Dallas Film Now.

The dog does not die. 

That’s not even a spoiler. The very first scene of director David Ayer’s latest study of masculinity reveals a dog, alone on an isolated highway road, as a lone woman in a pickup truck approaches. 

A title card then sets up the rest of the movie: “1 week earlier.” 

Flying a single-engine airplane, Brad Pitt and his dog are enjoying the gorgeous scenery below in the Alaskan wilderness. Landing on a lake, Pitt makes camp on the shore, demonstrating his familiarity with the rules for proper wilderness camping, which is always respectful to the environment above all else, as well as his command of his dog, who has obviously received extensive training to respond to certain words and act accordingly.  

Things do not go as the peaceful opening may suggest, however. On the first night, the dog, named Odin, has a dream suggesting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Soon enough, as the BFFs attempt to escape incoming bad weather, Brad Pitt suffers a cardiac event while piloting the airplane, causing it to crash. Both die, and the movie ends. 

Of course not! 

Even if you’ve never seen a wilderness survival drama before, it’s fairly easy to guess where the trajectory of the first produced feature screenplay by short film/music video director Cameron Alexander is heading. We already know the dog survives, so the only question remains whether Brad Pitt survives. 

Do we care about Brad Pitt in this movie, though? 

Not really. 

Beyond our presumed sympathy for the situation in which a fellow human being has found themselves, the only thing we know about his character is limited to how he treats his dog, and that they were bonded through their shared military service. 

We hear a few platitudes when Brad Pitt encounters Hollywood actor J.K. Simmons in the wilderness; J.K. just happens to be in the midst of millions of acres of wilderness, and just happens to hear Brad Pitt and his dog on his travels, stopping for an evening of socializing, marked by Brad Pitt introducing J.K. Simmons to an alcoholic beverage called “Belgian brown ale.” Who ever heard of that?

That encounter with J.K. Simmons, who, to be honest, is portraying a fictional character who is now retired and is boating through the Alaskan wilderness — who writes this stuff? Oh, that’s right, the screenplay is credited to first-timer Cameron Alexander — comes just before Brad Pitt suffers a cardiac event and crashes the plane. 

Happily, the dog has been thrown clear and survives. Happily, Brad Pitt is a survival expert, and his maps of the Alaskan wilderness survived the plane crash — sadly, all the magical Belgian brown ale sank to the bottom of the river — so he plots out a course so that he and his dog can trek through the wilderness. 

It’s only 58 miles, so no problem, because he’s Brad Pitt, right? 

Truthfully, that’s not guarantee of anything, and soon Brad Pitt and his dog are encountering every possible danger that a neophyte screenwriter can dream up, borrowing liberally from every other wilderness adventure that has ever been made. 

Even more truthfully, I didn’t care about the predictability of the movie. I’ve been watching wilderness adventure movies for more than 50 years, and I no longer watch them hoping that the narrative will twist in a surprising way. I go because I want to see a Hollywood star get all damaged and dirty in the most ruggedly handsome way possible, and somehow still keep going, never letting petty things like cuts to the abdomen or broken bones or cuts or bruises or a pack of wolves or a roaring Grizzly bear or an airplane that ignores his flare because he shot it two seconds late or anything else in heaven or earth keep him from walking with his dog through the wilderness. 

And whether he lives or dies, it doesn’t matter. As long as he keeps going, and as long as the dog doesn’t die, I’m happy to sit in a (nearly) empty movie theater for an afternoon screening, as long as the theater is equipped with Dolby Atmos and Barco and delivers a huge gorgeous screen filled with visual beauty and an alarmingly loud sound system that makes my seat vibrate from its volume. 

On those counts, Heart of the Beast is a roaring success. 

The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, through Dallas and Fort Worth. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.