User reviews

This made for TV movie seems to have fallen into obscurity, which is a shame; the creativity and entertainment value of it is top notch.

It's the story of a lost airplane after a crash landing out in the desert in World War II. When I first saw this, it looked like a vintage war movie, filmed in traditional black-and-white, almost with a Twilight Zone type aura to it. The crew is discussing their situation, but as the story unfolds you realize this is much more than just a WW2 war story, or a survival drama. The fate of these men is only the first of several twists this phenomenal story surprises you with.

The wreckage of the airplane is discovered years later, and a team of investigators journey to the scene, to uncover the mystery of what caused it to crash land, and to learn the fate of the crew. Richard Basehart is an air force general, who had been on the plane on its fateful flight, and had been the only survivor. He too goes to the crash site in order to assist in the investigation.

Drama, intrigue, mystery, para-normal communication; this movie delivers all these elements in exemplary fashion as it sorts out the truth for you bit by bit in an interesting story filled with unexpected twists.

I hope this movie is released on DVD or video, if it hasn't been already. This is fine story-telling, an amazing and involving movie which holds your interest to its emotional outcome.

After a B-24 heavy bomber was discovered in the Libyan desert years ago, it inspired this interesting little film. It's about a B-25 (a much smaller bomber) that is discovered in the same desert and it presents an odd sort of mystery...as the surviving crew member was picked up near Sicily...yet the plane crashed into the desert on the other side of the Mediterranean. This makes the story that the survivor (now a General) a complete lie. How could the man have jumped out of a burning plane...yet it continued on its way for hundreds and hundreds of miles?

The way this mystery is presented it VERY novel. For much of the early portion of the film, you see it from the viewpoint of the crew...all alive and huddled around their crashed plane. Soon you realize what's happened...these men are really dead and the men are but ghosts! So, when the plane is discovered and Air Force folks come to investigate, the ghosts are cheering them on--pushing them to uncover the truth. One officer (William Shatner) is in favor of just sweeping everything under the rug, so to speak. The other is anxious to get to the truth (Vince Edwards)...regardless of the consequences. Weird...but very unusual and worth seeing, as I really appreciate innovative film work...and this is very unusual to say the least! Plus, it's very well made and the acting is superb.

Five airmen remain with their bomber plane in the middle of the Libyan desert hoping to be rescued. They have crash-landed but something is odd about this scenario. Any time that they start to trek in a certain direction, they always end up at the crash site. It also seems that they have been at the location for 17 years with nothing else to do but play baseball. The day comes when their plane is spotted and Major Vince Edwards (Devlin) and Colonel William Shatner (Josef) are sent to identify the wreckage and produce a report. They take with them General Richard Basehart (Hamner), who was the sixth crew member who parachuted out and survived 17 years ago. When they arrive, they don't see any of the airmen and they start to put their report together. The airmen are definitely there, though! Edwards persists in unravelling the truth.

The inspiration for the setting of the story is the real-life incident involving the bomber plane 'Lady Be Good' which disappeared in 1943 and was spotted in the Libyan desert in 1958. Many details are retained for the film, eg, the intact wreckage and an urn of tea found at the crash site still being drinkable. As for the film, the story is excellently told as we follow two sides – the airmen who seem to be wandering in limbo and the investigators who are trying to piece together what happened. Can the truth be discovered and will the airmen's lives finally be redirected to wherever they need to go?

The acting is good – William Shatner has a few Captain Kirk moments but that is what you want to see - and the ending is memorably done. It's a film that stays with you and keeps you watching for the duration. It also gets you thinking as to what might happen after death. And just who is the sole survivor?

I agree completely with the others here who can't forget this film. Made for TV in 1969, never released on video, probably last seen by some 30 years ago, and almost never mentioned in any movie guide -- you'd think it would long ago have been consigned to the rubbish heap of TV history. But it won't be, because it was simply such a powerful story, excellently portrayed and well acted. Indeed, with the current boom in everything pertaining to WWII, the timing is perfect for whoever owns the film to release it on video, or to a cable network who will give it some air time. I remember very clearly seeing it when it came on in 1969...and I'm pretty sure I saw it again a year or so later. This sounds strange, I know, but I'll bet a month doesn't go by that I don't think about the movie for at least a moment -- it was that good. And if you ever read about the B-24 "Lady Be Good" or see the LBG exhibit at the US Air Force Museum, you'll definitely think about this film a long time.

To the studio who owns this film: BRING THIS ONE OUT OF THE VAULT!!

Sole Survivor is an interesting made-for-TV movie about the ghosts of a missing U. S. Air Force aircrew who reunite with the crewmember who abandoned them during their fatal bombing mission in World War II. Trapped for years at the crash site of their bomber in the remote wilderness of the Libyan desert, the ghosts appear on the verge of closure after an oil exploration flight discovers the remains of their bomber, resulting in the Air Force dispatching a team to investigate the fate of the missing crew. However, the surviving crew member, now a general officer, intends to obstruct the investigation to conceal his abandonment of the crew-leaving the ghosts to languish in the desert for eternity.

The ghost theme is eerie and clever. The lost crew add tension observing the investigators' efforts to solve the mystery of their disappearance while the Air Force general avoids providing information crucial to the investigation. The ghosts know the answers but are unable to communicate with the investigators as the general appears to have the upper hand; however, he remains unnerved by the sight of the old airplane, sensing an unearthly presence.

Apparently inspired by the U. S. Air Force's actual investigation of a missing B-24 bomber found in Libya years after World War II, Sole Survivor is a good and unique ghost story. While the production is modest, it is well done.

Not a new review as such, but just a retrospective comment.

This movie's impact simply does not diminish with time. I just watched it again a few days ago, and I still find it as haunting and gripping as ever.

It is with great disappointment therefore, that I note that many years have passed and Warner continues to ignore the significant demand for an official DVD release. As complete, and watch-able, as the "DIY" release is (thank you Nick) it is nonetheless only an off-air copy, and suffers the inevitable loss of quality as a result.

A movie of this stature demands a complete reworking for DVD release, including digital remastering and interviews, etc. I see many lesser and more obscure titles being shovelled out of the archives and onto the shelves every month, so what exactly is the problem with providing a proper release of this great movie?

Like the characters in the film, Sole Survivor seems to be stuck in a void; forgotten by those who left it there to die.

Will somebody *please* excavate its bones and set its soul free?

I have been searching for well over 30 years for a copy of this Made for Television Movie. I loved the script when I first read it, and although I had a very small part (the British Co-Pilot who discovers the grounded remains of the plane), it was a memorable shoot. Like most of you who are fans of the film and have sought high and low for a copy, I still keep looking. I do remember it was made for CBS Films, a subsidiary of the Big Eye. I am sure it is in some vault somewhere. If I ever run into William Shatner I will ask him if he has a copy. Or Patrick Wayne. There are just a few of the actors still kicking around and in those days getting a copy of our work was hard. Taping machines were rare.

Even though it's been 30 years since I've seen this, I still can remember many of the details. A well-told story, not nearly as maudlin as it could have been. Even Shatner gives a pretty straight performance. A neat twist on the title at the end. It prompted me to look up the story of the real "Lady Be Good", which shares only the premise with this TV movie.

Or nearly so, at least. This is the only TV movie that has stayed firmly in my mind since I saw it as a child back on its original broadcast date in 1969. Between then and now I've probably seen it another four or five times; most recently well over 20 years ago. I've raved about it to anyone who'd listen over the years, and encountered only a handful of people who've actually seen it; to a person they've all regarded it as something special. If you've read the other comments here you have a feel for the plot already; all I can add is that I consider it to be one of the best of the made-for-TV breed; better, in fact, than many theatrical releases (I once knew someone who insisted he'd seen it in a movie theatre in Europe in the early 1970s, and was astonished to learn it had been made for the small screen). If you get a chance, see it. This is one of those lost treasures begging for some sort of video re-release.

Sole Survivor is one of the weirder entries in the WWII genre and difficult to classify. Written by Guerdon Trueblood as a TV movie, it tells the tale of a B-24 stranded in the Libyan desert. Comparisons are sometimes made between this and Flight of the Phoenix and shouldn't be, as Sole Survivor really has no thematic equal. Richard Basehart and Vince Edwards are fine in their roles, although Shatner had by this time been typecast as Captain Kirk and can't seem to shake that in his role as Gronke. Fans of Pat Wayne will enjoy a somewhat better performance than his usual, and Lou Antonio was in the middle of a career that spanned multiple decades. For some reason this one is difficult to find, which is a shame as it is absolutely unique and an experience that tends to stay with you long after the closing credits roll.

The movie's title was only a partial clue; the opening scene of airmen lounging by a plane wreck in the Libyan desert, and talking of their life in that inhospitable wilderness for the preceding 17 years, immediately alert you that we're venturing into 'Twilight Zone' territory. Except that this film is more about the twilight zone of the conscience of a guilt-wracked man: a man who'd suppressed his guilt for 17 years, but is now being forced to confront it, publicly, and by men who had come to respect him.

There's so much that's admirable about this film it's hard to know exactly where to start: I suppose everything has to start with the script, which is superb, as is its editing, structure, and direction. Using the ghosts of dead men as both commentators and judge and jury of the navigator who'd abandoned them is an inspired choice, as is leavening the drama and tragedy with the comic relief they provide, a relief derived partly from their tacit recognition of their powerlessness.

At times it plays like a detective story, too, as the most likely scenarios are assessed, and as pressure is brought to bear upon the Major leading the enquiry, reminding him of the necessity to think of his career, and of the distinguished officer whose career and reputation he may be about to damage, irreversibly, should he make the wrong conclusions. Until we learn of the mistake the major had himself made.

Inevitably a decision had to be made, but even then the director and screenwriter found a way to ingest a little poetry: those beautiful, elegiac final scenes, where the ghosts feel their immortality slipping away, were a fitting end to a wholly admirable piece of work.

It was interesting that I would have first become aware of two of the three leads playing commanding officers in science-fiction ships of different eras - respectively Richard Basehart, as the general (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea), and William Shatner (Star Trek). Unsurprisingly, Basehart, being the more feted actor, shone brightest here, but Shatner acquitted himself well as the pragmatic enquiry leader, focused on his career, and his imminent pension. Vince Edwards did well, also, as the major, with his own debt to pay.

After bugging my brother in law forever, he finally found a copy of this curious movie from 46yrs ago. It remains interesting today because no expense was spared with the cast - the fine performances keep this eerie tale alive. It's about a B-25 Mitchell Bomber being found in the Libyan Desert 17 years after the war. Even though the story looks like it may run out of steam - it keeps drawing you in, right up to the haunting resolution.

It's always impressive when major real-life items are found years after their mysterious disappearance. In this case it's the finding of a WW11 plane (The Lady Be Good) that's finally found where it came down in the Libyan Desert so long ago. This actual discovery (in 1958) must have made a considerable impression on writer Guerdon Trueblood (grandson of General Billy Mitchell) as he seems to have based his 'Sole Survior' story on the locating of that ill-fated aircraft - lost, after its first (and only) combat mission - resulting in the tragic loss of all lives on board.

The aircraft featured in 'Sole Survivor', while a different model, is also found about the same time after it went missing. Trueblood then tells the story of a military investigation into what could possibly have gone so terribly wrong, so long ago. The newly re-mastered DVD release is good looking indeed. Who knows, we just might find another of those unforgettably haunting classics of the small screen "A Cold Nights Death" from around the same time - remastered for us all to enjoy once more....now, might that also be possible?

I saw this premier back in the early 70's and like the rest of the critics, it stayed with me. And like the rest, it took me years to secure the title to this film. I missed winning an auction bid by a handful of seconds, but was able to buy it on e-bay a year later. Attached to the VHS copy is the Twilight Zone episode mentioned earlier. Most made-for-television movies are garbage, but back in the days before cable television most were not bad. Some were actually quite good. Sole Survivor was one of the really good ones. Another was The Jericho Mile. Of all my sub-four star (out of five) movies, this is my favorite. Unlike the rest of you fellow Sole Survivor fraternity brothers [and sisters, I hope], I sincerely hope they do not remake this movie, it would be a disaster. Like Elvis' corpse, leave it alone.

Like everyone else, I first saw this movie only one time on TV as a kid and have been haunted by it ever since (at least 25 years). The ending, of course, is the big magnet that pulls so strongly even decades later, but the guys' dialog as they played baseball must've also struck a chord during the post-Vietnam age when political sentiments were still intense. Like so many others here I've tried searching all kinds of keywords on web searches, with no luck, before finally hitting the right combination today and landing the title in a discussion somewhere - which I immediately double-checked on IMDb. Having confirmed that this is the right film, now I've even found a place in Canada, Lear Media, that has the movie on DVD. I just hope it's not one of the "edited to death" versions that's under so much discussion. (I also hope the rumors about Richard Donnor bringing this back via an Iraq War remake hold true, because that would put the story in very good hands.) My DVD order's in. Ten days from now I'll be watching this excellent movie for the second time in my life!

Dear reader, if you are like me, you saw this a long time ago once, maybe twice and were hooked for life thereafter. But if you're not, if you have only ever sat on the edges of the discussion about this film or frankly have never heard of it till now ... you must watch this film. It does what so few stories have achieved before and since, it keeps you watching even if you've seen it before.

Sole Survivor is not about the sole survivor of a plane crash come to identify the wreck as IMDb and so many others say, it's about the desire for closure, for a return home as expressed by the 5 crewmen stranded in the dessert for the last 17 years. They are the centre around all else revolves and they are the reason you will never forget this film once you've watched it.

Fairly quickly if you're smart, and maybe not so fast if you're not paying attention, you figure out they're dead and have been waiting around for somebody, anybody to find their corpses and take them home, but when the man who ditched into sea leaving them to their fates shows up with investigators, they want to make sure the truth comes out.

Several scenes that have stuck with me over the years centre around how the world had changed in 17 short years, and if your family are among those that still think the Dodgers are traitors for going west, you'll be hard pressed not to smile at one point. These men display the same curiosity and awe they held in life and that is why I suspect so many feel so strongly about Sole Survivor. The cast and the writer have contributed to making these guys come to life in what could have easily been a one set, three act play doomed to put people to sleep by "What do you miss most about home".

Featured strongly outside of the dead airmen are the performances of the General and that of those of the investigators come to draw a line under the whole thing. Fans of Star Trek will look forward to the familiar acting style of William Shatner who only lapses into Shat speak maybe once or twice.

I can't and won't ruin the ending for you as the ending is entirely up to your interpretation of what happens next, I on the balance of evidence think the last soul, the sole survivor if you like, goes home too. But even if he doesn't, if you have a heart, if you have ever come that close to something but had to wait just a bit longer and wondered if you could stand it.... you too will not soon forget this film.

Lately I've been listening to an audio book called "Great Military Blunders of the 20th Century" and during the huge section on WWII a brief chapter came up describing the fate of "Lady be Good." As I got to talking with my wife about the incident, I realized there had to be a connection with the haunting TV movie I'd seen decades ago. I still remember watching it on the B&W TV in my family's basement - with no one else around & believe me it stuck with me. I didn't see any comments on one of the conversations of the ghost crew when one of the members is amazed & fairly disappointed/upset that the Brooklyn Dodgers are no longer in Brooklyn but out in LA. That little bit stuck with me over the years, maybe because I'm from the NYC area. Today all that pathos, pain, relief & a whole bunch of emotions that the young guys felt as they suddenly started their journey to their final resting place, came flooding back as if I'd just watched the movie. Though Learmedia has the film for a whopping 27 dollars and change, I AM absolutely going to buy this film. Now that I think about it, the ideas about death in this film, clearly influenced my own writing in a book - a novel - I am about to release called "The Rest is Silence" ," where the person telling the story, the main character's first wife, has died & is trying to work out/figure out the confusion and anger she feels toward her husband. As others have pointed out, they just don't make them like this anymore. In fact, but for the exception of this film, TV movie or not, and a few like it, maybe they never did. For years I'd mixed this one up with Flight of the Phoenix. Now I realize, except for the desert, they have very little in common. Thanks!

...as countless others who have searched and searched for the title of this amazing movie and found it today! As with many others, I saw the film one time as a child and it's images have branded themselves to my mind. I want to thank Deejay over at alt.movies for giving me the title! I have been periodically doing Internet searches for years and came up with nothing! I didn't know when it was made or who starred in it. Thank you all who have submitted comments here, I have read them all and found them very interesting! This revelation today is actually the most bizarre experience I have had in quite some time as I (like another person here) had begun to think I had just thought the movie up and that it really did not exist. Obviously, SOLE SURVIVOR must be one of the greatest movies of all time as it has had such an impact on so many people for so many years after only one viewing!

Just thinking about it sends chills up my spine. I was very young when I first heard the story of the "Lady Be Good" and when this movie came out, I think it was the late 60's early 70's, I had to see it!! I've been interested in Aircraft Archaeology for a quite a while. When I was in the USAF I spent a few gruesome trips on crash recovery. It was intriguing, yet frightening! I vaguely remember a part of the movie when, shortly after the crash, one of the crew members was sitting under the tail section of the aircraft and then the scene cuts to his ghost arriving and seeing clothing and bones trapped underneath the collapsed tail section. He didn't even know he was dead!! That sent chills when I first saw it!! Can anyone tell me where or how to see or get this movie??

Keith's summary on this page sums up the movie well (just to correct you on one point Keith - the skeletons of the crew of the real wartime bomber 'Lady Be Good' WERE in fact found in Libya in 1959, along with diaries kept by two of them as they tried to find civilisation). This movie is shown all too infrequently, but its impact on the viewer is startling. It must be 20 years since I last saw it, but certain scenes have stayed with me vividly ever since. A must see. Anyone reading this who has a copy, please get in touch with me.