The Grey

The Grey is a 2011 horror survival film co-written, produced and directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo 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 a pack of wolves stalking them amidst mercilessly cold weather.

Plot
John Ottway works in Alaska as a marksman for an undisclosed oil company, killing wolves that threaten the drillers. On his last day on the job, he shoots one. That evening, Ottway writes a letter "without purpose" to his wife, Ana, explaining his plans to commit suicide. He hears a distant wolf howl and doesn't follow through.

The next day, Ottway and other oil drillers board a plane. During the flight, Chavis, Grace, Chase, Lucian, Singe, Kahn, Jackson, Ottway, Daniels, Lewenden, Oxendine, Flannery, Burke, Calfskin & Cimoski are sitting on Thier seats on the left side, & Kraven, Corvin, Hendrick, Underwood, Hernandez, Diaz, & Talget are sitting in thier seats on the right side chatting together. Ottway dreams of sleeping with his wife in bed but is awakened by a loud bang. He buckles up in fear of a possible plane crash. Shortly afterwards, the back of the plane is torn off and it crashes. the first oil worker, Chavis, who is Pinned under his seat. Ottway doesnt help him properly and he dies slowly before Eight people including Ottway survive the crash. However, the last oil worker, Lewenden, dies of his injuries as Ottway sadly watches. Taking charge, Ottway sets the survivors on the task of building a fire. While doing this, he discovers a corpse, and is attacked by the grey wolffeeding on it. After saving Ottway, the group soon surmises that they are in the wolves' territory. Diaz Loots his friend Calfskin’s Body & They decide to take turns keeping watch for the predators.

Later, Hernandez is killed by two wolves. Ottway suggests they leave the crash site, but Diaz questions his leadership. While searching for the wallets of their deceased colleagues, intending to return them to their families, Diaz finds an emergency wrist watch containing a radio beacon. The group then leaves the site.

While walking, Flannery falls behind, and is killed by wolves. One of them spots a pack of wolves approaching and the survivors run for the trees, lighting a fire in an attempt to ward off their attackers. The group sets about producing makeshift weaponry. A stressed Diaz loses his cool somewhat and belligerently threatens Ottway with a knife, but is quickly disarmed and begins regretting his actions. As he's about to apologize, he's suddenly pounced upon by a wolf from behind. An omega wolf sent by the alpha wolf to test them, Ottway later surmises, after the survivors manage to kill it and then roast it for food. A bloodied and crazed Diaz, elated at having survived the attack, beheads the corpse and loudly howls like a wolf, then defiantly throws the severed head back at the pack. A move noted by the group as possibly unwise, as they accept a statement that "wolves are known to take revenge".

While sitting around the fire, Diaz tells the group of his atheism and Talget states he believes in God and lovingly talks about his daughter. Ottway states he is also an atheist, but wishes he could believe or have faith; he then recites a simple poem written by his father. A blizzard approaches; some survivors set to maintaining the fire while the others get some rest.

The following morning, Burke, who had earlier been suffering from hypoxia, is found dead. The remaining survivors leave the camp and travel to the edge of a steep canyon. Hendrick secures a line across to a tall tree opposite and Diaz & Ottway traverse the canyon. Talget, however, is afraid of heights and with the added handicap of a bleeding mangled hand, when his foot becomes caught on a hook, in the ensuing struggle the rope breaks away. He falls to the ground, getting severely thrashed by tree branches on the way down; barely alive, he hallucinates a vision of his daughter, but is instantly set upon and dragged away & ripped apart by four wolves. While attempting to save Talget, Diaz falls from the tree and badly injures his knee.

Diaz, Ottway, and Hendrick continue and arrive at a river. There, Diaz, humbled by his journey and unable to walk on, explains that he can accept dying in the middle of nature and will not try to keep running. They part company, leaving a tearful Diaz contemplating the glorious mountainous vista, resigned to his fate. Reluctantly Ottway and Hendrick continue on together. Further along the river, Ottway and Hendrick are set upon by the wolves. In an attempt to flee, Hendrick falls into the river and in the chaos is trapped beneath the surface when his foot gets wedged between boulders. Ottway attempts to save him but unable to pull him loose, Hendrick soon drowns. Frustrated and now alone, Ottway looks up and angrily appeals to God for help, to "show him something real", but seeing nothing, he decides he will “do this on my own.”

Ottway, cold and wet, continues on alone. Exhausted, he stops walking and begins going through the collected wallets of the others. Ottway then realizes he has stumbled right into the wolves' den - and that the team had been steadily walking towards, not away from, the source of danger. Surrounded by the pack and having the leader of the pack standing in front of him, he looks at his wife's photo in his wallet; it is then revealed that she was dying of a terminal illness (hence his own futility earlier) and that he was trying to kill himself earlier in the film but unable to do so. As the large, snarling alpha wolf approaches him, Ottway arms himself with a knife and shards of glass from small liquor bottles taped to his other hand. He recites the words "Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day."

In a brief post-credits scene, the alpha wolf lies on the ground, breathing slowly and deeply. Ottway lies against the wolf, viewed from the back - his fate is unclear.

Cast

 * Liam Neeson as John Ottway
 * Frank Grillo as John Diaz
 * Dermot Mulroney as Jerome Talget
 * Dallas Roberts as Pete Hendrick
 * Joe Anderson as Todd Flannery
 * Nonso Anozie as Jackson Burke
 * James Badge Dale as Luke Lewenden
 * Ben Hernandez Bray as Dwayne Hernandez
 * Greg Nicotero as Duke Chavis
 * Kit Mallet as Juan Lopez
 * Jacob Blair as Simon Cimoski
 * David Hospes as David Calfskin
 * Hugo Steel as Jack Daniels
 * Lloyd Adams as Hugh Chase
 * David De Iaco as Chris Oxendine
 * Charles Jarman as Wayne Kahn
 * Todd Scott as Phillip Kraven
 * Doug Chapman as John Jackson
 * Vince Murducco as James Underwood
 * Lee Hadvale as Dwayne Singe
 * Grant Smith as John Jackson
 * Kory Grim as Todd Grace
 * 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. Though set in Alaska, the film was shot in Vancouver and Smithers, British Columbia, with several scenes being 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 own wife, Natasha Richardson. Carnahan disclosed, in a Q&A session following an early screening at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, that he had shot an alternative ending (that he'd 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.