The Grey

What does this film’s bleak story relay to us about the problem of pain and suffering and mankind’s relationship with God? How does the interaction between the atheistic characters Ottway and Diaz reflect the loss of belief or anger and sense of divine injustice people will often experience in the face of repeated tragedies in life? How does the film connect with, and tap into the themes raised in the Biblical story of Job? Did the character Ottway retain his faith? Does the ending of the film indicate that he has come to some sort of amends with God? Did he survive the final battle with the Alpha male wolf? Does the parallelism between Otway’s leadership of the group of crash survivors, and the alpha male wolf’s behavior with regard to his pack, extend to God’s relationship with Otway, and what does it say about our place in the cosmos? Is God challenging us, purposefully making the world a difficult violent, bloody and deadly place? If so, what is the purpose? What relevance does the symbolic conflict between alphas have to this question? What is at stake as we face off with God? What message does this film send us about our own fragility and dependence upon technology?