FAQ

It is not specified exactly how many days the protagonist is stranded at sea before and after hitting the shipping container. The film is not chronological and it doesn't show the passing of time, it gives the sense of time passing through the protagonist's physical deterioration and the state of the boat. However, it is implied that he is at sea for several weeks if not months before he is rescued. He is shown rationing his supplies, going through the routine of fixing the boat and trying to catch fish or collect rainwater. He is also shown receiving a message from a rescue team, which implies he has been out at sea for long enough for a search-and-rescue effort to be launched for him.

When a yachtsman (Robert Redford) on a solo voyage in the southern Indian Ocean (1,700 nautical miles from the Sumatra Straits) awakens to find that his boat has been rammed starboard by a wayward shipping container, he struggles to repair the damage. Over the next eight days, his boat continues to take on water, his navigation equipment and radio becomes damaged, his meager rations dwindle, and two ships pass oblivious to his hails. Although facing the possibility of his death at sea, he refuses to give up.

All is Lost is based on a screenplay by American filmmaker J.C. Chandor, who also directed the movie.

This film used, and destroyed, three 39 foot Cal Yachts. This detail is shown in the film end credits.

Our man is dehydrated, hungry, out of flares, and drifting out of the shipping lane. Certain that the end is near, he writes a message (narrated at the beginning of the movie), seals it in a jar, and tosses it into the water. He then lays back in his liferaft and falls asleep. During the night, he awakens to see a light in the distance. Hoping it might be a boat, he frantically builds a signal fire in his empty water jug, feeding the fire with maps and with pages from his journal. The fire grows out of control and begins to consume his raft, so the man is forced into the water. Treading water, he finally gives up and lets himself sink into oblivion. As he sinks, he looks up to find that a boat has pulled up alongside his burning raft and that a searchlight is looking for him. He swims back up to the surface. In the final scene, a hand reaches down to pull him out of the water.

If you're interested in "one man against the sea" movies starring mostly one actor, viewers have recommended Der alte Mann und das Meer (1958) (1958) in which an old Cuban fisherman (Spencer Tracy) hooks a large marlin that eventually pulls him out to sea. In Life of Pi: Schiffbruch mit Tiger (2012) (2012), an Indian boy (Suraj Sharma) is marooned in a lifeboat that also holds a wounded zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a male Bengal tiger, all fighting for survival.