Manuel, a gambling-addicted farmhand, secretly sells Buck to a stranger and hands over his leash for money.

A trainer in a red sweater beats Buck with a club until Buck submits to his authority.

Perrault purchases Buck and Curly and boards a ship headed north to begin their government sled assignments.

Spitz attacks Curly without warning and kills her, igniting Buck's deep and lasting hatred for Spitz.

Veteran sled dogs Dave and Sol-leks teach Buck how to pull a sled effectively in the Arctic.

Starving wild huskies invade the camp, attack the entire team, and cut the food supply in half.

Buck and Spitz fight to the death during a rabbit chase, and Buck kills Spitz.

After defeating Spitz, Buck takes over as sled team leader and drives the dogs to record-breaking performance.

The Canadian government reassigns Perrault and François; François hugs Buck goodbye before the two men leave forever.

Dave, too weak to pull the sled any further, is left behind by the team and shot.

Hal, Charles, and Mercedes purchase Buck's exhausted team in Skaguay despite having no wilderness experience.

John Thornton threatens Hal to stop beating Buck and cuts Buck free, leaving him behind at camp.

The ice cracks beneath Hal and Charles's team as they cross the frozen lake, and everyone drowns.

Buck hauls a loaded sled one hundred yards in Dawson, winning John thousands of dollars in a wager.

The Yeehat tribe attacks John's camp and kills his team; Buck drives the Yeehats off in a rage.

Buck begins as the privileged king of a California estate before being stolen and sold into the brutal Arctic sled-dog trade. He endures discipline from a red-sweatered trainer and learns to survive under harsh new masters. After killing Spitz in a climactic fight, Buck claims leadership of his team and drives them to record-breaking performance. Passed between several owners, Buck nearly dies under the incompetent Hal and Charles before being rescued by John Thornton, with whom he forms a deep bond. When the Yeehat tribe kills John and destroys Buck's last tie to civilization, Buck drives off the attackers and fully embraces the call of the wild.

Buck's journey from pampered pet to wild survivor.

Buck rules Judge Miller's California estate as king, living a pampered and privileged life unaware of the gold rush.

After being sold, Buck is locked in a crate, loaded onto a train, and refuses to eat for days.

Buck boards a ship heading north and encounters snow for the very first time upon arrival.

Struggling to eat fast enough, Buck learns to steal food from other dogs to keep himself fed.

Fellow dog Billee shows Buck how to dig a hole in the snow for warmth and shelter at night.

Spitz steals Buck's sleeping nest beneath a rock, sparking their first open confrontation before invading huskies interrupt.

Dolly suddenly goes mad and chases Buck through camp until François shoots her to stop the pursuit.

Buck secretly undermines Spitz's authority and encourages the other sled dogs to disobey and defy him.

The sled team arrives in Dawson, where the dogs join in a nocturnal howling chorus with other teams.

A Scotsman takes over from Perrault and François, assigning the team to deliver mail to remote mountain towns.

Hal and Charles's overloaded sled topples over before departure, forcing them to discard supplies while Mercedes weeps.

The team's food runs out under Hal and Charles, and the new dogs bought in Skaguay die one by one.

Hal kills Billee, one of the team's gentlest dogs, with an axe when she becomes too weak to work.

Buck befriends John Thornton's dogs Skeet and Nig, playing freely without any urge to fight for dominance.

Buck becomes a feared legend among the Yeehat people, who name him the Ghost Dog of the wilderness.

Starting from Buck's pampered life on a California estate, this pool traces the vital secondary moments of his transformation into a sled dog. Buck endures captivity on a train, encounters snow for the first time, and learns survival skills from other dogs in the pack. Conflicts with Spitz build through small rebellions and confrontations, while the journey north tests every member of the team. After several capable masters, Buck falls into the hands of the disastrously incompetent Hal and Charles, whose cruelty kills off his companions one by one. Buck ultimately finds peace under John Thornton's care and eventually becomes a feared wilderness legend known as the Ghost Dog.

The supporting scenes and smaller moments that shape Buck's transformation.

Buck first hears wild sled dogs howling at night and joins their chorus, feeling a deep ancestral pull.

Pulling sleds across the Arctic, Buck feels his primitive ancestral instincts awakening and his body growing stronger.

Rather than attack Spitz rashly, Buck decides to bide his time and wait for the perfect moment to challenge him.

After killing Spitz, Buck stands over his fallen rival and feels himself become the dominant primordial beast.

Buck refuses to accept Sol-leks as lead dog and forces François to relent and give him the position.

Delivering mail under the Scotsman, Buck realizes he feels no longing for his comfortable life in Santa Clara.

Buck immediately senses that Hal and Charles are dangerously unprepared for the wilderness before the journey even begins.

Buck collapses from exhaustion and starvation under Hal's leadership, failing to rise as a sled dog for the first time.

Buck comes to love John Thornton more than any previous master and follows him constantly, afraid of losing him.

A man named Black Burton attacks John in a saloon; Buck bites him and gains a fierce reputation across Alaska.

John's boat capsizes in a rushing river; Buck swims through the current and saves John, breaking three ribs.

As Buck camps with John, the call of the wild grows louder each night and pulls him toward the forest.

Buck follows the nightly call and runs freely beside a timber wolf through the forest, then turns back to John.

John's team discovers a stream rich with gold dust, ending their long search and lightening Buck's responsibilities.

Buck finds a trail of blood leading to the river, understands John is dead, and finally answers the call of the wild.

This pool focuses on the internal turning points and pivotal choices that drive Buck's transformation from a domesticated pet into a wild creature. Buck's ancestral instincts begin stirring as he hears wild dogs howl and senses he belongs in the North, long before he fully understands what it means. His calculated patience before challenging Spitz reveals his growing cunning, while his triumph marks his full embrace of primordial power. Under John Thornton's care, Buck experiences genuine love for the first time, and that love becomes the only force holding him back from the wilderness. John's death removes the final tether, and Buck answers the call of the wild completely, ending his long transformation.