ICEFALL
(director: Stefan Ruzowitzky; screenwriters: Steven Isles, George Mahaffrey; cinematographer: Benedict Neueniels; editor: William Paley; music: Deepak Ramapriyan; cast: DaVaughn Nixon (Drake), Will Fletcher (Ellis), Martin Sensmeier (Pen), Cara Jade Myers (AniBayawala), Bashar Ramal (Carl), Frida Gustavsson (Sirena), Oliver Trevena (Dax), Joel Kinnaman (Harlan Fanshaw, poacher), Danny Huston (Rhodes), Trevor Van Uden (Sheriff Raleigh), Graham Greene (Oz, Blackfoot tribal leader); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Addam Bramich, Vladimir Artemenko, Dimo Aleksandrov, Gary Hamilton, Ryan Hamilton, Robert Van Norden; Rebellion Studios, Aura Entertainment, VOD; 2026)
“Middling action B-film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky (“Cold Hell”/”The Counterfeiters”) directs this middling action B-film that has too many uninvolving subplots. It’s written without originality by Steven Isles and George Mahaffrey.
Harlan (Joel Kinnaman) is a former American combat soldier in Afghanistan who lives a solitary life off the land in the Montana wilderness, in Blackfoot territory. He grieves for his Indigenous wife who committed suicide following the death of their infant daughter.
While ice fishing at a frozen lake he finds beneath the ice a black suitcase filled with cash near the wreckage of a small plane that crashed because of bad weather.
Ani (Cara Jade Myers), the Indigenous game warden, takes him for a poacher and approaches to fine him. The pair are suddenly attacked by strangers and act fast to escape by running away. On the run they find out the attackers are terrorists, led by Rhodes (Danny Huston), who stole $20 million from a foreign country’s mob.
By placing tracking devices in the suitcase, the gang find the crash site, but not the suitcase with the money.
Harlan and Ani team-up to try and survive.
Martin Sensmeier plays Pen, an Indigenous gang member, who recently converted to Christianity and opposes the gang’s brutality.
The film is nicely atmospheric but lacks an interesting story.
REVIEWED ON 1/26/2026 GRADE: C+
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