Heart of the Beast: Brad Pitt and a Dog Fight to Survive the Alaskan Wild

Brad Pitt has long gravitated toward the strong, silent type, and his latest role strips that instinct down to its barest form. In Heart of the Beast, he plays James Belmont, an Army Special Forces veteran who finds himself alone in the Alaskan wilderness with only a German shepherd named Odin for company.

The film, directed by David Ayer, reunites the pair after Fury and arrives in theatres on Friday. It is a survival story built on minimal comforts: James carries a compass tattoo, a paperback of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a sketchbook and a cooler of Belgian beers packed in fresh ice. A brief encounter with another recluse in the woods, played by J.K. Simmons, establishes that the two are military veterans, that James served three decades in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that Odin bears wounds of his own, including a prosthetic leg and titanium teeth. It also signals that a heavy spring storm is closing in.

What follows is a 58-mile hike through punishing terrain after a heart attack sends James's Cessna pontoon plane to the bottom of a lake. The journey throws storms, bears, wolves, swamps, slippery rocks and dangerous river crossings at the pair, while nightmares of combat haunt their sleep.

The script, by Cameron Alexander, is not based on a true story, but it functions as a tribute to the resilience of veterans and combat dogs. The film leans on familiar beats and can feel predictable, yet it works best when it focuses on the bond between James and Odin and the mutual worry that drives them forward.

Odin's performance was assembled from four dogs of the same family, with a German shepherd named Uber handling most of the work and some CGI filling in the rest. The film runs 101 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating for violence, peril, bloody or injury images, and some language.