Survival Quest

Don Coscarelli wrote and directed Survival Quest in 1988, casting a mix of established character actors and virtual unknowns who would later become major stars. With Lance Henriksen leading as a wilderness survival instructor, production featured Catherine Keener in her feature film debut—years before her Oscar nominations—alongside a young Dermot Mulroney as an alienated ex-convict, and Mark Rolston fresh from Aliens, facing the challenge of creating suspense in the California wilderness. The film premiered in November 1989 and was distributed by MGM/United Artists, though it remained largely lost in the studio vaults.