Summary
Beast is driven by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, a creator who has carved out a place for himself as an actor, producer, and director across stage, television, and cinema. Before this project, Kormákur led several notable ventures such as Adrift (2018), Extreme Measures (2016), Everest (2015), and a string of additional features that showcased his knack for gripping, character-centered storytelling. The story centers on Dr. Nate Daniels, who has recently faced the loss of his wife and is now at a crossroads. He decides to take a long-planned journey with his two daughters, seeking to reconnect with life and heal the emotional wounds that linger after tragedy. Their destination is a remote corner of South Africa where a game reserve is managed by Martin Battles, a wildlife biologist who has long been a trusted family friend and steward of the land they hold dear. The goal is simple: a peaceful escape that blends family bonding with the beauty and risk of Africa’s wild interior. Yet what starts as an ordinary family reunion of sorts quickly darkens into a fight for survival. After a violent encounter with poachers, a single lion shifts from being a majestic creature of the savanna to a relentless, calculating predator that now views all humans as threats. What follows is a tense, high-stakes trek through rough terrain, as Nate and his daughters must rely on wits, courage, and each other to outlast a hunter that blends stealth with ferocity. The quarry, once a symbol of nature’s magnificence, becomes a force of nature that tests every limit the family thought they had. This is not merely a tale about a dangerous animal; it is a meditation on loss, resilience, and the moral weight of survival when the world feels suddenly unforgiving. The film invites audiences to watch as a family negotiates fear, tenuous trust, and the instinctual drive to protect one another in environments where danger is never far away. Kormákur’s direction—paired with the stark beauty of the South African landscape and the primal tension of pursuit—creates a narrative that lingers long after the credits roll, offering a stark reminder that the wild can be both breathtaking and deadly, and that human bonds can be the only true shelter when all else is stripped away.