Against the ice is projecting events of Ejnar Mikkelsen’s 1909 expedition to North Greenland. Here is how much the film is different from real-life events.
Is Against the Ice a True Story?
This Netflix film is a true story introducing some events of the 1909 Alabama expedition. These events prompt the audience to ask how much of it happened. The film story shows the Danish mission that had led by Ejnar Mikkelsen. He tried to prove that Greenland was one island that the United States had no claim. Captain Mikkelsen, accompanied by Iver Iversen, to face and bare the icy conditions. He was the caption’s mechanic and the only volunteer among the ship crew.
The Crew and Cast of Against the Ice
This Danish film has directed by Danish filmmaker Peter Flint. Coster-Waldau is the co-writer, and the film shows inspiration from Mikkelsen’s autobiography Two Against The Ice. According to the director, this expedition story is relatively unknown. So he indicated interest to use artistic license to bring the expedition to life.
The cast members of against the ice include Nikolaj Coster-Waldau playing Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen, Joe Cole playing Iver Iversen, Heida Reed playing Naja Holm, Gísli Örn Garðarsson playing Carl H. Jørgensen, Sam Redford playing Lt. Vilhelm Laub, Charles Dance playing Minister Niels Neergaard, Þorsteinn Bachmann playing Georg C. Amdrup, Diarmaid Murtagh playing Georg Poulsen, Frankie Wilson playing Carl Unger.
Were Mikkelsen and Iversen Explorers in Real Life?
Most of the movie scenes show a faithful account of what happened in real life. Mikkelsen and Iversen are the two heroes; they are also accurate historical Danish figures. Mikkelsen is an experienced Arctic explorer. Even before the film’s events, he did expeditions to Greenland, Alaska, and the North Pole.
Mikkelsen’s companion, Iver Iversen’s background story, is also genuine. He was neither part of the original Alabama crew nor had any experience to survive in the Arctic. Instead Alabama crew replaced him with the crew’s original mechanic in Iceland.
There are some differences between real life and on-screen story events. Here are some differences that are going to discuss between the two.
What Happened to their Sled Dogs?
Coster-Waldau and Cole are the against the ice characters gone through different hardships during their expedition. The most tragic one was the loss of their sled dogs.
In the book, it has mentioned that all the dogs die. But on the screen, the death of a few dogs has projected. The duo faced some circumstances in which they have to feed some of their dogs to the rest of the pack. Even they had resorted to eating parts of a dog themselves on occasion.
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Mikkelsen’s autobiography tells about the fighting of the dogs with polar bears they encountered. But bears did not maul to death any of the dogs as shown in the film.
How does the Camp Crew Leave the Duo?
The halfway of the movie shows that the duo has overcome the worst till now. They have come back to the camp. But they faced troubles again when they realized that their camp fellows had ditched them.
This all happened with the real duo too. So the remaining crew stayed in the camp while both of them went and faced damage to their ship because of ice. After that, they used the woods of the boat and made a temporary hut that still stands there. Soon they had to leave that too when a Norwegian ship passed by.
Later the film presents that Mikkelsen and Iversen were camping in the hut when a polar bear attacked it. Both of them made the bear scared. But in reality, this event was much scarier as the bear broke into the hut. Iversen finally shot and killed it.
What is the Ending of the Film?
Finally, both the explorers have rescued after two years of isolation. The rescue team includes the Alabama expedition’s original crew in the Netflix adaptation film. This crew struggled to receive funds for the search mission by the Danish government throughout the film.
While in reality, the Danish government was against the rescue mission. The government was not willing to take the risk of more fatalities. So in real life, a Norwegian whaling ship rescued the duo that was luckily passing by there. Here is the trailer for the movie.
The movie manifests some minor changes so that the story would show some dramatic effect. However, against the ice is a close account of what truly happened to the duo.