The wolves? They're not just predators looking for prey, they're angels come to take them away from their suffering. Problem is, eveyone is still in denial/unaware of their deaths, thus the angels were perceived as something dangerous in the particular area, like say a wolf.
While the other characters fared better, Ottoway survived the longest because he was still holding on to grief because of his wife's death. Only by confronting the Alpha Wolf in the final scene does he finally let go and transcend death.
Yes, this WMG was conceived with Jacob's Ladder in mind.
How would he really know what dying feels like? "First it gets warm the it just slides over you like a blanket." Because he's done it before. He was attacked by that wolf in the beginning of the movie, he got bit in the leg and the chest i think. Yet he show no ill effects or even limping. There was also that thing where he went flying out of a damn airplane and landed 50 yards away from the rest of the crash. He survived all this because he can't be killed. note
Maybe it wasn't even his wife that died but him, that scene where she says "Don't be afraid." He was about to die.
Not actually possible or even a thing according to wolf biology and social hierarchy. There are no 'alpha' wolves-the leaders of the pack are the parents of the rest of the pack. Killing one of the parents will cause the pack to fracture while it waits for an unrelated adult of the same gender as the dead individual to move in, but there are no 'alpha' fights. The movie got the social structure of wolves WAAAY wrong.
- Their wives are dead
- They are skilled, tenacious warriors
- They have nihilistic streaks
- They look exactly like Liam Neeson
(Mind, this was all invalidated by The Dark Knight Rises but it was a fun few months.)