FILM · 2010
127 Hours
31 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (31)
- #001
While trapped in the canyon, Aron Ralston made a daily video diary. Parts of the video diary were shown on a television program about his entrapment, but most of the footage was shown only to close friends and family and was kept in a bank vault for safekeeping. Before filming began, both James Franco and director Danny Boyle were allowed to watch the footage so they could accurately portray the events in the film.
- #002
Although it is not mentioned in the film, it took 13 men, a crane and a hydraulic jack to lift the rock high enough to free Aron's arm from the canyon.
- #003
It took Aron Ralston about an hour to cut off his own arm.
- #004
The camera James Franco used in the film was the camera Aron Ralston had used when he was trapped in Blue John Canyon.
- #005
In 2004, Aron Ralston returned to the accident site with NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw to scatter the ashes of his severed arm over the rock that had trapped him.
- #006
Terry S. Mercer, who played the helicopter pilot who rescues James Franco in the film, was the actual helicopter pilot who rescued Aron Ralston.
- #007
The amputation scene was reported to have caused some audience members to seek medical attention. Special effects designer Tony Gardner worked intensively with medical experts on the scene to recreate Aron Ralston's point of view. The scene was done in a single continuous shot.
- #008
Because Ralston had told no one he was going hiking, no one knew he was missing or even where to look for him. That lesson seems to have been missed by readers of his biography and later by viewers of the film. One of them, 64-year-old Amos Wayne Richards, had the nerve to enter the same spot Aron Ralston had visited without telling anyone. Richards slipped while descending a 70-meter-deep ravine and fell the last 10 meters to the bottom. During the fall he dislocated his shoulder, hit his head on a rock and broke his leg. It took Richards four days to crawl out of the ravine, and by the time park rangers found him he had no water left. In the end, what saved Richards was the hysteria of 127 Hours fans. Park rangers in Blue John Canyon knew where to look for Richards because hiking enthusiasts had been flocking to the canyon since the release of 127 Hours. In fact, since 2005 (Ralston's biography was published in 2004), more than two dozen rescues have been carried out in the same area — between 1998 and Ralston's incident, no such rescue took place.
- #009
Aron Ralston did indeed record that he hallucinated, reviewed his life and drank his own urine.
- #010
Numerous arms and arm interiors were created for the surgery sequence, and a day and a half at the end of filming was scheduled to document the scene's finer points. After the first long "take" of the 20-minute surgery scene, performed in real time, Danny Boyle canceled the final day and a half of shooting. He felt he had captured everything he needed on the first attempt.
- #011
At about 1 hour 28 minutes, in the final scene, Aron Ralston's real-life friends and family are beside the swimming pool.
- #012
For the moment Aron falls in the canyon and gets his arm pinned under the rock, Danny Boyle filmed James Franco for 20 minutes experiencing every kind of emotion. He then cut the material as it appears in the film.
- #013
To keep his mind off the claustrophobia of the tiny set he would be inside for hours, James Franco hid his textbooks in the crevices of the "canyon" set.
- #014
At about 1 hour 13 minutes, the vision of his son matches exactly the story of what drove Aron Ralston to keep fighting to survive and eventually cut off his arm.
- #015
Aron Ralston broke down in tears at the Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival after an audience member asked his opinion of his portrayal on screen. After being comforted by the actors beside him, Ralston said it had been overwhelming.
- #016
This is not shown in the film. While breaking the rock, Aron Ralston accidentally struck his crushed hand with his thumb. It was already rotting and some air hissed out. This was what pushed him to break his arm twice so he could cut it off.
- #017
Cillian Murphy was Danny Boyle's first choice for the role of Ralston before James Franco was cast.
- #018
As of 2018, it contains James Franco's only Oscar-nominated performance.
- #019
At about 4 minutes, the cave paintings shown in the opening title sequence are taken from The Great Gallery in Utah's Horseshoe Canyon, a large rock panel of such paintings at least 1,500 years old. Blue John Canyon, where Aron was trapped, is a branch of Horseshoe Canyon.
- #020
127 Hours is the length of uninterrupted activity from the moment Aron Ralston woke on the day of the accident until the moment he was put under anesthesia during the rescue. It equals 5 days and 7 hours.
- #021
The shirt Franco wears in the film is from the Phish Fall Tour 2000.
- #022
James Franco turned down playing Arthur in Inception (2010) in favor of this film. The role of Arthur went to Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Coincidentally, Cillian Murphy turned this film down in favor of Inception.
- #023
Shia LaBeouf was considered to play Aron Ralston.
- #024
Sebastian Stan was considered to play Aron.
- #025
This is the second film directed by Danny Boyle with a time title in its name — the first was 28 Days Later (2002) (he also produced 28 Weeks Later (2007)).
- #026
Jena Malone auditioned for a role.
- #027
James Franco and Lizzy Caplan also appear together in The Disaster Artist (2017). Franco directed The Disaster Artist.
- #028
Aron Ralston became a motivational speaker. He was busy in November 2011. Some of his activities were: on November 16, 2011, he was the closing keynote speaker of the 2011 Annual Conference of Financial and Insurance Conference Planners held in San Antonio, Texas. On November 28, he gave a talk at the University of Arkansas Fayetteville Downtown.
- #029
Epilogue: "Aron's premonition came true. Three years later he met his wife. Their son Leo was born in February 2010. Aron continued to be a mountaineer and canyoneer. He always leaves a note stating where he is going."
- #030
Katie Featherston auditioned for the role of Kristi.
- #031
James Franco and Kate Mara played comic book characters; Franco played Harry Osborn/New Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, while Kate played Susan Storm/Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (2015).
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