A film you'd cut your arm off to see... climber Aron Ralston reveals never-before-seen pictures of his 127 Hours ordeal

His incredible story inspired an Oscar-tipped film from Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle and now Aron Ralston has revealed exclusive pictures of his ordeal.



Adrenaline junkie Ralston found fame in 2003 after a boulder fell on his arm when he was hiking in Utah and he was forced to amputate it with a dull knife having being trapped for 127 hours in a canyon.

His experience has now been turned into an emotional drama starring James Franco and, ahead of the film's release, 35-year-old Ralston opened up to U.S. talkshow host Jay Leno about his time in the canyon and the trauma of seeing his story on screen for the first time.

Horror: A picture shows the boulder that fell on Aron Ralston's arm and left him trapped for five days

'I was crying within the first 15 minutes... because it was good, not because it was bad,' Ralston said.



'The first time I saw it they brought me in with a test audience.

'They had me undercover so I wouldn't be sniffed out - I had a hat and sunglasses and a bag of popcorn covering my arm!'

Heroic: Aron Ralston describes the experience of seeing the nightmare that cost him an arm turned into a film Trapped: Aron Ralston was stuck in this tiny Utah canyon in 2003 and amputated his own arm, with the ordeal inspiring the film 127 Hours

Attention to detail: A still from 127 Hours, featuring James Franco as Aron Ralston, shows the filmmakers' effort to tell the climber's true story

127 Hours was the closing gala film of this year's 54th BFI London Film Festival and with wide critical acclaim, has already seen Boyle tipped to repeat the Oscar success of Slumdog Millionaire.

The filmmakers used Ralston's book Between a Rock and a Hard Place but found some of their most valuable evidence of his ordeal in video testimonies the climber recorded after days trapped in the canyon.

Only a tiny number of people have viewed the actual footage of Ralston's seemingly impossible predicament but the adventurer and author let Leno and The Tonight Show audience see photographs of the real-life nightmare that inspired 127 Hours.



The mountain climber, who also now earns thousands as a motivational speaker as well as tackling peaks around the world, admitted he believed he would die in the canyon.

'It was inextricable - I couldn't move more than a few inches,' he said.

'I was saying goodbye in those pictures. I had a video camera that I was using it ultimately to give my will and testament to my family.

'I was going to die in that place, I went though all the different options of trying to get myself free - I drank my own urine, I was facing my death very imminently in that spot.'

Impossible odds: Aron Ralston tells Tonight Show host Jay Leno about his amazing climbing accident

He finally came up with the idea of chopping his lower arm off but had unfortunately dulled the only knife he was carrying - a cheap multi-use tool that had come free with a torch .



'It was a dull pocket knife because I first used it to try and chip away at the boulder," he said.



'It was several days of attempts to get through my arm. I made several unsuccessful attempts but in the end it was too dull to cut through the bone.'

Audience members have fainted at the most gruesome section of the film, which captures the moment Ralston realised he could bend and break his own bones and sever tendons in his arm.



'It was a eureka experience for me,' he said.

'After the hell of being trapped for five and a half days it was ecstasy to be able to get free, the idea of being liberated and of getting back to my family.



'I was smiling when I realised I didn't have to cut through the bone and I could actually use the boulder and bend my arm enough to break the bones.

'I actually had a smile on my face as I put a tourniquet on my arm and stop the blood loss.



'An hour later I was free and I had my life again.'

After freeing himself from the canyon, with no mobile phone and only one working arm, Ralston was forced to abseil down a 65ft wall and hike out of the Blue John canyon in the hot May sun before fortunately stumbling into a Dutch family who gave him water and cookies and alerted the emergency services.

Freedom: Aron Ralston with his wife and son, seven years after his canyon ordeal

Despite the inspiring circumstances of Ralston's story, Boyle has stressed that 127 Hours - out in the UK in January - is 'not a survival film'.

'We didn’t really want to make a survival film – it felt clear that he grew in there in those circumstances, it becomes a journey that he’s on,” said the director earlier this year.