Synopsis for
Eight Below (2006) More at IMDbPro »

After an antartic guide and his charge are rescued from a deadly storm by a team of eight sled dogs, they are forced to temporarily evacuate their base, leaving the dogs chained behind so they will not break fre and get lost.

The temporary evacuation becomes permanent (through the winter season) and the guide becomes fixated on returning to the dogs, not knowing if they are dead or alive.

We switch back and forth between the guide's story of lonelines mixed with determination, and the dogs, over a period of close to six months/ All but one of the dogteam (an older dog) have broken free, and go searching for food. A second dog is lost to a fall, and a third -- the guide's favorite, leader of the pack, and apparently most cunning of the bunch -- is injured in a fight with a leopard seal. We see the dogs learn to hunt and survive.

The final act of the movie shows the guide, his would-be-girldfriend pilot, and two other explorers wangle an expedition via ice-cutter, helicopter, and snowcat (a large muti-section tracked vehicle for high-speed snow travel). They retrun to the orignal base, find the five healthy dogs, and just barely find the near-dead sixth dog.