The film is based on the 2002 book Red Sky in Mourning by Tami Oldham Ashcraft, a true story set during the events of Hurricane Raymond in 1983.

The film stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as a couple who are adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after a hurricane, and must find their way to Hawaii with a damaged boat and no radio.

[3][4] Five months before the hurricane, Tami Oldham arrives in Tahiti on board the schooner Sofia and meets Richard Sharp, a British sailor.

While downtown one day, Tami and Richard bump into Peter and Christine Crompton, owners of Hazaña, a luxury Trintella 44 yacht.

The couple depart aboard Hazaña, and after many uneventful days at sea, Tami and Richard receive news of an approaching cyclone, Hurricane Raymond.

On the 41st day, Tami finally spots land and a Japanese research vessel in the distance and fires off two flares, successfully attracting its attention.

It is revealed in the credits that Richard Sharp was swept overboard and never found; Tami Oldham Ashcraft survived alone aboard Hazaña for a total of 41 days before she was rescued.

The studio was set to produce and distribute the film, starring Shailene Woodley as Tami Oldham, and directed by Baltasar Kormákur from a script by Aaron & Jordan Kandell.

The film's soundtrack includes his original score, and a cover of Tom Waits's "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You", by Emilíana Torrini.

Also featured in the film but not on the soundtrack is "Picture In A Frame" by Waits, which is played during a montage scene of Tami Oldham Ashcraft before the end credits.

[2] In the United States and Canada, Adrift was released alongside Action Point and Upgrade, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 3,015 theaters in its opening weekend.

[14] Adrift was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, in collaboration with STXfilms, on Digital HD on August 21, 2018 and DVD and Blu-ray on September 4, 2018.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Adrift sails smoothly between love story and survival drama, thanks in large part to a gripping central performance from Shailene Woodley.

She's eminently believable as a whip-smart, hyper-capable, iron-willed human being who still finds a way to doubt herself... At its best, she wills Adrift into a moving story about a natural born wanderer who needs an anchor to know her own strength.

"[18] Variety's Owen Gleiberman also noted the film's flaws while praising Woodley, writing, "For long passages of Adrift, we're pleasantly engrossed without necessarily being riveted.