A Story Carved in Snow and Silence
I remember watching a movie named Against the Ice on Netflix the first time it was released. It struck me in a different way and I remember it not for the fantastic storytelling, but for the deeds of courage it portrays. The movie based on real events follows a Danish explorer, Ejnar Mikkelsen who on a quest to prove that Greenland, unlike how the United States splits it, is a single landmass. Accompanying him is a volunteer for the treacherous expedition, a young mechanic named Iver Iversen.
On the surface, there was a drama playing: two men caught in the blizzards with no food, no protection, and complete solitude. Fighting with the Arctic was one of the smallest battles these men had on this expedition. Below the surface, it was a story of perseverance and the Will to rise against all odds. The actors, specifically Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, had to endured the same challenges these characters in the story faced.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: From Westeros to the White Desert
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is known all around the world for his role Jaime Lannister in the series Game of Thrones. However, in Against the Ice, he sheds the golden armor and wears the skin of Mikkelsen, who is a character that gets through sheer determination.
Similarly, Nikolaj’s journey in life, has been compared in deep detail in his acting roles throughout his career. He has been typecast in roles where he plays the anti-hero. During those times, he desired a transformational character, one that would focus on fortitude and genuineness. The move to take on the role in Against the Ice was more than an acting role, it was, a role that was personal to him. He was the co-writer and the producer, and spent an immeasurable amount of energy paying homage to a Danish hero, that was on a macro scale, forgotten by his home country.
He later in the interviews, admitted that being on the set of the movie in the freezing locations of Iceland and Greenland, was more challenging than battling a CGI dragon. In reflection to his role, he said, “We were cold all the time, even with modern gear.” It is discomfort like that, that rationalizes his role. Just like the character, Mikkelsen, who fights through frostbite, Nikolaj, on the other hand, was battling with a smaller ever so slighter profit to loss on those straggles each and every day of the set.
Lastly, we have British actor, Joe Cole, who is best known for his role in fever. In that series, he was John Shelby, a man full of glory and finesse. In this case, as Iversen, he has the ability to broaden himself, and aid a more innocent character.
In real life, Joe’s story adds yet another layer of appropriateness to his casting. It was a gamble to leave Peaky Blinders at the height of its fame. He was determined to shed the typecast of a supporting tough guy and wanted to pursue roles that broadened his horizon. Against the Ice was a film that gave him just that: a character in which his fragility was more important than his strength. Just like Joe, his decision to leave the comfort of the known and take the risk mirrors Iversen’s decision to volunteer for an expedition that almost every man would run away from, and that leap of faith, most would say, is the hardest one to take.
When speaking on the character, Cole has described how he intentionally avoided over-preparing for the part, so that the Iversen character’s disorientation in the frozen wilderness would juxtapose Iversen’s inexperience. Iversen’s character’s lack of experience adds a layer of rawness—captured on film— that is, at times, awkwardly courageous and yet, deeply relatable.
As Relentless As the Wind on the Ice
The film features Mikkelsen and Iversen on one of their projects, which involves recovering documents from a previous expedition. Their mission is to remove the claim that America holds over Greenland. The journey is ruthless: dogs are lost, food becomes scarce, and civilization is a distant memory. Iversen, at one point, was overly optimistic, however his state is now anything but, while Mikkelsen, having been free for an extended period of time, suffers.
The quietness; the slow gnaw of hunger; the crack of ice underfoot; the way the endless whiteness blurs the edges of reality, all Cloud imagination. By the time they return, shattered and nearly dead, the victory ceremony is no more about flags and borders and all about the raw act of surviving.
Behind the Camera: Mother Nature, the Toughest Supporting Actor
Conducting the film was no simple feat. Director Peter Flinth wanted to venture outside of the studio. He preferred the studio to the breath-taking views of Iceland and Greenland. The cast and crew had to endure minus zero winds and suffers from very extreme weather. At one time, the scenery cameras froze, which meant all the cameras stuck in motion. The data had to be melted so all the heaters had to be on. They had to breathe down the cameras so the scenes could be repeated.
Nikolaj reflected on the moments when they had to consume their meals in the same frozen environments used to film the scenes in order to break the survival chains. Joe Cole agreed to the fact that a lot of the time, the wind was too powerful, which resulted in some of the actors lip-sinking to free style. The film was freaking in the environment’s grip, which slap the suffering and hardship to make illusion things feel genuine.
Echoes of Colonial Ambition and National Pride
Although it was set a century in the past, Against the Ice struck a cultural chord. For Danish audiences, it was a rediscovery of national history. For global viewers, particularly from India, the story took on another meaning. Here is a film that is not about conquest, but about the endurance. A reminder that sometimes the greatest victories are not in the land, but in the values of unity and integrity.
There are even conversations in Indian social media about the struggles of Mikkelsen and Iversen, comparing them to the Himalayan mountaineers and Antarctic scientists. Memes circulated showing Indian students with textbooks before exams, dubbed “Against the Ice,” the covers as treacherous as the Arctic. The story permeated and made itself part of the everyday conversations, demonstrating that the struggle for survival is truly a global one.
Real and Reel Blur
The most compelling part of Against the Ice is how the personal sacrifices of the actors were like the ones made by the men themselves. Nikolaj spent countless nights anxious. Would the story of Mikkelsen reach internationally, and not just stay in Denmark? Joe Cole professionally dared himself by leaving an ongoing hit series for something different. The crew members underwent grueling conditions in the name of art, beauty, and isolation.
The same reasons that Mikkelsen and Iversen survived because of loyalty and stubbornness is why the film is around today. Unlike the Mikkelsen and Iversen film, there were no hallucinations. Just fatigue, and funding along with respect for the history of the film but without losing the cinematic value.
A Tale that Still Lingers in the Frost
There was no doubt that part of Mikkelsen’s story was silenced, but the burdened fell on the actor’s to tackle with, thus, Against the Ice was born. The film contains so much more than just a story of survival. It contains the struggle of the endless sacrifice made by so many. A sacrifice that came with no comfort. It is the stubborn ambition to move not just on and on, but forward through even the most ruthless gigantic snowfields in the year nineteen hundred nine.
The absence of sound feels the weightiest and the credits rolling is a part of the film as well. It is not solely the actors who demand your focus; there are also the cameras and a plethora of emotions actors had to integrate into the part. It goes without saying that Against the Ice is a narrative that goes far beyond history, against which the story is set. It is a narrative that embodies the untold efforts and hardships of humanity.