The film ‘The Snow Company’, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, is currently the most successful international production on Netflix. The drama describes the ordeal of a rugby team from Uruguay that crashed in the Andes in 1972. To ensure the utmost realism, the film was conceived with the help of the 16 survivors. Through hundreds of hours of recorded interviews, they shared their memories so that what is depicted can be as truthful as possible.
Nevertheless, many questions arise, including those of a medical nature. For our sister site Dr. Waël Houhou, an emergency physician and co-founder of Soins Rando Survie, a company that offers medical training to hikers and survival artists, answered some of the unanswered questions many viewers had after watching the survival drama.
How long can a body survive without food?
The constant lack of food is one of the defining elements of the film – in the end, the survivors are even forced to eat their friends who died in the plane crash to avoid starving to death themselves. But how long can a body actually survive without food? Dr. Waël Houhou says:
“We can go three weeks without eating and three days without drinking. After more than ten days, the body will save itself, depending on our body reserves. That is, we will consume what is least important to keep alive what we need most. We’re going to attack sugar, fat and anything that has muscle. This is called muscle wasting.
People with malnutrition no longer have fat and muscle because the body will digest the muscle to fuel the major organs, namely the heart and brain. When this happens over a long period of time, extreme autophagy occurs. So the body will digest its own organs that are not essential for life in the short term. For example, the liver or pancreas can be eaten to continue to supply energy to the brain, the most important organ of the body.”
When does cold become life-threatening?
The nights in the film are particularly brutal for the survivors. The penetrating cold that creeps into the bones of the protagonists makes the audience shiver, even in the warm security of their own four walls. In some scenes, people literally seem to turn into living icicles. The question naturally arises when the cold actually becomes life-threatening. This is also what Dr. Waël Houhou gave a clear answer:
“When the body is below 28 degrees. Between 32 and 28 degrees we no longer have the energy and muscle connections we need, which is why we stop shivering. Below 28 degrees, cardiac arrest occurs. At 32 degrees the body comes to a standstill. We breathe slower, everything slows down. The heart rate drops below 60 beats per minute, we breathe once every 6.7 seconds. This has a name: bradycardia. Then we fall into a coma and cardiac arrest occurs.”
Why is the urine brown in a scene?
In one particularly memorable scene, one of the leads urinates in the snow. But instead of leaving a yellow trail, it turns a deep brown. What does that mean? The emergency doctor can also explain this:
“The urine becomes more concentrated when there is dehydration. Urine comes from the kidney, which filters the blood. Blood flows continuously through the kidney. When we become dehydrated, the kidney tells itself to retain as much water as possible so it secretes very little urine. But the body still produces waste products, especially urea and bilirubin, which are breakdown products of the blood. […] So if you don’t drink, you should still manage to excrete these waste products. Therefore, the urine becomes more concentrated and may be darker in color.“
If you have not yet seen “The Snow Company” and would like to get an impression of the drama after reading the article, you can watch the trailer here: