HEART OF THE BEAST (2026)

A survival thriller that pits two combat veterans against the wilderness, Heart of the Beast hits all the right emotional notes to create a beautifully grisly ode to man and dog.

If there was an Oscar category for best animal in a feature film, then Uber from Heart of the Beast would easily win. A trained search-and-rescue and mountain-rescue German Shepherd from New Zealand, Uber (nearly) steals the film from his Oscar-winning co-star Brad Pitt, with the pair making a formidable duo that win our hearts and earn our tears throughout the film’s 101-minute runtime.

Pitt stars in Heart of the Beast as retired Special Forces officer James Belmont who, along with his equally retired combat dog Odin, flies his single—engine airplane to the snow climes of rugged Alaska for a few days of peace and solitude. When James suffers a heart attack during their flight home and crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, both he and Odin must rely on their training to survive against their fiercest enemy yet: the wild.

Director David Ayer (Fury) brings a classic American filmmaking sensibility to a film that is simple in its structure yet riveting in its adventure and effective in its emotional dramatics. Ayer is never one to shy away from intense moments of violence, and Heart of the Beast satisfyingly portrays the dangers - both nature-centric and predatory - that the pair face as they try to make their way back to civilisation.

Ayer and screenwriter Cameron Crosbie handle the topic of PTSD in war veterans with sensitivity, as both James and Odin are plagued with haunting memories of the various firefights they survived in which they both suffered psychological and physical wounds. Pitt is especially good at portraying a veteran whose loyalty is matched with an inherent suspicion of man, as displayed during an at first tense interaction with a mountain man played by J.K. Simmons in Grizzly Adams mode.

Shot in numerous rugged locations in New Zealand - which are beautifully captured by cinematographer Mauro Fiore (Avatar) - Heart of the Beast succeeds in transporting its audience into a journey about survival and sacrifice, danger and preservation, and a bond between two souls of war longing for peace in a world is trying to tear them apart.