Two veterans, James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and Odin (Uber, also known as Mako von Heisenberg, and his three sons, Seeka, Ryker and Hondo, for the flashbacks with animal trainer Andrew Simpson), fly into the Alaskan wilderness to camp, but on the way back, James suffers a heart attack and crashes the Cessna. With wild animals surrounding them, they are forced to walk fifty-eight miles on rough terrain. What would you do to save your best friend? If you love being emotionally manipulated for one hour forty-one minutes and watching two living beings get tortured for no reason, then “Heart of the Beast” (2026) is for you, but the editors of the trailer have a better sense of the strengths of the story. If I did not have NBC-10’s “Reel Reviews” on the release date, I would have never watched this movie, even for free. It makes a superb infomercial encouraging people to adopt military dogs.
If you are into a man and his dog against the harsh world content, then you will adore “Heart of the Beast” and will get what you paid for. What is with the sudden plethora of a man, his dog and Cessna content? Pitt brings his considerable acting prowess. Oops, no. Pitt brings his considerable hotness and his love of dogs to the proceedings but has always struggled with depicting emotion and seems more blank than suppressing a well spring of emotion. While “The Dog Stars” (2026) was widely panned, the acting was phenomenal, and Jacob Elordi is more than a pretty face. W.C. Fields may have said “never work with children or animals” because they are unpredictable or steal the show, but Pitt is in need of some good press because of allegations of how he acts in planes with human beings so depicting a character willing to do anything for his dog probably seems like a no brainer and makes for great PR. His lack of affect can be excused with his character’s military experience, but so many actors are able to exude so much more: Ed Harris, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, etc.
Pitt does have amazing chemistry with his dog costar(s), is convincing as devoted to his fluffy friend, and impressively executes convincing stunts, but James is hampered with a ridiculous premise of doing all of this while having a heart attack. James is the second coming of Redd Foxx conveniently clutching his chest to ramp up the tension of whether these two will survive whenever circumstances need a little something extra. James’ ability to engage in strenuous activity or rapidly untying himself from his backpack, his most impressive go-to move, while in cardiac arrest stems from his love for his dog. “Heart of the Beast” lays on the tribulations so thick that it gets to be a bit much.
On the other hand, if you want to spend “Heart of the Beast” angry at James for letting Odin get in this situation, you are in the right place. The flashbacks hurt more than help because they show James training Odin since he was a puppy and putting his fluffy baby in these harrowing situations, including the present. Director David Ayer and writer Cameron Alexander are impressive for the details that they leave out so the film’s events will be timeless: no specific conflict referenced, the beer label tilted to only show the ingredients not the brand, general dialogue like target. One flashback shows James holding a baby, so it is all good. There is no interrogation of the ethics of enlisting an animal, i.e. making them trust and love a person who puts them in danger. Using a living being like a tool sounds noble in theory, but it is hard to watch. To be fair, I felt the same way about CGI dragons. I’m a light weight.
Uber and sons are great actors, and definitely better than their human counterparts, even the perfect J.K. Simmons who has a brief cameo as a gold miner that feels ripped from the twentieth century so James could prose dump how Odin got his injuries. They do not have a prosthetic leg, but they certainly act like it, especially on that two-trunk bridge with that little stumble and anytime they walk in a straight line. The look of complete adoration on Uber and sons’ faces while looking at Pitt, who is not their human being in real life, is impressive. A lot of the perils are digital, yet Uber can get into character and act as if it is real without the necessary subject to interact with. Dogs do not necessarily know that they are acting, and it is hard to imagine how Simpson got them to mean mug, act scared or hurt on cue. If “Heart of the Beast” deserves credit, it is for highlighting that animals have psychological issues and deserve as much, if not more, understanding as their human counterparts and peace.
How does “Heart of the Beast” define peace? Composer Jared Michael Fry uses Native American and African tinged sounds and chants to reflect the good times. Indigenous sounds make sense considering the film is supposed to be set in untouched locations in North America though shot in New Zealand, but playing over Pitt and Simmons in “Alaska” feels dissonant. It does eventually make sense based on the narrative structure and likely is intended as a compliment if the veterans are symbols of an innately flawed experiment that has led to them unable to survive with people and the only solution is a Land Back-like trajectory. That theory does not align with how implicitly noble James and Odin’s service is depicted so it is almost as if it is a more subtle extension of the tropes depicted in movies like “Dances with Wolves” (1990), “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), and the “Avatar” franchise where indigenous characters are the second place choice to the majority culture protagonist who is depicted as a better native than anyone else.
Another definition of peace is the way that Ayer shoots the pair soaring and walking in the fields before the storm hits. Ayer’s prior film, “A Working Man” (2025), looked like dog shit, but this time around, he beat Ridley Scott in the way that he composed every shot with the pair of pals in nature, especially the mountain shots that do not have an interchangeable sameness like the depiction of Italian mountains in “The Dog Star.” The terrain feels like a character and has a personality, CGI or not. It is nice to see Ayer’s worst day is not characteristic of his work, but the handheld camera occasionally felt random and left the screen blank for too long. Cinematographer Mauro Fiore nailed mirroring the emotional tone of the environment with the scene’s substance.
“Heart of the Beast” is not my cup of tea, and the only reason that it deserves a good rating is because it will appeal to the audience that it targets. Most people love dogs so they probably will not look too deeply into the movie and just enjoy watching a human and dog love each other so much that they would die for each other. If you cannot bear to watch an animal in danger, you may be able to handle it, but skipping it would still be wise.
