The human will to live against life-or-death struggles in perilous circumstances – and the question of “what if this actually happened to me?” – make survival dramas some of the most captivating movies to hit the screen. From critical hits like The Blue Lagoon and Into the Wild to even Sydney Sweeney’s recent box office bomb Eden, survival movies are ridiculously compelling narratives. More than two decades after its release, a 2000 survival classic remains one of the best survival movies of all time, and it just started streaming on Netflix.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Following the critical hit of Forrest Gump in 1994, director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks reunited in 2000 for the iconic survival drama Cast Away. The movie, starring Hanks as FedEx systems analyst Chuck Noland, who finds himself stranded on a deserted island after his plane crashes, joined Netflix on December 7th. Cast Away was a critical and commercial hit, earning two Oscar nominations and grossing $429 million worldwide.
Cast Away Is the Survival Genre at Its Best
Cast Away began as Hanks’ original idea to “examine the concept of four years of hopelessness, in which you have none of the requirements for living,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. A simple idea sparked after he read an article about FedEx and “realized that 747s filled with packages fly across the Pacific three times a day. And I just thought, ‘What happens if that goes down?’” went on to set a new standard for survival stories that focused not just on the physical challenges but also on the profound psychological and emotional toll of isolation.
Cast Away is an absolute masterpiece of a movie and a powerful story about isolation, human connection, and perseverance. The movie is a gripping story of a man who loses everything and is forced to re-evaluate what’s important in life, and despite the difficult task of appearing solo throughout the majority of the film and having minimal dialogue, Hanks delivers a career-best performance. The actor’s portrayal of Chuck, a man not just fighting against the elements but also the unraveling of his sense of self, with Chuck desperately searching for connection where he can find it, is both thrilling and haunting, and the creation of Wilson the volleyball as a means of connection remains one of the most iconic movie moments that represented his struggle against loneliness.
The movie became a benchmark for other survival stories and one of Zemeckis’s highest-rated films with a “Certified Fresh” 88% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is still beloved today, and Hanks has even stated that it is his second favorite movie in his filmography after A League of Their Own.
What’s New on Netflix?
Cast Away is not the only new movie streaming on Netflix. Earlier in December, the streamer added everything from Godzilla to fellow Hanks movie Forrest Gump. Other movies freshly streaming on Netflix include Pulp Fiction, Troll 2, The Northman, and both the 2004 and 2024 versions of Mean Girls.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Netflix -
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics -
A Nintendo 64 console over a collage of game box art from the system's library.
