[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grizzly_man_poster.png]]
[[caption-width-right:299:Time to learn that NatureIsNotNice.]]
''Grizzly Man'' is a 2005 American documentary film by German director Creator/WernerHerzog and featuring a musical score from Music/RichardThompson.

It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast, wildlife activist, and aspiring documentarian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell Timothy Treadwell.]] Treadwell, a self-taught bear researcher, spent thirteen summers of his life in Alaska's Katmai National Park, in close proximity to grizzly bears. Treadwell's habit of living amongst grizzly bears without taking any safety precautions bemused both professional bear researchers and Alaskan locals, but also made him a minor celebrity. Things ended horribly, however, when Treadwell's last trip among the bears ended with him and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard being eaten.

For ''Grizzly Man'', Herzog used sequences extracted from more than 85 hours of video footage shot by Treadwell during the last five years of his life, and conducted interviews with Treadwell's family and friends, as well as bear and nature experts. Herzog also narrates, and offers his own interpretations of the events. In his narration, he depicts Treadwell as a disturbed man who may have had a death wish toward the end of his life, but also refuses to condemn him for this.

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!!Tropes associated with ''Grizzly Man'':

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: A family of foxes is shown to allow Treadwell to feed and pet them, and the cubs often follow him around. The bears, naturally, avert this. And for all his enthusiasm, Treadwell appears to be aware of that.
* AssholeVictim: Conversed. Treadwell was a polarizing figure in his lifetime and regardless of personal opinion, Treadwell and Amie's deaths are deeply devastating to their loved ones and the documentary pulls no punches in showing the sheer tragedy of the attack and the impact it had on Treadwell and Amie's loved ones.
** Treadwell's friends and family are still mourning his and Amie's deaths and don't shy away from showing their grief on camera. Treadwell's mother still keeps his room in pristine condition and his friend is barely restraining her tears when Herzog urges her to destroy the recording of Treadwell's death.
** The park rangers hold back their personal dislike towards Treadwell out of respect and their tone of voice implies they weren't surprised that he was killed by a bear. They show more pity for Amie for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
*** The curator of the Alutiiq Museum is visibly uncomfortable speaking ill of Treadwell, but when pressed by Werner he minces no words in laying out that Treadwell's beliefs were fundamentally flawed and that he ultimately brought his end upon himself, while still reiterating that his and Amie's deaths were nevertheless a tragedy.
*** The only person who shamelessly insults Treadwell on camera is one of the pilots who assisted in recovering Treadwell's remains, Sam Egli. Egli stated that it was Treadwell's own fault for being so careless, calls him "mentally retarded", and goes as far as to say "He got what he deserved, in my opinion, the tragedy of it was taking the girl with him."
*** The coroner is a bit more theatrical on camera while describing Treadwell's death but it's more because [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror he's used to seeing this sort of thing]]. In fact, the coroner actually shows a lot more respect towards Treadwell as he reveals that Treadwell used his last moments to tell Amie to run and save herself.
* ApocalypticLog: Timothy's last tape, a rogue grizzly bear wandered into his and Amie's tent looking for food and mauled them both to death. Timothy was the first victim and due to the frantic situation, the lens cap was left on as the bear attacked him.
* BadassesWearBandanas: Wearing a bandana was Treadwell's trademark as remembered by his ex-girlfriend.
* BearsAreBadNews: The bears shown in the documentary were shown to be pacified around Treadwell due to his constant appearances. The rogue bear, however, was a solitary animal that had never interacted with him before. On the night of Timothy and Amie's death, the rogue accidentally found their tent on the hunt for food and attacked them out of desperation. One of the pilots who found Treadwell's remains, Sam Egli, believes the bears only left Treadwell alone because they were more confused by his antics than aggravated.
* BerserkButton: Treadwell gets uncharacteristically profane when a fox steals his hat, but no more than most people would get at a misbehaving pet. However, it gets worse when he goes on an unnerving rant about poachers.
* BetterAsFriends: Timothy and Jewel remained close even after they broke up. There was apparently no bitterness or tension over the break-up because Jewel said that she missed both Timothy ''and'' Amie.
* BladeOfGrassCut: Herzog speaks with admiration of Treadwell's talents as a filmmaker. There are several beautiful scenes captured by Treadwell's camera, like a closeup of a fox sitting in tall grass, or a bumblebee on a flower.
* BrutalHonesty:
** A pilot who was at the scene, Sam Egli, pulls no punches on his summation of Timothy. Egli points out that all things considered, Tim was more than likely delusional, possibly mentally handicapped, and, in the pilot's opinion, brought his death upon himself.
** The curator of the Alutiiq Museum is clearly uncomfortable about speaking ill of the dead, but when asked for his honest opinion on Treadwell, he is almost as blunt: Treadwell had no business interacting with the bears in the way he did, he died because he tried to be a bear, and his actions did more harm than good.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
** "I can ''feel'' the poop! It's warm! It just came from her butt! This was just inside of her. My girl! ''I'm touching it!''...Everything about them is perfect!"
** Treadwell really took this up a notch. Wildlife experts who have experience with bears are invariably astonished that he was able to get so close to them, and that his fatal mauling did not come ''years'' earlier. Some of them are of the opinion that the bears themselves were so confused by his behavior that they simply did not know what to do. There was nothing in their instinctive behavior responses on how to react to a creature that approached them openly, did not flee, did not react to their warning signals or ''just ignored the signals and continued to move closer'', shook his fist at them, and spoke to them in a sing-song voice.
** Treadwell goes on a unhinged, paranoid rant when a park ranger (or someone else aware of his presence) leaves him graffiti of a smiley face and a greeting, believing this to be evidence of a conspiracy theory to scare him away from his beloved bears because the "so-called experts" envy him and want to drive him off. From this tiny, one-off message, he posits that there are actually numerous people hidden in the park, following his tracks in secret and watching his every move.
* ClusterFBomb:
** Recording at the end of one summer, Tim is attempting to sum up his experiences of the past few months, but abruptly breaks into a profane, frustrated rant about poachers, tourists, the government, and the wildlife services. It goes on for several minutes, almost none of which Herzog cuts out.
** At one point, Treadwell drops the f-bomb 19 times in 45 seconds. Several times, Treadwell's rant is muted, once for Herzog to narrate, and another because Treadwell starts making personal attacks, which Herzog says is "a line this film will not cross," but it's clear he is laying down a carpet of profanity.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Tim ''[[AvertedTrope wasn't]]''. But since 19 he pretended to be one to fake a MysteriousPast, and eventually had his name legally changed. (Treadwell, although a name in his family tree, wasn't his own.)
* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
** What Tim and Amie both suffered at the jaws of the bear. It was enough to ''horrify'' no less a man than ''Creator/WernerHerzog'' [[SoundOnlyDeath just from hearing it.]]
** The coroner says that Treadwell had much of his scalp torn off when the bear bit down on his head. One of the people who came to the scene afterwards found Treadwell's severed arm with his watch still on it.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: They do give credit to Treadwell's ability to survive for 13 years with wild bears without ever needing to defend himself from them, but it didn't make his actions any less dangerous.
* DisasterDominoes: Treadwell decided to go back to the Grizzly Maze on a whim after an altercation at the airport. [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse from there.]]
* DoesNotLikeGuns: Treadwell made a point on never carrying a gun and said he would rather die than harm a bear. He even refused to carry bear repellent because he felt deeply disturbed after using it on a bear once.
* DoomedExpedition: The documentary is about Herzog discussing the events in Timothy Treadwell's life and the final camping trip.
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Treadwell believed he was protecting the bears from humans and insisted that he had a strong bond with the predators to a point where he refused to defend himself from them. His pacifism towards the bears led to the deaths of him and his girlfriend: As his refusal to set up security measures in his camp allowed a rogue grizzly to enter it and kill them.
* FlippingTheBird: Treadwell does this during his ClusterFBomb rant targetted at the park rangers.
* ForegoneConclusion: Timothy and Amie were killed in the bear attack and the opinions of Timothy are mixed on whether or not he was right or wrong about nature.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Early in the documentary, Treadwell is shown explaining that the most dangerous bear would be an older male who desperately needed food. Near the end, Herzog shows footage of what could have been the bear that killed him, and it was an older male that appeared to be desperately searching for food.
** "I will die for these animals, I will die for these animals, I will die for these animals."
** In an earlier clip, Treadwell is shown befriending the bears, trying to pet them, and recording them walking. It's all harmless and fun, set to a relaxing song and with the monologue about how much beauty he recorded in the very beginning. Then one of the bears knocks Treadwell over and the music stops. Immediately after that, Treadwell notes that these animals, "can kill, can bite, can decapitate."
** After watching a bear fight with another, Treadwell tells the bear "I'm not duking it out for any girl like that. Not duking it out, I'll tell you right now." Many believe that in his last moments Treadwell was distracting the bear that killed him so that his girlfriend could run away.
** In a scene removed from the final cut, Treadwell appears on Creator/DavidLetterman's talk show. During his usual glib, funny banter, Letterman jokes, "Is it gonna happen that one day we read a news article about you being eaten by one of these bears?" In hindsight, Letterman realized how terrible the random remark was and asked to have it removed from the documentary, although his name is still in the credits, as is a citation of the episode.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Treadwell could apparently play with bear cubs... while their mother was watching.
* FryingPanOfDoom: According to the coroner who listened to the infamous death tape, Treadwell's girlfriend tried to defend herself (and possibly Treadwell) by clocking the attacking bear with a frying pan but to no avail.
* HarmonyVersusDiscipline: The theme of the documentary is a discussion about Herzog's view of nature and Treadwell's view of nature. Treadwell believed the more dangerous parts of nature are a result of human interactions, while Herzog believed nature has its own rules that need to be respected in order to survive. Regardless of their differences, Herzog shows the utmost respect for Treadwell's ability to safely interact with bears without fear of consequences.
* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Tim goes on a painfully awkward monologue about how he wishes he was gay, but isn't.
* HeroicSacrifice: The coroner who examined the remains of Tim and Amie and heard the tape explained that he heard Treadwell encourage Amie to leave him behind as the bear attacks him.
* HonorBeforeReason: Treadwell had the intent of protecting bears from humans and adamantly refused to bring any form of protection for himself or Amie in case the bears ever decided to attack them.
* HumansAreBastards: The longer he was out in the wild, the more disdainful Timothy became towards his fellow humans. He had a special hatred for poachers, but also disliked the tourists and Park Service employees who encroached on 'his' animal sanctuary.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Tim routinely insulted tourists, whom he considered akin to poachers... despite the fact he came into contact with the bears for the first time as a tourist himself. He also considered that the park rangers' plane that flew over the area ''twice a month'' was harassing the bears. The park rangers point out that ''Treadwell's'' actions could actually put the bears at real risk of harm and death. By familiarizing them with human contact, he increased the likelihood that they would approach human habitation seeking food, and cause a confrontation in which animal control would have to kill them. For extra irony, the park rangers noted that there had never been a recorded incident of poaching at this national park.
** One particularly telling scene features him waxing rhapsodic over the corpse of a fox about how sacred all life is... then [[WhatMeasureisANonCute swatting a fly away]] from the fox's eye without any sense of irony.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: As a result of Treadwell's mental illnesses, he just wanted to live in solitude and protect the bears from what he thought was maliciousness from humans.
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Timothy interprets some friendly messages left for him by tourists in this manner, believing them all to be death threats.
* {{Irony}}:
** Treadwell was a man who devoted himself to protecting grizzly bears and personally believed that they were only hostile because of humans. After Treadwell's death, he became a symbol of how dangerous bears can be. Treadwell's actions also made the bears more dangerous and put them more at risk since he familiarised them with humans and convinced them to lose caution around them.
** For all Treadwell's insistence on saving the lives of his beloved bears, the two bears suspected of killing him had to be put down, in part because ''Treadwell's remains had to be recovered from their stomachs,'' but also in part because bears that have killed and eaten one human are at risk for viewing future humans as prey as well.
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** "Don't appear on camera, I'm supposed to be alone here! [[ThirdPersonPerson It's Tim Treadwell]], the kind warrior! I'm the only one here! I'm the only one protecting these bears!"
** Also, despite the fact that he had his girlfriend with him, he rarely mentioned her in his journal entries and she only appeared three times on camera, once while crossing a river from afar.
** After delivering a monologue about a fox cub that was eaten by wolves, he chastises a fly for hovering on the eye of the dead cub... while he was still there.
---> Stupid fly. Have some fucking respect. Don't do it while I'm here to see it.
** He would often become angry and hostile whenever other humans (mostly nature tour groups or park rangers) intruded on 'his' grizzly sanctuary.
** He mused that gay people may have problems, but probably not as much as "a goofy guy named Timothy Treadwell".
* {{Jerkass}}:
** Arguably Tim, who created a fake backstory as an orphan, was a horrible hypocrite, and a paranoid extremist who ended up killing himself and his girlfriend.
** The pilot who has no sympathy for Tim, Sam Egli, casually says "he got what he deserved", and used a slur to speculate that Tim was mentally ill/disabled. The only sympathy he has is for Amie being an innocent caught in the crossfire Treadwell put them both in. Say what you will about Treadwell, but ''no one'' deserves to die like that. This is in contrast to the curator of the Alutiiq museum, who stays respectful and only says what needed to be said.
* TheKenBurnsEffect: Used repeatedly with stills. One scene features a zoom-out from a still of Treadwell as one of his old friends recounts how Treadwell, for no particular reason, pretended to be from Australia, for a long time.
* LemonyNarrator: Werner Herzog, who alternates between praising Timothy for his ability to capture such beautiful footage, and mourning what he perceived as Timothy's poor judgment.
* MartyrWithoutACause: The documentary questions Treadwell's sacrifice in service of the protection of the grizzly bears in Alaska. Herzog in his narration points out that the bears were already in a protected area, Katmai National Park. A biologist notes that the grizzly population in Katmai is stable and poaching is not a big problem.
* MeetCute: Treadwell's ex-girlfriend, Jewel Palovak, told Herzog that they met when they both got in trouble at work on the same day, him for doing a SillyWalk in front of customers and her for accidentally starting a small fire. Their relationship didn't become romantic until later, but the incident made them fast friends on the spot.
* MotiveRant: Treadwell's vlogs were full of rants about his views on bears, tourists, poachers, etc. and he shows his passion in each one.
* MotorMouth: Timothy was known to talk at length about whatever subject came to mind.
* MountainMan: Timothy saw himself as such despite having no training whatsoever.
* NaiveAnimalLover: The documentary shows the life of Timothy Treadwell, who was one of these in Real Life, and the horrible death that befell him and his girlfriend because [[NatureIsNotNice nature has its own rules]]. In the documentary, Treadwell sincerely believed that he didn't need any protection from bears, even refusing to take the anti-bear spray that could have saved his life. On that tragic night, a rogue bear inadvertently discovered his and Amie's tent on the search for food and attacked them.
* NatureIsNotNice: Treadwell devoted himself to grizzly bears and was able to garner enough trust with them to [[InHarmonyWithNature play with their cubs in the view of their mothers]]. Unfortunately, it was a rogue bear, desperate for food and unfamiliar with Treadwell that found him and Amie on that tragic night...
-->'''Herzog''' (voiceover): What haunts me is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** The bear that killed Tim and Amie was killed in order to guarantee that no other human would end up dead at its claws, along with a second bear that attacked the ranger party that was trying to recover their bodies. The interviewed experts also point out that rather than "protecting" the bears and foxes as Tim claimed, his continuous presence there just made the animals less inclined to avoid humans, and so ''more'' likely to be killed by poachers, or attack campers for their food.
** In the park's 85-year history, there were no incidents of poaching, or even any evidence to suggest it. Just one year after his death, three bears were poached in the park (admittedly, they were in a different part of the park, but it's not impossible they were the same bears). It's speculated that they may have been vulnerable to poachers because Treadwell's constant presence made them lose their fear of humans, allowing the poachers to encroach. Similarly, his and Amie's deaths were the only fatal bear attacks in the park's history.
* NoMedicationForMe: Jewel explains at one point in the film that Tim was bipolar and refused to take antidepressants or anti-anxiety prescriptions -- he had tried medication before, but he couldn't tolerate the disturbing "deadening effect" it had on his emotions.
* NotEvilJustMisunderstood:
** Treadwell strongly believed this about grizzlies, but he turned out be only half-right: eating whatever living creatures it can catch and kill -- including people -- is instinctual behavior for a grizzly and not "evil" [[BlueAndOrangeMorality as we know it]], but the fact that they can and will eat people is ''perfectly'' understood by the overwhelming majority.
** It's worth noting that the murderous grizzly was a rogue bear, meaning it did not know Treadwell, and generally, rogue bears tend to be sociopathic among grizzlies.
* NothingIsScarier:
** Werner Herzog is filmed listening to the audio recording of Treadwell's death. There's no music for this scene, and the audio of the tape cannot be heard, but Herzog turns visibly pale while listening to it, and when he removes the headphones, his hands are trembling. Treadwell's closest friend, Jewel Palovak, is watching the whole time. After Herzog asks her to turn off the tape, he just looks at her for a moment. The viewer cannot see Herzog's face, but Palovak can... and she breaks down crying, whispering "They said it was bad." Herzog tells her, "I think you should not keep it, you should destroy it... I think that's what you should do, because it will be the [[ElephantInTheRoom white elephant in your room]] all your life."
** According to those who have heard it, the most disturbing part isn't the attack at all - it's hearing Amie scream as she is left alone in the woods as Tim is dragged off to be eaten, she stands there and screams, and it's made even worse as the bear then comes back...
** Herzog does say that if we were to hear it, we'd hear -- aside from the dying screams -- Treadwell telling his girlfriend to run and save herself, and said girlfriend apparently trying to defend herself with a frying pan.
** Willy Fulton, the pilot who flew Tim in and out of the park, had flown in to pick Tim and Amie up. Fulton describes landing, going ashore, and calling for Tim and Amie. He thought he saw movement on the hill nearby, so he hiked up the path, through heavy scrub, toward where he thought Tim's camp was. When he got near the end of the trail, he states that he got a very bad feeling; something was wrong. He turned and jogged back toward his plane, and just before he reached the shore, he happened to look back over his shoulder... and the bear that had killed Tim and Amie was ''stalking'' him. It was only after he got aboard and took off... and saw what was left of Tim and Amie... that Fulton realized how close he came to being killed.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Timothy's opinion of the Parks Department, to the point where he believed the (sensible in hindsight) rules ordering him to move his camp every seven days and stay at least 100 yards from the animals were made specifically to screw with him and interfere with his 'mission'.
* ObviousRulePatch: After the park found out about his camping practices, they instituted what they called the "Treadwell Rule" requiring campers to move their camp at least a mile every seven days. Not that Treadwell ever obeyed this afterwards.
* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The last shot is a clip from one of Treadwell's videos, of him walking away on the edge of a stream, two bears placidly following behind.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Werner Herzog, filmmaker extraordinaire who is rarely shocked by morbid subjects, is almost driven to tears by listening to Treadwell's final moments.
* OutsideContextVillain: The rogue bear that killed Treadwell and his girlfriend came out of left field. As it was unfamiliar with Treadwell and was desperate for food.
* ThePowerOfLove: Timothy honestly believed that it was his love for the animals that protected him throughout the years in Alaska. It was just sheer bad luck that he encountered a rogue grizzly bear that was desperately looking for food.
* {{Retirony}}:
** The couple was scheduled to depart the morning after their attack, and Amie was supposed to get a new job and possibly leave the whole living-among-grizzlies thing behind the next week.
** There is also a short clip from ''The Late Show'' where Creator/DavidLetterman interviewed him and jokingly asked if Tim would eventually get eaten by a bear (This clip is only in the theatrical version as copyright issues caused it to be replaced with another interview segment for the video and television versions).
** Tim, in the very first clip, gives a monologue about how dangerous bears are, but says that he won't be killed by them -- then goes on to ''list several ways he COULD be killed''. It doesn't help that he says this after the monologue to Amie...
---> "I can feel death on my fingers!"
* SenselessSacrifice:
** Supposedly, the goal of Timothy's expeditions and films was to show the world how gentle and harmless the bears in Alaska were, and that the image of them as violent, dangerous predators was an exaggeration. Sadly, his death proved that the opposite was true.
** Even worse, Timothy was adamant he would never hurt a bear, even if it cost him his life. But the rangers who went to retrieve his and Amie's remains not only killed the bear that ate them, but also a second starving bear that tried to attack the recovery team later that day.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Timothy seemed to ''think'' that this was what he was doing, standing up to the law for the sake of the bears. As the other examples on this page will tell you, this ended badly.
-->'''Timothy:''' Fuck the Parks Service!
* SheWhoMustNotBeSeen: Amie only appears 3 times in the original 85 hours of video, has her face [[TheFaceless always covered]], and is [[TheVoiceless never heard]].
* SnuffFilm: An accidental example, Amie's camera recorded the death of Treadwell and his girlfriend but since the camera cap was still left on, the footage only contained the audio. Although Herzog listened to the tape, he offered little elaboration on it and urged its possessor to destroy it, though she ultimately did not. The executives actually wanted to use the audio in the film, but Herzog refused to allow this on the grounds of taste. In later interviews, Herzog stated that the tape is still in the possession of its owner, who has not listened to it and who keeps it locked in a safe-deposit box. It has not been and most likely will never be released.
* SoundOnlyDeath: During the fatal attack, the camera was turned on with the cap still over the lens and the footage only contained the audio. [[SeenItAll Herzog heard the footage for a while]] before asking the owner to turn it off, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness calmly and unnervingly]] telling her to never listen to its contents, and destroy it as soon as possible. The owner has chosen the keep the tapes and refuses to submit it to the public eye.
* SpeakIllOfTheDead:
** One of the pilots who assisted the team of rangers in the aftermath of the tragedy, Sam Egli, speaks highly unfavorably about Treadwell; he even says that Treadwell brought his death upon himself and was to blame for Amie's death.
** Downplayed with the curator of the Alutiiq Museum. He's clearly uncomfortable about trash-talking a dead person, especially one who died horribly. However, once he's prompted for his honest opinion on Treadwell, he admits that the activist had no business or right to interact with the bears in the way he did, he died because he tried to be a bear, and his actions ultimately did more harm than good.
* SpoiledBrat: Zig-Zagged, Treadwell was mentally ill and refused to take the medication needed for his own well-being. His obsession with bears was somewhat encouraged by the public and media as he was treated like a local celebrity for his antics. Considering his narcissism, how he believed that he was better than the authorities, and how he was constantly sent letters by fans and given attention by the media. The fame had definitely fed Treadwell's ego and encouraged the more dangerous parts of his lifestyle for attention.
* SuccessThroughInsanity: The pilot who helped recover Treadwell's remains, Sam Egli, believed the bears only learned to co-exist with him because they were actually taken aback by Treadwell's fearlessness and blasé attitude around them.
* TheSummation: The coroner's narration as to how exactly Timothy and Amie were killed are shown throughout the movie.
* SurferDude: Treadwell was one in his younger years when he moved to California.
* TakeOurWordForIt: The film gives only vague descriptions of the postmortem evidence of Treadwell's death, and shows only reaction shots of Herzog listening to the audio recording of the event. It's more than sufficiently terrifying.
* TakeThat: Herzog praises Treadwell's improvisational cinematography—at the expense of the ambitions of studio directors and their union crews.
* TemptingFate: Timothy recorded many monologues explaining just how dangerous it was living in the Alaskan wilderness, and how easily the bears and other wild animals could kill him.
* TooDumbToLive: It's not just that Treadwell hung out with bears. As the film explains, his decision to return to his camp site after his plane ticket snafu meant staying on unusually late in the season, to a time when any bear which hadn't gone into hibernation would be hungry and desperate. Treadwell himself admits in a video that campers are supposed to put up a tent out in the open, so the bears can see where the humans are, but he chose to place his camp in the middle of a thicket. And as the film further explains, Treadwell did not use camp security devices like bear repellant spray or a portable electrified fence, the kinds of things that more traditional bear researchers use in the wild.
* TragicKeepsake:
** Tim's parents kept many mementos from his childhood including his favourite stuffed animal which is, ironically, a teddy bear.
** His close friend Kathleen was given his ashes.
** Another close friend, his ex-girlfriend Jewel, has the wristwatch Tim was wearing when he died. She also has the only copy of the tape of his death, which she keeps locked away.
* UnreliableExpositor: Treadwell made grand statements on camera; insisting the animal sanctuary was plagued by poachers and that they had been leaving death threats for him. However, the authorities have no record of poacher activity during Treadwell's tours and believed the messages were written by Treadwell himself.
* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: Kathleen, a close friend of Tim, repeatedly says she loves Tim, and even Herzog points it out when he adds, "She says she was just a close friend," doubtfully after she mentions she has his ashes.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Treadwell's actions unwittingly caused the bears to lose caution around humans and ''encouraged'' them to perform risk-taking behaviours for food. While on the hunt for the rogue bear, the search party had to defend themselves from a separate grizzly bear that was also looking for food.
* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: The footage of Timothy's final vlog was obstructed by the lens cover of his camera, his death was shown through the audio.
* WhamShot:
** Herzog states at the time that distant film of Amie is the only time she appears on film. Until some of the last footage, Tim's shot shows her very close (and looking very uncomfortable) next to a grizzly.
** Late in the film, Treadwell is standing by his camp, noting that anyone not experienced in doing what he's doing will die in the grizzly maze. Then a subtitle appears, stating that the site of Treadwell's death is directly behind him.
* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Treadwell used to pretend to be Australian, and attempted to fake the accent. Whatever he ended up sounding like, it certainly wasn't Australian.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In the recordings, Treadwell had a low opinion of humanity and believed that only he can protect the bears from poachers and the park rangers who were on "his territory". According to the coroner, when Treadwell knew he was a goner as the bear attacked him, he told Amie to run before he was dragged away and finished off. Amie refused to run and made an effort to save him by frantically and repeatedly bashing the bear over the head with a frying pan despite her fear of bears. Say what you want about either of them, Amie fought a bear the best she could despite her fear and Treadwell tried to use his final moments to save Amie.
* WideEyedIdealist: Deconstructed, Treadwell sincerely believed that he had a kinship with bears and that they would never harm him. His actions on tape are unnerving as he believed he had the supreme authority over the bears' well-being and believed he knew better than the park authorities. Treadwell also believed that the public was sending him death threats even though they saw him as a local celebrity.
* WindmillCrusader: Treadwell believed he was saving the bears from humans but his actions actually ''endangered'' more bears than he ever realized because Treadwell's actions made the bears lose caution around humans. The search for Amie and Treadwell's bodies caused the deaths of two bears; park rangers had to kill the rogue grizzly to recover their remains from its stomach and to guarantee that the bear wouldn't attack another human, and the rangers were also forced to kill another bear in self-defence during their search. Treadwell's claims of poacher activities were also proven to be false as there were no records of poacher activities in the park.
** It is telling that there is exactly ''one'' instance where Treadwell encounters "poachers" (who may well be, at worst, trespassers who are not poaching). The "poachers" see a bear cub and throw rocks at it. It could be out of cruelty, or it could be that the men are trying to scare the cub off. Whatever the case, Treadwell -- who has bragged about protecting the bears, saying he is the ''only'' one who protects the bears -- stands a few yards away and does absolutely ''nothing'' to protect the cub.
* YouAreNumberSix: Treadwell had a habit of giving the bears he hung out with colorful names like Rowdy and Mr. Chocolate. But the bear that ate him and Amie didn't get a cute name (if in fact, the bear that Treadwell filmed in his last videos is that one), and in any event, is only called "Bear 141" after a Park Service tattoo on its lip.
* YouDoNotWantToKnow: As mentioned above, Herzog (one of the few people who has heard it) maintains that nobody should ever listen to the audio recording of Tim and Amie's deaths.
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