Search and rescue
Airplane tragedy revisited after 25 years in ‘Yellowjackets’
Acompetitive team of high school soccer champions descends into warring, dystopian factions in the new horror-drama series “Yellowjackets” on Showtime. The premiere of the series led by Christina Ricci (“Pan Am”) airs Sunday, Nov. 14, on the network and begins to reveal what, exactly, happened following a horrific plane crash that left the soccer stars stranded in the Canadian wilderness.
According to Showtime’s website, “Yellowjackets” tells the story of how the girls involved “descend into savage clans” while waiting to be rescued after the crash in the desolate woods of northern Ontario. The series is told through flashbacks and present-day scenes (25 years after the accident), and each character is portrayed by two actors: one teen and an adult counterpart.
Ricci and “Shameless” star Samantha Hanratty portray Misty; “Mrs. America” star Melanie Lynskey and Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse (“47 Metres Down: Uncaged,” 2019) play Shauna; Tawny Cypress (“Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector”) and Jasmin Savoy Brown (“The Leftovers”) are Taissa; and Juliette Lewis (“Secrets and Lies”) and Sophie Thatcher (“The Tomorrow Man,” 2019) both star as Natalie. Steve Krueger (“The Originals”) also stars as Ben Scott.
In an official trailer released by Showtime in August 2021, it’s clear that the women, once members of the same close-knit soccer team, are no longer friends despite having been tied together forever through a shared tragedy. Natalie (Lewis) appears to have surprised Misty (Ricci) in her home when Misty greets her with, “It’s been a while.” The trailer then flashes to teenage Natalie (Thatcher) as she readies a shotgun and prepares to fight for her survival in the wilderness. The women are clearly still in the midst of reckoning with what transpired 25 years earlier.
Not only do each of the women appear to have gone their separate ways, but they also seem to have agreed to share only the necessary points of their survival story from years ago. Adult Shauna (Lynskey) is heard in the trailer saying, “We agreed, say no more than we have to,” before a disembodied reply: “I think we both know there’s more to it than that.”
The violent mystery of the team’s unthinkable survival tale will be unraveled over the course of 10 intense episodes.
The same trailer shows clear elements of horror teased into the fabric of the drama series, such as a close-up of bloody hair being dragged through the snow and the image of a girl running barefoot through the frozen forest before falling into a booby-trapped pit near a fire. In a less gory but still highly unnerving moment, one of the girls is shown head-butting the frosty window of a cabin.
Needless to say, the naturally competitive soccer champions aren’t living out a typical coming-of-age tale. Instead, they come of age as survivalists, trapped in a dire situation; together but very much alone.
The flashback scenes depicting the lengths the girls would go to make it home alive are reminiscent of the brutal divisions between the stranded schoolboys in William Golding’s 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies.”
“Yellowjackets” seems to speculate upon what circumstances might drive “normal” people to extraordinary acts of violence. But, of course, these “normal” girls may have had complicated relationships with one another off the soccer pitch prior to the crash, even without the threat of death in the wilderness.
The darkly inquisitive series should be an exciting viewership experience for any thriller lover, with not only a talented cast but also an army of experienced producers and directors at work behind the scenes.
Filmed in Vancouver this year, “Yellowjackets” comes from the executive producing duo of Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, who previously produced the tense drama “Narcos: Mexico” and the mystery series “Dispatches From Elsewhere,” a series inspired by a complicated alternate-reality game constructed in San Francisco (also the subject of 2013 documentary “The Institute”). Lyle and Nickerson also have writing credits on “Yellowjackets.”
Perhaps most relevant to the “Yellowjackets” pilot, though, is Karyn Kusama’s (“Jennifer’s Body,” 2009) direction.
In her writing and directorial debut, 2000’s “Girlfight,” Kusama tells the story of a teenager, played by thennewcomer Michelle Rodriguez (“The Fast and the Furious,” 2001), who channels her aggression by diving into the male-dominated sport of boxing. Kusama proved then that she knew a thing or two about young women fighting for their lives, and she’s done it again (and then some!) in “Yellowjackets.”
Don’t miss the premiere of the unsettling new series “Yellowjackets” when it airs as part of Showtime’s thrilling lineup, right after a new episode of “Dexter: New Blood” this Sunday, Nov. 11.