EVERY man has his story and so much is true in The Grey, a tale of survival that pits wolves against men in the wilderness of wintry Alaska.

Liam Neeson heads the cast in director Joe Carnhan’s thriller and he convinces as Ottway, a kind of security guard for a remote oil rig who’s day job, quite handily, is to shoot wolves intent on attacking the compound in which he lives.

But one gut-wrenchingly realistic plane crash later and Ottway, minus his gun, leads a team of drillers as they seek to escape the freezing snowy wasteland.

You realise early on that Ottway is quite hard, driven by loss, and probably the ideal man to have next to you in such a situation.

But as the CGI animated pack of predators begin to pick people off in a range of violent ways, the film evolves into an interrogation of each man’s grief, loss and regret, and if, when faced with their own mortality, how best placed they are to face it.

Neeson drives the plot and emotion, the glue that holds characters including a cynical ex-con and religious family man together, until they become friends.

Differences between Burke (Nonso Anozie), Henrick (Dallas Roberts), Talget (Dermot Mulroney) and Diaz (Frank Grillo) are not forced with each allowed to face their own demons.

But the action is not relentless and parts of seem slow, but the harshly beautiful scenery and emotional undertone carries it through until a memorable, but rather abrupt, ending.

Whether a metaphor of men facing their fate, or a survival horror best served with popcorn, The Grey is well worth a watch.