Susan Sarandon was excellent casting in this role. She does a good job (although I understand the real life doctor Jerri Neilsen was not impressed with the portrayal of her.) It gets a little too folksy --- hey gang lets put on a biopsy --- and it ignores Dr. Neilsen's messy personal life. I also seem to recall --- I'm willing to stand corrected here --- that the rescue flight was undertaken by a highly specialized Canadian Forces crew, not the USAF as in the picture. If so, it is appalling that a Canadian production would cater to the US market in this way! Incidentally, Lake Simcoe, about 40 miles north of Toronto, a large lake which, unlike Lake Ontario, freezes over in the winter, stood in for the South pole.