The Grey (film)
The Grey is a 2011 survival film co-written, produced and directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo and Dermot Mulroney. It is based on the short story "Ghost Walker" by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Carnahan. The story follows a number of oil-men stranded in Alaska after a plane crash, who must wage a war against a pack of timber wolves stalking them amidst mercilessly cold weather.
Released in the United States on January 27, 2012, the film received praise for its philosophical themes, cinematography, sound effects and acting, while some of the dialogue and the film's ending were criticized; it grossed $81 million worldwide.
Plot
John Ottway is a marksman for an oil company in Alaska, killing grey wolves that threaten the drillers. On his last day on the job, he sees a driller being pursued by a wolf and shoots it, listening to the wolf’s final breath. That evening, Ottway writes a letter "without purpose" to his wife, Ana, explaining his plans to commit suicide, but does not follow through.The next day, Ottway survives a plane crash with fellow oil workers, watching helplessly as Lewenden dies of his injuries. Ottway takes charge of the survivors and is attacked by a wolf and rescued by the group; they realize they are in the wolves' territory and take turns keeping watch.
Hernandez is killed by wolves, and Ottway suggests they leave the crash site, but Diaz questions his leadership. While searching for the wallets of the dead to return to their families, Diaz finds an emergency wrist watch with a radio beacon.
The group leaves the crash site, but Flannery falls behind and is killed by wolves. A pack of wolves approaches and the survivors run for the trees, lighting a fire to ward off the animals and building makeshift weaponry. Diaz succumbs to stress and threatens Ottway with a knife but is quickly disarmed. Before he can apologize, he is attacked by a wolf, which the group manages to kill and roast for food. Ottway surmises the wolf was an omega sent by the alpha wolf to test the group. A crazed Diaz beheads the wolf’s corpse, throwing the severed head at the pack.
Diaz tells the group of his atheism and Talget states that he believes in God and lovingly talks about his daughter. Ottway says he is also an atheist, but wishes he could believe or have faith, and recites a simple poem written by his father.
A blizzard approaches, and in the morning, Burke, who had been suffering from hypoxia, is found dead. The remaining survivors travel to the edge of a canyon. Hendrick secures a line to a tree on the opposite side, and Diaz and Ottway traverse the canyon. Talget gets his foot caught on a hook, and the rope breaks away and he falls to the ground. Barely alive, he hallucinates a vision of his daughter, and is dragged away by wolves. Attempting to save Talget, Diaz falls from the tree and badly injures his knee.
Diaz, Ottway, and Hendrick arrive at a river where Diaz, humbled by his journey and unable to walk, explains that he can accept dying in the middle of nature. Leaving Diaz to his fate, Ottway and Hendrick continue on and are set upon by the wolves. Hendrick falls into the river and is trapped beneath the surface; Ottway is unable to pull him loose, and Hendrick drowns. Now alone, Ottway angrily appeals to God to "show him something real", but seeing nothing, decides he will “do it myself.”
Exhausted and suffering from hypothermia, Ottway eventually stops walking and goes through the collected wallets before arranging them into a cross. He realizes too late that he has stumbled right into the wolves' den – the team had been walking towards, not away from, the danger. Surrounded by the wolf pack and facing its leader, Ottway looks at his wife's photo in his wallet. It is revealed that she was dying of a terminal illness, the reason he was earlier preparing to kill himself. As the alpha wolf approaches, Ottway arms himself with a knife and shards of liquor bottles taped to his hand. He recites the words, "Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day." He charges the alpha wolf.
In a brief post-credits scene, the alpha wolf takes its last breaths, similar to the wolf Ottway shot and killed earlier. Ottway lies against the wolf, his fate unclear.
Cast
- Liam Neeson as John Ottway
- Frank Grillo as John Diaz
- Dermot Mulroney as Jerome Talget
- Dallas Roberts as Pete Hendrick
- Joe Anderson as Todd Flannery
- Nonso Anozie as Jackson Burke
- James Badge Dale as Luke Lewenden
- Ben Hernandez Bray as Hernandez
- Anne Openshaw as Ana Ottway
Production
Bradley Cooper, who also worked with Carnahan on The A-Team, was cast in the lead role, but he was eventually replaced by Neeson.
Filming began in January 2011 and ended in March. The film was shot in forty days. Though set in Alaska, the film was shot in Vancouver and Smithers, British Columbia, with several scenes being shot at the
Smithers Regional Airport. According to Empire magazine, in the climactic scene in which Neeson's character pens a letter to his wife, Carnahan urged Neeson to "channel his grief" over the death of his own wife, Natasha Richardson. Carnahan disclosed, in a Q&A session following an early screening at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, that he had shot an alternative ending showing Neeson battling the alpha wolf. It was supposed to be included in deleted cuts, however, no extras were included on the Blu-ray.
Release
The world premiere of The Grey took place on January 11, 2012, at the Regal Cinemas Theatre in Los Angeles. The film was released nationwide on January 27, 2012.Marketing
Promotion for The Grey in part targeted Christian groups by issuing a "film companion", which highlighted the spiritual value of the film. Marketing also partnered with The Weather Network to highlight the hazardous filming conditions. Open Road Films incorporated comments tweeted by film critics to promote the film in the third trailer for The Grey. This was the first time tweets from and Twitter handles for professional critics had been used in a film trailer.Music
The score for The Grey was released on CD February 14, 2012. A digital version available for download was released on January 24, 2012.Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79% based on 207 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Grey is an exciting tale of survival, populated with fleshed-out characters and a surprising philosophical agenda." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.Roger Ebert gave the film 3 and a half stars out of 4, and wrote that the unrelenting harshness of The Grey so affected him that he departed the screening of a different movie on the same day:
The film also earned a place on A.O. Scott's list of the year's ten best films, and Slate film critic Dana Stevens included it in her runners-up for the year's best movies. Film critic Richard Roeper also had The Grey in his top 10 best movies of 2012 list, placing it at number 3.
Dissenters' reviews tend to focus on the film's abrupt ending and perceive the emotional and philosophical undertones as unnecessary. Siobhan Synnot of The Scotsman gave the film two stars, commenting that "On the down side, there's a lot of dull pretentious philosophizing about the heartlessness of nature and God. On the up side, you get to see a man punch a wolf in the face." Some reviewers and analysts have described the film as having an atheist theme, due to characters such as John Ottway pleading for divine help but not getting any.