Marine survival expert rates 9 ocean survival scenes in movies and TV

• John Hudson is the UK military's chief survival instructor. He specializes in teaching sea rescue.
• Hudson breaks down ocean survival movies and TV shows for realism, including "Cast Away" (2000).
• Hudson is the author of "How to Survive: Lessons for Everyday Life from the Extreme World".

Following is a transcript of the video.

- [whistle blowing] What she's managing now is superhuman. She would have lost her manual dexterity.

Hi, my name's John Hudson. I'm the UK Military's chief survival instructor, land or sea, Arctic, desert or jungle. And I train the trainers how to teach that to everyone else in the UK Military. Today, we're going to be looking at ocean-survival scenes in movies, and we're going to be judging how real they are.

"Cast Away" (2000)

That looks to me like they're diving vertically at the sea, and nobody will survive. It would be like hitting concrete. What tends to happen in airplane ditchings is you're just trying to do a controlled landing on water, like Sully did, like Tom Hanks does, on the Hudson. The water's gonna flush backwards. The best place for Tom Hanks, or any of us, to sit in that sort of scenario is probably near an over-wing exit. Definitely be near an exit. If you take cold water, you can only hold your breath for about five or 10 seconds. And the lethal dose for salt water is 1 1/2 liters. So if you're in an airplane and you're not near the exit, and it fills with -- or a helicopter -- and it fills with cold water, and you go [gasps], you're going to die, because you've taken the lethal dose of salt water into your lungs. Have a feel. You check next time you're on an airplane. When they say, "Your life preserver is under your seat," have a look around and see if anyone checks. I always do. Remember, in a sinking airplane, though, do not inflate it until you're outside. Because as it sinks, you'll be trapped inside the fuselage. Another bit of Hollywoodism, because all of these life rafts have a weak link on them. So if there's any strain like this put on the life raft, the cord will tear away without ripping the life raft, so that if it's attached to a sinking airplane and the airplane sinks, you don't get dragged down with it. It's built in. It's a clever design feature. He can hold his breath because he's in the tropics. But it's at night and it's in a storm, so in all likelihood, the air temperature and everything else, gonna be a bit cold. It will churn the sea up a little bit. You'll get that mixing. So it won't be warm water that he's in. It still is gonna limit how long he can hold his breath for. It's a little bit of Hollywood going on, I think, this bit. [turbine spinning] In that kind of storm, is the fuel likely to have caught fire? Probably not. But it makes for a good scene, doesn't it? It looks cool. The airplane's landed with such force that it smashed apart and caught fire. And yet, we've still got an engine, which weighs several tons, above the water. So, we're kind of playing with time and reality for a brilliant scene here. It's only gonna get 4 out of 10 for realism.

Rating: 4/10

"Titanic" (1997)

Is there anyone alive out there?

This is people from the Carpathia coming to try and find survivors from the Titanic. What signs of life you'll be able to detect, maybe a ripple or some small movement. But by this point, people are going to be unconscious. There's no way you can survive in water that temperature for even more than an hour. You know, half of us will be dead within 45 minutes. So the only people who would have survived were those who were floating on or in something, rather than the water itself.

[whimpering]

You can see the ice in her hair. That's realistic. When we do ice-breaking drills in the Arctic with our guys, soon as you get out of the frozen lake, your hair is like glass straightaway. But, if you both wanted to survive, your best chance is to both try and get on. It'll be a little bit wobbly, but you're gonna lie still. And we know the sea was super calm that night, so you've got a good chance of getting on there. If you can get the big arteries away from the water, like your femoral arteries or under your armpits and round your neck, you'll survive for longer. Come back. Come back! Come back! What could she do to raise his attention while she's actually on there? Maybe she's got something she can clank together to raise a metallic noise that would carry a long way. That point there, where she jumps into the water, what happens to humans on immersion in cold water is that you have an absolutely uncontrolled gasp response. Absolutely uncontrollable. So, the main problem with Hollywood films about cold-water survival is that they never gasp and they never hyperventilate for about a minute afterwards. And it's absolutely uncontrollable. She probably wouldn't have been able to swim initially, at first. We've tested Olympic athletes at the Institute of Naval Medicine on how people respond to this, and gold and silver medalists can't do this.

[man yelling]

[whistle blowing]

What she's managing now is superhuman. She would have lost her manual dexterity. Absolutely no chance of being able to do that when you're that cold. This is the Inuit sign for greeting, proving that you've got manual dexterity. Which is why, grimly, in the bottom of a life raft, you often find human teeth, because it's impossible to open packets. People try to rip them out with fists and teeth. So, to adjust a small whistle into your lips, when it's gonna be frozen to that guy's lips anyway, and then stick it in your own mouth, super unlikely. That's why in modern life rafts we're given plastic whistles, because they are not as prone to those problems. When we get to the specifics about survival and rescue, eh, 2 out of 10. I know of one person from Iceland who survived conditions like this, and that's a miracle.

Rating: 2/10

"Unbroken" (2014)

Mac, two or three sips a day, yeah? We've got to make it last. If you're not in control of your situation, you've got to try and find something that you can control. And that's generating a small routine of tasks. Heliographs are a brilliant survival item. Packed in most military survival kits. Each little reflective square, each inch of reflectivity will project the sun back about 10 miles. So a 2-inch square like that's good for 20 miles, which for the size and weight of it's phenomenal. This is a pretty accurate view of what people look like after they've baked in the sun in a life raft for a while. And what you can do to try and prevent that is use anything for shade. So, commonly, people will take their shirts off and use it as a shade shelter. All life rafts these days have got shade shelters on them. You're gonna get blistered and burned. What people have actually tried to do, if they've got no medicine supplies with them, is any grease they can find. There was a guy in the Second World War who, in his post-action report, described using his finger and any little bit of grease, like maybe behind his ear, trying to use that to parched lips that crack and bleed.

[bird squawking]

People will catch sea birds in life rafts and try to eat them. One of the best things to pack as survival food is a can of dog or cat food, because you'll only eat it if you're really hungry. Same with an albatross. What people try to do to make it more palatable is normally to dry it. So if they've got any kind of thin lines, they can dry it in the sun, so you get a kind of seabird jerky. I don't think I can do it. We've got to try.

[retching]

Only eat it if you think it won't make you sick. If you're ill and you're sick, you lose the calories you've actually got in your stomach, and the fluid that's with it, which is worse for you. But the problem with foods like that, proteins, is it takes fresh water to digest. And the bigger problem that survivors have at sea is water acquisition, because you need water far sooner than you need food. We can survive for weeks without eating, but you can't survive more than a few hours or days in scorching sun without water. So if you eat protein, it'll exacerbate the not-drinking part, which is one of their major problems. If you haven't got loads of water, don't eat the albatross. It's long enough for you to try and grab the tail away from the bitey end. What you can do, you know, he's giving it a good shearing. What you can do with sharks, if you catch a small enough one, is turn it upside down. When you flip them upside down, they go into a tonic state, which means they're sort of, "Oh, what's happening?" I'd give this one 10 out of 10. This is the scenario that we train our aircrew for, surviving in a life raft at sea where the life raft is something that's packed along with the aircraft survival kit.

Rating: 10/10

"The Shallows" (2016)

They are far more at risk from us than we are from them. But great whites specifically are very unlikely to take mammals from rocks. You see orcas do it. Killer whales will do it. But, you know, great white sharks, it's unlikely. What they're trying to do is just get easy meat. If you're on a rock, you're not easy food. Can you outswim a shark? No.

[laughs]

Should you try? No. When sharks attack, there's not a lot you can do about it. If you're in a group, if you're huddled, try and stay together. Don't start smashing the water or doing any violent movements, 'cause that'll attract them. You want to be unattractive to this thing. You want to look and feel like something it's not used to eating. It all depends on what kind of jellyfish, and goodness knows what they're supposed to be. But some of them are lethally dangerous, aren't they? You swim into jellyfish, the shark's definitely gonna have a munch at you. Even if it's just an exploratory bite 'cause you're bleeding, that could be enough to sever an artery, and then you'll bleed out. Sharkskin's incredibly thick. The thinnest part is on the nose. So if you did have the choice, which you won't have, and you did have a weapon, which you probably won't have, and you were gonna have a go, then, yeah, go for it around the nose. Entertainment rating, oh, I don't know, 7 out of 10. Realism rating, maybe a 2.

Rating: 2/10

"It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" S7E2 (2011)

Where's the beach? Frank, wake up! It's not uncommon for people to drift that out of range of getting back into land. It's a really common way for people to get into difficulties. One of the first senses you lose in a survival situation is your sense of humor. And you know that in your mates. If they've ever had a real crisis in their life and it's not right to joke about it, they won't joke about it. In a life raft, what you can do is take five. Now, really difficult if you're two people in a one-person raft. But if it's any other sort of scenario, either shut up for five minutes or just take a break. You know, just take that time out.

Frank: It should've been you!

Mac: No!

Luckily, life-raft knives have got a blunted end, and they float, 'cause that's the next thing that would happen.

Are you talking about killing and eating me, Frank?

Maybe I am, maybe I ain't, rum ham.

Certainly, in the accounts that I've come across from British mariners, if you're in a life raft and it's all getting a bit difficult and everyone's really, really hungry, then one of you is gonna get eaten. They used to draw lots in life rafts back in the day, like 1700s and so, even up until then. Normally, it was the young cabin boy that got knocked on the head, so all the old sweats have probably rigged the draw. But, yeah, they'd draw lots. You don't need to eat that urgently. We can survive for weeks without food. So, yeah, cannibalism, not that high on the list. All I'm saying is that when you go into survival mode, it's every man for himself. What is survival mode? I don't know. I know it's not every man for himself. It's everyone together. Realism, 10 out of 10. That's how people that haven't thought about it and haven't been trained will probably react.

Rating: 10/10

"Adrift" (2018)

No, no, no!

So, by trying to free the mast that was bashing into the side of the boat, she's unfortunately got tangled up in the sail that's now dragging her down. One of the things we teach pilots to do is get away from their parachute, 'cause it'll do exactly the same. But you can actually breathe through them. So, there's a little air pocket, so she did the right thing there. Looking good, mama. Duct tape's amazing, isn't it? You can fix most things with it. It's commonly put in survival packs. You've got to test somewhere first. You've got to make sure it's clean and dry. Difficult at sea, but it's a calm day. 'Cause if there's any moisture, that'll affect the adhesive. So, the first thing to do is protect yourself from the hazards, which she's done. The next thing she needs to do is get rescued, be located, as we call it in military survival. So she's going right the way through it logically, and she's doing exactly the right things, try to get rescued. And then later, when she's got some kind of message for help out there, then, yeah, I'll worry about water and food. What we'll tend to do is throw a line to them, if they're compos mentis. But if they're unconscious or if they're further away than we can throw the line, then we'll tie it around someone's middle, just like she's done. So, what she's doing is absolutely the same as we would teach people to do. She hasn't got a life preserver on is the one thing I'd pick her up for on that.

[groaning]

Pulling someone out of the water is really hard work. If they've got a buoyancy aid on, what you can do is sort of almost semi-submerse the body, and then the buoyancy will give you a kick up. But with a high-sided vessel or relatively high-sided vessel like that, it's really tricky. And the other problem with getting people out of the water, not a lot of folk know about hydrostatic squeeze and post-rescue collapse. Prioritizing her survival options, protection, location, water, and food, that gets a 10 out of 10.

Rating: 10/10

"The Perfect Storm" (2000)

[yelling]

So, what can you do in this situation if you're these guys? If there's a massive wave like that coming straight at the boat, there's not a lot they can do. The reason he's accelerating is like when you're trying to paddle out through a big set when you're surfing, you try and go a bit faster to get beyond it before it breaks. And that's about all they can do. But it's wrong place, wrong time. You can't turn a boat round fast enough if the wave's coming that quick. If you get caught sideways on it, it's going to tumble and destroy it. You could try and outrun it, but that boat isn't built for speed. What could you do? Emergency position-indicator beacons that will broadcast a satellite where you are, have one of those on your person, have a survival suit, have a life preserver. And if the boat becomes untenable because the sea's just too big, if you look at the top of the bridge house on the fishing boat, that white canister is a life raft. Even when the crib is going off, when it's really big, it's nothing like that. They do happen, though. There's varying theories as to what creates them. Mostly it's down around the South Africa region. There's an Antarctic current that comes up, meets the warmer water, and creates this kind of enormous pitching that cuts broken ships in half, in the past. This is a 10 out of 10. There's a seafarers' institute for a reason, to look after the families of those who get lost at sea. It's a really, really harsh environment.

Rating: 10/10

"All Is Lost" (2013)

[water pouring]

It's a typical kind of scenario where people will get into trouble. There's something like 300 or 400 of those shipping containers go into the sea every year, and they just float around near the surface. So you're not going to know, especially at night. It makes total sense. When things get wet with salt water, as it evaporates, like it would do in that climate, it forms little salt crystals. He's checking out his communications equipment. And by washing it off with fresh water, that'll get rid of the salt crystals that could stop them working. He'll let it dry in the sun. He's not using loads of water. You can see he's being really careful about measuring it out. And that should make his sat phone work again later. And we can tell it's a sat phone from the antenna. If the repair works, albeit a little bit Heath Robinson, he can phone for help. If you've been on a life raft for even a few hours, it gets uncomfortable. If you've been in one for hours, days, weeks, months, terrible. And you get to your wit's end. So, in this scene, what Robert Redford's trying to do is just generate a little light. And it's difficult at night. I mean, the moon's bright behind him. And what you can do with a mirror is reflect moonlight. But it's difficult on water because of all the waves, the little ripples are reflecting. So what Robert's trying to do is make a small fire, a contained fire in his raft. Now, that is fraught with danger. Typically, if people run out of pyrotechnics, they're gonna scream and shout. But you can't be heard across open water. But what he could have done is, as well as packing some pyrotechnical light devices, pack a laser flare, because they're brilliant. This is not uncommon for people to have to make these really critical life-death decisions. And it's an all-or-nothing thing, isn't it, if it doesn't work. There's an amazing anecdote from Greenland in the war where three American airmen who were stranded on the coast set fire to their warm jackets in the winter, knowing that if people saw the fire, they'd get rescued, and if they didn't, they'd freeze to death. In terms of realism for the scene where Robert Redford makes a small fire, accidentally sets fire to his whole raft, realism, 9.

Rating: 9/10

"Life of Pi" (2012)

Lots and lots of life rafts and lifeboats have got little manuals in them. And this is one of the sort of standard diagrams that you'll see in it, like ocean currents and where the water will take you. I know it's all metaphor, but would you be able to trail behind a metal lifeboat on a section of oars and life jackets? Eh. I mean, people have survived in worse. But that is pretty clever, isn't it? Triangles are one of the strongest structures you can make. It's minimizing the amount of knots he's got to tie. It's got a little bit of give in it for the sea.

Pi: "Establish a strict schedule for eating, keeping watch, and getting rest."

Spot on. Getting a routine is absolutely critical. You can sense the passing of time by watching the movement of the sun. So if you put your arm out -- and this is the same for all of us, 'cause our hands and our arms are about the right proportion -- that's 10 degrees, which is just under an hour. 15 degrees is how much the sun moves in an hour. So you know that you've got as many of those as it is for the time of year before sunrise and sunset. So there are things you can do to keep track of time.

Pi: "Do not drink urine or seawater."

Yes, never. Stop! Right, everyone, are you hearing me? It will actually make you die quicker, because if you drink anything that's salty, it exacerbates the problem of dehydration.

Pi: "Above all, don't lose hope."

The first point, I should say, being a proper survival geek, is never cut into metal with your knife, 'cause it'll just blunten it. But if you go to the Imperial War Museum, not far from where we're filming this, there's a boat in there from the Anglo-Saxon we spoke about, and it's got notches in the gunnel for how long they survived at sea. And you will lose track if you haven't got some form of log. And paper will get wrecked and ruined. So, yeah, just keep a mental thread of what's been happening. It's a good 8 or a 9, I think.

Rating: 8/10

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