Fridae

In the beginning of The Grey, marksman and hunter John Ottway (Liam Neeson) attempts to kill himself with his shotgun. He doesn't go through with the plan but somehow, things almost work out to his original intent anyway – on the flight back from the oil drilling field, the plane carrying an entire company of hard-living tough guys, ex-cons, and no-gooders crashes in the snowy wastes, leaving the handful of survivors a choice of perishing from the cold or be hunted down and eaten alive by a pack of very angry wolves. Or be eaten alive by the meaner survivors.

How does anyone – even a group of tough guys – survive in the wild without any modern technology and weapons? Welcome to the entertainment of tonight: Man vs the great outdoors! Man vs wolf! Man vs man! In the arena of wild, untamed nature, red in tooth and claw! Ready! Fight!

Flourishing within its circumscribed boundaries and premise, The Grey plays like a gripping horror film that producer Ridley Scott made in the 1970s about a similarly ill-fated group of tough guys who face the choice of perishing in a hostile environment or be hunted down and eaten alive by alien lifeforms. There is the same sense of impending danger amidst the uneasy calm, the same uneasy, brittle makeshift alliance between a dwindling group of action heroes, the same surprisingly deep, philosophical discussions springing from a cast of characters makes you look at the genre film with new eyes.

While I'm not saying that The Grey is Alien in Alaska, I'm suggesting that under writer-director Joe Carnahan, the survival genre film has reached a new height in storytelling by going beyond its genre to evoke and improve upon a classic in a totally different genre. As always, the ensemble cast effort is what enables the film to fulfil its potential.

Never have I seen a more manly, rugged (and yet not camp) collection of actors on screen together. You'll be cheering for them to survive the winter snowstorm, the wolves, and each other... knowing perhaps that many, if not all, will have a macho last stand. And if you want to know who survives, do stay past the end of the credits.