The Grey (film)

The Grey (film)
The Grey is a 2011 survival thriller film co-written, produced and directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, Nonso Anozie, 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 multiple packs of Canadian grey wolves, stalking them during the mercilessly cold weather.
Released in the United States on January 27, 2012, the film received positive reviews, with praise for its philosophical themes, and for Liam Neeson's performance. It grossed $81 million worldwide.
Plot
John Ottway works as a sharpshooter at a remote Alaskan oil facility to protect workers from grey wolf attacks. The death of his wife from a terminal illness has left him deeply disappointed in his life, and he contemplates suicide on the last day of his service. The next day, he embarks on the return flight to Anchorage with other workers from the oil company. Shortly after takeoff, their plane crashes in an icy wilderness. The few survivors first set themselves up in the plane wreckage. During the night, one of the survivors is killed by wolves, initially without the others' notice. Ottway explains that the wolf pack must have a nearby den and feels threatened. Ideally, the wolves should leave the group alone if they move away, but the prospect of wandering toward the den and arousing the wolves' aggression proves problematic. Not expecting a rescue, the group decides the next morning to mobilize. While searching for the wallets of the dead to return to their families, Diaz finds an emergency wristwatch with a radio beacon, which he hopes will send a signal for a rescue.
The remaining survivors head south to escape the frozen landscape. After some time of marching, Todd, straying from the group, is killed by wolves. When the group is attacked again at nightfall, they run into a forest and light several campfires there to protect themselves from the wolves. Diaz breaks down due 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 cook for food. Ottway speculates that 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, which causes the wolves to howl in rage.
By the fire, Diaz tells the group that he believes in atheism, and Talget states that he believes in God and lovingly talks about his daughter. Ottway says that he is also an atheist but wishes that he could believe or have faith, and recites a simple poem written by his father. The next day, a blizzard hits, and Burke, who had been suffering from hypoxia, is found dead. In the morning the group comes to the edge of a canyon. The survivors attempt to lower themselves off the canyon using an improvised rope, but Talget falls to the ground, where he is killed by wolves. Attempting to save Talget, Diaz falls and injures his knee.
Diaz, Ottway, and Henrick 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 Henrick continue and are chased by the wolves. Henrick falls into the river and is trapped beneath the surface by a tree trunk; Ottway is unable to pull him out and Henrick drowns. In a clearing, Ottway — alone, exhausted, and suffering from hypothermia — arranges the collected wallets and the wristwatch into a cross, and belatedly realizes that he has stumbled into the wolves' den. Faced with the alpha, Ottway arms himself with a knife and shards of liquor bottles taped to his hand. In a voice-over, he recites the poem to himself as he enters what he expects to be his last stand. Ottway and the alpha charge at each other and the screen cuts to black.
In the post-credits scene, Ottway and the alpha wolf are shown breathing heavily and lying down on each other, leaving their fates unknown.
Cast
Liam Neeson as John Ottway
Frank Grillo as John Diaz
Dermot Mulroney as Jerome Talget
Dallas Roberts as Pete Henrick
Joe Anderson as Todd Flannery
Nonso Anozie as Jackson Burke
James Badge Dale as Luke Lewenden
Ben Bray as Dwayne Hernandez
Greg Nicotero as Duke Chavis
Jacob Blair as Simon Cimoski
Anne Openshaw as Ana Ottway
Production
The Grey reunited director Joe Carnahan with producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott (credited as executive producer) as well as actor Liam Neeson, who collaborated on the 2010 action film The A-Team. The film initially imagined a much-younger lead character and
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 in Vancouver and Smithers, British Columbia, with several scenes 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 wife Natasha Richardson. Carnahan disclosed, in a Q&A session following an early screening at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, he had an alternative ending he never intended to use 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 209 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. 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 reviews from 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 the unrelenting harshness of The Grey so affected him, 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 "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 say the film has an atheist theme, due to characters such as John Ottway (Liam Neeson) pleading for divine help but not getting any.
Box office
The Grey opened in North America on January 27, 2012 in 3,185 theaters and grossed $19.7 million in its opening weekend, with an average of $6,174 per theater, finishing first. The film ultimately earned $51.6 million domestically, and $29.7 million internationally, for a total of $81.2 million, against its $25 million production budget.
Controversy
On January 19, 2012, British Columbia's The Province featured an article about the movie's crew buying four wolf carcasses, two for props for the film and two wolves for the cast to eat. This angered environmentalists and animal activists, irate because the film depicts wolves in a negative light, specifically at a time grey wolves are not on any Endangered Species Act in many western American states. In response to the portrayal of wolves in the film, groups including PETA and WildEarth Guardians started drives to boycott the film. Open Road responded by placing a fact sheet about the grey wolf on the film's official website while the Sierra Club cooperated. Carnahan responded to the criticism by saying the film is meant to reflect humanity's internal spiritual journeys.
References
External links
Smithers Regional Airport
2011 films
Films with atheism-related themes
2011 action drama films
2010s disaster films
American action adventure films
American adventure drama films
American disaster films
American action drama films
American survival films
British thriller films
Entertainment One films
Films about aviation accidents or incidents
Films about death
Films based on American short stories
Films directed by Joe Carnahan
Films produced by Ridley Scott
Films set in Alaska
Films set in the Arctic
Films shot in Vancouver
Open Road Films films
Scott Free Productions films
Films about wolves
Films with screenplays by Joe Carnahan
Films produced by Joe Carnahan
Films scored by Marc Streitenfeld
Films critical of religion
2010s survival films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
2010s British films
2011 thriller films