Movie #7 - The Grey

The Grey turned out to be a nice little surprise packet for me - a free movie I was starting to feel indifferent about going to see which was actually a solid, tense survival thriller.

A simple tale of seven survivors of a plane crash, based on a short story, has been stretched out into a two hour marathon that probably could have been a bit shorter.  The setting is Alaska where a group of workers for an oil rig are on a flight to a job when the turbulence becomes something a bit more.... well it's no secret that the plane crashes, some die and some survive.  Liam Neeson's Ottway is the most practical guy in the bunch - as a sniper whose job it is to shoot the wolves and bears that would otherwise snack on the oil rig staff while they work, he has some hunting and survival skills.  The others are a motley crew of former crims and hard working men who don't live with their families anymore.  As the group of seven survivors gather their wits and try to form a plan to survive in the extreme cold, an extra problem quickly makes itself known to them: a pack of unfriendly wolves who think the guys are in their territory.  Ottway soon convinces the men to head across the icy expanse for some distant trees where they will be safer and could even trek towards some kind of civilisation.

Although there are several plot developments that defy credibility (why would they ever leave the plane, they could barricade it and defend it a lot easier and they are more likely to be found with the wreckage than in the woods plus how do they go from struggling to walk through powdery snow up to their knees one minute to blithely running across the snow when the wolves erupt from cover), if you can suspend disbelief at this early juncture then it is quite an enjoyably tense survival thriller.  At several points in the film I found my shoulders up around my ear level and even sitting forward, and I had to tell myself to relax and untense the shoulders.

The tale progresses as you would expect with survivors being picked off one by one, however the method and timing of deaths is not exactly as expected which keeps it a little surprising.  It also has a refreshing angle that this isn't a group of guys who are close friends and start to turn on each other in difficult circumstances (this is definitely not "Alive").  Instead they start off as virtual strangers and begrudging allies and grow comfortable with each other, if not exactly close, as the journey progresses.  Points for trying to put a bit of heart into this and make it not just about creative deaths.  I also enjoyed the ending but as I've promised not to give any spoilers I won't say a word about this.  I have just discovered there's a scene after the end credits so if anyone goes to see it, can they stay and watch and let me know what it was?

Interestingly there were less scenes involving the wolf pack than I thought there was going to be, and for B there were more wolf scenes than he thought there would be.  It is probably best to go in with not much expectation but there is a nice balance of enemies: wolves, cold, injuries, mental strength, mother nature.  The wolves are nicely done, not too big or CGI but effectively spooky (when they howl off in the distance) and menacing (up close and personal) by turns.  I enjoyed this and it definitely kept me awake and pumped full of adrenalin for a late Friday night flick after a hard week at work.  I give this 3 stars out of 5 but it's probably better than a lot of what's on at the moment.