History Film / TheGrey

* BigBad: The Alpha leader of the wolf. The one with the black fur.

''The Grey'' is a survival {{Thriller}} film starring Creator/LiamNeeson and directed by Creator/JoeCarnahan. The film centers around a group of UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}n 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 from an aggressively territorial pack of wolves.

* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: [[spoiler: Diaz tells Ottway and Hendrick that he can't continue any further after suffering a knee injury. He makes peace with them and himself before they move on]].

** [[NeverTrustATrailer The film's trailers,]], at least give the impression that the writers don't understand real wolves, which are known to be skittish around fire and humans, whether or not they've encountered them before. It's handled more realistically in the actual film, where it's revealed that the survivors were treading very close to the wolves' den -- the cause of most violent wolf encounters in RealLife.
** That said, AlphaAndBetaWolves is in full effect, with Ottway describing complex hierarchies within the pack extending to even Gamma wolves. The theory of "alpha" and "beta" wolves is long since discredited, as wolf packs in the wild are family units typically consisting of a breeding pair (the "alpha") and their offspring, not unrelated adult wolves vying for dominance (wolves in ''captivity'' have been observed behaving like this, which lead to the 1947 paper "Expressions Studies on Wolves" by animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel based on wolves in the Basel Zoo in Switzerland, the source of these misconceptions).

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: If Ottway killed the alpha, the rest of the pack dispersed. He now has the means to acquire a wolf skin, and any additional supplies. It all just might be enough to survive till reaching civilization. With that said though, he’s pretty much the {{sole survivor}} of the whole plot.]]

-->'''Ottway:''' You gonna die, that's what's happening.

* ChallengingTheChief: We can hear one of the wolves challenge The Alpha and mere minutes later the same happens with the human pack. [[spoiler:Both Alphas win.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:This is part of the reason Diaz decides to stay behind, along with his bad leg. He doesn't feel there's any reason anymore.]]
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Almost all of the survivors eventually end up dying either to the elements or to the wolves.]]
* DramaticIrony: In the very end Ottway discovers [[spoiler: they were getting deeper and deeper into the wolves' territory all the time, right to the point of reaching the den in the final scene]].

* DwindlingParty: The wolves pick them off one by one. Either that, or the Alaskan environment.
* EarlyBirdCameo: 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.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Played with in that everyone is dead or dying by the end, which should make it a direct tragic ending. However, Ottoway finally finds closure, accepts both his and his wife's death, and confronts his fears.]]

* FinalBoy / SoleSurvivor: Ottway. Maybe.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] -- wolves have reflective eyes to improve night vision.

* ImprovisedWeapon: 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.
* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: [[spoiler: Diaz tells Ottway and Hendrick that he can't continue any further after suffering a knee injury. He makes peace with them and himself before they move on.]]
%% * {{Jerkass}}: Diaz. He gets better.

* LastStand: [[spoiler: If Ottway wasn't going to survive, he was at least going to go down fighting.]]

* TheMedic: Henrick, who is the one treating all injuries and with actual medical knowledge.
* MilesGloriosus: 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.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The marketing traded very heavily on Liam Neeson's [[ActorAllusion fame]] from ''Taken.'' The movie itself is decidedly ''not'' "Bryan Mills punches wolves to death for two hours."

* NonMaliciousMonster: The wolves may be extremely dangerous, but they’re not acting out malice. Rather, they’re aggressively defending their territory against the men, whom they perceive as encroaching upon their land. [[spoiler: The film’s finale actually shows that the men were gradually moving closer to the wolves’ den, explaining why they were behaving so aggressively.]]

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:The promised fight between Ottway and the alpha wolf 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.]]

* OutOfTheFryingPan: [[spoiler:After spending the film being hunted by wolves Ottway realizes in horror that he's traveled right into their den. The entire time he had been moving towards danger rather than away from it.]]

* TheStinger:
** [[spoiler:Ottway and the alpha wolf lying in a heap after their fight, barely alive. Due to the closeness of the camera, you can only see the wolf's side breathing heavily, and the back of Ottway's head resting upon it. Whether or not either of the two will survive is up for debate, though think about the following two points:]]
** [[spoiler: The heavy breathing of the wolf is a deliberate callback to the beginning of the film, where a mortally wounded wolf is breathing similarly before Ottway ends its misery.]]
** [[spoiler: Ottway's head is ON TOP of the wolf, implying that Ottway collapsed after the wolf did, and may in fact only be resting, catching his breath after the (no doubt) demanding fight.]]
*** [[spoiler: On the other hand, we don't see him move and it's rather more likely that he simply succumbed to his wounds after the wolf did and that the rest of the pack is waiting for him to bleed out.]]
*** [[spoiler:In place of that, it's pointed out in the Fridge Briliance of the YMMV that he may have succumbed to hypothermia. A sympton of hypothermia is a false feeling of warmness, and Ottway removes his jacket, gloves, and hat after climbing out of a freezing river, implying this.]]
* SuperPersistentPredator: Or rather, predator'''s''', hunting in a pack. Justified by the fact that they are in the wolf pack's personal territory, and as such are being hunted because they're a threat rather than purely for food. [[spoiler: Further justified by TheReveal that they've been heading straight ''towards'' the pack's den, making the aggressiveness very understandable.]]

* WorthyOpponent: Well about as much as a wolf might regard a human anyway. The pack's Alpha stops them from tearing Ottway to pieces in lieu of [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou going mano-a-lupo]] with him.

* GreatWhiteHunter: Ottway is described as such by [[EthnicScrappy Diaz]].

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:Hernandez as the first victim of the wolves stands out as this, as he knew aggressive wolves were in the area and it's dark, but despite being on watch while everyone is asleep still decides to walk far away from the fire just to pee as opposed to two feet away, and this gets him eaten alive.]]

''The Grey'' is a survival {{Thriller}} film starring Creator/LiamNeeson and directed by Creator/JoeCarnahan. The film centers around a group of UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}n 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.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: [[NeverTrustATrailer The film's trailers, at least,]] give the impression that the writers don't understand real wolves, which are known to be skittish around fire and humans, whether or not they've encountered them before. It's handled more realistically in the actual film, where it's revealed that the survivors were treading very close to the wolves' den -- the cause of most violent wolf encounters in RealLife.
%% * BearsAreBadNews: Averted in a deleted scene.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: Not one person who got on that plane survives, with the exception ([[TheStinger maybe]]) of Ottway.]]

''The Grey'' is a survival film starring Creator/LiamNeeson and directed by Creator/JoeCarnahan. The film centers around a group of UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}n 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.

* NotSoDifferent: Ottway and the Alpha, both are doing everything necessary to protect their packs. Ottway even goes as far as making makeshift claws out of a knife and broken bottles during the [[spoiler: LastStand]].