Never Cry Wolf (1983)
Charles Martin Smith: Farley Mowat, Tyler
Photos
Quotes
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Mike : To me a wolf means money. It's a way of making a living. One wolf pelt is about $350 dollars. And I've got to feed my family; my children. Buy a snowmobile; food, rifle, bullets whatever.
Tyler : You wouldn't ah... you wouldn't kill these wolves?
Mike : These ones... no. No I don't think so. Besides you would get mad if I killed one of them... and your gun is bigger than mine.
Tyler : Yeah.
Mike : I'd like to though.
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Tyler : In the end there were no simple answers. No heroes or villains; only silence.
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[final line]
Tyler : [narrating] I believe the wolves went off to a wild and distant place somewhere, although I don't really know... because I turned away, and didn't watch them go.
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Tyler : [Narrating] The only plane in Nootsak belonged to a part-time bush pilot, gambler, and real estate tycoon named Rosie Little. While we were negotiating our deal, he introduced me to this drink that he'd invented. Known locally as "Moose Juice," it consisted of equal parts Moose Brand Beer and ethyl alcohol. Before I knew it, my old fear of flying evaporated, and I spent all the money I had left... on 24 cases of beer.
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Tyler : [Opening lines: on the train, giving voice-over narration] I just jumped at the opportunity to go. Without even thinking about it, really. Because it opened the way to an old - and very naïve - childhood fantasy of mine: to go off into the wilderness, and test myself against all the dangerous things lurking there. And to find that basic animal that I secretly hoped was hidden somewhere inside myself. I imagined, at that point, I'd become a new man, with a strength and courage I'd never known before.
Tyler : [Continuing his voice-over narration, with rugged Canadian wilderness rolling by] As I traveled north, it was on about the 3rd day that the reality of what I was about to try to do began to seep into my bones... and gather in a knot in the pit of my stomach.
Tyler : [Continuing his voice-over narration, now sitting by a railroad siding, with a huge mound of his expedition supplies piled up nearby] Then I finally reached the end of the line: Nootsak. The sheer bulk of the supplies the Department sent along set me back. Because I had to get not only myself, but all this stuff, another 300 miles into the wilderness.
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Tyler : [Narrating] I'd heard some of the tales about the Arctic: the mad trappers, Diamond Tooth Gertie, The Ice-Worm Cocktail and all that. So, I was prepared for things to be a little weird.
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Tyler : [wolves howl, and the woman and Ootek speak in Inuktitut] He knows, doesn't he? He knows what they're saying.
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Tyler : Mike, what are you doing here?
Mike : I'm on my way north. The snow is coming.
Tyler : Have you seen Ootek?
Mike : Uh, no.
Tyler : He just disappeared. We were out there and he...
Mike : Yeah, I know. The old ones seem to have a way of doing that, just disappearing... which is what I'm about to do.
Tyler : Have you seen the wolves? Have you seen George and Angie?
Mike : No... they must have gone north.
Tyler : No... no, the puppies are still here. They wouldn't go off and leave the puppies...
Mike : Stop worrying about the pups and start worrying about yourself. This thing that's happening is too big for you. It's a question of how you survive it. Survival...
[he smiles showing a full set of teeth]
Mike : of the fittest.
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Mike : [translating for Ootek] He wants me to tell you a story of when there was nothing in the world except for a man and a woman. The woman came to a hole in the ice and she reached in and felt something, so she pulled it out and it was a tuktu, which is the caribou. And it was this animal that the Inuit needed for their food and clothing. For many years there were so many caribou that the people called them lice. But soon all the hunting killed off all the fat, healthy animals and the only ones left over were the weak, sick ones. Soon they began to breed and multiply, and the herd got weak... sick.
[Ootek continues]
Mike : So the people came back to the woman to ask her what to do, and she went back to the hole in the ice because she needed a tool to cut the sickness out of the herd. And the amaroq was born.
Tyler : Amaroq.
Mike : The wolves hunted the caribou and they killed off all the weak sick ones, and the people had all the caribou that they needed.
[the woman and Ootek speak in Inuktitut]
Mike : She says maybe you are like Ootek. Maybe a long time ago, the wolf devoured you.
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Mike : [translating for Ootek] When he was young, he used to follow the wolves on their hunts. The wolf is his helping spirit: amaroq.
Tyler : Ama... amaroq. Ama...
Mike : [Ootek continues] He went thirty days without food, and without protection from the cold. Then he saw the wolf. He felt the wolf bite into his heart. When he woke up, he was all in one piece. That's how the wolf became his helping spirit.
