Vitals

Liam Neeson as John Ottway, world-weary oil company sharpshooter

Alaskan Wilderness, Winter 2011

Film: The Grey
Release Date: December 11, 2011
Director: Joe Carnahan
Costume Designer: Courtney Daniel

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

After a few reader requests that piqued my interest in survival stories, I recently watched The Grey, which premiered 14 years ago n January 2012 following its debut the previous month during the annual “Butt-Numb-a-Thon” film marathon in Austin.

Adapted by director Joe Caranhan and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers from the latter’s short story “Ghost Walker”, The Grey centers around Liam Neeson as the spiritually exhausted John Ottway, who describes his situation in the opening voiceover:

A job at the end of the world: a salaried killer for a big petroleum company. I don’t know why I did half the things I’ve done, but I know this is where I belong, surrounded by my own: ex-cons, fugitives, drifters, assholes. Men unfit for mankind.

Despondent after the death of his wife from a terminal illness, Ottway works as a sharpshooter at an oil facility in the North Slope of Alaska, where he protects the staff from the frequent attacks by grey wolves. Ottway considers turning the gun against himself on his last day of work, but he survives to join his co-workers for the return flight to Anchorage.

A malfunction sends the MD-80 hurtling toward the snowy earth, with Ottway among only a handful of survivors as he was thrown from the plane before it crashed. After helping a mortally injured colleague find peace before dying from his injuries, Ottway’s principled blend of decisiveness, resourcefulness, and grit establishes him as a natural leader among the remaining survivors—aside from the crude, boastful John Diaz (Frank Grillo).

The half-dozen survivors discover by the following morning that they’re not alone, as they’re being stalked by a pack of Canadian grey wolves—the same that Ottway targeted for his job (“They pay me to kill those things. To keep them from killing you.”), despite the real-life rarity of wolves attacking humans, especially in North America.

Carnahan had argued for The Grey to be set in the Yukon, but the producers pushed for an Alaskan setting to maintain relatability for American audiences. Still, the film was shot entirely in Canada, specifically outside the town of Smithers in British Columbia, where temperatures plunged as low as 40°C—resulting in very real snowstorms requiring no digital enhancement.

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What’d He Wear?

The Grey begins on Ottway’s last day of work for the season, dressed for the extreme cold in a black-and-white mixed wool knit beanie, reinforced gray gloves, white snow pants, and a matching white thigh-length parka. The red-trimmed circular patch over the right shoulder clearly identifies it as Canada Goose, specifically the heavy-duty “Resolute” parka that was specifically developed by the Toronto-based brand to protect wearers in extreme Arctic conditions.

The parka’s white outer shell is a weather-resistant blend of 85% polyester and 15% cotton, padded with polyester, lined in nylon, and filled with a blend of 80% white duck down and 20% feathers. The three-way adjustable tunnel hood features a removable coyote fur ruff and adjustable bracing wire. The straight front-zip is covered by a storm flap with contrasting black Velcro patches, matching the recessed black ribbed-knit cuffs and other trim across the jacket.

Two pairs of D-rings hang from the two pleated pockets over the chest, which close with Velcro-fastened pointed flaps that each have a strip of gray 3M reflective tape across them—similar to the longer strip of reflective tape across the upper back. Larger pockets over the hips are also closed by pointed, Velcro-fastened flaps, with slanted, fleece-lined handwarmer pockets set in over them. The left sleeve features a zip-up utility pocket over the bicep and a black-trimmed ID window on the forearm, echoed by a similar black-trimmed ID window on the left upper chest.

The following day, Ottway boards the return flight dressed more for cold-weather comfort than for serious snow. He wears an olive-green wide-ribbed pullover sweater with a broad, overlapping shawl collar over a muted olive cotton long-sleeved henley shirt.

Ottway wears dark field-gray 12-oz. ringspun cotton duck canvas Carhartt work trousers, likely one of the models (like the B111) lined in 4.5-oz. cotton flannel for additional warmth. These have slanted side pockets, patch-style back pockets reinforced with corner rivets, and additional utility pockets down each thigh—plus a hammer loop on the left leg. He holds them up with a thick dark-brown leather belt.

Ottway tucks the plain-hemmed bottoms of his work pants into black leg-warmers that also cover the tops of his boots. These durable winter work boots are a hybrid of hardy black rubber and brown weather-treated leather, cord-laced through five sets of metal D-rings, with thick black lug soles that provide traction and protection when trudging through snow.

After the crash, Ottway rummages through random suitcases for additional gear to protect him against the cold. The first piece he finds and pulls on is a light-gray woolen knit beanie cap, styled like his earlier black-and-white hat by fitting snugly to the skull and cuffed back against itself.

There are a few minutes toward the end of the first act where, every time we see Liam Neeson, he’s added a new jacket. While the survivors are still in the shell of the downed MD-80, he also finds a dark navy-blue puffer jacket with a double-fastened front of a straight-zip covered by a snap-up storm flap, a standing collar, and side pockets. By the evening, he has layered on yet another jacket—this one a muted plaid, fleece-lined shirt-jacket with a snap-up front placket and two flapped chest pockets.

Finally, Ottway establishes what would become his primary survival outfit through the end of The Grey. He has luckily located another thigh-length parka, this one with a drab khaki shell and another fur-trimmed hood. The straight-zip front is covered by a covered-snap storm fly. Two large set-in chest pockets have slanted openings covered by straight, narrow, snap-fastened flaps, supplemented by larger patch pockets over the hips that also close with single-snap flaps. Like his own Canada Goose parka from the prologue, there is a utility pocket on the upper left sleeve, covered with a small pointed flap to echo the military-informed styling across the rest of the jacket.

Over the course of the movie, his knitted intermediate layers shift from earthier tones to gray—not unlike the titular wolves he’s defending his dwindling group against. By the end, he’s stripped down to a pale stone-gray ribbed-knit sweater he evidently also dug out of someone else’s suitcase. The wool body is a comfortably stitched in a broken rib knit, contrasted at the neck by a tightly woven cotton twill keystone-shaped bib for the five-button fastening, which follows the natural curve as it transitions to a short ribbed-knit shawl collar that can also be turned up against the neck. The elbows are reinforced with patches in the same cotton twill. The sweater is comfortably oversized to fit over Ottway’s commandeered winter layers, as evident by the set-in sleeve seams falling off of Neeson’s shoulders.

Heritage American utility outfitters like Duluth Trading Co. and L.L. Bean specialize in classic military-informed jumpers like this, though the specific details on Neeson’s screen-worn sweater remind me of wool knitwear produced by Schott in collaboration with National Geographic through the 1990s and 2000s.

Ottway pulls on a set of gray wool fingerless convertible gloves with fold-over mitten covers, blending dexterity with insulation based on the wearer’s needs.

Between the parka and his sweater, Ottway also wears a dark-gray hooded sweatshirt with a white-taped front zip and flat woven white drawstrings to adjust the hood. Like most hoodies, it has the “kangaroo”-style pockets, split by the straight-zip front, with slanted entries. He keeps the hoodie open at the top, where a dark-brown textured wool scarf protects his neck.

 

For Ottway’s final confrontation against a grey, he slips on an all-black Fossil BQ9385 quartz watch—identified by Watch-ID.com. The 45mm case and matching link bracelet are blackened brushed steel, contrasted with a shiny ion-plated stainless crown and four matching pushers to toggle the stopwatch, reset, modes, and light functionalities. Flanked by the fixed bezel marked in gray at 15, 30, 45, and 60, the black dial has three hands following an analog movement marked by non-numeric baton hour indices but also uniquely characterized by two single-line digital displays to show time, date, chronograph, and alarm features.

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The Gun

Ottway arms himself for his sharpshooting duties with a Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle in the classic configuration with wooden furniture which, unfortunately, breaks apart when the plane crashes. (Several viewers have made the point that the damage was only really shown to the stock and grips, leaving the rest of the rifle technically functional should Ottway have desired to continue using it.)

One of the world’s most popular bolt-action rifles, the Model 700 was designed by Remington engineer Merle “Mike” Walker as a refinement to the postwar Model 721—itself a lower-cost alternative to the older Model 30. Remington has continually produced the Model 700 since its launch in 1962, available in a range of at least thirty calibers which inform whether it feeds from a three-, four-, or five-round internal magazine.

The Model 700 was produced with both a long- and short-action for cartridges of different lengths. Designed for cartridges like the .308 Winchester round that are no longer than 2.75″, Ottway’s short-action Model 700 has a lock time of 2.6 milliseconds and is fitted with a scope and sling.

As Ottway considered his rifle out of commission following the crash, he forages for some 12-gauge shells to craft makeshift single-shot shotguns. “It’ll work… it’s like a bang-stick,” Ottway urges his fellow survivors. Sharpened wooden spears with shotgun shells secured to the front are interesting in theory, though the others are right to be skeptical as it’s improbable that even the likes of Brian Shaw couldn’t produce enough force to ignite the primers to function like an actual firearm.

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How to Get the Look

By the second day surviving against the wintry conditions and wolf attacks, John Ottway has refined his survival wardrobe into a rugged yet nimble ensemble anchored by the requisite beanie, parka, gloves, and boots over multiple layers of knitwear—several in shades of gray, a chromatic nod to his lupine foe.

• Drab khaki thigh-length parka with fur-trimmed hood, straight-zip front with snap-up storm fly, slanted chest pockets with long flaps, large hip pockets with single-snap flaps, and set-in sleeves with left-sleeve utility pocket
• Dark-gray zip-up hoodie with white-taped front-zip and flat white woven drawstrings
• Light stone-gray wool-blend broken rib-knitted sweater with shawl collar, twill five-button bib, and set-in sleeves with reinforced elbows
  • Schott x National Geographic
• Muted olive cotton long-sleeved henley shirt
• Dark field-gray cotton duck canvas flannel-lined flat-front work trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, riveted back pockets, utility pockets, and hammer loop
  • Carhartt
• Dark-brown leather belt
• Black leg-warmers
• Black rubber-and-brown leather winter work boots with five sets of D-ring lace eyelets and black rubber lug soles
• Light-gray ribbed wool beanie
• Dark-brown textured wool scarf
• Gray wool fingerless convertible gloves with fold-over mitten covers
• Blackened steel multi-function analog/digital quartz watch with 45mm case, black dial with dual digital displays, and black steel link bracelet
  • Fossil BQ9385

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day.