Sometimes in life—especially in 2017— it feels like we’re chasing down something bigger than ourselves, something that we can’t take down easily.
Whether it be love, a career milestone, a somewhat functioning social life, writing enough stories in a week so your editor won’t make you run laps, or not being incinerated in the forthcoming nuclear holocaust—it feels like some goals are simply unattainable. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s OK, that it’s the thrill of the chase that matters, the journey not the destination, and other useless platitudes that hack writers like me spout.
So, with that in mind, I would like to introduce you to my pick for best picture of 2017: this YouTube video of a wolf trying to take down a giant moose in a cold northern Ontario river.
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The video was shot by Dan Nystedt who was just attempting to get some scenic shots of northern Ontario—Nystedt posted the vid two days ago and it’s already gotten over a million views. The video starts idyllic enough, with the inherently goofy moose (all moose are goofy) standing stoically in the river and the drone starts to pull away but then, plot twist!, one of God’s most bloodthirsty puppers bursts out of the woods at comes at the moose.
Hell yeah.
The drone moves back in as the moose and wolf start duking it out. The moose tosses some hard straight jabs but the wolf is too quick and evades that shit—we’re watching nature’s equivalent of Ali vs. Frazier here folks. The moose makes it’s way to deeper water with the ballsy wolf following suit. From here the moose tries to toss a couple straights but the wolf evades again and latches onto the moose from the side near its right front-leg.
The two will now dance the ballet of predator and prey and by that I mean the moose does that weird kicking, spinning thing that quadrupedal animals do when attempting to get something off them or scratch a forbidden section of their body. But, lo and behold, the maneuver works and the wolf is detached!
The two continue to spin together in their bloody pirot, the wolf attempting to regain its hold on the moose’s flank and the moose just attempting to get the fuck out of there. Up to this point, like Mcgregor Vs. Mayweather, the momentum of the beginning of the fight was in favour of the underdog but it now switches as the moose makes a break for it.
Moving at a speed the wolf can’t keep up to in the water, the moose quickly puts distance between itself and its foe. The the music swells as the moose begins to get further and further away from the wolf—all the while the beauty of northern Ontario unfolds in front of you.
The wolf makes a valiant attempt to swim after its prospective meal but as a world renowned philosopher once said, “you gotta know when to fold em” and returns to the train track where—another plot twist!—it’s cubs were waiting. The moose meanwhile stays in the water, assuredly super stoked that this shit was over.
It turns out there was no good guy or bad guy in this film, just a good dog attempting to feed its pups and something needs to die in order for that to happen—echoing life and the grey zone in which the concepts of evil and good exist in.
Werner Herzog would be proud.
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