The 2018 drama and thriller movie Adrift portrays a true life story of Tami Oldham acted by Shailene Woodley and the love of her life Richard Sharp who’s role was played by Sam Claflin. The tragedic story revolved around Tami who had left her hometown and family in search for a self-satisfying lifestyle which led her to working in a harbour where she met Richard, a sailor of his hand made yatch he calls “Mayaluga” a Swazi word which means “One who crosses the horizon.”
Things went fast for the new lovers as they were tasked on sailing the Hazana back to Tami’s hometown California. It wasn’t a tough decision to make as Tami finds herself enticed by the yatch with the motivation of sailing across the world with her lover.
The cruise began and unfortunately for the newly engaged couples they were headed directly into one of the catastrophic hurricanes recorded in history. The storm hit so hard that Tami lost Richard.
The movie showed how Tami who was then only 24 survived 41 days in sea while being concussed with hallucinations besides. At different times the effect deepened as Tami is seen rescuing Richard who wasn’t really there, feeding him, tendering to his wounds and even encouraged him not to give up. Desperate to survive, Tami once imagined seeing a ship and fired the flare gun twice in hope to be rescued.
After 41 days, Tami was rescued by some other sailors without her man. When interviewed she said that Richard kept her going throughout the disaster and to this day she still sails the world. Richard Sharp was swept overboard and died in Hurricane Raymond at 33 years of age.
The movie directed by Baltasar Kormakur peaked at 57.9 Million USD in the Box Office and was produced by Shailene Woodley, Baltasar Kormakur , Aaron Kandell and others.
By Anthony Ambrose
