Top Ten Survival Movies

This article will explore the top ten survival movies. What is a survival movie? This is a movie where a person or group of people face a challenge, the success of which determines whether they live or die. Survival movies certainly aren't for the faint of heart, because the outcome isn't always positive. However, survival movies are worth watching because you learn more about the human condition, friendship and working together to defeat an opponent. Read on to discover the top ten survival movies.

1. Six Weeks (1982). This is a classic old movie starring two of my favorite actors, Mary Tyler Moore and Dudley Moore. In Six Weeks, a 12 year old girl has leukemia, and finds out she has six weeks to live. The mother wants to help her daughter totally enjoy her limited time left. The daughter wants to help a congressional candidate with his campaign. When he allows her to do so, the mother and candidate start to become involved. This movie is about true love and friendship, fighting to survive a deadly disease, and really discovering what it is that makes a person happy.

2. Beaches (1988). Beaches starts out as two childhood friends who become friends into adulthood. The movie stars Bette Midler. What ends up happening is that one of the two becomes terminally ill. This movie is about two friends standing behind each other and supporting each other through good times and bad. One fights for survival, one fights for acceptance in the world itself. This is a truly touching survival movie.

3. Independence Day (1996). Independence Day stars Will Smith and Randy Quaid, to name a few. In this alien movie, the earth is faced with an alien invasion. Aliens bring ships to earth that hover above major cities, and it becomes apparent there will be a synchronized attack on these cities. Will Smith and Randy Quaid have to man an old alien spaceship to go to the mother ship and destroy it, to save the earth from this alien attack. This movie is about human sacrifice, bonding together and working as a team.

4. The Bucket List (2007). The Bucket List is about two terminally ill cancer patients, and stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. The movie happens to be hilarious, along with being a survival movie. The two make up a bucket list, a list of things they have never done that they want to accomplish before they die. The movie is about the pursuit of this bucket list, and it takes the two all over the world to complete their list. The movie is about true friendship, male bonding, and trying to beat a deadly disease.

5. Outbreak (1995). Talk about a movie full of stars, Outbreak features Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey, Patrick Dempsey, Donald Sutherland and Cuba Gooding, Jr. A deadly virus reaches the United States in a monkey. The monkey infects a few people, and those people start to infect others. To control the outbreak, and prevent the disease from spreading through the United States and killing everyone it infects, the monkey (who was released into the wild), must be found. Outbreak is about coming together to find a solution to a problem, and defeating a deadly virus that has begun to spread into the population.

6. Deep Impact (1998). Starring Morgan Freeman and Tea Leoni, Deep Impact is about an 'extinction level event.' What this means is that a comet is about to hit the earth, with a magnitude that will wipe out human beings. This survival movie focuses on sending a spaceship to the comet to break it apart, so that it will not destroy earth. Because the mission isn't successful, countries have to come up with refuge locations to go to try and survive once the comet hits and blocks out the sun. This movie is about true love, as some of the people in the movie give up their safety to be with a person they love, and it's about working together to defeat a common enemy, the comet.

7. Alive (1993). Ethan Hawke and Vincent Spano star in this survival movie. A rugby team's plane crashes in the Andes mountains. They fight to survive, and to get off the glacier mountain. They must resort to cannibalism, eating their dead friends to survive. Three of the men must fight nature and cross the Andes to get help for the others.

8. Australia (2008). Australia stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. In this motivational survival movie, Nicole Kidman must save her ranch from being taken over by some not-so-nice Australians. She enlists the help of the Drover, Hugh Jackman's character. They have to make a journey with their cattle across the outback of Australia. The movie also includes an Australian boy, whose mother is killed by the Australian men and left in Nicole and Hugh's care. Australia is about defeating great odds, fighting for good over evil, and accepting that there is more to one's life than just one's own personal good.

9. Cast Away (2000). Tom Hanks' plane goes down, and he is left by himself on a deserted island. He must fight to survive the elements, and to eventually find a way back to civilization. He faces incredible challenges along the way.

10. The Day After Tomorrow (2004). I happen to really like this movie because of my favorite actor Jake Gylenhaal being in it, but also because it's a great motivational survival movie. Dennis Quaid is also a star in this film. Global warming has led to the next ice age coming, and it becomes apparent when all sorts of odd events start to occur, such as huge tidal waves, flooding and giant tornadoes. Dennis Quaid has to find a way to save the planet from the ice age, and find his son who has gone to New York, one of the cities that will be immediately impacted by the catastrophic events. The movie is about safeguarding one's family and saving the planet.