There is something peculiarly compelling about a disaster in the wilderness. Celebrity mishaps hold no fascination for me, but Jon Krakauer's books — Into Thin Air [1]about a tragic climb on Mt. Everest, and Into the Wild [2] (made into a Sean Penn film) chronicling an Alaskan misadventure — were fascinating reading, and of course I couldn't resist Grizzly Man [3], the  Werner Herzog film about former Malibu neighbor Timothy Treadwell. There is something inspiring, or daunting, or terrifying, or all of the above in these actual "reality" stories.

Thus it was with Alive [4], the book about a South American soccer team, 16 of whom survived 72 days high among the frozen peaks of the Andean Cordillera [5] between Uruguay and Chile. Their ordeal was filmed theatrically [6] in 1993, but a powerful new film, Stranded [7], is the real deal. It features original photographs and testimony from actual survivors as they revisit the crash site in 2006. Many have brought along their teen and older children to witness this Valley of Tears, and as they share memories and emotions with them and with us, we see the profound impact this experience had on their lives.

So how, or why, did these 16 of the 45 aboard get out of the mountains alive? They say it was "by sticking together." They organized themselves in an orderly and completely democratic way, because all realized a simple truth: functioning as a team increased their chances of survival.

One of the most devastating aspects of their situation was being forced to choose between death by starvation, and consuming the bodies of friends who had perished. The world was horrified when it was sensationalized in the press, but they have made peace with their decision.

When Catholics take Communion, their doctrine states that the wafer has actually been transubstantiated into the flesh of Christ. Devout Catholics, the rugby players accepted this doctrine and believed that Christ sacrificed his body and blood to save us all. It was a tolerable leap, therefore, to accept that their teammates would want them to survive, and would willingly have sacrificed their bodies. They remember it as a "personal communion," a spiritual act.

Could you do this? Could I? How many of us have the physical, emotional and spiritual stamina to endure such travails, or to trek 44 miles over snow-covered mountain summits in rugby boots to find help?

Maybe that inquiry is what draws me to these stories. But as someone who can get cranky when her blood sugar drops, let's hope I never have to find out.

Stranded opens October 22 and plays around the country throughout the fall. Click here for complete schedule [8].