The Grey (2011)

After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.

Director:

Joe Carnahan

Writers:

Joe Carnahan (screenplay), Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (screenplay)

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo

2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Liam Neeson	...	Ottway
Frank Grillo	...	Diaz
Dermot Mulroney	...	Talget
Dallas Roberts	...	Henrick
Joe Anderson	...	Flannery
Nonso Anozie	...	Burke
James Badge Dale	...	Lewenden
Ben Hernandez Bray	...	Hernandez (as Ben Hernandez)
Anne Openshaw	...	Ottway's Wife
Peter Girges	...	Company Clerk
Jonathan Bitonti	...	Ottway (5 years old) (as Jonathan James Bitonti)
James Bitonti	...	Ottway's Father
Ella Kosor	...	Talget's Little Girl
Jacob Blair	...	Cimoski
Lani Gelera	...	Flight Attendant

Storyline

In Alaska, a team of oil workers board a flight home; however, they cross a storm and the airplane crashes. Only seven workers survive in the wilderness and John Ottway, who is a huntsman that kills wolves to protect the workers, assumes leadership of the group. Shortly after they learn that they are surrounded by a pack of wolves and Ottway advises that they should seek protection in the woods. But while they walk through the heavy snow, they are chased and attacked by the carnivorous mammals.

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Plot Keywords:

alaska | wilderness | leadership | snow | survival | 

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Taglines:

Live or Die on This Day

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence/disturbing content including bloody images, and for pervasive language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 January 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Grey - Unter Wölfen

Filming Locations:

Smithers, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$19,665,101 (USA) (27 January 2012)

Gross:

$51,533,608 (USA) (6 April 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Open Road Films (II), Inferno Distribution, LD Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The ending scene song "Into the Fray" was originally composed by Jamin Winans as "The City Surf" for his movie Ink (2009).

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Goofs

After the plane crash Ottway is seen covered in snow, but when he gets to the plane to see the survivors there is almost no snow on his sweater.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ottway: A job at the end of the world. A salaried killer for a big petroleum company. I don't know why I did half the things I've done, but I know this is where I belong, surrounded by my own. Ex-cons, fugitives, drifters, assholes. Men unfit for mankind.

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Crazy Credits

There's a scene after the end credits.

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Connections

Referenced in Sled Pirani (2014)

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Soundtracks

Running A.D. Part 2
Songwriter Mark Kevin Wilson
Produced by Vintage Masters Music
Performed by Lucian Blaque
Courtesy of Fervor Records Vintage Masters, a division of Wild Whirled Music

User Reviews

Existential allegory

This is a really depressing and disturbing film - almost certainly a bust at the box office but "The Grey" is really really good - an existentialist parable - in wolves clothing.

Life is nasty - it is a struggle without meaning except for the struggle itself and the nobility in having done that well regardless of the end result. That's what the film was about - not an action picture

• not a scientifically accurate portrayal of wolves but an allegory - a

metaphor about the existential view of life.

The circling and relentless wolves - the beautiful yet cold and uncaring Siberian landscape - the different attitudes of the participants to the pointless struggle yet heroic effort which no one will ever know about - succinct, powerful and poignant.

One of the few films that will be remembered in future decades in what has been a especially weak year. "The Grey" is not for the faint of heart or those looking for cheap thrills - but it is an unusually brave and beautiful exposition of an unpopular and depressing philosophical view of life...