My dog wants to be alpha. He snaps at other dogs. He growls at the cats. It’s in his DNA, left over from undomesticated wolf-like ancestors.

We all have animal instints.

That’s what Liam Neeson discovers in “The Grey,” a new action adventure flick.

At a time of the year that we start talking about those high-faluting films worthy of an Oscar, Neeson brings us a popcorn movie. The strategy must work. He’s done it before. This once oh-so-serious actor (“Schindler’s List,” “Kinsey,” “Michael Collins,” “Les Misérables”) has re-invented himself as an action hero (“Taken,” “Unknown”). Approaching 60, he’s become the fantasy alter ego for us older guys – kicking butt and taking names, as they say.

“The Grey” was produced by the same folks who gave you “The A-Team” – director Joe Carnahan along with Tony and Ridley Scott. They’d originally tapped “A-Team” star Bradley Cooper for this role. But on second thought switched to their other “A-Team” star, Liam Neeson.

Neeson says the director thought an older hero might offer something you wouldn’t find with a perky 30-year-old. “A grizzled 55-year-old,” he describes his character.

“I knew there would be huge physical challenges. I’m not as young as I used to be My knees they are complaining a lot these days. My shoulder’s complaining a lot too. Old war wounds. But they still offer me these action things. I think I’ve maybe got two more years left to do this type of work.”

More than just an action film, “The Grey” has a deep emotional core. “It’s a movie certainly about faith. Faith in the human spirit,” says Neeson. The studio’s marketing staff targeted Christian groups by issuing a “film companion” that highlighted the spiritual value of the film. Must have worked. It opened as Number One at the box office, taking in $20 million.

That makes “The Grey” Liam Neeson’s third successful action movie in a row. Cementing his image as “the thinking man’s action star.”

This epic survival story is based on a short story (“Ghost Walker”) by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers.

Here, world-weary John Ottway (Neeson) hunts wolves that threaten an oil drilling team in Alaska. But tables are turned when a plane crash strands Ottway and a handful of colleagues in the frozen wilderness. Soon wolves are hunting them.

But there are lessons to be learned in this trek toward safety. After witnessing two wolves fighting, Ottway explains that the pack is choosing an alpha leader. Shortly after that, Ottway takes on a rebellious team member, establishing himself as the leader of the group.

Dermot Mulroney, Joe Anderson, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts, Nonso Anozie, Ben Bray, and James Badge Dale play the stranded companions. In their exhausting trek they must surmount canyon walls, dangle from tightropes through the trees, swim raging rivers. But it’s the wolf pack that proves most dangerous.

One by one, they are picked off by wolves.

These realistic grey wolves (Canis lupus) are products of CGI. “So much about this film is special effects and CGI,” admits Neeson. “But at the end of the day the audience wants to hear a story and believe in the story and believe in the emotions they are seeing. I’ve done a lot of those big CGI films, but you just gotta keep it real.”

Fake wolves or not, PETA urges that people boycott the film. Too much violence between wolf and man, they say. Sarah Palin would probably applaud it.

Shirrel Rhoades is the film critic for Cooke Communications. He can be reached at srhoades@aol.com.