The Breed (2006 film)

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The Breed
The Breed movie poster
Directed by	Nicholas Mastandrea
Produced by	Thomas Becker David Lancaster Marianne Maddalena Karen Vundla Jörg Westerkamp David Wicht
Written by	Robert Conte Peter Martin Wortmann
Starring	Michelle Rodriguez Eric Lively Oliver Hudson Taryn Manning Hill Harper
Music by	Tom Mesmer Marcus Trumpp
Distributed by	First Look Pictures
Release date(s)	May 18, 2006
Running time	96 minutes
Language	English
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IMDb profile

The Breed is a 2006 horror film directed by Nicholas Mastandrea. This marked Mastandrea's directorial debut. It was released in May at the Cannes film festival and subsequently released in other film markets and festivals around the world.

The film stars Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Lively, Oliver Hudson, Taryn Manning, and Hill Harper. Each actor had almost a week of dog training before filming began in order to work on set. Filming started in April of 2005 and finished up about two months later. The film was shot mostly in South Africa.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie begins with a couple on a sailboat who find a small island and begin to look around. The girl wanders off while the man ties up the boat. She stumbles across a fence and a small compound, but no one seems to be around. She is then attacked by unknown creatures. The man at the boat is startled by her screams.

Cut to a seaplane heading to what appears to be the same island. Matt (Lively) and John (Hudson) are two brothers that are heading to the island for a week of fun and relaxation. The island was owned by their uncle, who built a cabin on it. He recently died, and the island is otherwise uninhabited. The brothers are joined by three friends, Nicki (Rodriguez), Sara (Manning), and Noah (Harper). They fly in on a seaplane, which they moor at a dock near the cabin. The group's intention while on the island is simply to have fun together.

Soon after they arrive, a puppy shows up at the cabin, and Sara takes it in. That night, it runs out of the house and she goes after it and is attacked by a larger dog. Matt, who is studying to be a veterinarin, advises they leave to find medical help for her, but John convinces them it can wait until after the weekend, so their vacation won't be spoiled.

That night, Matt lies in bed with Nikki (who used to date John) and tells her about a dog-training facility that rented land from their uncle. He heard reports that a year earlier a rabies outbreak forced the facility to kill the dogs, but that any dogs who escaped and had rabies should be dead by now, so he finds the dog behavior confusing.

The next day, the boys go for a hike and encounter the man from the beginning of the movie. He is bloody and warns them about the dogs. A pack of dogs attacks him and begins to eat him. The boys run back to the cabin and tell the girls to come inside. They are soon under siege by more vicious dogs.

The friends decide they must leave the island, but dogs have surrounded the plane. As they have no other way off the island, and no means of communication, they will have to wait out the dogs. A few minutes later, however, they see the plane has detached from its moorings and is drifting toward the ocean. The dogs have chewed through the ropes to force the friends out of the cabin, and when they attempt to swim to the plane, the dogs attack. The friends retreat to the house to consider their limited options. Sara begins to show distinct canine behavior, such as a ravenous appetite and growling.

Their next idea is to make their way to a storage shed and drive their uncle's car to the training compound, where they believe they can call for help. The car won't start, however, and that night, with no other options, they continue to party. The power goes out, and Noah heads to the fuse box in the basement, where he is killed by dogs who have managed to enter the house. Dogs then find their way into the rest of the cabin, and Matt is bitten. John, Matt, Nikki and Sara have to hide in the attic. There, they discover paperwork relating to the training facility, and learn it was an Army facility to train attack dogs.

The next morning, the dogs have left. Matt and John make another attempt to start the car, but Sara doesn't want to leave. The dogs attack again, and in fighting one, Sara falls out of the window and impales herself and the dog on a post.

Matt and John are able to pop the clutch of their uncle's Mercedes, pick up Nikki and drive to the facility, which is abandoned. They break in and find out that the dogs were being genetically enhanced. John finds communications equipment, but a power cable on the antenna has been disconnected, so he goes out to fix it. Matt, having been bitten, learns he can sense the dogs, and realizes if they escaped they can get back in. When the antenna is powered up, John is accidentally electrocuted, and when he falls to the ground the dogs attack him. Matt shows up with a baseball bat to fight off the dogs, but a power surge has caused a fire in the compound. Nikki realizes the fire is creating a backdraft, and lures in the dogs before exposing them to the fire. The building explodes.

John tells Matt he saw a nearby boat, the same boat the couple brought to the island at the beginning of the movie. When dogs surround them, Nikki shows up in the Mercedes, they jump in and drive off. Because there are so many dogs, they cannot stop the car and get out, so John has Nikki drive the car off the pier. They swim to the boat and sail off.

Thinking they are safe, they wonder if they can make it to medical facilities before Matt and John fall victim to the dog attacks. In the last shot, they open the door to the sleeping quarters, and a vicious dog jumps out toward the camera.