WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Heart of the Beast, so tread carefully! I have to admit this up front: I was very hesitant to see Brad Pitt’s new movie on the 2026 movie schedule, Heart Of The Beast. I was nervous about watching a man and dog in peril for 2 hours, especially the dog. The thought alone stressed me out. Ultimately, I’m really glad I saw it, because it’s a heartwarming film and Pitt (and the dog) really shine in both the action sequences and the quieter moments. That said, I was still pretty stressed out watching the movie. Not for the safety of the dog, which is what I expected, but because of what Pitt’s character goes through with the dog. Including one very personal moment for me that had me reliving one of the worst nights of my life. It was the night I had a heart attack myself, and there is one thing that he does in particular that took me back.(Image credit: Paramont Pictures)The Terrifying Adventure Starts With A Heart AttackThe first 30 minutes of Heart of the Best, with Pitt’s character, Sergeant Major James Belmont (ret.), camping with his dog Odin (or “Odie”), are quiet and contemplative. If you’re like me and had seen the previews, you knew what was coming, so this part of the movie has a tension to it, but it’s also a nice way to ease into the story. He shares a campfire and a beer with one of the only other characters in the movie, a canoer played by J.K. Simmons, and the next morning gets in his float plane to head home. He doesn’t make it. After navigating a storm, Belmont has a heart attack and the plane crashes. I really didn’t expect this, and it took me back to that night a couple of years ago when I had a heart attack (at the same age that Kevin Smith had his). Belmont and Odie survive the crash, but for the rest of the movie, Belmont is seen chewing up aspirin to mitigate the effects of the heart attack. One of my most indelible memories from the night I had mine was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom and taking the aspirin out. I didn’t know I was having a heart attack, but I was pretty sure, so I did what people should do when they have one. (Image credit: Paramount Pictures)Every Time He Grabbed The Aspirin, I thought About That NightI’ve written before about how the health scare has affected the way I watch movies, and it’s often because of details like this. Belmont taking aspirin over and over brought me to that moment. It was the moment I acknowledged to myself that something was really wrong. I was alone in my house with my dog (who is nothing like Odie, but I love her just the same), and I knew I had to go to the hospital. Like an idiot, I drove myself to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance, but I made. Not exactly like traversing 50 miles of Alaskan wilderness, to be sure, but still a journey I shouldn’t have made. When I got to the emergency room, I was hustled into the back, and the attending physician asked me if I’d taken any medication. I told him about the aspirin, and he said, “That’s great, that’s exactly what you should do.” At that moment, I started to relax in a way. I was surrounded by technicians and nurses and in the midst of the worst health scare of my life, but I felt like things were going to be ok. That was literally an hour after thinking to myself, as I lay in bed, “If I go to sleep, I might not wake up.”(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)There Are A Few Other Moments That Had Me SquirmingI don’t like heights, and I really don’t like scenes in movies that have people climbing mountains or buildings or bridges. I can’t watch the famous scene of Tom Cruise climbing the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, for example. I’ve never seen the popular documentary Free Solo featuring climber Alex Honnold. It’s a hard no from me. So when Belmont finds himself needing to walk across a felled tree over a ravine, I really started squirming. When the dog stepped out onto the log, it got worse. Belmont makes it over once, but when he goes back to assist Odie, things go sideways, and he falls into the raging river below. He lives, but he’s not out of the woods, and neither are we in the audience. Drowning is another visceral fear of mine, and as he fights to get his head above water, the rapids wreck Belmont’s body. Including breaking an arm, which leads me to my next squirming moment…(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)There Are Some Gross ScenesOnce the intrepid dog saves him from the river, we see that Belmont has a compound fracture of his forearm. With the bone protruding from the skin, he uses a belt (and Odie’s help) to straighten the bone. The sound alone is enough to make someone sick. By the way, this movie should be nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound. It’s fantastic. That’s not the only time things get really gross, either. After surviving the fall and the rapids, Belmont and Odie come face to face with a pack of wolves. When the wolves attack, one of them gets a good bite on Belmont’s abs, and while both he and Odie eventually fend off their attackers, Belmont is left with the wound that eventually finishes him off. He bleeds out on the rock, watching the Northern Lights, while the dog lives on. Before that, though, we see the wound twice as he tries to clean it, and it is nasty. I felt the pain. Those were all fleeting things in the movie, looking back on it. It’s the heart attack–and the aspirin–that I will keep thinking about in the days and weeks ahead as I think back on Heart of the Beast. It’s an action movie I didn’t think I would like at all, but it has become a movie I’ve already been thinking about for days, and could end up being one of my favorite movies of the year.