White Wolves is a Kids' Wilderness Epic series of four loosely connected stories, with each film following teenagers stuck in the wilderness and braving danger while learning about themselves. The first film, A Cry in the Wild, is an adaptation of Hatchet, the first Brian's Saga book, while each of the three sequels follows different groups of lost (literally and sometimes emotionally) kids in similar situations who find themselves being helped by an otherworldly wolf that helps save Brian's life in Cry of the Wild.
Matt McCoy, Ned Beatty, Saved by the Bell stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Elizabeth Berkley (although not in the same film), Corin Nemec, and Justin Whalin are among the cast members of the series.
Tropes
Tropes in multiple films
- Bears Are Bad News: Adult bears tend to be fearsome and threatening toward the main cast.
- Disposable Pilot: In both films where the kids end up trapped in the wilderness due to plane crashes, the pilot dies (although the one in the fourth film lasts a while after the crash before succumbing to his wounds). No other characters die in any of the movies.
- Fire-Forged Friends: All of the films except the first one (where Brian is alone) feature kids, some of whom have some issues with each other, developing strong bonds while struggling to survive in the wilderness.
- Kids' Wilderness Epic: Each film features teenagers struggling to protect themselves and (in every film but the first) others while learning more about independence, the dangers of nature, and the nobility of certain animals.
- Monochrome Casting: The first and second films have all white casts while the third and fourth each have a Token Minority character: a Filipino teenager and a Badass Native pilot (plus an African-American cop and some bystanders briefly sen in the L.A. opening scene), respectively.
- The Nth Doctor: Brian from the first movie (although he gets a Sudden Name Change) and Ben from the second are each played by different, older actors in the sequel.
- Noble Wolf: The white wolf (or perhaps multiple wolves) is a spiritual and non-malicious character who serves as a Hope Bringer to people in danger and sometimes provides material aid.
- Numbered Sequels: The sequels are numbered rather oddly due to the White Wolves title having more brand familiarity than A Cry in the Wild, leading to two different movies being numbered II and the fourth movie being numbered III.'
- Scenery Porn: All four films have breathtaking scenery of isolated mountains and rivers.
- What Are You in For?: The third and fourth movies both have kids who are in the wilderness as an alternative to reform school and discuss the crimes they committed which landed them there.
- In the third film, Steve admits he's a tagger and Crystal says she was arrested for stealing a cheerleader's CD but falsely claims innocence, while Beri refuses to discuss her crime.
- Early in the fourth film, Jack boasts about stealing a CD and leading the police on a chase, then asks Pamela what she did. She claims that she didn't do anything and is just going to the camp to write an essay about troubled youth, but she might be lying.
- White Wolves Are Special: The whole film series is named after them, so yeah. White wolves are treated as magical and benevolent creatures that appear at the right times to help lost people get out of the wilderness, drag them out of rivers, and other such things.
Tropes in A Cry in the Wild
- Canon Foreigner: Despite becoming the lynchpin that connects the subsequent films together (and having its name being in the titles of the subsequent films), the white wolf does not appear in the novel Hatchet. This is especially notable since otherwise, the plot follows Hatchet almost exactly.
Tropes in A Cry in the Wild II: White Wolves
- Abusive Parents: Ben says that his father once tried to kill him over a bet.
- Big Sister Instinct: She's implied to be the younger sister, but Cara (who has spent most of the movie being an occasionally whiny City Mouse) grabs a branch and charges to fight off a bear that is threatening her trapped sister even before their male companions can do anything. She's knocked unconscious for her trouble, but does succeed in driving the bear off and recovers.
- More Expendable Than You: Adam insists on making a dangerous climb down a cliff to look for Mr. Brennan when Scott volunteers first. This is partially because Adam wants to make up for accidentally knocking Mr. Brennan off the cliff and partially because Scott is the only teenager with experience in navigating the wilderness and the others will be in trouble if they lose him and Mr. Brennan.
Tropes in White Wolves II: Legend of the Wild
- Asian Airhead: The Filipino Steve has some wariness and respect for the wilderness, but also gets some Literal-Minded and Skewed Priorities moments. When Beri makes a crack about breaking out a guitar to sing campfire songs, he thinks she means they have a real guitar. More dramatically, he fails to bury food scraps far from the camp, which attracts a bear.
- Death by Materialism: Played for Drama when Jeff nearly drowns in the rapids while trying to save his brother's prized paragliding equipment. This is portrayed as a sign of how much of an Extreme Doormat he is, as Mason ordered him to look after the stuff. Mason himself apologizes to Jeff about this later on.
- Friend to All Living Things: Steve and Crystal get pretty attached to the wolf cubs.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Beri is prone to yelling at people when she's frustrated, and not in a nice way.
- I Choose to Stay: At the end of the movie, several of the kids decide to stay in the wilderness longer and finish their mentor's work now that the injured people have gotten medical condition.
- I Miss Mom: Beri is in a deep depression about the death of her mother.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Mason is a cocky paraglider, while his brother Jeff is a nervous Extreme Doormat.
- Sports Dad: Crystal's parents wanted her to be an Olympic swimmer and tossed her into a pool to try to make her learn to swim while she was still a baby. Her dad is apparently fond of re-telling the story.
- Sticky Fingers: Crystal is doing community service because she was accused of theft, and it's implied she's guilty, as she is seen shoplifting, and steals Mason's altimeter on a whim.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Beri is a grim girl who usually wears a baseball cap, plaid shirt and denim jacket. Crystal is more sunny, wears several pink and purple (and sometimes midriff-baring) tops, brings a bikini to the woods, brings more luggage than the others, and puts some effort into her hair care. However, Crystal toughens up some, and Beri isn't a complete tomboy.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Steve has a scene where he's shirtless, with some close-ups of his muscular chest, as his shirt dries after a near-drowning experience.
Tropes in White Wolves III: Cry of the White Wolf
- Badass Native: The Native American pilot takes the lead in helping his passengers get through the mountains after the plane crash for as long as he remains alive. Crosses over with Magical Native American when he relies on old tribal rituals and legends at times appears to Pamela in a vision after his death.
- Blind Alley: The movie opens with Jack skateboarding recklessly and stealing a CD from a vendor, then being chased down an alley by bicycle cops who have reinforcements on the other side.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: After being bitten by a snake, Pamela unsuccessfully tries to convince Jack that staying to nurse her will needlessly endanger him.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Pamela is a senator's daughter, doesn't hesitate to mention this (and various other achievements), asks for help a lot, and complains some about how hard wilderness survival is, and never completely sheds this. However, she does have some moments of good humor, determination, compassion for Jack and Quentin, and helpfulness, especially later in the movie.
- Made of Iron: Jack takes a fall down a waterfall, then gets his leg stuck in an animal trap for at least twelve hours, but he doesn't let it slow him down once he gets out of the trap.
- My Beloved Smother: Pamela’s mother spends a while fretting over whether she has proper clothes for the boot camp, trying to make sure she won’t get motion sickness during the ride, and asking if the plane has a first aid kit while hugging her slightly embarrassed daughter. Given how the plane ends up crashing, she turns out to be Properly Paranoid.
- Non-Nude Bathing: Pamela strips down to her panties and a tank top to soak in the river after several days of hiking and no bathing.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Pamela (played by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumni Mercedes McNab) has a scene where her shirt is briefly shown clinging to her body as she swims in the river.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Quentin dying some time after the plane crash and then appearing in visions is made very clear in the trailer.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Pamela throws up after seeing Quentin's injured arm, and the camera doesn’t cut away.
- Vision Quest: Quentin says his tribe likes to see white wolves for spiritual enlightenment, and his father sent him into a meadow for this reason when he was young. He waited a long time, nothing happened, and he was about to go home and make up a story when a wolf finally did materialize out of thin air right before his eyes.
