Brad Pitt Shines in David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast

The Alaska wind reads like an opening paragraph: cold, unrelenting, and honest. Early reviews for Heart of the Beast landed like that wind—sharp, surprising, and focused squarely on Brad Pitt.

Critics have warmed to David Ayer’s latest, and the numbers back it up: Heart of the Beast currently holds a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 27 reviews. If that percentage holds, it will be the highest-rated film of Ayer’s career on the site. For context, End of Watch sits at 85% and Fury at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Metacritic paints a more measured picture so far, listing a 70 out of 100; however, the film’s Metacritic page was still accumulating reviews at the time of reporting, so that figure could shift as more critics weigh in.

The movie follows James Belmont, an ex-special forces officer played by Pitt, who survives a plane crash deep in Alaska with his war dog, Odin. Stranded in a landscape that chews up mistakes, the two must navigate blizzards, wolves, and dwindling supplies while trying to find a path back to civilization. Paramount describes the picture as an adventure thriller that centers as much on survival as on the stubborn, wordless loyalty between a man and his dog.

Early reviews emphasize Pitt’s performance and the film’s convincing human-animal chemistry. Critics praise the physical restraint in Pitt’s turn—the kind of work that doesn’t shout but settles in your chest. At the same time, several reviewers call the plot fairly formulaic and, at moments, predictable. In short: the film’s power seems to rest more on performance, atmosphere, and the central relationship than on narrative surprises.

There’s a simple pleasure in watching two beings—one human, one canine—outsmart a harsh place together. The film leans into that intimacy, and audiences will likely decide whether that alone is enough to carry them through the cold. Heart of the Beast opens in theaters on September 25, 2026. Will the quiet courage of a man and his dog be the last thing you remember?