''Alaska'' is a 1996 American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

survival film The survival film is a film genre in which one or more characters make an effort at physical survival. It often overlaps with other film genres. It is a subgenre of the adventure film, along with swashbuckler films, war films, and safari films. S ...

directed by

Fraser Clarke Heston Fraser Clarke Heston (born February 12, 1955) is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor. He is the son of actors Charlton Heston and Lydia Clarke, and has a sister, Holly Rochell Heston. Heston's filmography includes ' ...

and produced by Andy Burg. The story, written by Burg and Scott Myers, centers on two children who search through the Alaskan wilderness for their lost father. During their journey, they find a

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

who helps lead them to their father. However, a

poacher Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

with a desire to capture the bear follows close behind the kids and the polar bear. The movie was filmed primarily in the

Purcell Mountains The Purcell Mountains are a mountain range in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. They are a subrange of the Columbia Mountains, which includes the Selkirk, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. They are located on the west side of the Rocky Mounta ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the city of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The film was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

, grossing only $11,829,959 over a $24 million budget. It received negative reviews upon its release.

Plot

Jake Barnes is flying a plane over the Alaskan wilderness. While he is flying, he is communicating with a man named Charlie, who works for Quincy Air Service. A polar bear cub and its mother are then shown playing in the snow, not knowing that they are being watched by a pair of poachers, Colin Perry and Mr. Koontz, and the adult bear is then shot, leaving the cub orphaned. Jake's daughter Jessie and her friend Chip are observing wildlife in their

kayaks A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word '' qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each s ...

before her dinner. Jake begins telling her where he is flying from, at what time he left that location, and his air speed. Jessie calculates that her father is passing

Devils Thumb Devils Thumb, or Taalkhunaxhkʼu Shaa in Tlingit language, Tlingit, is a mountain in the Stikine Icecap region of the Alaska–British Columbia border, near Petersburg, Alaska, Petersburg. It is named for its projected thumb-like appearance. Its ...

. Jake then lands his plane on a lake, where Charlie is waiting to tie the plane up to the dock. His son, Sean scolds his father for moving their family to Alaska after their mother's death. As Jake is making an emergency run, his plane's engines stall, causing him to lose control and crash in the Alaska wilderness. Frustrated by the lack of search effort by the police, Sean and Jessie go out to find their father on their own. As they kayak through the chilly waters of the Gulf of Alaska, they stop to rest on a beach. They soon realize that the shore is home to a poachers' camp. They then discover the skin of a polar bear and the young polar bear from earlier, that has been locked in a cage. They let the polar bear run free, hoping that it will save itself. After the bear leaves their camp, Colin Perry appears, in hunt of the polar bear that he believes is rightfully his property as he intends to sell the cub to a client in Hong Kong. Koontz then arrives and notices teeth marks on the frying pan, alerting Perry that the bear was there. Colin's beliefs that the children stole the bear from his camp are confirmed when he finds his missing lighter next to their camping gear. Perry orders the kids to tell the bear to "come home" (Perry is referring to the cage at his camp as the bear's home). The next day, Jessie and Sean continue in their search to find their missing father. They leave their kayak and begin searching on foot. They soon discover that the polar bear has once again followed them on their journey. Perry and Koontz, too, have followed the youngsters, and this time, they destroy the oars in their kayak and hide the kayak in the woods just in case someone comes looking for them. Just then, Charlie arrives in a helicopter in search of Jessie and Sean. Perry shows Charlie a piece of the oar and tells him that he found it 25 miles north of their current position. Charlie then departs in his helicopter in hopes of finding the children, who he believes to be in grave danger and eventually discovers the two men were actually poachers after finding their campsite. Jessie safely reaches the bottom, but Sean slips and tumbles down the mountain, hitting his head on a rock. The two then continue their journey and find a log cabin in the woods. They take shelter and Sean lies down in the bed. While in the cabin, Sean notices a canoe hanging from the ceiling. Jessie and Sean take the canoe and continue on in their search for their father. While they are canoeing down a river, the two kids encounter vicious rapids that send them and their canoe down a waterfall. Jessie is able to escape the raging river but once again, Sean's lack of experience in the wilderness causes him to struggle. He is thrust down the river where he is helped out of the cold water by Jessie's friend Chip and his grandfather Ben. As the kids recover by the riverside, Chip's father wants to send Jessie and Sean home, but Ben and Chip wish to help the two on their journey. The two proceed on their quest with their befriended polar bear, whom they named Cubby, by their side. Cubby leads them until he is shot with a tranquilizer dart by Colin. He then takes Cubby away in his helicopter, but Koontz didn't load the darts with enough tranquilizer fluids, allowing Cubby to awaken in the helicopter and trying to fight his way free. As Koontz lowers the helicopter, Cubby escapes and bites Perry's right knee, causing Perry to shoot Koontz with a tranquilizer dart and damage the helicopter as well. Meanwhile, the children continue on in their search for their missing father. They stumble upon some wreckage from his plane crash and begin yelling for him to respond. Not able to yell, their father shoots another flare into the air. This time the children see it and run to his rescue. They find the plane hanging on the edge of a cliff, and Jessie lowers Sean down the side of the mountain to reach their father. Just as it looks like Jessie is going to lose control of the rope, Cubby appears and helps Jessie pull the rope. With Cubby's help, Jessie and Sean are able to raise their father up the side of the mountain. Just as the family is reunited, Charlie shows up in his helicopter to take them home and complete the rescue. Perry and Koontz are then shown to be trekking from their now disabled helicopter after their skirmish with Cubby, and Cubby is then introduced to a new polar bear family after saying good-bye to Sean and Jessie.

Cast

Thora Birch Thora Birch (born March 11, 1982) is an American actress and producer. She made her feature film debut in 1988 with a starring role in ''Purple People Eater'', for which she received a Young Artist Award for "Best Young Actress Under Nine Years ...

as Jessie Barnes *

Vincent Kartheiser Vincent Paul Kartheiser (born May 5, 1979) is an American actor. He played Pete Campbell on the AMC television series ''Mad Men'', for which he received six Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a ...

as Sean Barnes *

Dirk Benedict Dirk Benedict (born Dirk Niewoehner; March 1, 1945) is an American film, television and stage actor, philosopher and author. He is best known for playing the characters Lieutenant Starbuck in the original ''Battlestar Galactica'' film and telev ...

as Jake Barnes *

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...

as Colin Perry, the Poacher * Duncan Fraser as Mr. Koontz, Perry's Pilot *

Gordon Tootoosis Gordon Tootoosis, (October 25, 1941 – July 5, 2011) was a First Nations actor of Cree and Stoney descent. Tootoosis was a descendant of Yellow Mud Blanket, brother of the famous Cree leader Pîhtokahanapiwiyin. He was acclaimed for his commi ...

as Ben, Quincy General Store * Ben Cardinal as Charlie, Quincy Air Service * Ryan Kent as Chip *

Don S. Davis Donald Sinclair "Don" Davis (August 4, 1942 – June 29, 2008) was an American character actor best known for playing General Hammond in the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007), and earlier for playing Major Garland Briggs on t ...

as Sergeant Sam Grazer * Dolly Madsen as Mrs. Ben * Stephen E. Miller as Trooper Sam Harvey * Byron Chief-Moon as Chip's Grandfather *

Kristin Lehman Kristin Lehman (born May 3, 1972) is a Canadian actress and dancer known for her roles in the television series '' Poltergeist: The Legacy'', ''Judging Amy'', and '' The Killing''. From 2013 to 2016, she starred as Detective Angie Flynn in the ...

as Florence

Reception

Box office

The film managed to bring in US domestic revenues of only $11,829,959 against a production budget of $24 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on reviews from 13 critics, with an average of 4.70 out of 10. Emanuel Levy of

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

wrote: "Beautiful vistas, Thora Birch and a cute bear can't compensate for the routine story and sloppy direction of this old-fashioned family adventure." Jeff Vice of the

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

wrote: "Really bad performances, an awful script straight out of a TV movie of the week and one of the least appealing, most irritating young heroes in recent screen history."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alaska (Film) 1996 films 1990s adventure films 1990s teen drama films American aviation films American survival films Castle Rock Entertainment films Columbia Pictures films 1990s English-language films Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films about polar bears Films about families Films about missing people Films about siblings Films directed by Fraser Clarke Heston Films set in Alaska Films shot in Alaska Films shot in British Columbia Films shot in Vancouver Mountaineering films Rowing films Teen adventure films 1996 drama films 1990s American films