The Call of the Wild (2020):The Adventure Movie That Shows Students Two Very Different Ways to Treat an Animal

The Call of the Wild puts students in front of a story about survival, adaptation, and what happens when comfort is stripped away without warning. Buck, a dog raised in a life of ease, is forced to relearn everything he knows about how to live once he's taken from California and dropped into the harsh conditions of the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. Students are introduced to a world where instinct, loyalty, and resilience matter more than the privilege Buck was born into.

Buck is stolen from Judge Miller's home and shipped north, where he's sold to work as a sled dog for mail runners Perrault and Françoise. He proves himself against the pack's alpha, Spitz, and eventually earns the trust of the team, before being sold again to Hal, an inexperienced and abusive prospector who works the dogs past their limits. John Thornton, an experienced frontiersman grieving the loss of his son, rescues Buck and nurses him back to health. The two settle into a life together in the wilderness, where Buck is increasingly drawn to a wild wolf pack, until Hal tracks them down for revenge and shoots Thornton. Buck ultimately kills Hal in the resulting struggle, then returns to the wild, joining the wolf pack and becoming its leader.

Set during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, the movie gives students a way into a specific period of American and Canadian history, along with a close look at how humans treated working animals in an era before modern animal welfare standards existed. It also raises questions worth discussing directly: what people are willing to do for gold, how kindness and cruelty shape the same animal differently, and what it means for a domesticated creature to answer an older, wilder instinct.

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🐕 A dog forced to relearn how to live. Buck goes from a pampered life in California to hard labor in the Yukon, and the movie tracks what that does to him physically and psychologically. Students watch an animal character adapt to conditions that strip away everything comfortable about his old life.

💪 Perseverance and resilience under real hardship. Buck survives abuse, exhaustion, and a rival pack leader by adapting rather than giving up. The movie ties his survival directly to persistence, not luck.

⚖️ Two very different models of how to treat an animal. Hal works his dogs past exhaustion and threatens violence, while John Thornton rescues Buck and nurses him back to health. Students see the practical and moral consequences of both approaches play out.

⛏️ The Klondike Gold Rush as a backdrop, not just scenery. The mail routes, sled dog teams, and desperate prospectors all reflect the real economic pressure of the 1890s gold rush. Students get a sense of what that period demanded from people and animals alike.

🐺 The pull between two lives. Buck spends much of the movie caught between loyalty to Thornton and the growing call of a wild wolf pack. It gives students a concrete way to talk about instinct, belonging, and what home means.

📖 A direct line to a classic novel. Because the movie is adapted from Jack London's 1903 book, it works as a visual companion for comparing the two, showing students how a story changes and what stays the same when it moves from page to screen.

⚠️ Things to be aware of:

• The movie contains frequent peril and physical violence, including a dog fight, men fighting, gunfire, and a character's death.
• A dog is struck with a club and other dogs are shown pushed to exhaustion and whipped.
• A man's ongoing drinking is shown negatively and he eventually gives it up.
• There is no sexual content in the movie.

📚 English Language Arts Teachers. The Call of the Wild gives an ELA class a survival adventure with a clear narrative arc, strong character development in Buck and Thornton, and a direct connection to a classic American novel for book to movie comparison. The guide includes three sets of comprehension questions at different difficulty levels, along with writing tasks that push beyond recall into synopsis writing and character analysis.

🗣️ ESL and ELL Teachers. The movie's visual storytelling, drawn largely from Buck's physical journey and reactions rather than dense dialogue, gives ESL and ELL students plenty of context to follow the plot even when the language moves fast. The multiple choice question set works well with ESL and ELL students, offering a structured way to check comprehension without requiring extended written responses.

🌐 Social Studies Teachers. The Call of the Wild puts students inside the economic pressure and frontier conditions of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, from desperate prospectors to the mail routes that depended on sled dog teams. The guide does not include dedicated social studies activities, but the comprehension questions give students a structured task and keep them accountable to the historical setting while they watch.

🎬 Substitute Teachers and Cover Lessons. With three sets of differentiated comprehension questions, a storyboard and synopsis activity, and a character profile task, the guide gives a substitute everything needed to run the session. Answer keys are included for the comprehension question sets. A substitute can manage the lesson without having seen the movie.

🏠 Homeschool Parents. The Call of the Wild works well as a home learning session built around a classic adaptation, with comprehension questions, a storyboard and synopsis task, and creative writing built around Buck's journey. The character profile, map drawing, and letter writing activities all work fine for a single student working independently, without needing group work to complete them.

💙 SEL Teachers. Buck's relationships carry real emotional weight. He has to earn trust with a new pack, stand up to a bully in Spitz, and learn to tell the difference between an owner who abuses him and one who cares for him. The guide has no dedicated SEL activities, but the comprehension questions keep students accountable and give a teacher a natural entry point for talking about trust, loyalty, and recognizing mistreatment.

📜 History Teachers. For a history classroom, the movie offers a specific, well documented event: the Klondike Gold Rush, and the real economic and human pressures that drove people north in search of gold. There are no dedicated history activities in the guide, but the comprehension question sets keep students engaged with the period detail throughout the viewing.

🌟 Supporting All Learners Movie guides can be a wonderfully calm fit for students with autism, learning difficulties, and mild to severe disabilities. The structured format gives every student a clear purpose during viewing, easing uncertainty and allowing them to engage at their own pace. If you teach in a special education or learning support setting, you may find this guide a gentle and practical resource. Find out more about why movies work for diverse learners.

Part 1: Comprehension Questions
Three sets of chronological comprehension questions for differentiation: 35 questions requiring full sentence answers, a shorter 25-question set (10 removed from the 35-question set), and 24 multiple choice questions with three possible answers each, with the final question requiring a full sentence response. Answer keys are included for all three sets.

Part 2: Storyboard and Synopsis
Students draw a 6-scene storyboard of what they consider the most important parts of the movie, with a brief description for each scene, then use their storyboard as a guide to write a synopsis of the movie.

Part 3: Character Profile, Map Drawing, and Letter Writing
Students draw a profile picture of Buck, describe his features and personality, and write what they like and dislike about him. They then draw an imaginary map of the area where Buck finds the cabin, labeling features such as the stream, cabin, and wolf den, followed by writing an imagined letter from John Thornton to his estranged wife describing his experiences on the journey.