Opening

74% World War Z Jun 21
81% Monsters University Jun 21
62% The Bling Ring Jun 21
58% Maniac Jun 21
100% A Hijacking Jun 21
66% Unfinished Song Jun 21
100% The Attack Jun 21
—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

Top Box Office

56% Man of Steel $116.6M
85% This Is the End $20.7M
50% Now You See Me $11.0M
71% Fast & Furious 6 $9.6M
38% The Purge $8.3M
34% The Internship $7.1M
62% Epic $6.3M
87% Star Trek Into Darkness $6.3M
11% After Earth $4.1M
78% Iron Man 3 $3.0M

Coming Soon

—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

The Grey (2012)

tomatometer

79

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 187
Fresh: 148 | Rotten: 39

The Grey is an exciting tale of survival, populated with fleshed-out characters and a surprising philosophical agenda.

68

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 13

The Grey is an exciting tale of survival, populated with fleshed-out characters and a surprising philosophical agenda.

audience

62

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 107,742

My Rating

Movie Info

In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements - and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt - before their time runs out. -- (C) Open Road Films

R,

Drama, Action & Adventure

Joe Carnahan

May 15, 2012

$51.5M

Open Road Films - Official Site External Icon

Watch It Now

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

All Critics (188) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (148) | Rotten (39) | DVD (6)

The Grey remains a genuinely gripping survival story and a refreshing change from stale urban action flicks.

January 8, 2013 Full Review Source: CNN.com
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Grey is about raging against the dying of the light but also about accepting it with peace once the fight has been lost.

January 31, 2012 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comments (24)
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Three-fifths of a solid film!

January 30, 2012 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comments (5)
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Grey, despite moments of sublimity, is as predictable as a funeral. When Ottway angrily calls out to God, the nonanswer is sadly redundant.

January 30, 2012 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comments (37)
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Somewhere along the line, apparently, it was decided that having men fight for their lives is not enough to hang a movie on. It has to be a movie about Big Ideas.

January 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | Comments (49)
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hold on tight. It's a true call of the wild.

January 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | Comments (29)
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's 'Man vs Wild Wolf' in this suspenseful Alaskan survival film.

March 4, 2013 Full Review Source: Concrete Playground
Concrete Playground

The Grey is an exciting, if uneven, paean to the macho ideal.

January 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine
Paste Magazine

Both visceral and thoughtful.

January 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

Carnahan's gripping yet grim thriller is either a masterpiece of reflective cinema, or a bleak, inexcusably nihilistic bid to transcend movie tropes by alienating the audience.

January 8, 2013 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A noteworthy performance from Liam Neeson keeps the character moments engaging and the man vs. nature scenarios offer a number of memorable sequences.

September 30, 2012 Full Review Source: ScreenRant
ScreenRant

There are points where you can feel the filmmakers really trying to get their point across, only to have it lost again in a film that gets its story stuck in a rut.

September 17, 2012 Full Review Source: Examiner.com
Examiner.com

The Grey is a cool action film with a heart and soul, which is refreshing to see in a January release.

September 15, 2012 Full Review Source: We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered

A bold, uncompromising film that can't be dismissed as mere entertainment, no matter how thrilling it is.

August 22, 2012 Full Review Source: CraveOnline
CraveOnline

One of the most complex action thrillers of the last ten years...

August 10, 2012 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed
Cinema Crazed

May very well be the best thrill ride of the year even after August. Don't miss it.

May 22, 2012 Full Review Source: Lyles' Movie Files | Comments (2)
Lyles' Movie Files

A survival thriller with teeth.

May 21, 2012 Full Review Source: Movie Talk
Movie Talk

The Grey is a powerful drama, a chilling tale of horror, and an uplifting, emotionally raw look at the nature of man and spiritually.

May 16, 2012 Full Review Source: IGN DVD | Comment (1)
IGN DVD

I can't say I was sorry it was over. But it also has the stark purity of an icicle; it earns my respect if not my love.

April 30, 2012 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

I went into the fray and rode this intense, emotional ride with the characters. The Grey is hypnotic, terrifying, affective, poetic, and the best film that I've seen this year.

April 26, 2012 Full Review Source: 2UE That Movie Show | Comments (9)
2UE That Movie Show

This movie starts off with the main character putting a gun to his head, having decided his life has no meaning or purpose. After that, the story starts getting depressing.

April 17, 2012 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comments (26)
Laramie Movie Scope

A gripping, survivalist drama with more humanity than expected.

April 16, 2012 Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

Remember all the big talk from Joe Carnahan about bringing this back to theaters for Oscar consideration in the fall? Seems pretty stupid now, doesn't it?

March 23, 2012 Full Review Source: McClatchy-Tribune News Service | Comments (34)
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

He will be 60 this year but instead of slowing down, Liam Neeson is speeding up, as he has become the most bankable action hero in the world. His latest ice-cold thriller, The Grey, is currently the number one movie at the US box office.

March 10, 2012 Full Review Source: UTV

a wild ride and will answer the question of how long you can hold your breath, and then quickly knock it out of you. Cinema seats will be torn apart, popcorn will fly and there might even be a few tears

March 8, 2012 Full Review Source: The Popcorn Junkie | Comment (1)
The Popcorn Junkie

Audience Reviews for The Grey

Complex, thoughtful and at times masterful survival drama with horror elements which dares to ask big philosophical questions and still does not lose it's edge as a pure entertainment or it's more artistic visual edge.

Joe Carnahan is a very underrated director who deserves much more praise and should be approached more of an auteur type director than just a plain Hollywood director. While many consider him as nothing more than a hired hand, i find his work stylistically unbelieavably good looking and some themes in his films are often extremely dark and melancholic. In past ten years he has also created a style completely of his own as a filmmaker.

The Grey is nothing short of brilliant when it comes to mixing content with visual look. Here is a deeply touching work of art with bursts of action and even occasional horror in the form of leathal wolves. I can just imagine that how many other directors would have easily turned this film into non-stop actioner with zero depth but Carnahan is much more interested in his characters than assembling any set-pieces. There are two or three outstanding moments of suspense but this film is not about them. This film is about facing the death. It is a story about men who has to accept their fate and learn to give up when the battle has lost.

I cannot recall better performance from Liam Neeson than his John Ottway in this film. His character is a man who has lost love from his life and his will to live too. He is a man who is facing his final battle with nature and himself. Neeson is nothing short of brilliant here. There are also many smaller parts here which are important as well. Actors like Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo and Dallas Roberts all give small but important performances which bring welcome depth to film's story.

Technical feats are all state of art here. Especially the phenomenally goodlooking cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi is something to behold. Composer Marc Streitenfeld's score is also very effective and mixes tender themes into a icy moments of horror. Wolves themselves are kinda harbinger of death and Carnahan wisely show us as little as possible these leathal beasts. The Grey is also reminder of dangers of nature that would have been enough to make this riveting enough to watch.

As a pure philosophical and psychological survival drama this film is already quite a ride but Carnahan's approach and firm hand makes this something unfrogettable. The Grey is director Joe Carnahan's best film to date and thrilling film to watch. There hasn't been a film like this for a long time. This is possibly the best survival themed film ever made.
August 13, 2012
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

Survival Drama with information to survive.

(+) Liam Neelson always teach me in survival situation

(-) If you curious about the trailer that he fight the wolf one on one, that's the ending.
November 28, 2012
    1. Flannery: I gotta a book! It's called 'We're all fucked'! It's a best seller.
    – Submitted by millie w (5 months ago)
    1. Ottway: I'm gonna start beating the shit out of you in the next five seconds, and you're gonna swallow a lot of blood for a fucking billfold!
    – Submitted by Ryden G (9 months ago)
    1. Ottway: A job at the end of the world. A salary killer for a big petroleum company. I don't know why I did half the things I've done, but I know this is where I belong. Surrounded by ex-cons, fugitives, drifters, assholes. Men unfit for mankind.
    – Submitted by Victor M (9 months ago)
    1. Ottway: Those things from your life - whatever they might be - make you want the next minute more than the last. They make you fight for it.
    – Submitted by Victor M (9 months ago)
    1. Ottway: Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day.
    – Submitted by Shane D (10 months ago)
    1. Diaz: This is fuck city, population five and dwindling.
    – Submitted by Luigi G (13 months ago)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
The Grey 12 days ago 16

What's Hot On RT

Total Recall
Total Recall

John Goodman's Best Movies

Blue Jasmine
Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen in San Francisco

Diana Trailer
Diana Trailer

Naomi Watts stars as Princess Di

24 Frames
24 Frames

Pictures from a zombie nation

Latest News on The Grey

April 30, 2013:
Joe Carnahan Directing Sugar Bandits
Sounds tasty.
March 25, 2013:
Stephen Amell Confirms 50 Shades of Grey Audition
At last, someone owns up to wanting to star in this.
November 1, 2012:
Joe Carnahan Is Ready to Stretch
He'll direct Patrick Wilson in his next action picture.

Foreign Titles

  • The Grey - Unter Wölfen (DE)
  • The Gray (UK)
Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile