Against the Ice

Against the Ice is a survival adventure set in 1909, when a Danish expedition to Greenland sets out to challenge the United States' claim to the island's northeastern coast. The mission rests on proving that Greenland is a single landmass rather than two separate parts. Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen, determined to recover evidence left by earlier expeditions that vanished in the region, takes just one companion, the inexperienced sailor Iver Iversen. The two men travel by sled with dogs and supplies, and what was meant to be a matter of months stretches into a far longer and more punishing ordeal as they push deeper into the ice and struggle to make it home.

Peter Flinth directed, following his 2007 film Arn: The Knight Templar. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars as Mikkelsen and wrote the screenplay with Joe Derrick; Coster-Waldau also produced alongside Baltasar Kormákur. Joe Cole plays Iversen, with Charles Dance as Minister Neergaard, Heida Reed as Naja Holm, and supporting turns from Gísli Örn Garðarsson and Sam Redford. The film is a Danish-Icelandic production from RVK Studios and Ill Kippers, based on a true story.

The film has drawn a mixed response. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from roughly 32,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.8 out of 10 from several hundred votes. A critics' rating of 6.2 out of 10 from 35 reviews sits close to the audience scores, suggesting a modest but consistent reception for the film's account of endurance in the Arctic.