Netflix’s newest film, ‘Against The Ice,’ is one film that sheds light on the dangerous lives of explorers who dedicate their lives to travel unknown places and bringing the truth with them.
Sometimes they make it through, sometimes they don’t, but no matter what, “the records of the discoveries should be delivered back safe and sound with or without the explorer,” as said in the film’s final moments.
Against the Ice is based on the book “Two Against the ICE by Ejnar Mikkelsen,” and it stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) as Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen, Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders) as Iver Iversen.
The film revolves around the duo as they take on a task filled with unsurmountable difficulties to prove to the world that Greenland is a continuous continent.
The official synopsis of ‘Against The Ice’ read, “In 1909, two explorers fight to survive after they’re left behind while on a Denmark expedition in ice-covered Greenland.”
‘Against The Ice‘ starts with a failed attempt as we see Ejnar and Jörgensen (Gísli Örn Garðarsson) returning from their exploration; however, the latter got his feet all frozen up.
After treating Jörgensen, the entire crew raised a toast, and it was when Ejnar revealed that he found one Diary from one of the men (Greenlander Brønlund).
Additionally, he also found a map showing the cairn’s location, where Mylius Erichsen left his final records of the unknown land.
Mylius and the other two members were part of the Denmark Expedition, undertaking the task of finding the truth about America’s claim on Greenland.
In the film, they succeeded in finding the truth but couldn’t make it back safe, so they kept their discoveries and facts in a cairn for others to find out.
Ejnar suggested one last exploration and asked for a volunteer. No crew member stepped up except the mechanic of their ship ‘Alabama.’
Iver Iversen, who boarded Alabama in Reykjavik, decided to volunteer Captain Ejnar in his expedition. On March 1, 1910, they set out, the last shot at uncovering the truth of Greenland.
Their expedition met with numerous perils, the first major being Iver’s fault. He lost control of his sledge and thereby lost a dog and necessary supplies.
Against The Ice: Ejnar and Iver (via Netflix)They faced difficulties throughout and along the way, and formed a strong bond of kinship, which would remain for the rest of their lives.
Ejnar explained to Iver about the task at hand; it was to explore the unknown land and to examine the legitimacy of America’s claim that a channel separates the top part of Greenland from the rest of the country.
After continuous strenuous travelling and living on low supplies, they finally reached the cairn’s location.
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Upon investigating, they found evidence that Peary Channel doesn’t exist. America’s claim was incorrect, and Greenland was a continuous continent that belonged to Denmark.
Thrilled by the discovery, they finally set back on the same path to their ship with a ray of hope. However, the journey was much harder before since they had lost too many supplies and dogs.
Fearing about not making it alive, they made their cairn containing the evidence somewhere 200 hundred miles from their ship. Ejnar and Iver successfully returned to the location of Alabama only to find that they had already left without them.
Utterly distraught by it, the duo had no other option but to live in the small hut created for them and use the supplies to survive.
Against The Ice Ending Explained: Were Ejnar and Iver able to prove about Greenland?
One day, Ejnar had a nightmare about their cairn getting knocked over by a bear, thereby losing their findings.
They decided to leave for the cairn immediately to get back all the evidence, and despite Iver urging him to leave a note, Mikkelsen dropped the idea due to the lack of time.
When they reached the location, they found the cairn was indeed knocked over, but luckily the evidence wasn’t lost.
They brought it back to their hut, and to their surprise, they found a note indicating a rescue team came but returned without having any trace of them.
Things turned from bad to worse when they had to live their days without any hopes of getting rescued.
Meanwhile, Jörgensen was trying his best to convince Neergaard (Charles Dance) about the rescue plan while they still had time.
Days went by, but no one came, and the extreme grief took over Ejnar, as he started hallucinating his girlfriend, Naja Holm (Heida Reed), coming to him with a hot air balloon.
Things heated up when his hallucinations almost caused him to kill Iver. In the end, both Iver and Ejnar were rescued moments after a bear attacked them in their hut.
At the end of ‘Against The Ice,’ after their rescue, Neergaard shared the evidence, disproving America’s Greenland claim. Ejnar got to meet his girlfriend, and both Iver and Ejnar were recognized for their brave efforts.
According to the post-credit scene, Ejnar Mikkelsen and Naja Holm married one year later, and Iver remained his friend for life.
Against The Ice is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
