10 Terrifying Movie Plane Crashes

6. Alive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5NXDRK_d-4 Alive, based on a true story about a Uruguayan rugby team that became stranded in the remote mountains of the Andes following a devastating plane crash, might not be among the most authentic plane crashes on film, but I'll be damned if it's not extremely unsettling. It's the terrified grimaces of the passengers more than anything that gets me, a real testament to the visceral performances in this sequence. Sure, the effects are dated (the green-screen when people are being ejected out of the plane hasn't aged especially well), but some of the nauseating violence leaves an indelible mark, chiefly when one passenger has the flesh stripped from his leg when some debris comes hurtling through his passenger window. Sure, the moment when the plane skis down a slope, and then when all the seats pile against one another is totally ridiculous, but what really works about the film is what follows, the fate awaiting even those who survived the crash, that they are going to have to eat their fallen comrades in order to stay alive. Grim stuff.