 Once more into the fray. The last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day. This is the poem spoken several times throughout 2011's The Grey, a film about a bunch of guys who survive a plane crash in the middle of the Alaskan tundra and are hunted down by merciless wolves. Starring Liam Neeson at the height of his taken-esque action movie Hype, The Grey was not what people were expecting. What originally looked like an over-the-top action-fest with Liam Neeson going toe-to-toe with wolves, thanks to misinforming trailers, was actually a film about doomed men, and accepting the inevitable that faces us all, whether we be of faith or otherwise, and finding the will to continue onwards, even when all hope has essentially been snuffed out. The film takes us on an incredibly endearing journey with Neeson's character, Ottway, a man with seemingly nothing left to live for, trying to keep these oil workers alive in an environment and setting that is literally trying to kill them every step of the way. In this video essay, I'm going to take an in-depth look at the film, and try to explain why this is not only a very underrated film, but also one of the best films in Neeson's recent career. The film's director, Joe Carnahan, had a good string of screenplays under his belt with films such as Narc and Pride and Glory, as well as some profitable misfires, like Smoking Aces and the A-Team, both of which he directed. When it came to the Grey, however, he went against everything he had previously done in those films, where Smoking Aces had over-the-top gunfights and bloody knife encounters. The Grey has frostbite, weather conditions, and humans at the mercy of these wolves, whereas the A-Team had nonsensical logic and a tank literally fighting a drone while falling out of the sky. The Grey stays grounded in reality, and is probably one of the best plane crashes ever put on film. Overall, what I hope to convey to you by the end of this video is that the Grey wasn't just a dumbly Neeson movie about fighting wolves. So with that, let's begin. Doomed Men. Everyone in the Grey is essentially a doomed man who will not survive this test. While they may have survived the plane crash, they are still assigned to the same fate, albeit after. But what the film does better than most for the supposed red shirts is that you actually grow to care for them. Some may be harder to care for than others, like the short-lived flannery or the super asshole Diaz, but each of these characters have an arc and a purpose to the theme of the film. Each death hurts as the film continues on, cutting another figurative slice into you as your hope for them slowly crumbles. And as the film progresses, each death is harder to endure, both physically and emotionally, like Tal gets dying memory of his daughter draping her hair over his face. All the while, it represents the fur of the wolves tearing him apart, are like Diaz's surrender to the turmoil and his eventual demise. Which in all reality is probably one of the most disturbing deaths in the entire film. As any viewer watching this who has no sense or knowledge of any form of survival experience would completely understand and relate to his complete lack of hope. Our haggard, slow and brutal drowning, under a log, barely inches away from the surface of the water, all the while out of way, desperately tries and fails to save him. Each death hurts as we have not only began to care for these characters, but we also begin to understand their motivations for surviving this event. For the exception of Diaz, whose literal will to live is eventually overpowered by his want for the suffering to end, each character holds onto this hope right up until their dying moments. A video I watched while writing this essay was The Grey, a philosophy about heroic suffering by like stories of old. In the video, like stories of old talks about Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl and his thoughts on the will to live during his time in the concentration camps. One of the quotes being, ultimately man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life and he can only answer to life by answering with his own life. The film is in an intriguing and in-depth perspective on why these characters are continuing on despite the obvious circumstances of their fate. While the end is most certain, they continue on because they feel their purpose still has meaning. If not to themselves, then to the loved ones they are fighting to get back to. A scene that has always stood out in my mind is when Otway is yelling at God. Otway is alone now. Everyone he has tried to keep alive is now dead. After having witnessed such loss, despite having done everything to keep them alive, Otway questions why God would let such a thing happen. He yells for God to do something, to prove his existence and in itself his own reason for existing despite having suffered such a loss. But eventually Otway realizes the only reason the only force that is going to keep him alive is himself. The meaning of his existence, his survival, is not about faith or tasks or accomplishments, but by making his life matter to himself even if only for the briefest of moments. The film also provides a false sense of hope for the audience, constantly toying with the viewer's emotions as these men begin to get picked off. Whether it was the watch with the locator, the tagged trees of a former logging operation, or the hope that there would be a way station along the river, each of these supposed hopes turns out to be a false end. But as to make sure that the journey wasn't a complete downer throughout the way, director Joe Carnahan slips in these elements of false hope, a thought that there may be a chance for survival, but in the end all roads lead to the same gruesome end. Interweaving narrative, this isn't more of a focus on the editing in the way the film thematically blends moments from the past, present and future together. At the beginning of the film we have constant flashbacks to Otway lying in bed with his wife. Otway hangs onto these memories and talks about them in letters, which is a nifty way of both addressing his fleeting hope in life as well as shrouding the fact that his wife is in fact dead. The memory of her is what he clings to and even uses to hide from the world. One of the best shots of the film is right after the plane crash happens when we return to the memory, only to see Otway being literally ripped from the memory back to reality. This is done again with Talgett's death as mentioned before. The memory of his daughter was what was keeping him going, and while he lies dying being ravaged by wolves, he slips away to a reality where he has found her. His hope still alive even as his spirit slowly fades away. Another memory of Otway is that we repeatedly go back to is that of his father and the poem that he wrote. The poem is one of few if that the only good memory Otway has of his father, but it once again revolves around the aspect of life and its purpose and how we as man should question it by questioning ourselves. What might seem to some as a simple and possibly war call-ask poem is actually a call to fight for yourself, to fight for your meeting, to fight to find a purpose. Something I'll also talk very briefly about is how the wolves are portrayed. You never fully see them in the film. Either they are a distance away, shrouded by trees or the snow or other elements, or they're never fully displayed on screen. This adds an extra element of horror and supernatural-like tone to the wolves. The film embellishes them as more than just wild animals, but almost like legends. They are the guardians of the land that Otway and his company are in. They are defending their land from these foreign invaders, going to extreme lengths to do so. The wolves are just another representation of the doom that inhabits this area that they have crashed in. They are another obstacle, another barrier in the way of keeping one's hope during this journey. And I believe that Carnahan did a fantastic job with these animals and their portrayal in the film as more of a supernatural entity rather than an animal. The Ending Before I begin, I'll take this little note from the trivia I found about the movie on IMDb. The trailer for the movie contained shots of lean beasts and single-handedly fighting a wolf, which were originally meant to be in the film's climax. However, director Joe Carnahan decided to end the movie just before the fight starts, feeling that the film had reached its emotional height by that time, and a fight involving a computer-generated wolf would have seemed like an anti-climax. Carnahan later acknowledged that a lot of viewers felt cheated out of the climax that the trailer had promised due to this creative decision. I in fact love having the movie ends. I remember many people in the theater throwing up their arms, cursing, and other complaints be heard. I was just sitting there with a look of shock and even a little grin on my face as Carnahan had once again gone against the norm and stuck with a realm of reality that the film had based itself in. If they had kept the scene in the film, it would have ruined the entire purpose of the film, thrown all legitimacy out the window, and ruined the entire meaning of the ending. The Ending is great for so many reasons. After Otway realizes that he is in the wolf's den and has essentially been heading towards this end throughout the entire journey, the alpha wolf appears to challenge him. After he sets down each of the wallets of the former survivors on the ground, he prepares himself for the final battle, for going once more into the fray into the last good fight he'll ever know. This scene is so well constructed, everything from the music to the cinematography to the final shot are glued together to make a perfect ending. The song Into the Fray, composed by Mark Strittenfield, a song originally titled The City's Surf composed by Jamin Wittens, sets the tone perfectly. The somber aura accompanied by the haunting piano keys helps sets the mood for the final stand. The weight of the situation, the memory of the poem, staring death in the face are all solidified by this song. The slow dolly track towards Otway as he recites the poem helps build the focus he has for the task at hand, the realization that everything in his life has come down to this moment, the certainty of his fate finally realized, and then that cut. That cut is perfect. His story has ended, his fate has been realized, his father's poem having foretold his end. The final shot of Otway's eye is changing from realization to certainty to action. It's just a fantastic shot to end on, bringing the movie to a close. And yes, I know there is that scene in the post credits where we see the wolf and Otway lying on each other, breathing their last breaths. While I admit this is a cool Easter egg to have at the end of the film, I actually would have been fine with this being cut as well. However, I do understand its purpose. For some, it shows Otway's final attack was not in vain. For others, it gives more of a sense of closure for his character. However, you look at it, it is a cool moment to hang on, even if only for a little bit longer. And that's why I feel the gray is an underrated film in one of the best fictional survival films made in recent years. I know there are several people who didn't enjoy it, either for the false advertisements or for the slightly overdramatic sequences like the cliff jump. There are also people who had legitimate complaints about the activity of the wolves saying that they would not act in this manner, and I understand that. But for the purpose of the narrative of the film, I still feel it works, not saying that the film is anymore or less legitimate, and that I'm not saying that it should be excused for this, but in terms of its dramatic purpose, I feel it stands strong. I won't deny that this film isn't free of Hollywood film making tactics, but I feel this doesn't take anything away from the overall theme and message of the film. The movie is about a man asking the purpose of his existence about how, even in the face of death, humans can and will find something to keep them going, even if there is no real hope to hold on to. Thank you for watching this video. I thought about making this video for a long, long, long time, and I'm happy I finally did it. If you like this essay, maybe I'll try another one in the future. Otherwise, check out the like stories of old video I mentioned. If you enjoyed this video, leave a like, and if you're interested in some reviews, maybe subscribe. Anyways guys, thank you for watching.