Director: David Ayer

Cast: Brad Pitt, Anna Lambe, J.K. Simmons

Synopsis:

After a harrowing plane crash, Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and his combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements. From acclaimed filmmaker David Ayer, Heart of the Beast is an intense adventure thriller that explores the unbreakable bond between a man and his best friend as they face their greatest battle yet.

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In the opening scene of Heart Of The Beast, director David Ayer assures the audience the dog will survive everything we’re about to watch. He literally shows us he’s fine… and then spends the better part of 100 minutes making us stressfully wonder if he was somehow, unforgivably, lying.

The film begins with a van approaching Odin (Uber), a German Shepherd standing alone in the middle of a remote road. As the driver goes to greet him, we flash back to a week earlier. Odin is sitting in a plane’s cockpit beside his owner, James (Brad Pitt), who’s flying them to a camping trip in the Alaskan mountains. Evidently, James and Odin do this a lot and are well trained for it. James is a retired US Army Special Forces officer and Odin his also-retired military working dog. James left service with some scars and a yearning for solitude. Odin left with one prosthetic leg and PTSD-induced nightmares. These two are best friends. When James has a heart attack while trying to fly home, they crash land and are stuck in the middle of nowhere, entirely reliant on each other for survival.

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