslet) and a poor artist (Leonardo DiCaprio) she meets on the ship. Titanic would win 11 Oscars, tying a record along with 1959’s Ben-Hur. Roger Ebert said, “Its passengers are a cross section of way of life that would be ended forever by the First World War. In a way, the iceberg represented the 20th century.”

Castaway (2000)

Tom Hanks stars as a FedEx employee who is so obsessively meticulous about time management that he is flown around the globe to solve efficiency problems at individual FedEx locations. A thunderstorm in the Pacific Ocean causes his FedEx cargo plane to crash on a remote island, where Hanks is completely alone until he smears a bloody handprint on a volleyball, names the ball “Wilson,” and begins talking to it. He is eventually rescued but is a better man due to the personal transformations he underwent while scrambling to survive.

The Return (2003)

Two Russian boys who are living with their single mother are forced to deal both tactically and emotionally with the fact that their father who abandoned them 12 years earlier has suddenly returned and seeks to bond with them. The Return (Russian Vozvrashcheniye) has their father seeking to reconnect with the boys by taking them on a remote island holiday that will test their strength and resolve in every imaginable way. In a creepy coincidence, actor Vladimir Garin, who played the older of the two boys, later drowned to death in a manner similar to what occurred to his character in the film.

Life of Pi (2012)

Director Ang Lee’s award-winning story about a young writer named Pi Patel, who shortened his birth name of “Piscene” to Pi because English-speaking bullies mocked how much it sounded like “pissing.” While sailing on a freighter to Canada, Pi’s ship encounters a storm, leading a deck member to throw Pi alone onto a lifeboat. But Pi also finds himself with a strange shipmate on the lifeboat: a fierce Bengal tiger who will share an exhilarating and terrifying 227-day trip across the sea with him.

All Is Lost (2013)

If you’re looking for a survival ocean drama, look no further than filmmaker J. C. Chandor’s All Is Lost . This one is for you if you love isolation movies and films with only one character. The movie has also received much critical appraise.

The Finest Hours (2016)

The Finest Hours is based on the true story of the oil tanker Pendleton , which was split in two during a vicious off-coast storm in Massachusetts in 1952. Three sailors are forced to head straight into a bitterly cold and dark winter’s night in a desperate attempt to find the sunken ship. The Austin Chronicle said the film is “not terribly memorable but considerably more exciting than you might expect.”

Adrift (2018)

Another lost-at-sea nightmare story based on true events, Adrift recreates a September 1983 catastrophe in which a woman named Tami Ashcroft and her fiancé Richard Sharp were hired to sail a yacht 4,000 miles from Tahiti to San Diego, only to run smack-dab into Hurricane Raymond way out in the middle of the Pacific, giving Ashcraft a head injury while facing the unenviable task of guiding the yacht 1,500 miles to Hawaii all by herself. A reviewer at RogerEbert.com said, “It’s not just a story of an incredible feat of survival. It’s also a love story, presented with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.  The frequent aerial shots of the tiny yacht surrounded by immense ocean are chilling: the frame looks almost existentially empty.” 

More Disaster-at-Sea Films

• Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) director F.W. Murnau ( Nosferatu ) filmed this “Romeo and Juliet” story of lovers stranded on an island near Tahiti.
• Bird of Paradise (1932) Hollywood stars Joel McCrea and Delores del Rio are lovers stranded on a Polynesian island.
• Island of Lost Souls (1932) a mad doctor conducts sick experiments on human subjects on a remote South Seas island.
• A Game of Death (1945) a shipwrecked man realizes he’s landed on an island ruled by a man who hunts humans as prey.
• The Lost Continent (1968) a ship’s crew become stranded amid monsters in the murky Sargasso Sea.
• The Deep (1977) opportunists seek to salvage a giant cache of morphine from a sunken ship.
• Six Days, Seven Nights (1998) a man and woman (Harrison Ford and Anne Heche) find themselves stranded together on a desert island.
• The Little Mermaid (1989) is a blockbuster animated Disney feature that won two Academy Awards and grossed nearly a quarter-billion dollars worldwide. The title refers to lead character Ariel, a 16-year-old mermaid who lives in the underwater kingdom of Atlantica. She falls in love with a human named Prince Eric one night while watching his birthday party on a ship from her vantage point in the water. During the party a violent thunderstorm wrecks the ship and strands Prince Eric on an island, where Ariel helps nurse him back to help. Eric then vows to find the beautiful girl who saved his life.
• The Perfect Storm (2000) a violent oceanic storm imperils a group of seasoned fishermen.
• Swept Away (2002) in this remake of the Lina Wertmuller classic from 1974, a rich woman and a communist sailor find themselves shipwrecked together, and their social roles quickly change.
• Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) is a documentary by James Cameron about spending six weeks exploring the remains of legendary sunken ship RMS Titanic.
• Ostrov (2006) is a Russian thriller with gloomy and moving cinematography about a monk on a remote island in the Baltic sea.  
• Open Water 2: Adrift (2006), is not related to the original Open Water by story. Instead, Open Water 2 is about a group of people who jump decide to go for a swim while yachting far away from land, but they forget to lower the ladder before jumping overboard and can’t climb back back into the boat.
• Uninhabited (2011) a couple who seek a romantic getaway by being dropped off alone at a remote Great Barrier Reef island begin suspecting that someone else is on that island.
• Sweetheart (2019) is about a young woman shipwrecked on a desert island that is inhabited by a monster that comes out at night.
• Triangle of Sadness (2022) the later portion of this film deals with a deserted island and a Lord of the Flies -like scenario of the survivors of a shipwreck due to a pirate attack.

Meet The Author

Chrissy Stockton

Chrissy is the co-founder of Creepy Catalog. She has over 10 years of experience writing about horror, a degree in philosophy and Reiki level II certification.

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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.

Review: ‘Adrift’ is the tale of a young woman and the sea

It’s so rare to see a woman at the center of a survival story. That’s what grabs you right away in “Adrift,” starring Shailene Woodley as Tami Oldham in a movie based on Oldham’s incredible life story.

Right away, we’re thrown below deck in the aftermath of a brutal Pacific Ocean storm as Tami comes to in a sinking yacht, bleeding from a head injury, struggling to survive. So often, female characters are relegated to playing worried wives and mothers waiting for a call, so it’s downright refreshing to witness the depiction of a woman as independently strong, capable and determined to survive.

Of course, because this is a Hollywood movie, there’s a love story incorporated into this female “All Is Lost,” but it was a love story in real life, too. As soon as Tami realizes her whereabouts, she starts shouting for her partner, her captain and lover, Richard (Sam Claflin). As she discovers his safety line dangling loose, she wails in grief and agony, and the film takes us back to an earlier time, when Tami landed in Tahiti.

It’s 1983 and free-spirited itinerant surfer Tami is looking for odd jobs to keep her traveling around the world and away from San Diego as long as she can. When a handsome British sailor, Richard, navigates into port, it’s love at first sight, and they begin making plans to sail the world. But first, they need to earn some money, so they accept a gig delivering a luxury sailing yacht, Hazana, to San Diego for a wealthy older couple.

The film flashes between Tami and Richard’s sweet courtship in Tahiti and the aftermath of the storm spent aboard the wrecked Hazana, adrift on the Pacific for 41 days. The relationship is at the core of the story. It is the relationship that brought Tami to this place, and the relationship that keeps them alive. She sets about repairing and righting the ship with a frantic energy. She miraculously discovers a gravely wounded, barely alive Richard clinging to the dinghy in the middle of the sea and nurses him aboard the boat. She navigates their way thousands of miles to Hawaii with a sextant, a wristwatch and her intuition.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, a sailor and director of “The Deep” and “Everest,” is the perfect filmmaker for the tale. The geography of the boat is dynamic and multi-faceted, never claustrophobic. Tami owns every inch of the craft – underneath and around it, inside and on top. There are many incredible underwater stunts as she makes her vessel as seaworthy as possible, a tiny person wrestling this 55-foot boat into submission.

Tami is a role perfectly suited for Woodley, who also produced the film. Her performance is athletic, physical and full of life, whether she’s exploring the waterfalls of Tahiti or scrambling to keep the trashed Hazana afloat. The actress brings a real sense of desperation to Tami’s physicality: She’s skilled and resourceful but appears to be acting with a near-manic instinct.

Claflin balances Tami’s untamed spirit with a warm and grounded presence. The two performers share an easy, palpable chemistry that always keeps the film on course, through maelstroms, flashbacks and hallucinations as they drift alone in the middle of the Pacificfor more than 40 days.

But while the love story gives “Adrift” its emotional center, the real guts and strength of the film belongs to Tami. Ultimately, “Adrift” is about a young woman and the sea. It’s a profound thing to see on the screen.

Three stars

out of four stars

Rated PG-13; injury images, peril, language, drug use, partial nudity, mature themes

1 hour, 30 minutes

Opens with screenings Thursday night

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

And by that I mean, my odds of surviving.

Dana Schwartz's favorite things include romantic comedies, British TV, and reading the Wikipedia pages for horror movies.

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.

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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 ).

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Watch CBS News

Shailene Woodley on "Adrift," the true-life story of survival at sea

By David Morgan

May 28, 2018 / 2:51 PM EDT / CBS News

After earning Golden Globe nominations for her performances opposite George Clooney in "The Descendants," and with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon in the HBO series "Big Little Lies," Shailene Woodley now stars opposite an even more formidable force: the Pacific Ocean.

Her new film, "Adrift" (which opens in theatres on Friday), is based on the true story of Tami Oldham Ashcraft, who endured Hurricane Raymond in the Pacific Ocean in 1983. She battled 40-foot waves and survived at sea for 41 days before being rescued.

Woodley did her own stunts on the film, ninety percent of which was shot on the open ocean off Fiji.  "It was remarkable – being in the open seas and being in the open element is so rare because we're used to soundstages and green screens," Woodley told "CBS This Morning" on Monday. 

"Every day we just put into perspective what this woman went through in her life.  It wasn't easy. But it's worth it. We got lucky. I love the water and am a strong swimmer, and [co-star] Sam Claflin as well. The whole crew was willing to play ball."

Woodley also had to learn to sail for the film. "I knew nothing about sailing beforehand. I don't know that I'd ever choose to go out on a sailboat alone, but if I had to, [I could]!"

"Adift" was based on Ashcraft's 2002 book, originally titled "Red Sky at Mourning," and now republished by HarperCollins. Despite the trauma of her ordeal, Ashcraft continues to sail to this day.

"A lot of women say, 'Oh, it's a woman versus nature story.' I like to say it's a woman working with nature," Woodley said. "That which caused her the most pain in her life, which is the ocean, is also that which helped her with her life. That forgiveness, that she's been able to reconcile or work with in her own mind and thought and heart, is what has allowed her to sail today."

Woodley said it was the love story component that grabbed her. "And also, when it's real, it raises the stakes. As an audience member you watch it, and I think in this day and age of big movies and a lot of fantastic things that aren't real, it's hard to grasp a relatability factor. And for me when I watch something that's real, it just immediately reminds me of my own life and how lucky we are to be alive, and [it] puts everything in perspective."

She said there was a lot of "self-inflicted pressure" upon her for playing a real-life character. "Not because Tami put any pressure on me at all," she said. "But we really wanted to make this for her. We wanted to pay tribute to her story, their story. …

"For me what was so powerful [about the story], I'm just such a sucker for love. It was the love that aided the survival. And without that love, survival may have not existed. And so I think this film does a beautiful job of explaining how that occurs. Yeah, who doesn't love love, and who can't relate to love?"

Woodley was also asked about her HBO series "Big Little Lies," which is currently in production on its second season, expected to premiere next year. When asked what audience could expected to see, she demurred, but said, "I think they'll respond to the second season because the producers and writers and everyone in the show aren't afraid to go there and talk about domestic violence and talk about things that happen to most people on this planet and yet very rarely get told in mainstream media and in cinemas and in shows. So, I think people just continue to feel like they're not alone in their stories."

To watch a trailer for "Adrift" click on the video player below.

       See more:

• "Adrift" (STX Entertainment) opens in theatres Friday, June 1
• "Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea" by Tami Oldham Ashcraft (HarperCollins), available via Amazon
• "Big Little Lies" (HBO)

David Morgan is a senior editor at CBSNews.com and cbssundaymorning.com.

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• The True Story Behind <i>The Finest Hours</i>

The True Story Behind The Finest Hours

I f you’ve never felt a strong sense of connection to the U.S. Coast Guard, The Finest Hours , out Jan. 29, might be the thing to change that. The new film, which stars Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, is based on the true story of one of the most dangerous and daring rescue attempts in Coast Guard history: Boatswain’s Mate First Class Bernie Webber (Pine) sets out with a small team to rescue the crew of the Pendleton T2 oil tanker, which split in half off the coast of Cape Cod during a brutal nor’easter in 1952.

With some exceptions for the sake of dramatic tension and concise storytelling, the script largely sticks to its source material, Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman’s 2010 book The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue . Here’s what really unfolded on that blustery February day.

Warning: Spoilers for The Finest Hours follow.

Fact: The Pendleton split in half because of a crack in its hull that couldn’t hold against the raging sea.

The tanker had sustained a three-way fracture the previous year, and despite a failure to repair it, the boat still passed inspection in January 1952, the month before the storm. But the crew didn’t realize the tanker had split in half until a young seaman named Chris Bridges ascended to the catwalk and realized that it just ended a few feet in front of him. It would later be confirmed that Captain John J. Fitzgerald and seven crewmen had gone down with the bow. Chief Engineer Raymond L. Sybert, played by Affleck, became the de facto captain of the stern.

MORE See Chris Pine as a Coast Guard Captain in Trailer for Disney’s The Finest Hours

Fact: After securing boats to the pier, Bernie was ordered by Chatham Station commanding officer Cluff to pick a crew for the mission, and he got three volunteers: Richard Livesey, Andy “Fitz” Fitzgerald and Ervin Maske.

As in the film, Bernie’s friend Mel Gouthro attempted to volunteer, but all agreed he was too sick to go. Richard (Ben Foster) and Fitz (Kyle Gallner) were the first to volunteer, followed by Ervin (John Magaro). The four men had not trained together as a unit and 24-year-old Bernie, who had joined the Coast Guard in 1946 (despite his father’s wish for him to enter the ministry), was the oldest and most experienced.

Fiction: Bernie and his girlfriend Miriam were on the brink of getting engaged when Bernie set out on the rescue mission.

The screenwriters took liberties with the timeline more than the facts here, since Bernie and Miriam Penttinen (played by Holliday Grainger) had actually been married for more than a year and a half in February 1952—but their real-life courtship played out much as it does in the film.

Fact: Chatham Station was on its own in the Pendleton rescue because the Boston and Nantucket Coast Guards had dispatched all their crews to another oil tanker that had split in half.

A tanker called the Fort Mercer suffered the same fate as the Pendleton during that February storm. Only four of the Mercer ’s crewmembers survived.

Fact: One of the most dangerous parts of the rescue mission was getting past the Chatham Bar, so the crew thought hard about whether to even attempt it.

Tougias and Sherman describe the bar as “a collection of ever-shifting shoals with flood currents carrying ocean waves that can splinter small boats in a matter of seconds…just in normal weather.” Cape Cod Bay was often referred to as “the graveyard of the Atlantic” and had seen some 3,000 shipwrecks over several centuries.

Mostly Fact: The rescue took place largely as depicted in the movie—with the exception of the song the men sang to soothe themselves during a moment of overwhelming fear.

Cluff told the men to “proceed as directed,” even after hearing Bernie’s report of the 60- to 7o-foot waves beyond the bar. As they approached, they sang “Rock of Ages” to comfort themselves. After making it past the bar, they lost their compass and radio signal and the boat’s windshield had shattered, spewing bits of glass. Upon reaching the Pendleton despite a lack of navigational tools, they assumed it was a ghost ship until they saw one man on the deck, followed by dozens more. They quickly realized that the number of men to be rescued far exceeded the capacity of the boat, but they agreed, “We would all live, or we would all die.” Upon their return, more than one hundred locals were waiting to welcome the freezing cold men.

Partly Fiction: George “Tiny” Myers, the beloved 300-lb. part-time chef played by Abraham Benrubi, died after a wave caused him to be tossed against the Pendleton while descending the ladder to the rescue boat .

Tiny was, indeed, the only one of the 33 men aboard the Pendleton ’s stern to die during the rescue. But he died in a different way than the one depicted onscreen. After slipping off the jacob’s ladder into the sea, the crew tried to pull him aboard but his weight was so great that they began slipping into the water and lost their grip on him. He was swallowed by a wave and then resurfaced, but when Bernie navigated the lifeboat toward him, a wave made the boat lose control, slamming into Tiny.

Partly Fiction: Bernie was haunted by a failed rescue attempt a few years back, and Miriam encountered the widow of one of the victims when she crashed her car into a snowbank.

Bernie was, in fact, tormented by the failed 1950 rescue attempt of a scalloper called the William J. Landry . He had been among the crew of four who tried to get out to the men during a storm, but their dory capsized multiple times on the way to the rescue boat, their oars broke, and after four attempts to get out they gave up. The victims’ remains were never recovered. As Miriam was stuck at home with the flu, her encounter with the widow was fabricated.

Fiction: Miriam barged into Chatham Station, demanding that commanding officer Cluff call Bernie back home, and was waiting at the pier to welcome him upon his return.

Though Miriam was a telephone operator, as depicted in the movie, she wasn’t calling to check in on Bernie from the switchboard because she was home with the flu for the duration of the storm. For the most part, the role she plays in the film is fabricated—presumably because shots of her sniffling in bed would have been much less interesting to watch.

Watch it now

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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.

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 (2024)

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

Baltimore Key Bridge collapse: All we know about the ship crash and victims

Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses after a container ship smashes into the four-lane span, plunging cars into the river.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, has collapsed after a cargo ship hit one of its support columns.

Officials say at least six people from a construction crew remain missing and are presumed dead .

Here is what we know so far:

What happened in Baltimore and when?

• About 1:27am (05:27 GMT) on Tuesday, a container ship collided with one of the pillars supporting the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the city on the East Coast of the United States.
• Cars using the bridge fell into the Patapsco River, while six workers were missing and presumed dead.
• The ship, named the Dali, is 300 metres (984 feet) long. The Singapore-registered vessel left Baltimore at 1am (05:00GMT) and was heading for Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was supposed to arrive at its destination on April 22.
• Local pilots, not the crew, were guiding the ship at the time of the accident, according to Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld. These pilots are trained to avoid accidents like the one on Tuesday.
• Authorities said all 22 crew members on the Dali and the two pilots have been accounted for and there were no reports of injuries.

Why did the ship lose control?

• According to a report by ABC News, the ship “lost propulsion” as it was leaving port, and its crew notified Maryland officials they had lost control of the vessel.
• Clay Diamond, the executive director and general counsel of the American Pilots’ Association, said the ship underwent a “complete blackout” at approximately 1:20am (05:20 GMT).
• “Just minutes before the bridge, there was a total blackout on the ship, meaning that the ship lost engine power and electrical power, it was a complete blackout,” Diamond told CNN.
• The vessel was moving at a standard speed of 8 knots (14.8 km/h), typical for the area. Despite the ship not recovering its main power source, Diamond mentioned that a diesel backup generator activated, thereby reinstating the electrical systems.
• The pilot immediately ordered the rudder hard to port to keep the ship from turning right and ordered the port anchor be dropped, Diamond said. The pilot also contacted a dispatch office to get the bridge shut down.
• Diamond said widely circulated images show the ship’s lights turning off and then back on, leading to questions about whether the vessel had regained power. But, he said, the emergency generators that kicked in turned the lights back on but not the ship’s propulsion.
• One of the pilots did “everything that he could have done”, Diamond said according to a report by the New York Post.

Where did it happen?

• The 2.6km (1.6-mile), four-lane bridge — named after the man who wrote the words of The Star-Spangled Banner, the US national anthem — spans the Patapsco River just southeast of central Baltimore.
• It is a key part of the road network around Baltimore, an industrial city northeast of the US capital, Washington, DC. The bridge carried more than 12 million commercial and passenger vehicles in 2023.
• Baltimore’s port handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal as well as imports and exports for major automakers, including Nissan, Toyota, General Motors, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover.

What do we know about the people on the bridge?

• According to authorities, eight people were on the bridge at the time of the collision, and six remain unaccounted for. They were part of a construction crew filling potholes on the bridge.
• From those six, two of them were from Guatemala, according to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some of the people missing were also from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.
• Among the missing individuals were a 26-year-old and another aged 35, who were both workers. The Guatemalan ministry said they were members of a team assigned to “repairing the asphalt on the bridge at the time of the accident.”
• In the operation, at least two people were rescued – one was taken to hospital and was later discharged, officials said.
• A fellow construction company employee says he was told his missing co-workers were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks when the bridge collapsed.
• Maryland Governor Wes Moore said he’s spent time with the families of victims. “The strength of these families is absolutely remarkable,” he added.

What happens next?

• President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, promised the nation a large federal response to the collapse, emphasising that there was no evidence suggesting it was a deliberate act.
• In the port, the traffic was suspended until further notice, according to Maryland transport authorities.
• The collapse is almost sure to create a logistical nightmare for months, if not years, along the East Coast, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore and snarling cargo and commuter traffic.
• “Losing this bridge will devastate the entire area, as well as the entire East Coast,” state Senator Johnny Ray Salling said.
• The Port of Baltimore is also the ninth-busiest major US port in terms of both foreign cargo handled and foreign cargo value, and is directly responsible for more than 15,000 jobs while supporting almost 140,000 more.
• In the evening of Tuesday, Colonel Roland Butler, superintendent for Maryland State Police, announced that the search and rescue mission was transitioning to one of search and recovery.
• Starting at 6am (10:00 GMT) on Wednesday, “we’re hoping to put divers in the water and begin a more detailed search to do our very best to recover those six missing people”, Butler added.

Six workers presumed dead after crippled cargo ship knocks down Baltimore bridge

• LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
• Six workers presumed dead
• Search and rescue operations suspended

BIGGER DISASTER AVERTED

'SHOCKING SIGHT'

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Canada's population touched a record high of 40.77 million in 2023, largely driven by temporary immigration, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. The country added 1.27 million people in 2023, up 3.2% from the previous year - marking the highest growth since 1957.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched dozens of rockets at Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli town over the border, early on Wednesday in response to deadly Israeli strikes on the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon a day earlier.

Poland has dismissed a top general from his position as commander of a European military body, the defence ministry said on Wednesday, after the country's counterintelligence service launched an investigation into his security clearance.

Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "lost-at-sea"

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Triangle (2009)

R | 99 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Five friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them, and what happens next cannot be explained.

Director: Christopher Smith | Stars: Melissa George , Joshua McIvor , Jack Taylor , Michael Dorman

Votes: 129,133

2. Cast Away (2000)

PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks , Helen Hunt , Paul Sanchez , Lari White

Votes: 636,285 | Gross: $233.63M

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

PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America.

Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Russell Crowe , Paul Bettany , Billy Boyd , James D'Arcy

Votes: 237,133 | Gross: $93.93M

4. Greyhound (2020)

PG-13 | 91 min | Action, Drama, History

Several months after the U.S. entry into World War II, an inexperienced U.S. Navy commander must lead an Allied convoy being stalked by a German submarine wolf pack.

Director: Aaron Schneider | Stars: Tom Hanks , Elisabeth Shue , Stephen Graham , Matt Helm

Votes: 113,980

5. Life of Pi (2012)

PG | 127 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Suraj Sharma , Irrfan Khan , Adil Hussain , Tabu

Votes: 665,033 | Gross: $124.99M

6. Unbroken (I) (2014)

PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Biography, Drama

After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Jack O'Connell , Miyavi , Domhnall Gleeson , Garrett Hedlund

Votes: 182,040 | Gross: $115.64M

7. In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Biography

A recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Chris Hemsworth , Cillian Murphy , Brendan Gleeson , Ben Whishaw

Votes: 148,367 | Gross: $25.02M

8. The Bounty (1984)

PG | 132 min | Adventure, Drama, History

Fed up with their Captain's harsh discipline, a sailing ship's crew decides to take action.

Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Mel Gibson , Anthony Hopkins , Laurence Olivier , Edward Fox

Votes: 30,186 | Gross: $8.60M

9. Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012 TV Movie)

TV-14 | 85 min | Drama, Romance

Two high-school students become stranded on a tropical island and must rely on each other for survival. They learn more about themselves and one another while falling in love.

Directors: Eric Bross , Mikael Salomon | Stars: Indiana Evans , Brenton Thwaites , Denise Richards , Patrick St. Esprit

Votes: 17,063

10. The Road to El Dorado (2000)

PG | 89 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Two swindlers get their hands on a map to the fabled city of gold, El Dorado.

Directors: Bibo Bergeron , Don Paul , Jeffrey Katzenberg | Stars: Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh , Rosie Perez , Armand Assante

Votes: 106,991 | Gross: $50.86M

11. Richie Rich (1994)

PG | 95 min | Comedy, Family

A rich young boy finds his family the target of an inside job, and must use his cunning to save them.

Director: Donald Petrie | Stars: Macaulay Culkin , Edward Herrmann , John Larroquette , Christine Ebersole

Votes: 73,414 | Gross: $38.09M

12. The Swimmers (2022)

PG-13 | 134 min | Biography, Drama, Sport

From war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, two young sisters embark on a harrowing journey as refugees, putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use.

Director: Sally El Hosaini | Stars: Matthias Schweighöfer , Ali Suliman , Ahmed Malek , James Krishna Floyd

Votes: 35,810

13. An American Tail (1986)

G | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

While emigrating to the United States, a young Russian mouse gets separated from his family and must relocate them while trying to survive in a new country.

Director: Don Bluth | Stars: Dom DeLuise , Christopher Plummer , Erica Yohn , Nehemiah Persoff

Votes: 57,854 | Gross: $47.48M

14. Lovewrecked (2005)

PG | 87 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance

On a Caribbean cruise, Jenny is marooned on a beach with her rock and roll idol. Deliriously in love with the idea of time alone with him, she manages to hide the fact that they're a stone's throw away from their resort.

Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: Amanda Bynes , Chris Carmack , Jonathan Bennett , Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Votes: 15,427 | Gross: $0.48M

15. The Pagemaster (1994)

A cowardly boy, who buries himself in accident statistics, enters a library to escape a storm, only to be transformed into an animated illustration by the Pagemaster. He has to work through obstacles from classic books to return to real-life.

Directors: Pixote Hunt , Joe Johnston | Stars: Macaulay Culkin , Christopher Lloyd , Kanin Howell , Alexis Kirschner

Votes: 25,464 | Gross: $13.67M

16. Open Water (2003)

R | 79 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror

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

Director: Chris Kentis | Stars: Blanchard Ryan , Daniel Travis , Saul Stein , Michael E. Williamson

Votes: 56,340 | Gross: $30.61M

17. Moby Dick (1956)

Not Rated | 116 min | Adventure, Drama

The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.

Director: John Huston | Stars: Gregory Peck , Richard Basehart , Leo Genn , James Robertson Justice

Votes: 21,749 | Gross: $10.40M

18. USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016)

R | 128 min | Action, Drama, History

During World War II, an American navy ship is sunk by a Japanese submarine leaving 890 crewmen stranded in shark infested waters.

Director: Mario Van Peebles | Stars: Nicolas Cage , Tom Sizemore , Thomas Jane , Matt Lanter

Votes: 14,259

19. The Mercy (2018)

Not Rated | 112 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

The incredible story of amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst and his solo attempt to circumnavigate the globe. The struggles he confronted on the journey while his family awaited his return is one of the most enduring mysteries of recent times.

Director: James Marsh | Stars: Colin Firth , Eleanor Stagg , Rachel Weisz , Zara Prassinot

Votes: 9,601

20. All Is Lost (2013)

PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.

Director: J.C. Chandor | Star: Robert Redford

Votes: 83,684 | Gross: $6.26M

21. Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller

On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea , Laraine Day , Herbert Marshall , George Sanders

Votes: 23,548 | Gross: $3.48M

22. Nim's Island (2008)

PG | 96 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Imagination and reality collide when young Nim's father goes missing at sea. Fate brings to her the author of the Alex Rover series, her favorite books, and together they try to find Nim's father.

Directors: Jennifer Flackett , Mark Levin | Stars: Jodie Foster , Gerard Butler , Abigail Breslin , Michael Carman

Votes: 36,819 | Gross: $48.01M

23. Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)

PG | 102 min | Comedy, Romance

When a hypochondriac learns that he is dying, he accepts an offer to throw himself in a volcano at a tropical island, and along the way there, learns to truly live.

Director: John Patrick Shanley | Stars: Tom Hanks , Meg Ryan , Lloyd Bridges , Robert Stack

Votes: 39,710 | Gross: $39.40M

24. Open Water 2: Adrift (2006)

R | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror

When a group of friends fail to lower the ladder of their boat, they find themselves stranded in the surrounding waters and struggle to survive.

Director: Hans Horn | Stars: Susan May Pratt , Richard Speight Jr. , Niklaus Lange , Ali Hillis

Votes: 19,886

25. The Fog (2005)

PG-13 | 100 min | Horror, Mystery

A thick mist full of vengeful spirits haunts a prosperous island town off the coast of Oregon, as its inhabitants try to learn their town's dark secret in order to stop it.

Director: Rupert Wainwright | Stars: Tom Welling , Maggie Grace , Selma Blair , DeRay Davis

Votes: 39,069 | Gross: $29.51M

26. Gulliver's Travels (1996)

PG | 186 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

An Englishman returns after nine years abroad and tells strange stories of the tiny people of Lilliput, the giants of Brobdingnag, the flying island Laputa and the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses.

Stars: Ted Danson , Mary Steenburgen , James Fox , Robert Hardy

Votes: 7,131

27. The Land That Time Forgot (1974)

PG | 91 min | Adventure, Fantasy

During World War I, a German U-boat sinks a British ship and takes the survivors on board. After it takes a wrong turn, the submarine takes them to the unknown land of Caprona, where they find dinosaurs and neanderthals.

Director: Kevin Connor | Stars: Doug McClure , John McEnery , Susan Penhaligon , Keith Barron

Votes: 6,966

28. Atlantics (2019)

TV-14 | 106 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

In a popular suburb of Dakar, workers on the construction site of a futuristic tower, without pay for months, decide to leave the country by the ocean for a better future. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, promised to another.

Director: Mati Diop | Stars: Mame Bineta Sane , Amadou Mbow , Traore , Nicole Sougou

Votes: 10,461

29. Great White (2021)

91 min | Horror, Thriller

A fun filled flight to a remote atoll turns into a nightmare for five passengers when their seaplane is destroyed in a freak accident and they are trapped on a raft, 100 miles from shore with man-eating sharks lurking beneath the surface.

Director: Martin Wilson | Stars: Katrina Bowden , Aaron Jakubenko , Kimie Tsukakoshi , Tim Kano

Votes: 8,799

30. Julieta (2016)

R | 99 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

After a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events involving her estranged daughter.

Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Emma Suárez , Adriana Ugarte , Daniel Grao , Inma Cuesta

Votes: 33,833 | Gross: $1.49M

31. Lifeboat (1944)

Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, War

Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tallulah Bankhead , John Hodiak , Walter Slezak , William Bendix

Votes: 31,083

32. Captains Courageous (1937)

G | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

A spoiled brat who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.

Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Spencer Tracy , Freddie Bartholomew , Lionel Barrymore , Melvyn Douglas

Votes: 10,865

33. War Sailor (2022)

TV-MA | 150 min | Drama, War

The sailor Alfred is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. Suddenly the sailors are in the front of the war, without any weapons.

Director: Gunnar Vikene | Stars: Kristoffer Joner , Pål Sverre Hagen , Ine Marie Wilmann , Henrikke Lund Olsen

Votes: 3,915

34. The Boat (2011–2013)

TV-14 | 75 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery

A global cataclysm, caused by a fatal accident in Geneva (Switzerland) during the implementation of the particle accelerator will lead to crew of vessel-school Estrella Polar to live the adventure of their lives.

Stars: Juanjo Artero , Mario Casas , Blanca Suárez , Irene Montalà

Votes: 5,210

35. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Approved | 80 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City.

Director: Eugène Lourié | Stars: Paul Hubschmid , Paula Raymond , Cecil Kellaway , Kenneth Tobey

Votes: 8,693 | Gross: $5.00M

36. The Bermuda Triangle (1978)

G | 112 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Mystery

The passengers and crew of a ship on a scuba diving trip in the Caribbean stray into the famed Bermuda Triangle, and mysterious and deadly things start happening.

Director: René Cardona Jr. | Stars: John Huston , Andrés García , Hugo Stiglitz , Gloria Guida

Votes: 1,655

37. The Breaks (1999)

R | 86 min | Comedy

Adopted by a black family in L.A., Derrick grows up an Irish white boy who thinks he's black! When his mother catches him romantically entangled with a woman on her couch, he's thrown out with an ultimatum. In HD.

Director: Eric Meza | Stars: Anthony Anderson , Isaiah Barnes , Max Becker , Paula Bel

Votes: 1,389

38. Shock (1977)

R | 93 min | Horror

A couple is terrorized in their new house haunted by the vengeful ghost of the woman's former husband, who possesses their young son.

Directors: Mario Bava , Lamberto Bava | Stars: Daria Nicolodi , John Steiner , David Colin Jr. , Ivan Rassimov

Votes: 4,643

39. Phaedra (1962)

Not Rated | 115 min | Drama

To build bridges with his estranged son, a Greek shipping magnate enlists the help of his second wife, Phaedra. But, in rain-soaked Paris, their passionate affair threatens to destroy his empire. Will the modern temptress accept her fate?

Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Melina Mercouri , Anthony Perkins , Raf Vallone , Elizabeth Ercy

Votes: 1,886

40. Dark Harbor (1998)

R | 96 min | Thriller, Drama

A couple, trying to get the last ferry to their island, help a young drifter out of the rain with a ride. They later meet him again and invite him home. The much younger wife spends time with the drifter. Twists follow.

Director: Adam Coleman Howard | Stars: Alan Rickman , Polly Walker , Norman Reedus , Janet Mecca

Votes: 2,816

41. The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)

Not Rated | 99 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

After being shipwrecked, a man finds himself on an island inhabited by tiny people, who soon make plans for him.

Director: Jack Sher | Stars: Kerwin Mathews , Jo Morrow , June Thorburn , Lee Patterson

Votes: 3,063

42. Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989)

PG-13 | 93 min | Adventure, Fantasy

Sinbad and his shipmates aid a young prince, who must battle an evil wizard to gain the hand of a beautiful princess.

Directors: Enzo G. Castellari , Luigi Cozzi | Stars: Lou Ferrigno , John Steiner , Roland Wybenga , Ennio Girolami

Votes: 1,841

43. Ghost Shark (2013 TV Movie)

TV-14 | 87 min | Fantasy, Horror

When rednecks on a fishing trip kill a great white shark, its spirit comes back for revenge, and soon turns its sights on the town of Smallport.

Director: Griff Furst | Stars: Robert Aberdeen , Jayme Bohn , Eliot Brasseaux , Amy Brassette

Votes: 3,326

44. Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966)

G | 110 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family

A Navy pilot is marooned on an island with a headhunter's daughter and outcast tribal women.

Director: Byron Paul | Stars: Dick Van Dyke , Nancy Kwan , Akim Tamiroff , Arthur Malet

Votes: 1,558 | Gross: $22.57M

45. The Girl on the Bridge (1999)

R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

One night, a fading entertainer intervenes when a woman contemplates suicide, beginning a strange, unpredictable relationship.

Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Vanessa Paradis , Daniel Auteuil , Frédéric Pfluger , Dimitris Georgalas

Votes: 14,335 | Gross: $1.71M

46. Benji the Hunted (1987)

G | 88 min | Adventure, Family

Benji is left in the wilderness after an accident. Can he survive?

Director: Joe Camp | Stars: Red Steagall , Frank Inn , Benjean , Nancy Francis

Votes: 3,365 | Gross: $22.26M

47. The Ghost Galleon (1974)

R | 89 min | Horror

The living corpses of the Satan-worshiping Knights Templar hunt for human victims in a 16th century galleon.

Director: Amando de Ossorio | Stars: Maria Perschy , Jack Taylor , Bárbara Rey , Carlos Lemos

Votes: 2,966

48. Road to Morocco (1942)

Passed | 82 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family

Two carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.

Director: David Butler | Stars: Bing Crosby , Bob Hope , Dorothy Lamour , Anthony Quinn

Votes: 5,843 | Gross: $1.63M

49. Flipper (1963)

G | 87 min | Adventure, Family, Drama

Sandy is distraught when, having saved Flipper by pulling out a spear, his father insists the dolphin be released. A grateful Flipper, however, returns the favor when Sandy is threatened by Sharks.

Director: James B. Clark | Stars: Chuck Connors , Luke Halpin , Connie Scott , Jane Rose

Votes: 1,987

50. Two by Two: Overboard! (2020)

Not Rated | 85 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Two misfit castaways struggle to reunite an unorthodox family, out-run a volcano, and negotiate a peace deal on a creaking Ark.

Directors: Toby Genkel , Seán McCormack | Stars: Max Carolan , Ava Connolly , Dermot Magennis , Tara Flynn

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