Antarctica - Trapped in the ice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Antarctica - Trapped in the ice
Original title Eight Below
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 120 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
JMK 6
Rod
Director Frank Marshall
script David DiGilio
production Patrick Crowley ,
David Hoberman
music Mark Isham
camera Don Burgess
cut Christopher Rouse
occupation

Antarctica - Captured in the ice (Original title: Eight Below ) is an American adventure film directed by Frank Marshall from 2006 . The film is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista International and was released in Germany on August 17, 2006 without age restriction .

action

The summer season at the research stations in Antarctica is coming to an end and the personnel are about to be flown out. The pilot Katie - unflatteringly referred to as "Crazy Katie" - brings an unexpected guest, UCLA professor Dr. Davis McClaren, who wants to go to Mount Melbourne to look for a meteorite from Mercury. The sled dog handler Jerry Shepard speaks out against letting the professor pull the snowmobiles because he thinks the pack ice is too thin for this time of the year. He decides to trust his sled dog team.

Shepard and Professor McClaren make it to Mount Melbourne, but are called back to the base after their arrival because a storm is approaching. The professor asks for half a day, which is also granted to him. When the meteorite is found, they hurry back to camp. During a short break, the professor slides over an abyss and lands on the thin ice, which collapses under his weight. Shepard can encourage his lead dog Maya to bring the professor a rope that the dogs can use to pull him out of the ice water.

In the struggle with hypothermia and frostbite close to the whiteout , it is thanks to the dogs' perseverance and good sense of navigation that Shepard and the professor come back to base. The station manager immediately decides to fly the entire crew out, which is a problem - there is not enough space on the plane for the dogs. Since Katie promises to come back and get the dogs, Shepard decides to tie the dogs so they don't run away. When she arrived at the main headquarters, Katie was no longer allowed to take off for the return flight due to the storm, and the deployment of the winter teams was completely canceled. The dogs could therefore not be picked up until the next arctic spring in September - which would mean certain death because of the tethering.

Shepard does not want to accept this and goes to several places, all of which put him off. After months of mourning for his dogs, he finally decides to go to New Zealand on his own in order to try to get to Antarctica from there. He visits Professor McClaren again to tell him about his business, which he does not want to help him.

The dogs meanwhile fight their way through the Antarctic winter alone for months - except for the husky Old Jack, who was unable to detach himself from the chain, all animals were able to tear himself away. Before the hungry animals leave the station in search of food, Maya the lead dog returns to Old Jack to say goodbye. On the way, the animals hunt together and share what little food they can find. Even when one of the dogs is fatally injured, the animals stay with him until the end.

The turning point in the story comes when McClaren sees a picture of his son who painted the eight sled dogs. Under the picture it says: "My hero is ... THE DOGS THAT SAVED MY DADDY." The professor then realizes the size of his ingratitude and uses the remaining research funds to finance a rescue mission.

Professor McClaren travels after Shepard with the cartographer Charlie Cooper and Katie. With the help of a snow vehicle they can fight their way to the station, where Shepard finds his dog Old Jack tied to a chain and dead in the snow. Disappointed, he thinks that none of his dogs have managed to break away from the chain, but then quickly realizes that the other places on the chain are empty. Shortly thereafter, he discovers five (of the original eight) dogs that survived and have returned to the station. Overjoyed that at least some animals have made it, the crew wants to leave, but immediately before they leave, one of the five huskies guides them to the place where the sixth husky, Maya, the lead dog, who is now also injured, is weakened. Maya had been bitten badly by a leopard seal, but was fed by her pack afterwards. In the final scene, Shepard carries Maya, the sixth surviving husky, to the snowmobile.

The story ends with a romantic happy ending as Jerry and Katie, who had an unsuccessful relationship a few years ago, find each other again.

background

Turn

  • The failed Japanese expedition of 1958 inspired the movie Taro and Jiro in Antarctica . Antarctica - Trapped in Ice is a fictional reinterpretation of the true events of 1958.
  • The film was shot in Smithers, British Columbia, Canada .
  • In the United States, the film was rated PG due to the scene in which the leopard seal leaps out of the dead killer whale. ("Parental Guidance Suggested": guidance / supervision of an adult recommended)
  • The snow chain vehicle (a Swedish Hägglund Bandvagn 206 ) that the crew borrows from the Italians is called Mare Biscotto , which according to producer Frank Marshall translates as Seabiscuit . This was one of his successful films.
  • As of August 27, 2006, the $ 40 million film had grossed $ 81.6 million in the United States and approximately $ 38.8 million in other countries.

Sled dogs

  • In the events of 1958, 15 Sakhalin huskies were involved, of which only 2 survived. In Antarctica - Trapped in Ice , only eight dogs were used - two Alaskan Malamutes (Buck and Shadow) along with six Siberian huskies , six of which survived. As additional dogs were used for each actor's dog to perform stunts and pull sleds, a total of 32 dogs were used to represent the eight dog characters in the film.
  • The dogs Dewey and Truman are named after the 1948 US presidential candidates Thomas E. Dewey and Harry S. Truman .
  • Sled dogs have not been used in Antarctica since 1994 . However, the film is set in 1993.

criticism

The reviews were mixed. Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times liked the film and wrote: “ Antarctica - Trapped in the ice is convincing as an impressive story.” (“ Eight Below succeeds as an effective story.”) The film also convinced the BBC , but the length was longer objected. Reel.com was positive: "The movie succeeds in involving the viewer in their incredible adventure." ("The movie succeeds at drawing you into their incredible adventure")

The reviewer of the San Francisco Chronicle, however, disliked the film and said: "The film is far too long and too intense for children, although it is equipped with a lot of dialogue and a plot that is too youthful for the adult audience." The movie is overly long and much too intense for small children, yet it's filled with dialogue and plot turns that are too juvenile to thrill adult audiences. ")

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Antarctica - Trapped in the Ice . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2006 (PDF; test number: 105 446 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Antarctica - Trapped in the ice . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ More trivia in the IMDb
  4. ↑ Info on boxofficemojo.com
  5. ↑ Report on washingtonpost.com
  6. ↑ Info on imdb.com
  7. ↑ Review of the Chicago Sun-Times on imdb.com
  8. ↑ BBC review
  9. ↑ Review from reel.com
  10. ↑ Review of the San Francisco Chronicle on sfgate.com