I've watched this movie twice, and I still cant understand why they elected to sleep outside, when they had perfectly good shelter in the airplane! Not only that, but when they had a fire going at night, it was SO low that it couldnt possibly do them any good! Why didn't they build the biggest bonfire EVER to keep warm?
share1. As john Wayne explained, without the engines running it was colder in the metal aircraft than outside so they had to build a lean-to
2. Wayne also explained that it was so cold the sap was frozen in the trees and so there was very little wood to build a fire
Terminate this Thread with extreme prejudice.
Well, Wayne, or more accurately the screenwriters, were wrong. I sure wouldn't use this movie as an Arctic survival guide.
By the way, they acted like they were so far north even Eskimos wouldn't go there, yet the place was covered by pine trees. If there are trees, there is wildlife, and possibly human habitation.
The guy who wrote the book based it on an experience that happened to him. I'd think he'd know. It's on the doco that comes with the dvd. Check it out.
Terminate this Thread with extreme prejudice.
Actually, that small lean-to, with four people and a small fire could be relatively cozy. There are a number of variables involved, but the principal is sound.
"Principle". An easy way to remember the difference is the mnemonic, "The Principal of my school is my pal." (He probably wasn't, nor did I want him to be. Although I had elaborate fantasies involving my buxom Biology teacher, Ms. Light.)
Yep, a lean-to of logs chocked with snow would insulate far better than a metal DC-3 fuselage. And share body heat as much as possible.
I almost froze to death back in 1981, when I was homeless and sleeping in my Ford Pinto in subzero temperatures. Metal is not a good insulator.
"The truth 24 times a second."
Well first, this is a movie. The real event was successful considering the odds against them. In reality, they survived from Feb. 3,thru March 3rd. Unlike the movie, there were no casualties and the airplane (C-87, B-24 bomber) was returned to service, only to be lost in North Africa about 6 months later.
shareEarly on, in the first meeting at Presque Isle, someone asks about game, and the "Arctic expert" says that it's virtually nonexistent in that area. I didn't realize there are places too cold even for animals to wander around.
"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."
If you've ever spent time in dead of winter in a metal aircraft you'd know very well why they slept outdoors. For the same reason aluminum is a preferred metal for frying pans - it conducts temperature very efficiently - aluminum also conducts cold with frigid, bone-chilling effect. Even in flight with the heating system roaring full-blast the cargo bay of a transport aircraft - even a modern one such as the C-130 Hercules - is an ice-cold place to have to endure being stuck in.
The film company could not film in the frozen wastes of Labrador, which lacks trees and also lacks most other vegetation suitable for campfires, so the film script had to include some reason for why the timber shown in the movie - filmed near Truckee, California - would not burn.
Even a snow cave or igloo won't be colder than 32F if all wind is kept out. It would take very little heat in the small lean-to to make it toasty.
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