Life of Pi (2012)
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A young man and a tiger must survive together on a lifeboat after a shipwreck.
The story
The story follows Pi Patel, a 16-year-old Indian boy who, along with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, finds himself stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean following a catastrophic shipwreck. For 227 days, Pi must navigate the perils of the open sea while contending with the presence of the tiger. The narrative is framed as a story told by Pi to a writer in modern-day Montreal, where Pi recounts his journey of survival and faith amidst the vast, unpredictable elements of the ocean.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In the early 2010s, a writer meets Pi Patel, who recounts his life. Born in 1960 in India, Pi is a boy who follows three religions simultaneously. In 1977, his family boards a ship to Canada, but a storm causes the ship to sink. Pi is thrown into a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, and a spotted hyena. The hyena kills the other animals, and Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger, emerges and takes over. Pi survives for 227 days, eventually finding a carnivorous island before reaching Mexico. When interviewed by insurance agents, Pi provides two versions of his story: one involving animals and one where the animals are replaced by humans (his mother, a sailor, a cook, and himself). The film concludes with the writer choosing the animal story, which Pi notes is ultimately a matter of faith.
- First release year
- 2012
- Runtime (minutes)
- 127
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Ang Lee
- Writers
- David Magee · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Suraj Sharma · Pi; Irrfan Khan · adult Pi; Tabu · Pi's mother; Rafe Spall · the book's actual author; Gérard Depardieu · the Cook; Adil Hussain · Pi's father
- Genres
- adventure-drama
- Themes
- faith; survival
- Tone and mood
- philosophical; visual masterpiece
- Setting
- The story spans from 1960s India to the Pacific Ocean and Mexico in the late 1970s.
- Premise and plot tags
- survival; adventure; religion; animal-centric
- Source material / true-story basis
- Yann Martel's 2001 novel
- Reception
- The film was a commercial success and received positive reviews from critics, being described as a technical and emotional achievement.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 86% · scale: percentage · review count: 253; Metacritic · score: 79 · scale: 100 · review count: 44
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Director · won; Academy Award · Best Visual Effects · won; Academy Award · Best Original Score · won; Golden Globe Award · Best Original Score · won
- Production trivia
- The production used a massive, custom-built wave tank to film ocean scenes.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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