Ah! The adventures we go through on our small screens! Do you remember the once-in-a-lifetime ride into the heart of darkness with Showtime’s electrifying thriller series, ‘Yellowjackets’? A high school girls’ soccer team, all set to conquer the national championship, suddenly finds themselves crash-landing in the wilds of Canada. Sounds like a chilling story, let me get a blanket.
But this ain’t your average survival story, it’s a twisted tale of secrets, betrayal, and the most important thing in the wilderness, survival. With characters as complex as they are captivating, and plot twists that hit harder than a soccer ball to the face, ‘Yellowjackets’ has built itself a fanbase with two gripping seasons.
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Tragic Real-Life Story That Could’ve Inspired ‘Yellowjackets’
After diving into what is real and what is the imagination pool of ‘Yellowjackets,’ it’s impossible to ignore the bone-chilling parallels you find in real-life tragedies. One such incident that sends shivers down spines is the heart-wrenching accident of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. A plane full of passengers including a rugby team, bound for Chile, crashes into the icy embrace of the Andes Mountains, leaving its survivors stranded in a frozen nightmare. Sound familiar? That’s because that’s what the girls of ‘Yellowjackets’ are going through.
Some differences between the story from the news section and the story from the fictional prose are the number of passengers in the crashed plane and the timeline of their exile. In the real-life 1972 crash, the plane was boarding 45 passengers out of which 19 were members of the Old Christians Club rugby team. 11 passengers died upon the impact, and 34 survived to face a worse fate. Being stranded on a remote frozen mountain trail for 72 days resorted them to do unspeakable things to survive. Whereas the show takes creative liberties with the details, the essence of the tragedy hangs heavy in the air, adding a layer of depth to the characters’ will for survival.
The series masterfully captures the raw emotion and psychological trauma of being stranded, painting a vivid portrait of the human spirit pushed to its limits. With each episode, the darkness grows and it palpitates at a pace you can’t question its origin. This show confronts the moral ambiguity of survival and blurs lines between right and wrong.
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The Literary Roots Of ‘Yellowjackets’
The Showtime thriller also pays homage to a literary classic, notably William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies.’ By flipping the script and placing an all-female cast at the helm, the show creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson explored the themes of power, control, and societal breakdown in a fresh and exhilarating way.
Golding’s classic has had two prior adaptations which gives you whatever you need to believe the power of it. The story in this ‘Castaway’ iteration kicks off with the crash landing of a bunch of British school lads (Preteens) on a remote island during wartime. At first, the boys attempted to set up shop and play nice, using a conch shell to keep order and rationality in check. But as days stretch into nights and tensions bubble over, that delicate balance goes out the window, and chaos reigns supreme.
In ‘Yellowjackets,’ we witness a similar unraveling of the social fabric as our girls fight tooth and nail to survive in their newfound wilderness. The parallels are uncanny, offering a thrilling commentary on the darker aspects of human nature.
The Creative Vision
But what inspired the twisted minds behind ‘Yellowjackets’ to dive into such dark and terrifying territory? In interviews following the growing fame of the show, creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have cited a myriad of influences from real-life tragedies to iconic fictional works.
In a 2021 discussion about the show’s inky theme with The Hollywood Reporter, Lyle said, “‘Lord of the Flies’ is about how socialization falls away and how society is a facade. We thought, who is more socialized than women? As girls, you learn early on how to make people like you and what the social hierarchies are.”
In another interview taking place in March of 2023, the creator cited Tony Soprano, the iconic fictional mobster as the inspiration behind the show. She said, “Tony Soprano is an absolute monster — but, because he’s so well drawn, you understand him,” she explained. “That’s what we’re aiming for. We have conversations about what could be too far, but it’s less about likability for the characters and more about the type of story. We never want to be shocking and salacious for the sheer joy of it.”
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