Trivia / Society of the Snow

• Ability over Appearance: J.A. Bayona has said in multiple interviews that while he did search for actors who physically resembled the passengers, that wasn't his main concern: he wanted people who truly behaved like the real-life people they were portraying. This is better exemplified by what happened with Bobby François and Agustín Berrutti, his actor in the film. When Berrutti showed up at his house to formally meet him, although he initially greeted him, Bobby said "I don't know why they brought you here" and Agustín nonchalantly replied "I don't know either". Afterwards, they shared some glasses of wine while talking about the farm life they both lived.
• Amateur Cast: For the majority of the actors, this is the first film of their career.
• Approval of God: After their grievances with Survive! and Alive, production involved multiple survivors and families of the deceased, who have several cameos in the film and were introduced to the actors portraying them. "Coche" Inciarte also got to see a rough cut of the film before he died in 2023. Upon release, Eduardo Strauch said that he liked the movie "absolutely" and that this is how the story should always have been told.
• California Doubling: The crash site scenes were filmed in a ski resort in Spain, but footage of the Andes in the very area of the real crash was taken and spliced into the background with CGI. The scenes set in Uruguay were actually filmed there, however; even Numa Turcatti's home in the film is the same home he lived in, in real life.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Agustín Della Corte, who plays Antonio “Tintín” Vizintín is a rugby player, was part the National Uruguayan team, and actually knew Vizintín prior to the film due to him being the vicepresident of the Uruguayan Rugby Union.
  • The real Carlitos Páez plays his own father, Carlos Páez Sr., at the time of the disaster.
  • The real Gustavo Zerbino, who went on to become President of the Uruguayan Rugby Union after the disaster, as a rugby coach in a deleted scene.
• The Cast Show Off:
  • The payadas were included after Agustín Berrutti (Roberto “Bobby” François) and Benjamín “Chori” Segura (Rafael “Vasco” Echavarren) explained what they are to Bayona. Berrutti does write payadas in his spare time.
  • The bird whistling was added after Bayona saw the cast doing it to have fun between takes.
• Deleted Role: Álvaro Armand Ugon as Roberto Canessa’s father. Ramiro Rutz as Leonardo Turcatti, Numa’s twin brother. Álvaro’s girlfriend, Margarita Arocena, and Coche’s fiancée, Soledad González.
• Deleted Scene: Word of God is that 600 hours of good footage were filmed.
  • The real Zerbino's cameo as a rugby coach.
  • Numa playing soccer with the San Ignacio de Loyola soccer club, which also included Pancho Delgado, Coche Inciarte, Arturo Nogueira and Julio Martínez-Lamas, also featuring Gastón Costemalle and Alfredo Cibilis on the bleachers, cheering them on.
  • Numa walking Champ (his dog) at university.
  • The characters at the bar listening to the news about Salvador Allende’s government in Chile.
  • Scenes with Numa and his family, including with his twin brother, Leonardo.
  • “La Barra” (friend group made up of Diego Storm, Coco, Roy, Bobby and Carlitos) messing around in their cars, throwing and catching a rugby ball on the way to the airport.
  • Antonio Vizintín’s cameo at the airport.
  • Graziela Augusto de Mariani arriving at the airport.
  • Roberto and Laura at the airport.
  • Álvaro kissing Margarita goodbye at the airport.
  • The Strauch cousins arriving at the airport and Eduardo realizing he didn have his passport.
  • Ricardo Strauch rushing home to get his brother’s (Eduardo) passport.
  • Susy holding on to her mother during the turbulence.
  • Zerbino holding on to the fuselage after his seat flies out the plane.
  • Numerous shots of the aftermath of the crash.
  • Daniel Maspons lifting the seats off some injured people.
  • Fernando Vásquez death.
  • An unspecified scene between Diego Storm and Julio Martínez-Lamas.
  • Diego Storm draining and dressing a big hematoma in Tintín’s arm.
  • Enrique Platero’s stomach wound being dressed by Gustavo Zerbino.
  • Enrique Platero helping Juan Carlos Menéndez.
  • Carlos Valeta walking in the snow after (briefly) surviving his fall from the plane, and the other survivors calling for him.
  • Pancho Delgado asking where Gastón is.
  • The Strauch cousins and Zerbino asking Roque where they are on the map.
  • Canessa arguing with Roque and getting angry at him for being a crew member, and Roque having to explain his position as a mechanic.
  • Roque telling Numa about the plane’s batteries.
  • Moncho getting hypothermia, and the rest warming him up.
  • Carlitos and Álvaro hanging out outside the fuselage with Carlitos drinking from a small glass bottle.
  • Liliana arguing with Roberto because he didn’t want to take care of Susy.
  • Someone taking Susy’s boots off and discovering she no longer had blood circulation in her legs.
  • Numa helping Liliana treat Susana.
  • Coco (and possibly Diego Storm) talking about the beaches in Brazil.
  • Coco and Carlitos carrying Susy’s body outside the fuselage.
  • Numa, Zerbino and Maspons retrieving the metal sheet they use as a sled.
  • Pedro Algorta confronting/arguing with Numa about something.
  • The Strauch cousins planning who would be the one to bring the idea of eating the bodies to Marcelo.
  • A scene with a severed head, and scenes of the characters cutting bones open to eat bone marrow, cut because Bayona found it too disturbing.
  • Carlitos digging Diego Storm up. *
  • Carlitos crying over Coco and Diego Storms’ bodies.
  • Javier leading a group game, that ends with the group in complete silence after he asks whether Superman could defeat the mountains.
  • A failed expedition with Roy, Carlitos and Tintín, that traps them in a storm and cements Tintín’s spot in the expedition team.
  • Nando, Canessa, Tintín and Roy spending the night at the tail.
  • Roy almost dying on the trip back from the tail, which leads into an intense moment between him and Nando.
  • Numa saying goodbye to a friend before dying.
  • Zerbino carrying Numa’s body outside the fuselage.
  • Álvaro crying next to Numa’s body.
  • Fito fitting Tintín with improvised snow shoes.
  • Some parents going into some search efforts, including Carlos Paez Vilaró and Coco’s father aboard the C47.
  • Nando and Canessa discussing going west.
  • Roy and Coche talking about the possibility of not coming back while waiting for news of Nando and Canessa.
  • Pablo Vierci’s appearance as a reporter (his scene was cut, but his narration kept in the film).
  • Nando and Roberto’s first interview by reporter Alipio Vera in Los Maitenes while waiting for the helicopters.
  • Canessa’s father learning that his son survived while on a taxi.
  • The survivors first medical exams and interviews in Los Maitenes.
  • Roy being hugged by his mother.
  • The reunion between Carlitos and his father.
  • Roy and Fito in an ambulance.
  • The public cheering for Uruguay at the hospital.
  • Álvaro reuniting with Margarita, his girlfriend.
  • Coche reuniting with Soledad, his fiancé.
  • Pancho underwater in a bathtub.
  • Pancho, Carlitos and Canessa sneaking into the hospital’s kitchen and raiding it for food, including a whole cake.
  • Numa's family and Alfredo Cibilis listening to the list of survivors at the Turcatti’s house, and their reactions to learning about his death.
  • The press conference in which the survivors admit to eating human meat, and Alfredo “Pancho” Delgado’s famous speech comparing the act to the Eucharist, were originally in the script and were even part of the casting process, but it was cut before it could be filmed
• Dyeing for Your Art: The actors portraying the long-time survivors lost up to 23 kg (around 50 lbs). Carlos Paez also had to lose weight and dye his hair to play his father.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Some of the payadas were truly improvised, and the cast was genuinely reacting to both good and bad ones.
  • For the scene where Numa tells Pancho Delgado that he is dying, only Enzo Vogrincic (Numa's actor) was given the script to make Delgado's reaction more genuine.
  • The Uruguay pre-crash scenes were shot after the crash scenes, allowing actors to already feel like long time friends.
  • As the film was shot chronologically, the actors would get genuinely sad every time a character died, because the actor(s) would then leave the set and not return.
• Fake Nationality: Generally Averted Trope. The cast is made up of Uruguayan and Argentinian actors, who speak with a very similar accent.
• Orphaned Reference: Carlos Valeta is seen being sucked out of the plane after the tail breaks; later on Numa and the others leave the injured co-pilot when they hear people calling out for Valeta. This was to be followed by a Deleted Scene where Valeta, having survived the fall, stumbles in confusion in the distance while the others futilely call for him to come join them. The scene was retained and shown in at least some markets during the film's limited theatrical release: for example Mexico..
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle:
  • Numa Turcatti had short hair and a mustache, but Enzo Vogrincic keeps his longer hair and starts with a clean shaven face, letting his real facial hair grow, but no mustache on sight.
  • The brunette Matías Recalt portrays the dark-haired Roberto Canessa. Also, Recalt can not grow a beard, so Canessa in the movie didn’t either, unlike his real life counterpart.
  • Francisco Romero, who has ginger hair, portrays Daniel Fernández, who has dark hair, although this might be intentional to familiarize him even further with his ginger haired cousins.
  • Bobby François, who in real life is blonde, is portrayed by Agustín Berrutti, who has dark colored hair.
  • Real-life blonde Moncho Sabella is played by brunette Rocco Posca, who keeps his natural hair color.
  • Averted with Juani Caruso and Agustín Pardella, who both have curly hair and both portray straight haired people (Alvaro Mangino and Nando Parrado, respectively.)
• Saved from Development Hell: Bayona discovered Vierci's book while directing The Impossible, but his attempts to sell the project in the United States (which he believed is the only country where he could find the budget necessary) were met with skepticism due to the subject matter and his desire to film it in Spanish with Uruguayan actors. He took up "commercial" projects like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power purely as a way to gain enough cred to get Society of the Snow greenlighted, until Netflix picked it.
• Throw It In!:
  • Alfredo Cibilis spilling his beer at the bar was an accident that ended up being written into the script on the spot.
  • Andy Pruss (Roy Harley)’s shaking hands after the shower sequence.