The story of two sailors who survived Hurricane Otis, which killed 52 people, is now a Netflix film

Hurricane Otis struck Mexico's Acapulco coast in 2023 with winds of about 265 kilometres per hour and a violent sea, leaving many people fighting to survive. The Mexican film Surviving Hurricane Otis was made inspired by that real disaster.

Released on Netflix on October 23, the film drew international attention the day after its release. A report on October 24 said it rose to the top of Netflix's global film chart within a day of release. The film stars Benny Emmanuel and Cristian Ferrer and was directed by Jorge Michel Grau. The 96-minute film was made mainly in Spanish.

At the centre of the story are two brothers whose relationship is strained by long-running conflict and distance. While working on a pleasure boat off the Acapulco coast, they are caught in a violent storm that rapidly strengthens into a Category 5 hurricane. Communications are cut, the vessel loses control, and staying alive in the rough sea becomes their only goal. In danger, the two brothers must overcome their strained relationship and rely on each other.

Surviving Hurricane Otis is not a purely fictional disaster film. It is based on the survival experience of two real sailors, Marlon Valdez and Jonathan Chino, who faced the terrifying situation aboard a vessel off Acapulco during Hurricane Otis in October 2023. The director was inspired to make the film after reading reports of their experience.

In real life, Marlon and Jonathan are not stepbrothers; they are friends. The film turned their experience into the story of two brothers. The two real survivors advised the production, helped the actors with vessel handling and related matters, and appear in one scene.

The biggest challenge in such a film is portraying a realistic storm and rough sea on screen. According to the director, about 800 people worked on the film over three years, a large share of them on visual effects.

A water tank of about 200 square metres was built at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. Three vessels weighing eight tons each were used to shoot the sea scenes. Special equipment and visual effects were used to show wind, waves and water flow realistically, and the scenes were built using data on the storm's path, wind direction and changes in water height.

For director Jorge Michel Grau, the film's purpose is not only to show a terrifying storm. In his view, a natural disaster also brings out inequality in people's lives. During Hurricane Otis, many sailors had to stay near their owners' vessels to look after them, performing their duties despite knowing the storm's risk. That created a contrast between the helplessness of ordinary working people in a disaster and the arrangements to protect the property of the wealthy, a social reality the film also portrays.

At least 52 people died in Hurricane Otis in 2023 and many went missing. Made from the memory of that disaster, Surviving Hurricane Otis is both a story of survival and a film about human courage and social reality.