One of the biggest movies on Netflix at the moment is Surviving Hurricane Otis, which sounds like one of the streamer’s documentaries, but is actually a Spanish-language fiction feature hailing from Mexico. The movie tells a simple story, reminiscent of the 2000 blockbuster The Perfect Storm: The lead characters, in this case a pair of half-brothers, are manning a boat, unaware that the bad weather heading toward them will intensify so quickly. Rough seas quickly move to a full-on Category 5 hurricane, and they’re forced to hold (and possibly let go) for dear life as their yacht is tossed around by the horrors of nature. But how much of, if any, of this movie actually happened?
Is Surviving Hurricane Otis Based on a True Story?
First of all, the basics: Hurricane Otis was a major disaster back in October of 2023. Some U.S. residents may not have heard much about it because it made landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, and was compact enough that the damage didn’t spread into other areas. But it was the strongest Pacific hurricane to ever make landfall, and devastated its immediate wake.
As for this specific story, Surviving Hurricane Otis is a little confusing in its presentation. It opens explaining that it’s based on accounts given by Marlon Valdez and Jonathan Trinidad, who both were among sailors watching over luxury boats in the bay of Acapulco, and who journalist Beatriz Guillén profiled in a newspaper piece that garnered widespread attention in Mexico. But the characters in the movie aren’t named after Valdez or Trinidad, and a few minutes into its opening credits, the movie adds another line saying that it’s “based on a true story.” It’s the kind of redundancy that can raise red flags about what, exactly, the source material is.
Ultimately, the specific characters and story in Surviving Hurricane Otis are manufactured for the film. But the basics do follow real life: Valdez and Trinidad really were minding a rich man’s yacht (though in real life they were to be paid in meat, not even money) when the storm intensified, forcing them to abandon the sinking ship, and survive in ocean waters until another boat came across them and pulled them aboard. As in the movie, one man was more severely wounded than the other.
But, presumably in the interest of making a full (if still, to be honest, slightly thin) feature film out of this material, Surviving Hurricane Otis extends the story a bit further, before and after the storm. Here, the two men are half-brothers Wirpul (Benny Emmanuel) and Candi (Kristyan Ferrer), who share both a father and a contentious relationship, and the aftermath of their experience is far more dramatic than what was reported about Valdez and Trinidad.
Surviving Hurricane Otis review: Is it worth watching?
Surviving Hurricane Otis has its heart in its right place in terms of bringing attention to the devastation of the hurricane, and the people lost in its wake — still estimated, because of people lost at sea. This doesn’t always feel like quite enough to sustain a feature film, though, and even at 90 minutes (which is when the end credits roll), it’s pretty padded out. It’s like a CliffsNotes version of a real-life disaster movie.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
