Line #13 Film/Alaska


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alaska_movie_1996.jpg]]
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3	''Alaska'' is a 1996 family/adventure film directed by Fraser Clarke Heston and costarring his father, Creator/CharltonHeston.
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5	Sean Barnes (Creator/VincentKartheiser) and his sister Jessie (Creator/ThoraBirch) are two kids with a MissingMom who search for their bush pilot father Jake (Creator/DirkBenedict) after he goes missing in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}} Alaskan]] wilderness. The kids meet a polar bear cub who helps them along the way. Little do they know that a poacher named Colin Perry (Heston) -- who captured the cub after killing her mother in the beginning -- is pursuing them.
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9	!!This film contains examples of:
10	* AffablyEvil: Perry is friendly enough to Sean and Jessie. [[spoiler:Too bad about the poaching]].
11	* AgeAppropriateAngst: Sean, who reasonably gets angry over his mother being dead.
12	* BigBad: Colin Perry, the main antagonist of the film.
13	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:The polar bear cub helps Sean and Jessie rescue Jake and reunite with him]].
14	* BigNo: Sean yells "No!" when he and Jessie realize that [[spoiler:Perry is about to tranquilize the polar bear cub]]. And a few minutes later, Jessie does the same when [[spoiler:Perry escapes with the cub in his helicopter]].
15	* DeadGuyPuppet: Koontz takes the mother bear's hollowed out carcass and uses it as a hand puppet to taunt the baby.
16	* EpicFail: It's [[SarcasmMode rather impressive]] that the search-&-rescue team, who are ([[InformedAttribute supposedly]]) trained professionals, utterly fail to see the downed bright-yellow plane sticking out like a sore thumb on the edge of a brown mountain on a clear day, even after circling the area three times and ''flying right next to it''.
17	* EvilGloating: Perry delivers one before shooting the polar bear.
18	* EvilPoacher: Perry is a poacher who intends to recapture the polar bear after Sean and Jessie release him, then threatens the kids when they get in his way.
19	* FailedASpotCheck: How hard is it for the search and rescue team to spot a bright yellow plane against a bunch of snowy mountains? On a clear day at that?
20	* HarmlessFreezing: Apparently, kids can be barefoot out in the frigid Alaskan wilderness without so much as socks without any adverse affect. Not even frostbite.
21	* HateSink: While Sean may be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, the film does a ''very'' good job of making you utterly loathe the poacher duo. Perry killing the cub's mother in cold blood is bad enough, but Koontz ''waves around her carcass in front of her son's cage and taunts him.'' From there on, you'll be wanting them to suffer the most gruesome demises imaginable.
22	%% HiddenInPlainSight:
23	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Perry shoots Mr. Koontz and his helicopter with his own tranquilizer darts after the cub bites Perry's leg]].
24	* IdiotBall: The search and rescue team; see FailedASpotCheck.
25	* {{Jerkass}}: Koontz teases the cub with its mother's corpse for fun.
26	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though Sean can be abrasive to his father and sister, he knows that he deeply loves them and cares about all life, as shown when he [[spoiler:tries to rescue the polar bear cub]].
27	* KickTheDog: After the poachers killed a mother polar bear, Perry's pilot Koontz teases her captured cub by holding the mother's hide right in front of the cub's cage for fun.
28	--> '''Koontz:''' ''"It's a shame to separate a mother and child, isn't it?"''
29	* KidsWildernessEpic: Kids roughing it in the wilderness? Check. Friendly wild animal? Check. EvilPoacher? Check. There's even a MagicalNativeAmerican.
30	%% LargeHam: Perry once again.
31	* MagicalNativeAmerican: Ben the convenience store clerk, who even has a pet bald eagle. He calls him his "Tornac", or "spirit guide".
32	* MisplacedWildlife: The film is visibly set in Southern Alaska, where no Polar Bears actually live.
33	* PoliceAreUseless: The Alaskan Search-and-Rescue team [[spoiler:until the end of the film]], who somehow manage to miss a bright yellow plane on a prominent ridge and the distress signal he fires at them.
34	* SceneryPorn: This ''is'' Alaska we're talking about.
35	* VillainExitStageLeft: [[spoiler:Despite losing the cub and his helicopter, Perry and Koontz decide to make a break for it]].
36	* VisionQuest: Ben convinces Sean to treat the search like one. More traditionally, he hits a rock and has a vision of a polar bear that [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe]] gives him a spiritual connection to the bear cub.
37	* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Sean wished that Jake would have died instead of his mother. Later on, however, it turns into PartingWordsRegret.
38	* YourTomcatIsPregnant: The cub is referred as she for a while, until after a full-body hug from it Sean confirms it's a he. "Trust me, I got a very good look."

Context Film / Alaska