Why I Don’t Like the Survival Genre (+ cool examples and mini reviews)

I’m not naturally a fan of the survival genre, but I decided against titling this post “Why I Hate the Survival Genre” because there are a few good movies in this genre that I’ve seen and actually enjoyed. (It’ll be the day when I actually voluntarily read survival stories, sorry! After all, my brothers are the main reason I’ve watched any survival genre movies at all. 😜)*

(*EDIT: I realized there are actually a few survival stories I HAVE read, but they were so character-centric I didn’t consciously realize they were in that genre. *hides and blushes* Among others, A Time to Die by Nadine Brandes is a fabulous example of a story with strong survival overtones that was still beautifully rich in characterization. She nailed it.)

But here’s the overall reason I don’t usually like it – why I often hate it:

Life-and-death stakes isn’t enough to make me care.

There. I said it. And I’m sorry. Watching a character hang precariously between life and death isn’t enough. Watching a rain-soaked girl struggle to grip onto the railing of a ship before plummeting into icy waters below isn’t enough. Watching a man huddle in frigid snow to keep from dying isn’t enough.

Call me heartless, call me whatever you want.

To be very honest, all I do is get annoyed at these characters for getting into these deadly scrapes in the first place. (Like, why is this old guy out alone on a boat in the middle of the ocean? He could have avoided all of this by staying home and becoming… I don’t know, a plumber or cop or senator or something! Anything other than what he’s doing at the moment!) I feel no sympathy for characters who willingly get into dangerous situations for no apparent reason.

And yes, you CAN call me heartless, but the thing is, I’m not. I often surprise myself by how easily I cry at sad moments in books and movies and songs and real life stories. (When I’m alone, anyway. 😉 )

So why don’t I care about the characters in survival movies?!!

Glad you asked:

There’s zero focus on the characters.

In fact, there’s so little focus that the characters may as well be anyone else. Not even the most ravishingly good-looking leads can pull it off if there’s no focus on them. (I mean, of course you’d rather watch an attractive character go through these things than an *ahem* unsightly one. But if good looks are the only thing that’s keeping your interest, the story is a complete and utter flop.)

Let’s be real, when you think of the survival genre, you think of situations, not people, right? You think of danger and life-and-death stakes and fast heartbeats and gripping the edge of your seat because the water is slowly rising above the character’s nose and oh-goodness-me how are they going to survive.

It’s known as a plot-first genre.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Note: There’s nothing wrong with being a plot-first writer! I completely get that you may be more driven by the complexities of the plot than of your characters. But I’ve simply found that, sometimes, that then translates into having the plot drag your characters around. Until the story is just all about the plot, and there’s not much to connect to in that.

Because when I see a character in a dire strait, hanging onto life by a mere thread, I want to know WHYYYYYY. Why are they there? Why should I be rooting for them? Why shouldn’t I be focusing on reading The Nature of a Lady when others in my family are watching this movie?

I have no desire to watch someone fend for himself in the snowy heights of Mount Everest. Other than, perhaps, to unfeelingly mock him for even getting his sorry self in that situation. (Alright, alright, I guess I can be cold-hearted at times.)

And yeah, I’ll wince if he gets injured; I’ll sympathize with his pain in that way.

But if I know what he’d deeply and emotionally afraid of, if I see hints of his true, deeply-rooted desire emerge, if I am given snatches of meaningful backstory, then I will begin to care.

Can I give you two examples? THANK YOU! (And by the way, I know most of you are writers and the examples are movies, but they still count, 100%. It’s still a story and the same principles apply! 😀 )

All Is Lost vs The Impossible.

Goodness, this really is turning into an Analyzing Stories rant. But I just felt like I needed some examples so here we are. First up, we have All is Lost.

All Is Lost

Cool, right?

WRONG.

Sorry. *clears throat* I shouldn’t be so hard on it. I know some in my family liked this movie, so I can’t say it wasn’t successful to some. But did you catch what Wikipedia said? The movie has 51 spoken English words. To add to that, it has no backstory flashbacks. To put it quite plainly, you’re just watching a man try not to drown. Where is the meaning in that? Yes, at least the story has a deeper symbolism that my metaphor-loving mind could appreciate.

But I swear, all I felt toward this character was the strong urge to shake him senseless. I was mad at him for making me so tense too. That’s one thing the movie did pretty well – keeping the suspense up.

But why is he out there in the first place? The movie never gives us any real clues. All we are given is actions – remember, there’s only fifty-one words in the whole 1-hour-and-46-minutes-long movie. Let’s put that in context: most (recent American movies, anyway, according to Tameri Guide for Writers: Word Counts) scripts have more than 51 words per minute. And All is Lost has 51 words TOTAL.

I will be the first to admit this is a very cool concept – cool challenge, more like. But add to that the fact that there are no flashbacks and no other characters around for him communicate with. We can’t glean hints of what on earth is going on beneath the surface, other than what we can clearly see – an old guy patching up a hole in his boat and falling in the water and trying to stay alive.

This movie had a lot of potential, but it was very wasted, in my opinion. If it had just given us a few well-timed flashbacks, that would have been all I needed to give me a reason to care.

But there was nothing of the sort. Now, are you ready to hear about a movie that did this right?

Before I go on, here are the perfunctory disclaimers: 1) Don’t judge, this is technically a “disaster drama film” and not a purely survival film, but when all’s said and done, this had way too much survival genre overlap for me to pass up on using this as an example. 2) This isn’t a single-character movie; there are several main characters. And 3) There’s a normal amount of dialogue in this movie. So no, these movies aren’t created equal. BUT. One does it right, the other, in my opinion, does it wrong.

The Impossible

Yes, this stars Ewan McGregor and Tom Holland. And no, don’t look at me like that: I didn’t like this just because they were in it. Look, I felt sympathetic emotion while watching this movie. I wasn’t suffering from an urge to shake the characters senseless. The movie showed the characters’ normal life before disaster struck, and that’s why I could find a reason to care.

Sure, it could have gone way deeper into each character’s personal motivations and fears, and I think that would have made it much stronger, but nevertheless, I don’t think it necessarily had to. I didn’t NEED to know each characters’ deepest darkest secrets to care. Establishing the characters’ “normal” before the disaster happened is what made me sympathize – showing the relationships the brothers had with each other, the parents with the children, the husband with the wife, is what caused me to want them (SPOILER ALERT) reunited.

Though the movie has a slow (and maybe to some, boring) start compared to the rest of it, it had a purpose. And the movie wouldn’t have been the same without it. It gave us a glimpse into what the characters were like, what their family dynamic was, and that was crucial to understanding and putting the ensuing disaster into perspective.

It also capitalizes on the use of dialogue (including – my favorite – arguments!) for characterization. I’m just saying (no pun intended), dialogue matters. It’s hard to pull off a natural-feeling monologue, and even harder to pull off what All Is Lost did; it wasn’t even a monologue, just a few words strewn throughout the whole movie.

Not to mention the acting was pretty much perfection. Though you could definitely say that Redford’s acting in All Is Lost was great too… but there were almost no opportunities or situations or outlets that let the main character express raw, deep emotions that we humans inevitably relate to. In The Impossible, when raw, deep emotions were expressed, we had a reason to care and to let ourselves resonate with the characters’ struggles and motivations (unlike All Is Lost).

This movie was just as suspenseful as All Is Lost was. But what gave THIS movie’s suspense an edge over the suspense in the first movie is that not only did it engage our brain’s mirror neurons, but also our hearts.

At the end of the day, though it absolutely could’ve gone deeper into all the character stuff, it did a much better job of showing us WHY. WHY the disaster mattered. WHY we should sympathize. WHY we should care.

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THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how to write a good survival story. Don’t neglect the characters. Don’t take the easy way out and solely rely on thrilling action and life-and-death stakes to keep the reader’s (or viewer’s) interest. Don’t think that taking the time to create strongly developed characters won’t enhance your story and increase the chance of it sticking in your readers’ minds. Don’t think a gorgeous main character will do the trick either.

Put in that extra effort to get excited about your CHARACTERS. Have the plot stem from their motivations! Don’t let everything happen to them; let them initiate things, feel deep emotions, and have their view on the world clouded by the lies they believe. Develop their meaningful backstory. Seriously, characters matter even in the survival genre.

It is possible.

Do you totally disagree with my opinions on All Is Lost and The Impossible? Have you watched either? What do you think about the survival genre? Have you ever written a story in the survival genre? Do you have any examples of well-done survival stories? How is your week going so far? 😀 (Ugh, I hate how the emojis have been looking lately on WordPress sites… it’s SO annoying! *sighs* But duh yeah I’m going to keep using them! 😂 I can’t survive without emojis.)