SUMMARY

In Torrance, California during the Great Depression,  Louis "Louie" Zamperini grew up a troublemaker. His brother, Pete saw potential in Louis and helped turn his life around through running, which he went on to qualify for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1941 after the start of World War II, Louie enlists in the United States Army Air Corps. While on a search for lost aircraft and crew, mechanical errors caused the ship to crash in the middle of the pacific, killing all but three of the men on board. After spending 47 days on an inflatable raft, worse comes to worse as the now two remaining survivors are captured by the Japanese navy and taken to a prisoner of war camp, where Louie's fame back home makes him the target of a unrelenting, sadistic prison commander, Mitsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe. After two tortuous years with Watanabe, he gets promoted to another camp. Unfortunately for Louie, that camp is the one that he and the other prisoners get transferred after the Hiroshima bombing. Three days later with the bombing of Nagasaki, the prisoners were set free.