The gritty thriller Yellowjackets captures a haunting story of survival inspired by true events, blending raw human resilience with a chilling descent into the darker side of human nature.
The Emmy award-winning series is streaming on Netflix and Paramount+. It stars Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis, following the story of a girls soccer team who wind up stranded in the middle of nowhere after their plane crashes.
In the show, a high school girls soccer team gets stranded for 19 months and must do anything and everything to survive—including cannibalizing those who don’t make it out of the woods.
While some of the girls do make it out alive, they are haunted by their past in the form of an anonymous blackmailer who threatens to reveal the darkest secrets they agreed to let die in the past.
While not an exact retelling, Yellowjackets does draw inspiration from the 1972 Andes Mountain plane crash, which involved a crash with a Uruguayan rugby team into the Andes Mountains.
The True Story That Inspired Yellowjackets
On Oct. 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes Mountains, with 45 passengers and crewmembers on board, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, their families, supporters, and friends.
Upon impact of the crash, 12 people were killed and many were left injured. Tragically, when their resources ran out and a brutal winter rolled in, the remaining survivors were forced to resort to extreme measures of survival, including cannibalizing passengers who didn’t make it.
The 16 survivors were stranded in the mountains for 72 days, suffering sub-zero temperatures, exposure, starvation, and even an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 8 more passengers.
A small group made the trek out once the weather conditions improved, convinced that everyone would die if they all stayed. Eventually, the small group made it to a small village in Chile, known as Los Maitenes.
Helicopters arrived and saved the remaining survivors 72 days later. Out of the 33 people who survived the initial crash, only 16 passengers were safely rescued from the mountain. Their survival made news across the world, inspiring biopic movies Alive and Society of the Snow to capture the bravery of the survivors.
Other Inspiration for Yellowjackets
Yellowjackets follows the social dynamics of characters under diress and has been described as a female Lord of the Flies.
The book follows a group of young boys woh become stranded on an island after their plane crashes. The boys are left to fend for themselevs wihtout any adult guidance. The children attempt to establish order, but they find themselves quickly descending into chaos and violence.
“The way that we pitched it was a pitch-dark, coming-of-age story, a gothic fairy tale, and a psychological horror story all in one,” says Yellowjackets show runner Ashley Lyle.
The novel serves as an allegory for civilization’s desire for power and how it conflicts with the needs of the group.
While filmmakers have adapted Lord of the Flies into two notable films, the story has inspired several other films and TV shows as well, such as Lost and the Maze Runner series.
