It’s Liam Neeson vs. surface tension in Netflix’s passable thriller The Ice Road
The Taken star’s latest adds some unnecessary complications to a suspenseful scenario
Film Reviews Netflix
At first glance, The Ice Road looks like an algorithmically engineered mash-up of The 33 (about Chilean miners trapped underground) and The Wages Of Fear (a French classic—remade in the U.S. as Sorcerer—in which several big rigs attempt to haul nitroglycerin across treacherous terrain), with the History Channel reality show Ice Road Truckers thrown in for good measure. That’s the basic setup, certainly: A cave-in at a northern Manitoba diamond mine buries over two dozen men, and there’s no means of rescuing them without the aid of equipment called wellheads, which weigh roughly 25 tons each and need to be transported across frozen lakes… in April, when the ice is starting to melt and the roads in question are officially closed. This scenario offers suspense on twin fronts, with the miners struggling to conserve dwindling oxygen and stave off suicidal (or homicidal) despair while the truckers try to avoid sinking into a watery grave. And if The Ice Road starred, say, Bradley Cooper or Miles Teller, that’s all you’d expect.
Instead, writer-director Jonathan Hensleigh cast a man with a very particular set of skills. Nobody hires Liam Neeson these days just to have him drive a truck for two hours, so it’s not a huge surprise when thin ice proves to be only one among many dangers faced by his character, Mike, who’s just been fired for punching a coworker (justifiably, of course) and desperately needs the $50,000 he’ll receive for getting his wellhead to the mine in time. Mike’s not the only driver making the journey, however. So is the operation’s boss, a no-nonsense guy who goes by the literally colorful name of Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne). A third driver, Tantoo (Amber Midthunder, late of Legion), signs up as well, though only after Goldenrod posts her bail, as she’s been locked up for violently protesting the exploitation of indigenous lands. Then there’s the mining company’s dweeby insurance dude (Benjamin Walker), who insists on being allowed to keep a close eye on valuable assets. And just to make things extra spicy, any driver’s accidental death results in his/her 50 grand being split evenly among the survivors.
Once The Ice Road’s true narrative emerges, that goofy contractual detail—say, can we create nightmare incentives for this urgent rescue mission, maybe turn it into a demolition derby on ice?—winds up overshadowed by even more nefarious (and preposterous) developments that are best left unspoiled. Suffice it to say that Neeson’s agent clearly still flips through screenplays looking for the word “revenge.” The film arguably works best prior to this gearshift, when it appears to be primarily about keeping huge vehicles moving steadily and horizontally rather than abruptly and vertically. That’s nervewracking enough to have kept Ice Road Truckers on the air for 11 seasons, and Hensleigh (Kill The Irishman) makes good use early on of faint cracking sounds and shots of enormous rumbling tires as seen from underneath the ice. If anything, he’s in too much of a hurry—both The Wages Of Fear and Sorcerer devote plenty of time to what are essentially complex engineering problems, whereas the equally daunting instances here (one truck is submerged and the other two are on their sides within the first 40 minutes!) zip by in montage form.
After all, Neeson needs someone to relentlessly pursue. Mike isn’t one of his more memorable tough guys, in part because of Hensleigh’s desire to provide ostensible pathos via Mike’s brother, Gurty (Marcus Thomas), an ace mechanic who requires constant supervision due to a Gulf War injury that left him permanently aphasic. Gurty speaks in a sort of word salad that only Mike understands and generally seems to have the cognitive skills of a child; Thomas plays him with cloying guilelessness, which forces Neeson into bland nobility. Midthunder compensates to some degree with an enjoyably spiky performance, though it might have been more fun had Tantoo been in jail for a less admirable reason. And Fishburne exudes the sort of casual professionalism that makes you grateful for his presence and sorry to see him go. Even at its dumbest, The Ice Road holds your attention; a climactic fight/chase scene even acknowledges that it’s hard to look badass on a slippery surface. Ultimately, though, this is a movie in which Liam Neeson actually growls “It’s not about money now. This is personal.” What, again? We certainly did not see that coming.
35 Comments
Given Wages of Fear / Sorcerer is one of my favourite films (I cheat and conflate the two) I can’t wait to watch this and get increasingly annoyed. You’ve a solid gold elevator pitch and yet they decide to throw a load of additional bullshit in.
“I have a very specific set of skills; now I’m driving a dumb truck!”
“You’re driving a dump truck?”
“No, a DUMB truck!”
“Well…did you lose your daughter?”
“My…no, I don’t think so…”
“Then please keep the CB open for emergencies, not to gripe about your weird career choices.”
I hope they’ve included kidnappers, wolves, stolen identities and batmen in the series of complications befalling this noble ice trucker.
Throw in a yeti and a hot vampire and I’ll fund your movie!
It’s a deal! I love yeti pictures especially.
Is this the end of Neeson’s big movie career? Seems to be a return to the kind of B-grade action flicks he was known for before Schindlers List,
“both The Wages Of Fear and Sorcerer devote plenty of time to what are essentially complex engineering problems, whereas the equally daunting instances here (one truck is submerged and the other two are on their sides within the first 40 minutes!) zip by in montage form.”Still need to catch up with Wages Of Fear but the Sorcerer engineer stuff rules. OK, let’s spend 10 minutes blowing up a tree! Now 10 minutes hauling a truck over a bridge! So good, the tension of every step builds and builds.
Wages of Fear is amazing. It’s actually pretty boring early on as you’re immersed in the incredibly dull world the characters are stuck in. But that’s an important part of the story — letting you really get a feeling for the ennui of their lives as time drags on… Then they get going on the dangerous journey and the tension just builds and builds and builds. The acts are very different, but make a riveting whole. It’s really good! Yves Montand is excellent. Everyone is. Definitely worth watching.
I need to go find out how they did the bridge Sequence in Sorcerer, because that truck looked like it was only a degree or two from falling in.
From everything I’ve read about it, that was an especially scary affair amid some difficult location shoots in general.https://filmschoolrejects.com/how-they-shot-the-bridge-scene-in-sorcerer/
https://neotextcorp.com/culture/no-one-is-just-anything-william-friedkins-sorcerer/
Thanks for the links, appreciate it.
Sorcerer is another one of those great undervalued films from the 70’s. Everybody looked at the title and expected a sequel to The Exorcist and got an even more existential remake of The Wages of Fear. It’s my favorite Friedkin film next to Excorcist, the cop out of control antics of French Connection haven’t aged that well.
the cop out of control antics of French Connection haven’t aged that well. I know what you mean, but… I still really like French Connection. Don’t like the character of Popeye too much, but I don’t think I’m supposed to.Sorcerer is just an amazing movie. I used to prefer Wages of Fear but I’ve changed my mind lately. Both are excellent though.
Yeah, I watched French Connection for the first time a few years ago and it felt like it knew exactly what kind of man Popeye is. Its a gritty 70s movie, so it never offers an overt moral message or comeuppance, but*SPOILERS*the bit in the climax where Popeye shoots (and seemingly kills) another cop or agent by accident and doesn’t even blink in his pursuit of the criminal seemed to pretty clearly indicate this is not a good man or a good cop and his dogged determination is ultimately destructive.
Please tell me that it goes meta, and reveals that if any of the ACTORS die, their salary will be split among the others. That would make it a tough but interesting shoot for Neeson.
It sounds like it would be a profitable shoot for Neeson, certainly.
And just to make things extra spicy, any driver’s accidental death results in his/her 50 grand being split evenly among the survivors.Now I want an entire movie about the contract lawyer who let this slip by him.
Yeah, just coming to post that. Any real company would just refuse to pay dead people.
Right? It sounds like a tontine, which are illegal basically everywhere.
Not anymore! Or at least not exactly. The 2019 Pan-European Pension Product regulation now legalizes “tontine-style” pensions in which surviving members are paid in part from the contributions of those who never lived to draw their pensions. The argument is unlike in the murder mystery kind of tontine, these involve thousands of participants and are unlikely to encourage murders by any but the most enterprising of serial killers.
Does Neeson punch a truck in the throat?
At least once a day; but don’t you want to hear about this movie?
Following Cold Pursuit, the 2019 remake of Kraftidioten, where he drives a snow plow and kills drug dealer; this film where he drives a truck on ice now completes the ice and snow trilogy begun with The Grey.
So it’s Wages of Fear + Ice Road Truckers + The 33 + Over the Top?
“This mission is on thin ice” Damn… I am genuinely impressed by this tagline.
Man, I would hope that Neeson has got have had better jobs thrown at him?I mean, gotta chase the buck right, but this? He seems to be racing to the bottom.
….Didn’t a movie like this with Nesson in some sort of ice based conundrum just come out like a few years ago?
There’s Cold Pursuit, where Liam Neeson is a snow plow driver who Seeks Revenge.
I need to watch The Sorcerer again. It’s been ages since I watched it.
This movie sounds like it has too much going on BEFORE the turn into Revenge Neeson territory. And that angle sounds like the least interesting part of it. I would totally be down for a movie about Amber Midthunder as an indigenous protester and/or ecoterrorist forced into a dangerous job she can’t refuse, but I guess that doesn’t have the same juice as Liam Neeson Growls Again. And forcing her to help people doing the very land exploiting she was protesting against sounds like an interesting angle that the movie probably ignores for the most part.
Would you believe you’re right? The movie entirely ignores in fact, bar a couple of racist lines from the more unpleasant characters. I want to see Amber Midthunder lead a film, although to be fair she gets a chunk of screen time here, at least.
*sigh* Not surprised at all. Midthunder was so beautiful and bad-ass in Legion, I’m almost tempted to watch this just for her. I did just look at her wiki and apparently she DOES have a lead role coming up, playing a Comanche woman during Civil War times who becomes a warrior and apparently its also a Predator movie? Its going to be called Skulls, and sounds a 100% like a project I would be interested in that never gets made, but apparently production started this month and its from the guy who made 10 Cloverfield Ln!
Maybe its Legion speaking, but she’s like Aubrey Plaza’s BAMF little sister.
Man I just finished this and cannot account for all the bad reviews. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable old-school B-movie. Late career Liam Neeson ice road trucking, honestly what more do you need? The promotional artwork alone justifies the film’s existence.
Dammit boy, if Neeson isn’t Truckin’ Through Time with another trucker also played by Liam Neeson, I’m not watching it. Even if he’s driving a helluva rig!