The Ice Road

This fictional action-adventure, American film is written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh. It tracks a convoy of three trucks being driven to rescue 26 miners trapped in a remote diamond mine in Northern Canada, a short distance from the Arctic Circle. The equipment it carries is needed to cap a leaking methane pipeline, and the mission is to deliver rescue equipment over frozen ice-roads to the miners, who have only 30 hours to live with the oxygen they have left.

Mike McCann (Neeson), his disabled brother, Gurty (Thomas), and a young ex-con woman, Tantoo (Midthunder), are hired by the leader of a mining-company mission, Jim Goldenrod (Fishburne). Tantoo’s brother, Cody (Sensmeier), is among the miners. A major villain in the convoy is a risk-assessment professional, Varnay (Walker), whose job it is to ensure the mission fails, with no insurance liability. Company general manager George Sickle (Matt McCoy) schemes at management level, while Neeson’s Mike McCann is the chief ‘big-rig’ ice road driver, who has the task of driving the lead truck in the convoy. The trucks traverse melting ice roads, built over frozen lakes.

The plan is to free the miners by blasting a tunnel, but the use of dynamite is risky. The film is full of high-octane, action-adventure scenarios: Truck engines seize on icy pathways, the ice beneath the trucks cracks, trucks crash into each other, bridge cables snap, dynamite (stored malevolently) explodes, trucks fall into icy waters and off cliffs, methane levels rise in the mine, waters in the frozen lakes start to thaw, a massive storm descends, an avalanche occurs, gun fights break out, ice roads buckle in the water beneath them, and members of the rescue group die. The plot also heavily involves company corruption and deceit.

Less than 40 minutes into the film, viewers are reminded of a classic French film which communicated, in a much more focused way, a sickening tension that Henri-George Clouzot directed brilliantly in the 1953 movie, The Wages of Fear. That film showed a small convoy of trucks that carried nitroglycerin over a hazardous, curvy cliff road. The tension in that journey, which was full of crises, was palpable and durable. In this film, too much action occurs in a diverse way for tension to be coherently maintained, but tension is there, and despite the frenetic pace of what occurs, the 69-year-old Liam Neeson gives all he has.

The film forcibly portrays the hazards of nature and the dangers it can deliver, by putting human lives at risk. It also raises pertinent ethical issues about human life – one miner wants to kill some of the injured so as to preserve oxygen for the rest, and the film dramatically shows the lengths to which institutions will go for self-protection – the company cut methane sensors to preserve its profit margin, putting the miners’ lives at risk.

This film is stunt heavy and crisis-ridden, but has several startling adventure scenarios that genuinely thrill. Loaded with action almost at every turn, it entertains by exposing viewers to some spectacular ice scenery and impressive ice design action-effects. Neeson proves that it is not too late to get the job done, and the film projects him very effectively as a late-in-life action hero.

The sleeper factor in the film is ‘climate change’ which affects the construction and use of ice roads, especially when heavy equipment rides over their surfaces. The film fails to recognise that such an issue is relevant, but makes a passing (wary) reference to ‘bright sunshine’. The threat of climate warming lies there, urging recognition, and looking for further words.

Rialto Distribution