Liam Neeson plays John Ottway, for lack of a better word, a
wolf-killer. His job is to kill wolves that attack oilmen along the pipeline in
Alaska. Apparently wolves are VERY territorial, and will kill other creatures
invading within a certain radius of their den.
Like most Alaska films, the life in Alaska basically sucks.
It’s lonely, full of riff-raff, the down-trodden, and people who are punishing
themselves after losing everything they ever cared about. For a movie based on
a “short story” at times it dragged on. A group of men from the oil company and
Ottway are flying back to Anchorage for some time-off when their plane crashes
leaving just seven men alive in the middle of the cold, nasty, forbidding land
of Alaska.
To make matters worse, they’ve crashed in the “territory” of
a nasty pack of large aggressive wolves. As in most survival movies, there’s
personality conflicts, challenges for leadership, and all around unproductive
behavior, meanwhile the wolf pack is picking off the men one by one as they try
to walk their way to safety.
It wasn’t a bad movie, but as I said before, it did linger a
bit. Why is it that we assume that as a man-creature, we would automatically
become fragile, helpless things when left to our own abilities in the wildlife?
Here’s a clue, when you have big nasties who want to kill you, the first thing
you should do is sharpen a stick… and when they come, you stab them with it
repeatedly why screaming your head off. Not only does it work some of the time,
but it’s entertaining for those around you, and they may even elect you chief
of the new tribe.
Joking aside, if you’re into these survival type movies, go
for it. There’s no eating the dead, so I thought that was a plus. I didn’t
quite believe the wolves’ behavior, but hey, it’s a movie. I will tell you one
thing, so if you don’t want the end spoiled, this is your chance to look away.
Are you still here? Off we go shall we…? The movie ends without you knowing what
happened. The reason I mention this is that a lot of people I know will base a
whole movie on the ending. So if you don’t mind cliffhanger endings, you’ll
like the movie. If that kind of thing pisses you off, you’ll hate it.
No go off you crazy kids, and build some spears or something….
