Atheist Grey

SPOILER WARNING, SPOILER WARNING

“The Grey” is a film about a group of oil workers whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. The survivors are hunted down, one by one, by a pack of mysterious wolves. By mistake, the little group moves closer and closer to the main den of the predators.

While the wolves are said to be real flesh and blood timber wolves, they come across as ghostly and monstrous creatures. Cryptids? Demons? The wolves kill for the sake of it, not for food. They also have certain human traits, lusting for revenge after one of their kind is killed and eaten by the oil-men.

The film has an underlying philosophical message, which comes close to atheism. The main character, John Ottway, is a man who has lost his faith. When he cries out to God one last time, the heavens remain silent. Ottway realizes that, somehow, the fight for survival is the only meaning there is, but this is not interpreted as a nihilistic “war of all against all” scenario, but rather as a good fight for kith, kin and some kind of meaning.

Overall, “The Grey” is a film about people, not wolves. Perhaps that's why the canines are so ghostly and demonic. They are symbols of pitiless Nature and Existence, which couldn't care less about us and our little agendas. In a post-credit scene, it's implied that Ottway survived the final confrontation with the alpha male of the wolf pack. However, it's also implied that he is terminally ill, making us wonder how long his “redemption” will last.

In a sense, “The Grey” shows how far a consistent atheist can go. It turns out to be about as far as the closest den of evil wolves...

I'm not sure whether there really is meaning in such a quest.