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.

🌟 Supporting All Learners A movie gives students a story to follow, and the guide gives them questions to work through as they watch. For students with autism, learning difficulties, and mild to severe disabilities, that combination provides a clear focus for the lesson and a concrete way to show understanding. The format can be useful in special education and learning support classrooms, where teachers need activities that give students a defined task during viewing. Find out more about why movies work for diverse learners.