The Grey

""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.""

The Grey is a survival thriller starring Liam Neeson and directed by Joe Carnahan (Smokin Aces, The a Team, Narc). The film centers around a group of Alaskan oil workers who get caught in a plane crash on the way to Anchorage, and have to both survive the wilderness and fend off attacks by dangerous man-eating wolves.

The film was released in January 2012, and while some animal rights groups boycotted the film for its "questionable" portrayal of wolves, it was well received critically with critics praising its surprising substance, suspense, and Neeson's particularly powerful performance.

This film contains examples of the following tropes:

 * Action Survivor: Pretty much everyone is way out of their element, deep in the Alaskan wilderness, and their only goal is to survive the sub-zero temperatures and wolf attacks.
 * Alaska: In all its frigid glory.
 * Arc Words: "Live and die on this day...", "Don't be afraid."
 * Big Badass Wolf: The Alpha is huge, black, and has an impressive, mane-like ruff around his neck.
 * : The film ends with
 * California Doubling: The film was shot in British Columbia, which often doubles for Alaska.
 * Cluster F Bomb
 * Dead All Along:
 * Despair Event Horizon:
 * Driven to Suicide: Ottway contemplates this, and seems about to go through with it in the opening scene.
 * Dwindling Party
 * Early Bird Cameo: All of the main survivors appear in the bar at the beginning of the film, including Diaz who (very much in-character) starts a minor brawl.
 * Everythings Worse With Bears: Averted in a deleted scene.
 * Everythings Worse With Wolves: The plot of the film. Highly aggressive and fiercely territorial, these wolves have never encountered humans before.
 * Give Me a Sign: After, Ottway screams at the heavens demanding help from God.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Justified - wolves have reflective eyes to improve night vision.
 * Gory Discretion Shot - Twice.
 * The first instance is when
 * The second instance is when
 * Great White Hunter: Ottway is described as such by Diaz.
 * Improvised Weapon: A few. Early in the film, the others fend a wolf off Ottway with various detritus from the crash. Later, Ottway fashions one-use spears from a stick, some tape, and a single shotgun shell. Finally, as shown in the trailer, Ottway uses a few empty bottles of airline-sized liquor taped between his fingers as a knuckleduster.
 * I Will Only Slow Youdown:
 * Jerkass: Diaz. He gets better.
 * Jump Scare: A couple, mostly involving - you guessed it - the wolves.
 * Last Stand:
 * Miles Gloriosus: Diaz considers himself a Badass who isn't afraid of anything, and mocks Ottway for admitting that he's scared. He's quickly shown how foolish his bravado is.
 * My God What Have I Done:
 * Names the Same: Both . They share a laugh after realizing this.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The marketing traded very heavily on Liam Neeson's fame from Taken. The movie itself is decidedly not "Bryan Mills punches wolves to death for two hours."
 * Nothing Is Scarier: While we do have plenty of scenes with the wolves onscreen, there are other times where we only hear them.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome/Never Trust a Trailer: is never shown on screen. We get a brief shot after the credits of the aftermath, but it's too close up to really tell the outcome.
 * Peaceful in Death: Ottway does his best to make the first man's death this way - instead of telling him he's going to be fine, he says straight out, "You're going to die. That's what's happening." Then he encourages him to think about whom he loves, and let her take him.
 * Primal Fear: The entire film runs on this and never lets up.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: "Fuck faith! Earn it!"
 * Red Herring: The
 * The
 * The Reveal: What exactly Ottway meant when he said
 * Scary Black Man: Strongly averted. Burke is the only black character, and is physically the largest, but also one of the kindest and most magnanimous; his first line is him criticizing Diaz for, well, being Diaz.
 * Shout Out: Talget's cap, a black cap with the yellow letters "WY" are the same colors of the Weyland-Yutani logo from Alien. Ridley Scott, director of Alien, produced this film.
 * The Stinger:
 * Super Persistent Predator: Or rather, predators, hunting in a pack.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Sure Diaz,  and taunt the wolves about it. It's not like they have reason to be pissed off enough already. Oh wait.
 * Not to mention he was  just a few moments ago while it was clearly established that the group was completely surrounded by the ever-present wolves
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The shot of Ottway creating the makeshift bottle knuckles and beginning to fight the Alpha...is the last shot of the film.
 * True Art Is Angsty: The movie is basically 180 minutes of people failing and dying, with no particular point as to why. Perfect for getting yourself out of depressive episodes!
 * World Half Empty: This is NOT a happy movie. At all.
 * X Meets Y: Final Destination meets...a pack of angry wolves.
 * True Art Is Angsty: The movie is basically 180 minutes of people failing and dying, with no particular point as to why. Perfect for getting yourself out of depressive episodes!
 * World Half Empty: This is NOT a happy movie. At all.
 * X Meets Y: Final Destination meets...a pack of angry wolves.