127 Hours depicts the true story of climber Aron Ralston

In 127 Hours, the latest film by acclaimed director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and actor James Franco (Pineapple Express, Howl) we learn the moving true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston (Franco) and his fight for survival.

In 2003, Ralston was hiking in the canyons of Utah one minute, and found himself pinned to the wall of one the next. With no one knowing of his whereabouts that day, any hope for being found was lost.

An early morning hike for Ralston began like any other. He packed his normal gear, along with his trusty camcorder and a multi-tool, replacing his usual Swiss Army knife, and headed to Blue John Canyon.

Encountering two other hikers on the trail who appear to be lost, Megan (Amber Tamblyn) and Kristi (Kate Mara) put their faith into Ralston to lead them to their destination.

With a warm smile and thrill for the terrain, he takes them on a journey that only someone who knows the area like the back of their hand could show them.

Hiking through the canyons and exploring hidden caves, the three quickly form a bond before Ralston finds himself breaking off to be in his own world again.

Soon after, Ralston finds himself climbing and loses his grip on a boulder, a boulder he would soon come to know all too well.

With his arm pinned against the wall, Ralston is unable to free himself and thus begins the longest six days of his life, challenging his body, mind and ultimately testing his willpower and the will to live.

Predominantly filmed in the small crevice of a canyon, it is not easy to keep the setting and scenes from becoming tired or repetitious, but Boyle manages to make the secluded area a world of its own.

"I thought it was an impossible adaptation was my first reaction," writer Christian Colson said during a recent press conference on the film. "A beautiful book but enormously challenging to adapt."

Colson continued, "The biggest single challenge of telling a story like this, which is it's one guy in one place with no one to talk to for six days, facing almost certain death and actually magnify that problem rather than reduce it… And in order to do that, we're going to have to develop a new grammar cinematically to keep motion and dynamism and interest and variation in the story."

Using close range shots and even the point of view of Ralston's camcorder, the audience feels as trapped as Ralston does.

"There are a lot of contrasts in this movie," Franco said. "There's an incredibly intense situation, but there's humor. The character is static, but the cameras and the technology they're using is cutting edge…they're using the cameras to serve the film and to serve the experience.

"One of the most common things that we hear is ‘I've never had a movie experience like that.' It's because you're drawn into the character and [that] really speaks to the way that [writer] Simon [Beaufoy] and Danny structured the script, told the story through behavior, and then, when the character does speak, it's as if he's speaking right to the audience."

Having the real footage that Ralston recorded while in the canyon, Boyle, Franco and a select few were able to view the actual footage and live those days as Ralston did.

"[The video] was really fascinating because then you can explore what on earth this guy was doing down there, which is something we talked about a lot, is what it is that drives people like Aron to push themselves nearer and nearer the edge of something, and challenge themselves more and more and more until they get to a place where they're sort of walking a very dangerous edge," Beaufoy said.

"That was, to me, the most interesting part and what makes this screenplay more than just a story about an extraordinary man getting out of an extraordinary situation. It makes it accessible, [it is] a hope to everybody who watches it…which we could never have done without an incredible amount of trust from Aron who was extremely open about where he was in his life at this time and his relationships with everybody in his life. 

"And that, to me, was sort of [the] heart of the film — he trusted us, extraordinarily allowing us to portray some fairly difficult parts of people's personalities," Beaufoy continued.

With such heavy material, execution in both the acting and production were key to making the film what it is. The audience is with Ralston every step of the way, right until he swallows the very last drop of the mere 50 milliliters of water he has for his survival.

"It's a human being who's been decimated and turned into a ghost," Ralston said about seeing himself on the footage recorded while in the canyon.

"And that was so difficult for my mom to endure that I promised her that I would never share that publically. And she also understood that it would have a role in the telling of the story and things like sharing it with among a private group, who obviously were all very intimately connected with needing to replicate it. But that it was something that was just, first and foremost, for my loved ones, so in the end, that's where it will stay."

Although audiences may never get to see the real firsthand footage of Ralston's miraculous feat, the film and Franco's performance will have you believing that you are watching the real tape, watching and waiting to see what happens to Ralston.

"I remember seeing Pineapple Express and thinking, ‘Whoa, great movie,' but also thinking, ‘Wow, Franco, he's got real range, hasn't he?'" director Danny Boyle said of Franco's acting. "That was a key ingredient actually."

With the material and the way that the script was written, Ralston's character and Franco's personal portrayal of him "allowed [him] to explore the kind of further reaches of what's happening to his mind and his thought process at the time."