I was skeptical about watching a movie that is mainly about a guy being alone. This could spell crazy cheesy or worse. But, it turned out to be creepy, eerie, insightful, tragic, inspirational, and funny all at the same time.
The reason I am blogging about it is that the end just drove me to tears. Spoiler: he ends up having to break and cut off his arm in order to get out. Would I be able to do that? I guess it's impossible to say what we would do after 5 days of facing certain death...and it helps that he was a trained rescuer.
During those days, he reflected on his life, thought about his parents (whom he didn't call often enough and didn't appreciate enough), his sister, relationships, etc. He wasn't down there thinking about his job, awards, places he traveled, etc. What finally compelled him to cut his own arm off (more like hack it off with a blunt object) was a premonition he saw of himself and his future son.
Maybe that's why this movie touched me so deeply. How we have the will to live - but living for ourselves isn't enough. Am I doing enough to appreciate the people who are in my life everyday, especially my kids? Children give us the motivation to live. Even for people who don't have them yet! It's like an innate human instinct to love. Seeing, even writing about it now, that love he had for a child he didn't even know (and really, our kids are perfect strangers to us when they come out - it probably takes a lifetime to get to know them) is so moving. It's so powerful and yet totally unexplainable. I guess I feel like, because I have sons, I can understand why that image would have been the driving motivation for him to do something that is otherwise unthinkable.
This was really nice to read, especially when I'm about ready to have a baby. I have definitely questioned a lot during the past 8.5 months whether or not it's really worth all the nausea, waiting, discomfort, and emotional ups and downs. I'm hoping it will be all you say and more.
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