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Warning: About a half hour into the delightfully pulpy Icelandic-Danish survival adventure “Against the Ice,” at least two sled dogs perish. More dogs may have been killed off-screen in either a deleted or unfilmed scene, and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the film’s creators, particularly star/producer/co-writer Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister on “Game of Thrones”), were aware of this. Given the film’s focus on two Arctic explorers who, in 1909, ventured out to the known edge of Greenland and then attempted to avoid dying in the middle of nowhere, that is the highest compliment I can think of.
With “Against the Ice,” you’ll get all of the delirious period drama thrills and survival horror angst that you could possibly want from a film with that title, and then some. After only a few weeks on the set of their story, an adaptation of Arctic explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen’s memoir Two Against the Ice, Coster-Waldau and Joe Derrick have established their film as the kind of grisly and high-toned boy’s adventure story in which the worst can and probably will happen, especially when you’re not expecting it.
Mikkelsen (Coster-Waldau) is a haunted sea captain who leads poor naive mechanic Iver Iversen (Joe Cole) on a perilous journey to a cairn (or, as one character helpfully explains, “a stack of stones one can see from a long distance”) that is far away from their ship, the Alabama, and its crew. A written record of the discoveries made by the last Danish expedition is buried within this cairn. In no uncertain terms, that priceless document suggests that Danish explorers, rather than the American explorer and explorer Robert Peary, were the ones who discovered Greenland’s northernmost border, which in turn suggests that the United States “has no claim” to the Arctic, as Mikkelsen explains to Iversen in his interview.
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You might be wondering how or why proving this extremely specific claim might be the goal of an action-adventure set in the Arctic about two men who must kill a sled dog or two in order to survive might be the goal of a film set in the Arctic. By using campy and economical dialogue, Derrick and Coster-Waldau set the tone for the film right away, such as when another explorer warns Iversen that he should not befriend the dogs because, if the worst comes to the worst, he will have to “shoot the worst dog” and “feed it to the other dogs.” A short time later, Iversen makes the naive observation that “Once you learn to trust your lead dog, everything just sort of falls into place.”
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That type of blatantly ironic declaration may put you on edge even before the first dog-related incident occurs. It’s possible that you’ll be hooked and/or desperate to stop watching after the brutally unsensational second incident, which lends a hilariously foreboding edge to even innocent-seeming dialogue exchanges, such as when Mikkelsen says that “Denmark will thank you one day, Iver Iversen,” and then announces, after they find the cairn they’re looking for, that they’re heading back to the Alabama and then off to “home sweet home This is a long time before icicles form in the beards of Iversen and Mikkelsen, respectively. Afterwards, they talk about their first sexual experiences and whether they’d ever considered cannibalism, just like any other group of turn-of-the-century gentlemen would (Spoiler alert: they would).
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Although it is not without its flaws, “Against the Ice” does contain some exciting and well-paced set pieces, in addition to some beautiful and atmospheric outdoor photography (shot by Danish cinematographer Torben Forsberg), some of which was filmed in Greenland. Cole and Coster-Waldau are also excellent in their respective roles, despite the fact that they aren’t the film’s true stars. Coster-Waldau, on the other hand, is unquestionably talented, given his multi-hyphenate role in bringing this film to its current state of completion. But it wasn’t for his on-camera performance that he was praised. When it comes to screenwriting, Coster-Waldau (as well as Derrick) infuses every scene with the kind of lurid and surprising details that are sure to appeal to fans of airport paperbacks and/or B-movie suspense films alike.
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Never let the modest budget fool you: “Against the Ice” is a movie that continually informs you of its genre, and not just when computer-animated polar bears attack or when the prim, but delightfully hammy character actor Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister on “Game of Thrones”) appears in character as a Danish cultural minister and makes pronouncements about the fate of Iversen and Mikkelsen from the safety of a (probably well-heated) conference room. “Lieutenant” is a word that Dance makes a meal out of, and he also delivers some excellent monologue, such as when he describes an explorer’s “single most important task.” It goes without saying that “blood, sweat, and tears” are involved.
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Even as the days pass in a somber and clearly-delineated flurry of intertitles (for example, “DAY 132”), you begin to anticipate mirage-like phantoms, such as hot air balloons and stranded automobiles, as well as gonzo dialogue, such as the aforementioned cannibal talk, as the story progresses. Because “Against the Ice” is not a horror film, you might not be prepared for Iversen and Mikkelsen to come to the conclusion that “if my hands were removed before I die”—”Yeah, I could quite happily eat you.” “Against the Ice” is a drama, not a horror film. Polar bears and lanced boils are both fantastic, but “Against the Ice” keeps you on the edge of your seat by making you wonder how much longer you’ll have to wait for the next dreadful and surreal development to unfold. In most cases, the answer is not very long at all.
Netflix is currently streaming the film.
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