The Grey Lives up to Hype, Stuns Audiences. “Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live or die on this day. Live or die on this day.” After I watched the trailer for The Grey , I thought it would be a Jack London fused version of Taken , which would feature Liam Neeson killing off about a hundred wolves to get back to his wife/daughter. However, about 30 minutes into this film I realized it was man that was being hunted, and not the other way around. The Grey is the story of seven men surviving the harsh Alaskan wilderness in the face of hunger, sub-zero temperatures, and most notably w olves. These men are all outcasts: thieves, murderers, and loners that have withdrawn to this frozen corner of the world to get away from whatever they have left behind. It would seem that these men have nothing to live for. However, after a plane crash kills many of their companions and leaves only seven men left alive, they find a reason to trudge on and fight for their lives, no matter what the cost. Among the survivors is Liam Neeson’s character of John Ottway. Ottway is a quiet, tough, and “skilled” born leader that has to disavow his loner tendencies for the welfare of the entire group. Ottway is the most level-headed of all of the men, even after having nearly committed suicide a few hours before the plane crash. Neeson once again does a great job at portraying the tough, “plays by his own rules” outcast that he has previously played in movies like Taken, The A-Team, and Rob Roy. What absolutely amazes me is that Neeson is 60 years old (old enough to be my grandpa) and he is running around killing wolves with his bare hands. Even though he’s 60, and even though this role isn’t a leap of diversity for Neeson, he plays the part perfectly, and holds up his reputation as one of Hollywood’s finest actors. Besides Liam Neeson, this film had a relatively unknown cast that is full of potential. One of the main reasons I saw this film in the first place was the actor James Badge Dale, a promising actor who has stared in HBO’s The Pacific as Robert Leckie and AMC’s Rubicon as Will Travers. Unfortunately, his character of Lewenden dies a few minutes into the movie with a tear-jerking death scene, and other actors go on to steal the show. One actor that I thought was phenomenal in this movie was Joe Anderson. Anderson is a Kurt Cobain-looking English actor who has previously starred in the Beatles fused Vietnam musical Across the Universe and the Ian Curtis biopic Control. Anderson played the part of the skeptical, screw-up funny guy perfectly, and added some much needed comic relief to the first half of this movie. Also in this movie is Frank Grillo, playing the hot headed, reluctant to follow orders character of John Diaz. Grillo has previously played Eddie Carbone in the cop thriller Pride and Glory and martial arts trainer Frank Campana in the MMA masterpiece Warrior . Grillo does a great job in this film, playing a remarkable counterpart to the obvious leader of the group, Ottway. Overall, I thought The Grey was a perfect mix between action and sentiment, the film’s many suspense-filled scenes kept me on the edge of my seat while actually feeling something about the characters in the film. This movie is fantastic at slowly progressive, suspense-filled scenes that keep viewers worried about all of the characters in the film. The Grey was made to be watched on the big screen. Fantastic cinematography, awesome sound effects, and a large number of high pace action scenes make this movie fantastic to watch in theatres. This movie also features the best plane crash scene I have ever seen in a film; however what made this scene so great was the tremendous, unobvious buildup to a scene I already knew was going to take place. Everyone who has seen the trailer for this movie knows that the plot is centered around a plane crash, yet the film still does an awesome job building up the scene without making it Final Destination obvious that the crash is going to happen. After watching this movie, I instantly watched all of the survival movies I could muster, but I was left with one solution: The Grey is the greatest survival movie ever made. Don’t get me wrong, Into the Wild, 127 Hours, and Cast Away are some of my favorite films ever made, but none of these movies have the sheer terror and suspense that The Grey provides. The ending of The Grey also helps to make it the greatest survival movie ever made. I won’t elaborate for fear of ruining this movie for people, but see this movie, and make sure you stick around after the closing credits. My Rating: 8.5/10