Eight Below
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Frank Marshall
Produced by	Patrick Crowley David Hoberman
Written by	David DiGillio
Starring	Paul Walker
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Editing by	Christopher Rouse
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	February 17, 2006
Running time	120 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$120,455,994 (worldwide)
Preceded by	Nankyoku Monogatari
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Eight Below is a Walt Disney Pictures film directed by Frank Marshall and written by David DiGilio, which was released on February 17, 2006 in the United States. Frank Marshall (born September 13, 1946) is a four-times Academy Award-nominated American movie producer and director, often working in collaboration with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy. ... Paul William Walker IV (born September 12, 1973) is an American actor and former fashion model. ... Mark Isham (b. ... Don Burgess (born June 8, 1946 in Port Edward, Ontario) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played 446 games in the World Hockey Association. ... Christopher Rouse (born 15 February 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American composer. ... Old logo from 1985-2006 Walt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company: Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was established as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since the death of Walt Disney were released under the name of the... is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 南極物語 (Nankyoku Monogatari, lit. ... Old logo from 1985-2006 Walt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company: Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was established as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since the death of Walt Disney were released under the name of the... This article is about motion pictures. ... Frank Marshall (born September 13, 1946) is an American movie producer and director, often working in collaboration with Kathleen Kennedy. ... is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Background

The 1958 ill-fated Japanese expedition to Antarctica inspired the 1983 hit movie Nankyoku Monogatari. Eight Below is the fictional re-imagining of the events of the 1958 incident moved forward to 1993, the last year that sled dogs were used in Antarctica.^[1] The movie was not filmed in Antarctica: it was filmed in Smithers, British Columbia,^{[citation needed]} Norway and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.^[2] Jan. ... 南極物語 (Nankyoku Monogatari, lit. ... Smithers is a town located in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, approximately halfway between Prince George and Prince Rupert. ... Kangerlussuaq is a settlement in west Greenland at the head of a fjord of the same name. ...

Plot

In 1993, Jerry Shepard (Paul Walker) is a guide at an Antarctica research base under contract with the National Science Foundation. UCLA professor, Dr. Davis McClaren (Bruce Greenwood) arrives at the base and presses Shepard to take him to Mount Melbourne to attempt to find a rare meteorite from the planet Mercury. Shepard does so against his own intuition, which tells him that it is too late in the season (January) to complete such a treacherous route. Worried about the snowmobiles breaking through the thinning ice or falling in a crevasse, Shepard tells his boss and McClaren that the only way to get to Mount Melbourne is by dog sled. Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Paul William Walker IV (born September 12, 1973) is an American actor and former fashion model. ... The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ... Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956 in Noranda, Quebec) is a Canadian actor. ... Mount Melbourne is a massive volcanic cone of great beauty, surmounting the projection of the coast between Wood Bay and Terra Nova Bay, in Victoria Land of Antarctica. ... Willamette Meteorite A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earths surface without being destroyed. ... This article is about the planet. ... Measuring snowpack in a crevasse on the Easton Glacier, North Cascades, USA A crevasse is a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field. ... Dog sled A dog sled (or dogsled) is a sled pulled by one or more dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. ...

Shepard and McClaren make it to Mount Melbourne but are immediately called back to base camp due to an approaching storm. McClaren begs for some time, and Shepard gives him half a day.

Shepard pauses to patch up one of the dogs (Old Jack) whose paw is bleeding. McClaren, while walking around to get a better radio connection with base, slides down an embankment when a soft ledge gives way. His landing at the bottom cracks the thin ice and McClaren ends up breaking through. Shepherd is able to get his lead dog Maya to bring a rope to McClaren and the dog team pulls him from the water.

Now, battling hypothermia, frostbite and near whiteout conditions, it is the dogs' stamina and keen sense of direction that gets Shepard and McClaren back to base. They are immediately evacuated, along with all other personnel, due to the storm, which is expected to intensify. With too much weight in the plane to carry both people and dogs, the human team medically evacuates Shepard and McClaren with a plan to return later for the dogs. The dogs are temporarily left behind, but the storm is worse than expected and it soon becomes apparent that no rescue will be attempted until the next spring. Hypothermia is a condition in which an organisms temperature drops below that Required fOr normal metabolism and Bodily functionS. In warm-blooded animals, core [[body Temperature]] is maintained nEar a constant leVel through biologic [[homEostasis]]. But wheN the body iS exposed to cold Its internal mechanismS may be unable... This article is about a medical condition. ... Whiteout is a weather condition in which visibility is reduced by snow and diffuse lighting from overcast clouds. ...

Back at home, Shepard experiences angst about leaving his dogs and stops working as an Antarctic-conditions guide. Five months later, and after a heart-to-heart session with an older, veteran guide, Shepard decides to throw his all into rescuing the dogs. Before leaving for the trip, Shepard patches things up with McClaren, and tells him about his intentions to rescue the dogs. McClaren learns that Shepard does not have enough money to pay for the trip, but tells him that he cannot help him. Soon afterwards, McClaren sees a drawing of the dog team made by his young son, with the title: "My Hero is... THE DOGS WHO SAVED MY DADDY." McClaren realizes the magnitude of his ingratitude and uses the remaining balance of his grant money to finance a rescue mission.

The dogs must struggle for survival alone in the Antarctic wilderness until Shepard and McClaren eventually return to rescue them, more than six months later. Six of the eight dogs survive. The two who die are Dewey and Old Jack. Maya, the lead dog, barely manages to survive after being bitten on the leg by a leopard seal.

Sled dogs

In the 1958 event, fifteen Sakhalin Husky sled dogs were involved. Of the fifteen sled dogs in the 1958 Japanese expedition, only two survived (Taro and Jiro).^{[citation needed]} In Eight Below eight dogs were used — two Alaskan Malamutes, Buck and Shadow, plus six Siberian Huskies. Each actor-dog had help from other dogs who performed stunts and pulled sleds. In all, over 30 dogs were used to portray the film's eight canine characters.^[3] The Sakhalin Husky, also known as the Karafuto-Ken, is a breed of dog used as a sled dog. ... Sled dogs, known also as sleigh dogs, sledge dogs or sleddogs are a group of dogs that are used to pull a wheel-less vehicle on runners (a sled or sleigh) over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... The Siberian Husky is a medium-size, dense-coat working dog breed that originated in eastern Siberia, belonging to the Spitz genetic family. ...

Release

Critical reception

Reviews, in general, were positive. Roger Ebert from Chicago Sun-Times liked the film, and said "Eight Below succeeds as an effective story."^[4] BBC liked the movie as well, but did not like its long length.^[5] Reel.com liked it, saying "the movie succeeds at drawing you into their incredible adventure".^[2] However, the San Francisco Chronicle disliked the film, saying "The movie is overly long and much too intense for small children, yet it's filled with dialogue and plot turns that are too juvenile to thrill adult audiences."^[6] William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reacted favorably ("the dog actors will melt your heart"), but pointed out, as did other reviewers, that "Antarctica buffs" will be critical of errors, such as portraying midwinter events occurring in "balmy, blazing daylight at a time Antarctica is locked in round-the-clock darkness and temperatures of 140 degrees below."^[7] Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... The daily Seattle Post-Intelligencer is the second leading newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. ...

Box office

According to Box Office Mojo, the film opened at #1 on February 17, 2006, with a total weekend gross of $20,188,176 in 3,066 theaters, averaging to about $6,584 per theater. The film closed on June 1, 2006 with a total worldwide gross of $120,453,565 ($81,612,565 domestic and $38,841,000 overseas)^{[citation needed]}

Wildlife in movie

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (December 2007)

• Killer Whale
• Leopard Seal
• Emperor Penguin

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Binomial name Orcinus orca Linnaeus, 1758 Orca range (in blue) The orca (Orcinus orca), commonly known as the killer whale, and sometimes called the grampus, is the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. ... Binomial name (Blainville, 1820) Hydrurga leptonyx range map. ... Binomial name Gray, 1844 The Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species. ...

References

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C.. It is also one of the citys oldest papers, having been founded in 1877. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The daily Seattle Post-Intelligencer is the second leading newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Eight Below - Disney's Official Eight Below DVD site
• Eight Below at the Internet Movie Database
• Eight Below at Box Office Mojo

Related sites

• American Humane Society

Reviews

• Eight Below at Rotten Tomatoes