Ralstons recollections were candid, thoughtful, and often exceptionally moving.
I understand you were heavily involved in the making of the movie?
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For sure, yeah.
Its obviously a big part of my identity, of who I am.
I dont know how to make a movie, so it needs to be them doing that work.
Were you often on set?
Once a week, I was there.
I was as accessible as much as they wanted me to be.
Journalists came to see the set, and so I did interviews with the folks there.
So Im literally a brand new person at that moment.
Theres been this cycle thats come full circle.
It invokes such a connection and emotion.
One of the most loving relationships in life is between a parent and a child.
It was like sharing.
How changed are you as a person as a result of this experience?
Theres a moment in the movie were you said how selfish you were before.
It was like I took my family for granted.
I hadnt expressed my gratitude to them.
I feel like I havent appreciated you enough in my heart as I could have.
I regret it now.
I regret that I had been a little walled off.
Id done that maybe more than most.
Id become very obsessed with being outdoors and adventures.
My whole life was going into mountaineering and climbing, and there was a cost to that.
Whats most important about life?
Its not the number of mountains Ive climbed, its the relationships.
These people that have spent time with me.
I was, like, I wish Id spent more time with them.
I wish Id said thank you more often.
I really regret that.
It was like I didnt learn anything, at least for a few years.
I had these epiphanies, but they didnt change me.
You might ask why, if I cut my arm off, I didnt learn my lesson.
It didnt just happen, even after that transformative experience in the canyon.
I just went back to being the same brazen guy that you see at the beginning of the movie.
Are you more careful now than you used to be?
Since Ive been a father, definitely.
I still climb, and I mountain guide a little bit.
I find myself making different decisions.
In some ways, theres not just decision making or precaution, but theres also the focus.
Whats most important in my life is my family.
Last year was a big year.
My grandmother passed away, so we had a death.
We bought a house.
The film was like starting a new job.
Im sure your son will naturally grow up to be an outdoors person.
How would you advise him, with your experience?
Were already teaching him about animals and water.
He loves looking at it all.
Teaching him about the wonderment of the outdoors.
He doesnt like to go down, only go up [Laughs].
Now its up to you to go off and do what you want to do.
I wouldnt say I have any advise to him I could boil down into a nugget.
Well be here for you if you need any assistance.
My parents were definitely there for me.
She said, Hes in trouble.
He needs our help.
Actually, two other helicopters were en route to join the search.
You dont have much time for someone whos been out for that long without water in the desert.
Little did they know what had actually happened.
It really was like the movie poster says every second counts.
It was slipping away very quickly.
We had a lot of discussions about it.
Good luck having any input on it.
It illuminated for me the challenges that they faced.
I thought, how much more drama do you need?
The thriller aspect, the timing, this idea that a person could do something like this.
Ive always enjoyed survival dramas like that too.
And they said, Yeah, but this is film.
Its very different They have to condense things, and expand other things.
They had to show what happened in a worse case scenario.
So there were these fantasy sequences, and things that are dramatised or fictionalised.
We had a very poignant conversation when we went out on a hike.
[Simon Beaufoy] is a kind of an outdoors guy one of the outdoorsman of the whole crew.
Most of the rest of them were more Ill stay on the sidewalk, thanks.
Simon and I had a really good discussion.
That was Dannys feeling from the beginning too.
Simon, with that nugget about fiction and truth Ive seen how it works.
Hes on the morning talkshow, and hes the interviewer and the interviewee and the caller.
I didnt do that I didnt interview myself on camera.
Id been looking for it all my life.
All these things were real for me in the delirium and everything else besides.
That was a demonstration of the concept.
It takes the audience through a variety of emotions and experiences.
Its truthful in content, but the way its delivered is, basically, made up.
I think they did a really great job of that.
How do you go about understanding the consequences of a flash flood?
Id probably drown, but at least Id get a drink of water.
And so thats very dry and straightforward.
It was like this nightmare fantasy.
I love what they did with a lot of that.
It was necessary, and if Id clung too tightly to it, they couldnt have done that.
My wife was pretty instrumental.
Shes a great counsellor.
Shes there reminding me that theyre artists, and you dont want to spoil their creativity.
In the book and the film, you say Rocks fall all the time.
Do you feel what happened was destiny?
I came to the conclusion that Ive been wanting this to happen.
I even knew that when I was trapped.
I knew this was an experience I had created, and also wanted.
I said this to the camera.
It wasnt just a physical experience, but a spiritual one, about attaining self-fulfilment.
What I was here for was to discover myself.
Its a big experiment.
Thats what I wanted for myself.
I subconsciously created it.
Id built up a whole repertoire of experience that I took with me in that canyon.
I chose to go to that canyon.
I chose to go to the desert without telling anybody where I was going.
I met those two girls, then chose to go my own my way.
My friends tease me still.
Next time, go with the girls.
What were you thinking?
Id been looking for it, and there it was.
You put yourself in extreme situations, because thats what lots of mountain climbers do.
You found yourself in the ultimate survival situation, and made your decisions accordingly.
Thats what we all do.
As much as we say we want easy street and the good life, its boring.
Sure, its okay for a little while, but we relish challenges.
Its what were made to do.
People who love very intensely grieve very intensely.
My storys sort of an allegory like that.
The boulders in are lives are also our lessons.
Without extraordinary circumstances, we wouldnt realise our extraordinary potential.
But you didnt always know you were going to survive…
Definitely not, no.
And that came 24 hours into being trapped.
Straight off, I knew Im not going to get out of here.
How long was the tape?
Just a few minutes shy of 60 minutes.
Id maybe taken five minutes of other stuff at the beginning of the tape.
It was so incoherent at moments because I hadnt slept.
It was kind of funny and ironic that I was like a director telling an actor.
Go back, do it again!
All the way up until an hour before I realised what I could do to get myself free.
There was nothing more I could do to save myself.
There was an abiding calm that came over me.
Thats like the feeling of faith in your life, that its not up to me.
A relaxation comes from that, acceptance.
I saw myself with a handless right arm, playing with him.
That was the future.
Me, not here, without a hand, with a little boy.
The way he looked at me, I knew that he was my son.
In a blink, it was all gone, and I was back, shivering in the canyon.
But it changed everything.
I knew Im not going to die here.
And then after youd freed yourself, you had to rappel down a cliff…
It was a very awkward rappel, too.
But I was adrenalised.
I was more invigorated with life than Id ever been when I freed myself.
What nearly overcame me was the euphoria, being out of that spot.
Thats the epiphany that leads to him getting out.
I dont have to cut through the bones, I can break them.
The boulder becomes an inversion: its not trapping me anymore, its actually freeing me.
Without the rock holding me the way it was, I couldnt have done that.
So as I broke the bones I had a smile on my face.
It was like the most euphoric thing that Ive ever done.
The most painful thing too.
There were times when I severed the nerve and it was like Id incinerated my arm.
It was liquefied in heat.
Its hard to describe what its like.
But in the moments right after that, I was smiling.
All the possibilities of life swelled up, all these great moments.
Maybe Ill see that little boy.
Maybe Ill get back to my Mom.
I think they delivered that extremely well in the film.
But you do, you get through it.
And audiences Ive seen it with clap and cheer.
Sometimes theyre very quiet and overwhelmed, but it delivers this uplift.
To me, thats what the real message of the story is.
So many good things have happened to you since.
I certainly am grateful.
I wrote a book, I do speaking engagements.
I also do work for wilderness groups that protect these landscapes.
I work for disabled veterans groups.
Ive been able to develop some things that pull smiles on peoples faces.
Theres a lot with this story that helps people.
In some cases, its even saved their lives.
There was a really poignant example of this.
I couldnt even tell my parents I loved them.
There was a month of that, and I thought, This isnt life.
She had her sleeping pills, and was going to overdose, and that was going to be it.
Its definitely brought me a great fortune, both in terms of wealth and life.
Its given me a purpose, to share this with people.
I havent spoken to her in a couple of years.
Aron Ralston, thank you very much.
