Eight Below

A movie that billed Paul Walker as the star, but ultimately was stolen by the dogs in the film.

Basically set in the Antarctic, after an expedition with Dr. Davis McClaren (Bruce Greenwood), the sled dog trainer Jerry Shepherd (Paul Walker) has to leave the polar base with his colleagues due to the proximity of a heavy snow storm. He ties his dogs to be rescued after, but the mission is called off and the dogs are left alone at their own fortune. For six months, Jerry tries to find a sponsor for a rescue mission while his dogs fight for survival.

Based loosely on a true story.

Tropes used in Eight Below include:

• Jump Scare: When one of the dogs investigates the carcass of a dead Orca, a seal jumps right out of the body, and into the cameras face. Not the most pleasant thing to see up close and personal.
• Mood Whiplash: The scene where the dogs are bounding around beneath the Southern Lights, perfectly happy. One of the dogs then falls and is fatally injured.
• No One Gets Left Behind: At first averted, as the dogs are left behind; Shepherd, however, then makes every effort to go back and rescue them.
• Tear Jerker: Particularly in the dogs' story.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The true story behind this film was the 1958 Japanese scientific expedition to the South Pole. When the crew had to leave due to extreme weather conditions, they left their fifteen Sakhalin huskies behind thinking that they would come back and get them. However, they found that they couldn't due to fuel shortage and didn't return for a year. When they did, they were greeted by two dogs who had managed to survive. Not quite as cheery an ending as Disney would like, but still pretty remarkable considering that huskies can only survive for about a month in that kind of environment.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Paul Walker basically admitted while promoting one of his movies, Running Scared (rated R), that he made Eight Below so he could take his daughter, nieces and nephews to a movie premiere.