A tale of man's best friend, even after the owner's death.
Max is an American family adventure war drama film.Kyle Wincott (Robbie Amell) and his dog Max are serving for the US military in Afghanistan. He is shown to be close with his family and his good friend Tyler (Luke Kleintank). Their squad seizes a large stash of weapons which eventually goes missing, prompting a round of questioning for Kyle, Tyler, and the rest of their squad. Kyle knows that Tyler is responsible, but is unfortunately killed soon after.
Kyle's brother Justin (Josh Wiggins) is tasked with taking care of Max since he is the only one that Max is calm around. While doing so, Max leads Justin and his friends Chuy (Dejon LaQuake) and Carmen (Mia Xitlali) on a mission to avenge Kyle's death.
Max contains examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: Max makes a run at Tyler on the bridge just as Tyler is ready to shoot Justin.
- Book Ends: Moments of paying respects to Kyle. In the beginning the family is shown at Kyle's funeral, then at the end Justin and Max visit Kyle's grave after avenging his death.
- Defrosting Ice King: Justin to his family, particularly Max.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Max, full stop. Over time, those close to him are able to pick up on this nature, starting with Justin.
- Faux Affably Evil: Tyler is shown to be a good friend to Kyle and was very polite to the Wincott family. We eventually see that his kindness is by no means genuine.
- He Knows Too Much: Once Tyler finds out that Kyle knows about his weapon dealings, he leads Kyle to his death. This is also a major reason for Tyler's determination to have Max put down.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ray can be harsh toward Justin but really means the best for him. Part of it also stems from being manipulated by Tyler.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Unfortunately, Kyle's decision to call Tyler out on his weapon dealings leads to him getting killed and gives Tyler a good case to portray Max as needing to be put down.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Tyler, Stack, and Emilio deciding to hold Ray hostage leads Max, Justin, Chuy, and Carmen directly to them and ultimately causes their collective downfall.
- Oh, Crap!: Ray when he realizes why Tyler and Stack were at his storage facility late at night...
- Took a Level in Badass: Throughout the film, Justin goes from a slacker who makes money pirating video games to playing a direct part in taking down Tyler and his gang.
- Truth in Television: Dogs being used in military combat and being susceptable to PTSD just like humans. This is directly noted by the film's intro and one of the military officers.
- Undying Loyalty: Max to Kyle. To the point where he gets Justin, Chuy, and Carmen involved in avenging his Death.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ray is heavily manipulated by Tyler into going along with his narrative that Max was responsible for Kyle's death. When he finally gets a whiff of what Tyler is actually doing, he turns on Tyler in a heartbeat which eventually gets him held hostage.
