Against The Ice: The Dramatic True Story Behind The Netflix Movie Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Is Inspired By
Two lonely men against nature: this is Against The Ice Netflix’s survival drama starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (the Jamie Lannister of Game of Thrones, so to speak), who also co-wrote the project. Directed by Peter Flinth, the film’s story is set in the early 1900s, and follows that of two explorers forced to struggle to stay alive after being abandoned on a mission to Greenland. On the surface it looks like a survival movie like many others. In fact, Against The Ice tells a story that really happened: let’s find out which one.
The True Story Of Against The Ice
The Netflix film tells the true story of a 1909 expedition undertaken by Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen (played by Coster-Waldau), also reported in his memoir Two Against the Ice, first published in 1955. Mikkelsen had made up his mind to embark on a desperate Arctic expedition to prove his theory that Greenland was a single piece of land, rather than two islands as was believed at the time, and thus disprove the existence of the Peary Channel. In fact, behind his intent was also to prevent the United States from conquering half of the territory. Mikkelsen would have to return home with evidence to support his theory, otherwise it would not have been deemed valid. But not everything went as planned.
Against The Ice then traces the incredible story of Mikkelsen and his engineer, the inexperienced Iversen, stranded for over two years on Shannon Island in eastern Greenland. Obviously the film adds the element of drama by showing how the two men, especially Mikkelsen, began to lose hope and then the light of reason. Forced to be together to survive, Against The Ice also underlines the friendship and the bond of mutual esteem that exists between the two, after sharing a similar experience: a relationship that will unite them for a lifetime.
Furthermore, the film has some uncertainties about the real story: for example, it was not Mikkelsen who first found the missing mapping as shown in the film. That was the work of another Danish explorer named Johan Peter Koch. Ejnar Mikkelsen thus decided to embark on the expedition to recover the diaries of Mylius-Erichsen, so as to have his testimony in hand. Together with his engineer Iver Iversen, Mikkelsen spent the winter 1909-1910 on the island of Shannon in eastern Greenland. His wooden ship, the Alabama , was blocked by the Shannon ice and, while he was exploring, the rest of the group returned home aboard a whaler. The two scouts returned to Shannon where they discovered that the rest of the group had fled but, having rescued the beams and planks, they erected a small cottage. Mikkelsen and Iversen spent two winters there before being rescued, on the verge of death, by a Norwegian whaler in the summer of 1912.
From Book to Film: The Adaptation By Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
In an interview with Deadline, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau explained how he adapted Ejnar Mikkelsen’s book on screen:
I didn’t know anything about the story. Peter (the director, ed) sent me Ejnar Mikkelsen’s book years ago and I was fascinated by it. We’ve seen survival stories before, but there was something about the way Mikkelsen wrote it, which also shows the affection he had for Iverson.
For Coster-Waldau it is not the first time that he has dealt with the script of a film. Also on Deadline, the actor recalled when he co-wrote the film Wildside, which was shot in Iceland. Game of Thrones fans will also appreciate the fact that there is a small reunion in Against The Ice: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has indeed reunited Charles Dance , who played his father Tywin Lannister on the show.
