Heart of the Beast
Veteran Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) has chosen to spend his retirement hunting, fishing and camping in the Alaskan wilderness with his beloved combat dog Odin (Uber), both suffering from PTSD after being the only survivors of a horrific ambush. With a storm coming into the area where they've been based on the shore of a pristine lake, James and Odin take off in perilous weather in his Cessna seaplane, but just after they break out of dangerous air currents and poor visibility, James suffers a heart attack and the plane plummets into water, Odin sucked out of the cabin before its crash landing. Injured man and dog are now 58 miles from the nearest road with no means of communication and finding their way back to civilization will reveal the "Heart of the Beast."
Laura's Review: B+
Working with a freshman screenplay from Cameron Alexander, director David Ayer ("End of Watch," "Fury") gets to the heart of the matter within his survivor adventure tale, James and Odin's literal love story, the bond between man and dog so strong, it's palpable. When Pitt turns his attention to the battle-scarred Shepherd with a prosthetic leg, his eyes shine with a spiritual fervor. The actor was charged with not only giving a very emotional performance, haunted by wartime experience, but with controlling Uber during their scenes together and the result is extraordinary.
The film gives us a snatch of its ending at the beginning, then rewinds to a week earlier as James and Odin fly through majestic terrain (shades of "The Dog Stars" here), landing in what appears to be untouched landscape (New Zealand stands in for Alaska). After setting up camp, James goes hunting, leaving a majestic moose be, then fishing, where Odin lands a salmon that becomes dinner. Not everything is peaceful harmony, James having to comfort the dog who suffers nightmares, Ayers using moments like these for a series of escalating flashbacks illustrating their wartime experience. As the two walk through the woods the next day, a stranger approaches, James raising his rifle, but although he isn't pleased to have company, Watkins (J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash") turns out to be not only harmless and appreciative of James' Belgian beer, but of Odin as well, and promises to be out of James' hair before sunrise the next morning, warning of the storm coming in. James awakens to find Watkins and another of his beers gone, a book with a passage honoring creatures like Odin left as thanks. Then their troubles begin.
The crash sequence is harrowing, James collapsing over his plane's controls as Odin barks furiously before suddenly disappearing as the Cessna begins to hit trees. James manages to get out of the submerged plane, his first concern Odin despite his still serious condition. He finds the dog in the woods, injured but alive and after building a fire and covering the dog, returns to the crash site to dive for supplies, hauling two cases along the lakebed to shore. Once reunited again, James sets to charting their position and when he awakens the next day, it is to Odin sitting up now and regarding him. Their arduous journey awaits.
Cinematographer Mauro Fiore ("Training Day," "The Killer") and editor Dody Dorn's ("Memento," "Fury") work ensures fraught tension as James tries to coax Odin over a fallen log high above white water or as Odin appears to use eye contact to appeal to a charging grizzly. Jared Michael Fry ("The Beekeeper") blends Native American themes into his score to accentuate the natural environment as Ayer continues to layer in moments of communion between man and dog as their situation worsens. This looks like one physically demanding movie shoot, but the results are impressive.
In addition to Pitt, who really brings this film home along with Uber, Simmons adds some warmth, as does Anna Lambe ("True Grizzlies," 2024's 'True Detective') in a brief role interacting with Odin. "Heart of the Beast" takes the military concept of brotherhood and motto of leaving no man behind and extends it to its incredible canines. There have been movies about military dogs before (see "Dog," "Max" and "Meghan Leavy"), but I can't recall one which so forcefully illustrated the bond between soldier and dog.
Paramount releases "Heart of the Beast" in theaters on 9/25/26.
