As the existence of such television shows as "Man vs. Wilderness," "Man and Woman vs. Wilderness," and "Dual Survival" demonstrates, the concept of people coping with the dangers of a jungle, a desert, a swamp, a mountain, etc. without proper equipment or assistance enjoys a wide appeal. Movies as different as "The Blue Lagoon," "Castaway," and "The Edge" show that the subject has always translated successfully to the big screen. (Although I personally prefer hot showers, flush toilets, and ice in my drinks, I must confess to a continuing fascination with the concept, probably induced by too many readings of "Robinson Crusoe" in a misspent childhood.)

The latest survival flick, oddly entitled "The Grey," provides yet another addition to the history of the form and, though it follows a relatively predictable pattern, it also employs its subject for some unusual thematic development. The movie further departs from its tradition in concluding with some reversals of expectations and paradoxically, an entirely logical, if somewhat ambiguous ending.

The picture begins with a voiceover narration by its depressed, suicidal protagonist, John Ottway (Liam Neeson), in the form of a letter to his wife, who has left him; the letter itself reappears throughout, initiating a series of brief flashbacks to their time together. Ottway works at an oil refinery in Alaska as a sharpshooter, protecting the other workers from the attacks of animals, including wolves. He characterizes his colleagues as a bunch of criminals, misfits, outcasts, ex-convicts, and losers, who illustrate his analysis by drunken brawling in the squalid company saloon.

An airplane carrying him and a crew of workers back to civilization crashes in a bad storm, killing everyone aboard except for Ottway and six other men. He tries to ease the dying of one of the victims, helps the injured, and leads the others in salvaging what they can from the plane. The one great obstacle to their escape from the disaster appears when darkness falls, however, in the form of a pack of wolves, who menace the crew and attack a dying flight attendant.

Ottway explains to the desperate survivors that they have apparently crashed near a den, which means that the wolves attack not for food but to defend their territory and rid it of any intruders. The plot then settles into a pattern of flight and conflict, as Ottway tries to lead the workers in some direction that will take them out of the wolves' domain, attempting to fend off dozens of attackers with little but improvised weapons.

Aside from the bitter, brutal cold and snow that naturally impede their escape, the group itself breaks into discord, as some of the men resent Ottway's leadership and others simply refuse to follow his directions. They hear the alpha wolf fighting off a competitor in the darkness, which parallels a confrontation between Ottway and one of the dissidents that establishes him as the alpha male of his particular pack.

In the midst of their danger, Ottway's action also initiates a number of crude discussions among the men about the causes for their calamity, the reasons for their own survival, and the existence of some power that allowed them to live and others to die. The movie turns into a kind of bleak meditation on life and loss, death and dying, faith and doubt. The original group of seven shrinks for a variety of reasons - men die of course from wolf attack, but also of altitude sickness, falls, drowning, or the simple decision to relinquish life - which intensifies the significance of those issues, but provides no easy answers.

Liam Neeson's powerful presence dominates the action and the other characters, most of whom lack individual differentiation beyond some perfunctory dialogue and behavior. The most obnoxious dissenter to Neeson's ideas, for example, dies predictably and satisfyingly early in the plot, and the most sympathetic and thoughtful member of the group sticks around a good deal longer.

The picture finally really belongs to the landscape and the wolves, both extraordinarily hostile and convincingly real. The pack's inexorable pursuit of the fleeing men comes to represent something like their fate, the real answer to their inchoate questioning of cause and effect, the reasons for living and dying.