The title card appears approximately sixteen minutes into the film. The film contains many visual effects, such as frequent intercutting, and images presented in splitscreen and triptych. Some sequences are presented through the viewing screen of video camera or through the bottom of a water bottle. Intermittently throughout the film are depictions of the dreams, memories and hallucinations of “Aron Ralston” that he experiences while trapped in the canyon, but the filmmakers intentionally blur the lines between reality and imagination. Hallucinatory sequences are often tinted yellow-gold.
       In an epilog before the end credits, a montage over music depicts Aron’s life after his five-day ordeal, showing Aron hiking, rappelling and skiing, despite the loss of his hand and forearm. In a surreal sequence during the epilog, Aron swims to the edge of a pool, where he sees his family and friends sitting on the living room couch placed beyond the pool’s edge on the grass, just as he saw them during one of his hallucinations, but the vision is in true color rather than tinted. The sequence continues in split screen, depicting Aron in the pool, juxtaposed next to an image of his hallucination of a little boy sitting alone on the couch. The real Aron Ralston is shown seated with his wife, Jessica Trusty, on the couch, followed by a shot of the couple with an infant. A written statement reports that Aron’s premonition in the canyon came true after he met Jessica and when their son, Leo, was born in Feb 2010. The film ends with a sequence of more shots depicting Aron’s athletic triumphs and a final written statement reporting that he continues to climb and canyoneer, but always leaves a note giving his location.
       End credits contain a disclaimer stating that cycling is prohibited in Horseshoe Canyon and certain other areas of Canyonlands National Park, and that neither actor James Franco (“Aron Ralston”), nor the real-life Ralston cycled outside of authorized trails within the park. Makeup effects designer Tony Gardner’s credit reads: “Make-up Effects Designed and Created by Tony Gardner and Alterian, Inc.” A combined credit for two music coordinators reads: "Samidurai and T M Faizuddin." Some crew members’ names were misspelled onscreen, among them, production supervisor (additional unit) Craig Ayers, which appears as Criag Ayers; make-up effects person Ginger Cervantes as Ginger Crevantes; Color Mill’s digital workflow engineer Russell Lasson as Russell Larson; and assistant chef Caesar Sanchez as Ceasar Sanchez. The end credits contain a memorial to best boy electrician, Dave Stoddard (1948—2010), who died during production.
       The end credits also contain a “special thanks” to the Utah State Legislature and Office of Economic Development, as well as several companies, among them, BBC Motion Gallery, Historic Films, Getty Images and other companies that provided images that were used in the film, as well as producer Miles Levy, the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, The Coca-Cola Company and Perrier and Nestlé Waters. The film contains excerpts from television commercials for Sunkist Soda, and theme music and images of “Scooby-Doo,” the cartoon character created by Hanna-Barbera.
       According to a 24 Oct 2010 LAT article, in 2003 Aron Ralston was a twenty-eight-year-old, former engineer, who had devoted himself to mountain climbing and canyoneering. A 15 Dec 2010 Guardian (London) article reported that he had quit his job at Intel Corporation to climb all of Colorado’s “fourteeners,” i.e., mountains that peak over 14,000 feet. As depicted in the film, one Friday in Apr 2003 he left his home in Aspen, CO without informing anyone of his plans and drove to Canyonlands National Park to rappel and view the ancient petroglyphs in Horseshoe Canyon. As in the film, Ralston became pinned in a narrow slot in the Bluejohn (also known as Blue John) Canyon area by a dislodged chockstone that crushed his right wrist and trapped him for several days. Aware that his remote location and diminishing food and water supply made rescue doubtful, Ralston eventually chose to sever his forearm with an inexpensive knife to liberate himself from the boulder rather than face certain death. As in the film, Aron then rappelled one-handed down a seventy-foot slope and walked several miles before he found help. National Park Service employees later retrieved his arm, but it was too damaged to re-attach, so Ralston later had the limb cremated and its ashes scattered at the canyon.
       Ralston recorded his experience in his book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place , which was published in 2004. According to 127 Hours studio production notes and a 24 Oct 2010 LAT article, Ralston hoped to adapt the book into a docu-drama similar to Touching the Void , the 2003 film about climbers in the Peruvian Andes Mountains, and signed with John Smithson, the founder of Darlow Smithson Productions, the company that made the film. The Oct 2010 LAT article stated that they interested Alex Gibney, a documentary photographer, in the project but were unable to get financing at that time.
       A 7 Nov 2010 Boston Globe article reported that producer-director Danny Boyle, who was interested in adapting the story, met with Ralston in 2006 and submitted a treatment, but Ralston was committed to making an authentic recreation of his experience in a documentary format. However, after the success of Boyle’s 2008 film, Slumdog Millionaire , Ralston was more receptive, as by then he realized there was little interest in funding documentaries. The Boston Globe article continued, stating that Boyle credited part of Ralston’s new openness to changes within him after he married. The studio production notes stated that Boyle suggested Ralston’s story to his producing partner, Christian Colson, who was at first reluctant, but changed his mind after seeing Boyle’s six-page treatment, which related many of Boyle’s visual ideas for telling the story. During a meeting in London, Colson and Smithson agreed to co-produce a dramatic feature film based on Boyle’s treatment. Production notes stated that after Boyle completed two drafts of the script, he and Colson asked Simon Beaufoy, who had worked with them on Slumdog Millioniare , to assist with the writing.
       Production notes reported that the writers hiked with Ralston to the Bluejohn Canyon, and Ralston shared with them details of his experience, such as how he held the knife when he cut off his arm and how he made a sling to sleep in. Ralston also allowed them to view the video messages he made for his family during the ordeal. The filmmakers later recreated the exact equipment that Ralston had carried in his backpack, in particular the inexpensive multi-tool with the dull knife with which he cut off his arm and the same amount of food and water. According to the 24 Oct 2010 LAT article, they agreed to accurately depict, with Ralston’s help, details of climbing gear and agreed to make the film without resorting to avoid product placement.
       According to the production notes and the 24 Oct 2010 LAT article, the writers’ intent was to tell the story of Ralston’s transformation, rather than his heroics. As described in the production notes, before his entrapment, Aron was “a perfect specimen” in that he was “self-sufficient, independent, athletic, resourceful, ” but, as described by the 24 Oct 2010 LAT article, he was also “hedonistic,” “narcissistic” and “concerned with ego-fulfillment.” The production notes state that when he lost contact with his family and friends, he came to realize over the course of his entrapment how important they were. In the LAT article, Boyle stated that for him the film was about “the pull of the crowd” and the need to return the rest of the world. It was the story of Ralston’s desire to reconnect with life that interested Everett Entertainment to help finance the film, according to production notes.
       The writers confined most of the action of the story to within the narrow canyon and focused on Ralston’s state of mind, rather than include sequences depicting the outside world’s awareness of his disappearance and the rescue effort initiated by his mother. Although Ralston wanted total accuracy, the production notes reported that the filmmakers had to make some dramatic liberties to provide a saleable story in which the protagonist could neither move around nor converse with other characters. Another hurdle was to recreate the self-mutilation without alienating the audience. Colson noted in the LAT article that they “sacrifice[d] small truths to honor the larger ones.” One change the filmmakers made was to enlarge the book’s brief mention of Ralston’s former girlfriend to dramatize Ralston’s selfishness before his experience. Although the character of Rana figures largely in the film, in the LAT article, Ralston explained that it was his thoughts of his family that most filled him during the ordeal. Another addition to the film was the hidden pool sequence. In real life, according to the 15 Dec 2010 Guardian (London) article, Ralston simply demonstrated some basic climbs for two female hikers he encountered early in his trip. Despite these changes, according to Ralston in the Guardian article, the film was almost entirely factually accurate. One element from the book that was left in the film was Ralston’s hallucination of a young boy that hinted at his potential future as a father.
       The film was made by Boyle’s Decibel Films, Colson’s Cloud Eight and Darlow Smithson Productions. Boyle had a three-year production deal with Fox Searchlight and Pathé Pictures. Several actors were considered for the role of Aron, according to the 7 Nov 2010 Boston Globe article. According to a 4 Nov 2009 Var news item, Ryan Gosling was rumored to have been considered, but ultimately Franco was cast. A 26 Oct 2010 Var article reported that Boyle decided to have two cinematographers, Anthony Dod Mantle, who had won an Academy Award for his work on Slumdog Millionaire , and Enrique Chediak, who had worked with Boyle on 28 Weeks Later . In the production notes, Boyle stated that having the multiple approaches of two perspectives was used to compensate for having few characters. It also allowed for a compressed shooting schedule, which helped Franco to maintain his creative energy while working in a tight space for hours, according to the production notes.
       As noted in the end credits, portions of the film were shot in Utah. The production notes stated that portions of the film were shot in the exact spot where Ralston was trapped, although a replica of the boulder was used, as the original had been removed. The 7 Nov 2010 Boston Globe article reported that the cast and crew camped at Bluejohn Canyon for a week while shooting some canyon sequences. However, the majority of filming, according to the Boston Globe article and production notes, took place on an exact replica of the canyon on a Salt Lake City soundstage. No trap doors were used in the replica, so that filmmakers entered the space one at a time. According to the 24 Oct 2010 LAT article, the amputation scene was filmed in Mar 2009.
       The 26 Oct 2010 Var article reported that principal photography lasted seven weeks using a staggered schedule. For panoramic and aerial scenes, 35 mm film was used, and Silicon Imaging and Canon digital cameras were used for about seventy-five percent of the film for close-ups. The article stated that digital filming made working in a small area easier. To avoid unintentional writing over digital images, the work was sent to Salt Lake City processing house, Color Mill, while film stock was sent to Los Angeles for processing.
       127 Hours had its premiere at Telluride Film Festival. According to a 31 Oct 2010 LAT article, several audience members at the Telluride screening and other preview screenings fainted or collapsed during the amputation sequences.
       In addition to being named one of AFI’s Movies of the Year, the film received Academy Award nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor (Franco), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Original Score and Best Original Song (“If I Rise”), and Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture—Drama (Franco), Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score—Motion Pictures. The film also received Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Director and Best Feature, and Franco won an award for Best Male Lead. Franco was also nominated by SAG for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. In addition, Danny Boyle & Christian Colson were nominated by PGA for The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures and Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy were nominated by the WGA for Best Adapted Screenplay. Suttirat Larlarb was nominated by the Art Directors Guild for the Excellence in Production Design Award for Best Art Direction in a Contemporary Film.