Benji the Hunted

Plot

Benji has become lost in a remote area of Oregon after a boating accident. He finds himself struggling to survive in the wilderness, avoiding close encounters with a timber wolf, a brown bear, and a territorial female cougar with her cub. Benji made friends with other animals including an owl, a fawn, two ferrets, a fox and a raccoon.

Shortly after washing ashore, Benji sees a cougar gunned down by a hunter. Benji attempts to comfort the dying animal, but is chased away by the hunter, who then retrieves the dead cat and marches off with her draped over his shoulders. Benji subsequently encounters four orphaned cougar cubs, belonging to the killed cougar, and he attempts to shield them from predation. He finds another mother cougar and spends most of the film trying to introduce the orphans to the mother so she will adopt them. Meanwhile, Benji's master, Frank Inn is searching for him by helicopter and Benji deliberately hides so as not to be prevented from saving the cubs.

A black timber wolf relentlessly pursues the cubs. One of the cubs is carried off by an eagle. In the final encounter and chase with the timber wolf, Benji tricks the timber wolf by hiding in the bushes that shields the cliff behind it and sends the timber wolf falling off the cliff to his death.

Benji ultimately succeeds in having the mother cougar adopt the cubs and in the final scene heads in the direction of the search helicopter to be rescued.

Apart from a news report at the beginning of the movie setting up the plot and three encounters with the hunter, the action is entirely animal activity in the wilderness.

Cast

Critical reception

Movie critic Roger Ebert gave Benji the Hunted four stars (out of four) as well as a "Thumbs Up." Gene Siskel gave the film a "Thumbs Down," criticizing Ebert for liking the film more than Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, which was released the same year.

Benji the Hunted holds a 56% (rotten) rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It grossed $22,257,624 at the US box office.