The Last Winter (2006)

The American oil company KIC Corporation is building an ice road to explore the remote Northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seeking energy independence. Independent environmentalists ... See full summary »

Director:

Larry Fessenden

Writers:

Larry Fessenden, Robert Leaver

Stars:

Ron Perlman, James Le Gros, Connie Britton

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Ron Perlman	...	Ed Pollack
James Le Gros	...	James Hoffman (as James LeGros)
Connie Britton	...	Abby Sellers
Zach Gilford	...	Maxwell McKinder
Kevin Corrigan	...	Motor
Jamie Harrold	...	Elliot Jenkins
Pato Hoffmann	...	Lee Means
Joanne Shenandoah	...	Dawn Russell
Larry Fessenden	...	Charles Foster
Oscar Miller	...	Simon Marshowitz
Hálfdán Theodórsson	...	Gary
Eggert Ketilsson	...	Frozen Trucker
Jack Fessenden	...	Young Hoffman
John Speredakos	...	Weatherman
Halfdan Pedersen	...	Doctor Pedersen (as Hálfdan Lárus Pedersen)

Storyline

The American oil company KIC Corporation is building an ice road to explore the remote Northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seeking energy independence. Independent environmentalists work together in a drilling base headed by the tough Ed Pollack in a sort of agreement with the government, approving procedures and sending reports of the operation. When one insane team member is found dead naked on the snow, the environmentalist James Hoffman suspects that sour gases may have been accidentally released in the spot provoking hallucinations and insanity in the group. After a second fatal incident, he convinces Ed to travel with the team to a hospital for examination. However, weird events happen trapping the group in the base.

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Plot Keywords:

oil company | ice road | alaska | hallucination | arctic region | 

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Taglines:

We weren't the first creatures on the planet... and we will not be the last.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official soundtrack site

Country:

USA Iceland

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 2008 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Colapso no Ártico

Filming Locations:

Alaska, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$8,090 (USA) (21 September 2007)

Gross:

$32,921 (USA) (19 October 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Antidote Films (I), Glass Eye Pix, Zik Zak Kvikmyndir

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Artist Brahm Revel illustrated a comic book adaptation of this film.

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Goofs

In scene where Maxwell visits KIK Test well, his gloves are on and off during the scenes.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Marketing Video: Alaska. Vast wilderness of the north. Land of great natural beauty and diversity. This is rugged county, land of black gold. Alaska's North Slope has been producing oil out of Prudhoe Bay since 1968, delivering to refineries and ports 800 miles to the south through the great Trans-Alaskan pipeline. But another northern region known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has remained untapped. Only once have prospectors gained access to this barren landscape. In 1986, KIK ...

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Connections

References Twilight Zone (1959)

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Soundtracks

"No Shame"
Written and Performed by Tom Laverack
Published by 1 Stop Past Your Destination Music (ASCAP) /
Globally Groovy Music (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Tom Laverack

User Reviews

'Wendigo' director scores another hit.

Larry Fessenden is someone to watch. With first Wendigo and now this, he should be on everyone's cinematic radar- having demonstrated a unique voice, a refusal to do things the way others do them and delivering two absolute masterpieces in a row.

Fessenden has a particular eye, a genuinely unnerving sense of pace and an approach to film-making that seems out of it's time. I can't tell if it's the depth of his characters, the measured beats of the screenplay, the great hollows of silence on the soundtrack or the straightforward refusal to write gags into his movies that does it, but it's like he's making movies for smart adults in a genre where such things are rare. And thank god for that, because this world could use some more Larry Fessendens to balance it out.

Briefly, Ron Perlman is a hard-bitten Oil Prospector working in the Arctic Tundra. He has to get the big machines in, so that drilling can begin- but the weather's shot to hell and Company-employed Environmentalist Hoffman won't sign the right papers. And something's out there in the wilderness. Something that drives men mad and may have doomed them all.

No spoilers here- see it 'cold' (if you'll pardon the pun). If you need it to be categorised, then imagine Kubrick's The Shining, crossed with Carpenter's The Thing, mixed up with Fessenden's own Wendigo sauce. It's a brutal, lyrical screenplay, using some fine actors and glorious cinematography- and it'll creep under your skin. Oh, just see it! Maybe that way, he'll make some more...

Steev