I have an interest in all things outdoor and particular survival. I often watch these survival movies and am aghast at the poor choices that the character make and the need for the producers to add unrealistic drama and romance into every aspect of the story.
Thankfully, this movie lacks all of this. There is hardly any "drama" aside from the realistic scenarios that the protagonist finds himself in, frost bitten fingers and the unspoken but well conveyed message that this is bad, really bad, if he looses his fingers then he's going to die. This is a fleeting scene lasting only a few seconds but the magnitude of it was powerful.
Our guy then made good survival decisions throughout the movie and instead of sitting there thinking "no, I would do this and that" from my chair, I nodded in approval as he did exactly what I would have done except for one time when he was struggling to *haul a heavy paulk up a steep hill.
I was impressed with his unattended fishing set up, his dogged determination to maintain his aerial signal, his signalling and the strict time table that he kept throughout. This is an excellent way to conduct oneself in a survival situation as keeping busy keeps us calm and keeps the negative thoughts away. Survival is much more of a mental challenge than a physical one and if the mind likes one thing it is - routine. This is why it is so important to keep to a busy schedule.
The landscape is brutal, rock and snow, no vegetation, no trees, few resources. A really hard place to live. He had nothing to burn so making a fire to stay warm was not an option. I think that the movie is supposed to be set in Greenland but was filmed in Iceland. The main difference between the two is that one is very, very cold and the other is relatively mild.
You could tell that he was in Iceland because the snow was wet and crystalised which gave the impression that the temperature was not far off of -10c which is not that cold. In Greenland temperatures can drop to -40c and life becomes even harder to sustain.
It's a fantastic movie, a true role model in terms of "what would I do?" movies. The production is excellent, the dialogue perfect. The tension never lets up, it just keeps increasing all the way to the end.
It is really hard to film in these conditions, you can only use a landscape once before you leave tracks in the snow so it has to be done right first time every time. In the extreme cold, electronics do not work well, batteries loose their charge and people start to break down too. 10/10 for making it work on that side.
I gave this a solid 7/10. I could be pressed to increase this to 8 but what this lacked, in my view is the story of the events leading up to the opening scene. I know that they did not want to include that as part of the story but i'd like to know more.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the producers and actor in this movie as if they can make such a realistic arctic survival film then they should be able to make extremely good other movies too.
* He had two lengths of rope, a quickdraw carabiner and an ice axe. If he had known about rock climbing then he could easily have rigged a Z-drag / 2:1 or 4:1 pully system and had that paulk at the summit in no time. In fairness though, he was a pilot, basically a glorified bus driver so we cant expect him to know everything and his northern bushcraft was pretty good up until that point.
Thankfully, this movie lacks all of this. There is hardly any "drama" aside from the realistic scenarios that the protagonist finds himself in, frost bitten fingers and the unspoken but well conveyed message that this is bad, really bad, if he looses his fingers then he's going to die. This is a fleeting scene lasting only a few seconds but the magnitude of it was powerful.
Our guy then made good survival decisions throughout the movie and instead of sitting there thinking "no, I would do this and that" from my chair, I nodded in approval as he did exactly what I would have done except for one time when he was struggling to *haul a heavy paulk up a steep hill.
I was impressed with his unattended fishing set up, his dogged determination to maintain his aerial signal, his signalling and the strict time table that he kept throughout. This is an excellent way to conduct oneself in a survival situation as keeping busy keeps us calm and keeps the negative thoughts away. Survival is much more of a mental challenge than a physical one and if the mind likes one thing it is - routine. This is why it is so important to keep to a busy schedule.
The landscape is brutal, rock and snow, no vegetation, no trees, few resources. A really hard place to live. He had nothing to burn so making a fire to stay warm was not an option. I think that the movie is supposed to be set in Greenland but was filmed in Iceland. The main difference between the two is that one is very, very cold and the other is relatively mild.
You could tell that he was in Iceland because the snow was wet and crystalised which gave the impression that the temperature was not far off of -10c which is not that cold. In Greenland temperatures can drop to -40c and life becomes even harder to sustain.
It's a fantastic movie, a true role model in terms of "what would I do?" movies. The production is excellent, the dialogue perfect. The tension never lets up, it just keeps increasing all the way to the end.
It is really hard to film in these conditions, you can only use a landscape once before you leave tracks in the snow so it has to be done right first time every time. In the extreme cold, electronics do not work well, batteries loose their charge and people start to break down too. 10/10 for making it work on that side.
I gave this a solid 7/10. I could be pressed to increase this to 8 but what this lacked, in my view is the story of the events leading up to the opening scene. I know that they did not want to include that as part of the story but i'd like to know more.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the producers and actor in this movie as if they can make such a realistic arctic survival film then they should be able to make extremely good other movies too.
* He had two lengths of rope, a quickdraw carabiner and an ice axe. If he had known about rock climbing then he could easily have rigged a Z-drag / 2:1 or 4:1 pully system and had that paulk at the summit in no time. In fairness though, he was a pilot, basically a glorified bus driver so we cant expect him to know everything and his northern bushcraft was pretty good up until that point.