5 Survival Movies That Will Inspire You

4) Buried

If Life of Pi gets credit for using the sheer grandness of the ocean to tell an epic tale, then Buried gets credit for telling a compelling story all from the inside of a coffin.

Ryan Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, an American civilian truck driver working in Iraq. When his convoy is attacked, Paul is taken, buried alive in a coffin and held for a $5 million ransom. The kidnappers leave him a few tools, including a pen and a cell phone, the latter of which is for him to secure the money. And so Paul spends his limited time making calls and trying to deal with the very severe limitations being inside a coffin imposes. You’ll want to have plenty of leg room when you watch this movie, as it is sure to set off every claustrophobic nerve in your body.

Yet even if you’re not afraid of small, enclosed places, Buried is not an easy watch. Paul is powerless as he pleads for help to a government that doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. It’s one roadblock after another for him, and they all render him even more powerless, which in turn makes the audience feel helpless and even frustrated.

Buried isn’t for everyone. It requires more patience than the average movie, but if you commit to it, you’ll quickly find that it’s quite thrilling given its constraints. Ryan Reynolds is better here than I’ve ever seen him, and director Rodrigo Cortés pulls off a remarkable feat of storytelling that I’d say actually deserves to be seen.