It’s that old case of life imitating art that was already imitating life.
Amos Wayne Richards is a 64-year-old fan of the Aron Ralston story that was portrayed in the movie 127 Hours. Despite the fact that movie, quite graphically, depicts the grueling ordeal Ralston endured after falling and having his arm pinned beneath a rock while hiking Utah’s Little Blue John Canyon — an ordeal that included Ralston having to sever said arm with a knife in order to survive — Richards found the movie inspiring. So inspiring, in fact, that on September 8, he decided to follow in Ralston’s footsteps and retrace the fateful hike.
(MORE: James Franco Discusses His Performance in 127 Hours)
Unfortunately for Richards, his experience was a little too similar to Ralston’s; while hiking, Richards fell 10 feet, dislocating his shoulder and shattering his leg. Luckily, however, he wasn’t pinned by a rock and he started crawling back to his car. “I was actually following my GPS, crawling right on top of my feet prints that I had hiked in on,” Richards told a local station, WBTV in Charlotte. He had been crawling for four days when he was found by national park rangers, who’d been searching for him after finding his unattended camping spot. Richards is now recovering at home in North Carolina, reports the Guardian.
Now all we have to do is wait for the movie version.