Brad Pitt stars alongside a show-stealing German Shepherd in this tear-jerking survival adventure
David Ayer, director of Fury (2014), End of Watch (2012), and a handful of Jason Statham actioners, is associated with a certain kind of testosterone-fuelled filmmaking. But this autumn, he’s channelling his more sensitive side, albeit in the most manly way possible: a survival tale pitting Brad Pitt and a German Shepherd against Alaska’s untamed hinterland.
Pitt plays James Belmont, an ex-Green Beret who retired from the armed forces four years ago, taking his loyal service dog, Odin, with him. The inseparable pair have absconded deep into the wilderness for a Hemingway-esque, macho-intellectual retreat. Days spent sketching wildlife and fly-fishing in glacial streams are followed by evenings sipping Belgian beer and reading Cormac McCarthy by lantern light.
After a blatantly expository but entertaining encounter with another wild man (played by the always-brilliant J.K. Simmons), this blissfully rugged boy’s trip soon turns on its head. An approaching storm prompts James to pack up his seaplane and get out of Dodge, but disaster quickly sends them crash-landing back down into the wilds. After dusting themselves off, man and dog face a 58-mile trek through perilous terrain to reach civilisation.
Credit: Scott Garfield © 2026 Paramount Pictures
As the title suggests, Heart of the Beast explores the sentimentality that lies within the seemingly savage. This is true not just for the ex-military man and his combat canine, but for the wilds of Alaska, too.
However, in the first half, the filmmakers struggle to reconcile these disparate themes. The generous runtime dedicated to unhurried shots of tawny grasslands and pebble-bottomed rivers will sufficiently stir your wanderlust, but also distract you from the dangers the landscape poses to our protagonists. The result is more Homeward Bound than The Revenant. For many, this won’t necessarily be a bad thing, but it may disappoint those expecting an out-and-out survival flick.
This low-stakes atmosphere is intensified by a few Disney-ish moments – Odin staring down a 900-pound CGI grizzly comes to mind – and Jared Michael Fry’s wistful score. Beautiful though it is, the decision to incorporate Indigenous Alaskan musical traditions feels somewhat disingenuous once you learn the entire thing was filmed in New Zealand.
Yet, James and Odin’s relationship is charming enough to make up for the lack of thrills in this front half, each taking it in turns to help the other out of scrapes. Both bear the literal and figurative scars of war, and Pitt does a great job conveying James’ emotional attachment to Odin through his gruff exterior. As the tension finally mounts in later scenes, it’s compounded by the subtly communicated idea that if we lose the dog, we lose the man as well.
Credit: Scott Garfield © 2026 Paramount Pictures
After an obligatory cross-the-fallen-log-over-the-ravine scene, the journey begins to take its toll on James, and Ayer’s film starts earning its ‘thriller’ billing. A few cheap tricks are deployed – the landscape takes on a cartoonishly malevolent aspect – but they’re mostly effective, and the genuine sense of jeopardy is welcome. From this point, Heart of the Beast races on towards a gut-wrenching conclusion.
Pitt feels at home here. As in last year’s F1 film, there’s a certain brand of unapologetic cheesiness to Cameron Alexander’s script that plays perfectly to the actor’s strengths. Take an early scene, for example: the filmmakers have James line up a roosting goshawk in the crosshairs of his rifle scope, only to lower the weapon and record the sighting in his birdwatching journal. It’s undeniably ham-fisted, but it knows it is, ultimately coming off as endearing rather than trite.
As solid as Pitt is, the real scene-stealer is Odin. He’s played by four dogs, though primarily a New Zealand Alsatian with the equally tough-guy name of ‘Uber’. The pup thespian’s soulful stare does a serious amount of heavy lifting in the film’s quieter moments. It’s a level of emotional intensity that I’m not sure the average mutt could muster, so hats off to casting director Tricia Wood (if her remit extends to four-legged performers).
While it sometimes can’t decide exactly what it wants to be, Heart of the Beast is a perfectly decent adventure flick with a solid emotional core that’ll pierce even the stoniest of hearts and a gut-punching finale that, in years to come, could be justly spoken of in the same breath as tear-jerking canine classics like Old Yeller and Marley and Me.
Heart of the Beast is in cinemas now.
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Banner image: Credit: Scott Garfield © 2026 Paramount Pictures