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Tom Hanks, a desert island, and a volleyball named Wilson. Robert Zemeckis stranded America's most trusted movie star alone on screen for the better part of two hours — and made one of the biggest hits of 2000 out of silence, sunburn, and a volleyball with a face.
Gary Paulsen's 1987 survival novel about a thirteen-year-old crash-landed alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a hatchet — the book that convinced a generation of middle schoolers they could survive in the woods if they just tried hard enough.
Bear Grylls gets dropped somewhere terrible, finds the one thing no human should eat, and eats it on camera. Discovery's late-2000s survival hit — equal parts genuine expertise and irresistible showmanship.