Paramount released the first trailer for Heart of the Beast on Thursday, giving audiences their first look at Brad Pitt as a former Navy SEAL stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with his retired combat dog, Odin. The survival thriller is expected to premiere on September 25.
The trailer sets up a plane crash that leaves Special Forces officer James Belmont and Odin cut off deep in Alaska, where they are forced into a brutal fight against the elements. David Ayer directs the film, which also stars J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe.
For Pitt, 62, the reaction online has been almost as loud as the trailer itself. In YouTube comments, one fan wrote that he is “cooler than every actor under 30,” while another called the movie “PEAK” and said Pitt is the “perfect combination of a actor + action hero + performer + superstar.” It is the kind of response that follows him often, especially when a project leans on the physical authority and screen presence that have made him one of Hollywood’s most durable leads.
The new trailer also lands as Pitt keeps another project on deck: The Adventures of Cliff Booth, in which he is set to reprise the role that won him an Academy Award for best supporting actor for Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood. But for now, the focus is on Heart of the Beast, a film that sells survival, loyalty and exhaustion in the same breath and leaves the details of how James Belmont gets out of Alaska as the next thing viewers will be waiting to see.
