Thousands of people have credited their Apple Watch or iPhone with helping them survive near-death experiences. From heart failure to car accidents, these stories are powerful reminders that Apple’s impact goes far beyond technology. To open Apple’s September event, we wanted to do something different—start not with a product but with a film about real lives. We led an extensive casting process to find real people whose lives were saved by their Apple devices and took a purely documentary approach: no scripts, no recreations, just their stories, in their words. With 27 million people watching live, we used the biggest stage in tech to celebrate something deeply human.