Against the Ice

"Survive the search. Survive each other."

2022 1h 41m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 649

DramaAdventureHistory

Synopsis

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In 1909, two explorers fight to survive after they're left behind while on a Danish expedition in ice-covered Greenland.

“Survive the search. Survive each other.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen
Joe Cole
Iver Iversen
Charles Dance
Minister Neergaard
Heida Reed
Naja Holm
Gísli Örn Garðarsson
Jørgensen
Sam Redford
Laub
Diarmaid Murtagh
Poulsen
Ed Speleers
Bessel

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Peter Flinth
Writers: Joe Derrick, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Languages: English
Countries: Denmark, Iceland

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 4 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Denmark, Iceland.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Peter Flinth, shot by Torben Forsberg. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Volker Bertelmann. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Morten Højbjerg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Joe Cole and Charles Dance carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Survive the search. Survive each other.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt13873302 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Peter Flinth directs. Torben Forsberg behind the camera. Volker Bertelmann scores. Morten Højbjerg cuts. Produced in Denmark, Iceland. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 4 years ago.
2International production across 2 countries: Denmark, Iceland.
3Directed by Peter Flinth, shot by Torben Forsberg. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Volker Bertelmann. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Morten Højbjerg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Joe Cole and Charles Dance carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Survive the search. Survive each other.".
8IMDB entry: tt13873302 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 9 themes, including "based on novel or book", "based on true story", "survival", "struggle for survival".

The technical file

Cinematography: Torben Forsberg
Original score: Volker Bertelmann
Editing: Morten Højbjerg
Production design: Atli Geir Grétarsson
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Against the Ice (2022)

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Peter Flinth

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-09-08
★ 1/10
The takeaway from Against the Ice is that not all CGI is bad — which doesn’t necessarily mean that some of it is good, only that some examples are comparatively worse than others. There is a scene in this movie that will remind you of The Revenant, except that the bear in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film is one of its most memorable aspects; as for the one in Against the Ice, let’s just say that I’ve seen more realistic polar bears in those Coca-Cola Christmas ads. Now, both scenes involve lots of computer generated imagery and a stuntman pretending to be a carnivorous mammal of the Ursidae family, so the difference between awesome and pathetic lies in the performance of the actor being attacked. Like in pro wrestling, the encounter between Leo DiCaprio and the bear may not have been spontaneous, and its outcome may have been predetermined, but that doesn’t mean the actor didn’t take an actual beating, getting thrown around to and fro like a ragdoll by way of wires; moreover, all of his facial and body language is committed to selling the gravity of the situation, which in turn makes the bear, CGI or not, look like a million bucks. Meanwhile in Against the Ice, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau pretty much just lies there, bringing no urgency to what should be a life-and-death struggle. This scene is symptomatic of Against the Ice, which is no less a collection of clichés than The Revenant, but whereas the latter amounts to much more than the sum of its parts thanks to superb execution, the former is too conventional to ever transcend its chosen genre. Consider the way it tracks the passage of time beginning with “Day 1”, which is of course a logical starting point, but also a very obvious one; from there it skips all the way to “Day 26” — my question is, since apparently nothing of note happened in the first 25 days, why not just start with the 26th day and go from there? All things considered, no one will be surprised to learn that Ejnar Mikkelsen (Coster-Waldau) — on whose book (or, presumably, a translation of the same, seeing as how the Danish characters all speak English as a first language) the movie is based — and Iver Iverson (Joe Cole) “remained friends for life”, but don’t they always? Just like Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in the King’s Speech, or Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in Green Book. All movies “based on a true story” take extreme liberties with their source material, and I usually hate it when they do, but Against the Ice would have been considerably less trite if the makers had gone the opposite route with the characters’ relationship; after all, in the words of Mr. Burns following a similar but by no means as protracted ordeal, “once you've been through something like that with a person, you never want to see that person again.”

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