Most of us have never been far enough out at sea to have had the disorienting experience of a 360-degree view of a watery horizon, unbroken by any land. Even fewer people have been there alone, without a hard-bottomed boat or effective means of steering or propelling.

In January 1982, a young sailor named Steve Callahan headed off westbound on a solo transatlantic voyage from Spain to the Caribbean island of Antigua, returning from an eastward passage he had begun with a friend in Newport, Rhode Island. But what was supposed to be an uneventful return expedition turned into a nightmare when, after many days of bad weather, his boat hit and was punctured by a submerged object. As Callahan’s boat slowly sank lower and lower, taking on water from the hole and the waves that broke over the deck, he took to his small, round inflatable life raft, which he filled with only the gear he could grab. For the following 76 days, he figured out how to survive — catching fish, patching holes in his raft, approximating his location with primitive navigation equipment and fending off aggressive sea creatures — until he was rescued by fishermen near the island of Guadeloupe. Realizing that the physical and mental challenges wrought by his situation had changed him as a person, he set about writing his story, which quickly became a bestseller.

His book was released in 1986 (and I read it a few years later), but the tale is a timeless one: a solo human struggling to survive in an unforgiving and unpredictable environment. Every day brought a new challenge — where to obtain food, how to get to safety or at least survive to another day — and the urgent need for creative answers to these questions. History is filled with such stories, and library shelves and nautical reading lists are replete with survivors’ accounts.

But Callahan’s account is different. It takes place in our time. He’s relatable: just an ordinary guy with a passion for nature and self-determination. And, luckily for us, an old friend of his named Rob Sennott decided it was time to tell his friend’s harrowing tale in a more immersive manner. His film 76 Days Adrift takes advantage of modern cinematic technology, with aerial drone shots and evocative views looking outward from inside a fragile raft. The film conveys a gut-wrenching, you-are-there quality that obliterates any romantic notions about communing with nature from the surface of the sea. And if the authenticity of Callahan’s experience isn’t compelling enough, the support of executive producer Ang Lee of Life of Pi fame is sure to guarantee an engrossing experience.