‘Arctic’ Is the Latest in a Long Line of Horrifying Survivalist Flicks

Arctic—the new movie directed by Brazilian filmmaker and musician Joe Penna—has clomped into theaters after raving reception at Cannes and Sundance. The film’s frontman is actor Mads Mikkelsen, the tall, enviably-banged Danish star who simultaneously exudes grit, sophistication, decency, and the aroma of cedar leaves. He’s trapped in the arctic after a helicopter crash. It’s real cold. There are bears and monster blizzards. Even for a fellow like Mikkelsen, the odds of survival are grim.

Arctic belongs to a classic yet undervalued genre that we’ll call Modern Man Survives In The Wilderness. What makes this genre different from a frontier survival epic like The Revenant is simple: the characters who find themselves lost in the great outdoors are out of their element. They’re scientists, executives, doctors, tourists—they’re not the kind of people who already know things like How To Skin A Squirrel or How To Build A Wind Shelter From Pine Boughs. When they get hurt, we feel every blow, and when/if they get rescued, our spirits shoot through the roof.

Arctic

Letter Never Sent (1960)

A team of geologists embarks on a diamond expedition into the Siberian wilderness. What could go wrong? Everything. A forest fire cuts the adventurers off from their canoes, a doomed love triangle germinates within the co-ed group, and their two-way radio stops broadcasting but keeps picking up breathless pep talks and exaltations from their comrades back in civilization. Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov and shot in black and white—which makes the boreal woods of Siberia look like a bristling ocean—Letter Never Sent is a dark, brooding film that doubles as a subtle parody of Soviet Union ideals like altruism and resolve. These ideals are tirelessly upheld by the lost adventurers, even as they wander deeper into the wild and find themselves increasingly removed from society. There’s the human spirit, and then there’s the fucking forest. Letter Never Sent is about the gulf between those planes of existence.

The Grey (2011)

Yes, this is the movie where Liam Neeson goes mano-a-mano with wolves in the Alaskan tundra, and no, it’s not a joke. The Grey, directed by Joe Carnahan, is about what happens when a bunch of dudes who’ve succumbed to toxic masculinity—in this case, a bunch of oil drillers who’ve been drinking and brawling themselves toward death at the ass end of the world—are stripped down to their most base selves. Neeson, a sharpshooter who protects the oil men from wildlife, is the guy you want to have on hand when your plane crashes in Alaska—even when shrouded in anger and grief. (His wife has left him recently.) The Grey is less about the wolves and more about the specter of death that stalks each of the men. But the wolves are fucking badass too.

Alive (1993)

eat your dead seatmate Alive Alive Castaway (2000) Castaway knocks out an abscessed molar with a rock and an ice skate Castaway

Backcountry (2014)

Backcountry, Stick It bear attack the one in The Revenant

Arctic is out now in selected theaters.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Miles Howard on Twitter.