Cold world: Movies that give us chills

John Carpenter is horror movie royalty, having made suburban life feel terrifying (Halloween) while maximizing isolation as an intensifier for horror. The Thing is about a shapeshifting monster, and it has infiltrated a research station in Antarctica. The cold feels oppressive enough and makes it hard to escape the looming threat of that monster. It’s a remake of The Thing from Another World, which is set in Alaska and doesn’t quite feel as cold. Carpenter moved it to Antarctica for a reason.

Roland Emmerich was, for a while, the go-to guy for blockbuster, two-and-a-half star disaster movies. Sometimes, it would be an alien or a monster, but The Day After Tomorrow turns the weather on humanity. While all sorts of climate events and natural disasters happen in the movie, what stands out the most is the new ice age that takes over New York City.

Paul Walker is forever associated with the  Fast & Furious films, where he had his greatest success. He made other movies, though, like Eight Below. This one came and went, but it tells the true story of a guide at a base in Antarctica trying to save his dogs. Just the title Eight Below makes you feel a chill, and watching it does nothing to alleviate that.

Can an animated film exude coldness? Absolutely! Happy Feet is basically devoid of people, which helps. The character list is full of Antarctica animals, mostly penguins. You associate penguins with cold temperatures, of course, even if you just visit the zoo. Icebergs and penguins bring the chill, while the tap-dancing penguins warm the heart.

John Sturges, a steady director, made one of the chilliest thrillers on record. Famously, Howard Hughes adored Ice Station Zebra. Reportedly, he would call up the Las Vegas TV station he owned to ask it to show the film at his whim, as it was the era before VCRs. It’s a classic cast, featuring the likes of Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown. Something has happened to Ice Station Zebra at the North Pole? What? It’s up to Hudson and his team to find out!

You may know it as the “Liam Neeson fights wolves” movie, although that proved unexpectedly inaccurate. “A plane crashes in the wilderness” starts many a survival story in film. This time around, it’s in Alaska, and there are indeed wolves, even if there is less wolf fighting than you might anticipate.

White Fang is a 1906 novel by Jack London, the foremost chronicler of ice-laden stories of his era. It’s been adapted several times onto the silver screen. The version you will most likely be aware of is the 1991 version. That’s because several adaptations are Italian productions, and you probably weren’t around in 1936. Also, this one has Ethan Hawke in it.

There are movie posters (or VHS covers, for those of you from the Blockbuster Era) that burn into your brain, even if you have not seen the movie. Before we had seen Spies Like Us , we had the image of the poster in our memory, the one with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd on the cover trudging through a barren, snow-covered wasteland decked out in layers of thick clothing. Then, you watch it, and it’s only partially set in the frigid world of the Soviet Union. Also, it’s packed with random cameos and isn’t very good. That movie poster, though!

Santa Claus and a wintery landscape go hand in hand. While it seems like his version of the North Pole has always managed to avoid freezing vibes due to magic, the coldness can still be there. The Polar Express has “Polar” right in the title. There’s a lot of magic in this nightmarish-looking Christmas movie, but also plenty of cold landscapes and winter weather. In the Northern Hemisphere, “Christmas” and “winter” go hand in hand.

Charlie Chaplin sent his Little Tramp character into the Klondike Gold Rush. It’s straightforward, like much of Chaplin’s early work, but he was able to deliver the goods. The Gold Rush is one of Chaplin’s iconic films. This is the one where the Little Tramp cooks and eats his shoe.

Well, another plane has crashed in the Alaskan wilderness. The Grey didn’t invent that. The Edge is noted for being written by David Mamet and for starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. As the two men fight with one another, they are being stalked by a grizzly bear, and the bear delivers in a way the wolves of The Grey do not.

Fargo is a great movie. It’s packed with great performances, including Frances McDormand’s Oscar-winning turn. The story is gripping, funny, gory, and taut. Also? It feels as cold as any movie. The landscape is laden with snow. Everybody is bundled up and looks freezing. That’s part of what makes Fargo such an excellent noir.

In 1925, diphtheria serum was delivered to Nome across perilous territory for over 650 miles. It saved the lives of numerous children. Now, 150 or so sled dogs were part of that trek, but Balto, a real dog, became the face of the serum run. That led to the 1995 animated film Balto , which, um, gives the dog an internal life, as well as the voice of Kevin Bacon.

We have two “A plane crashes in Alaska” movies and two movies based on Jack London novels. It’s the nature of the realm of cold-tinged cinema. Now, the 2020 version of this story about a dog and an outdoorsman traveling the Yukon, does feature a CGI dog that looks bananas. It also features Harrison Ford. If you can get past the way the dog looks, there’s some real quality here.

Well, how many movies (spoiler alert) end with the main character effectively frozen to death? That’s The Shining for you. Sure, inside the Overlook Hotel, things are warm enough, even if you have to deal with ghosts and a man rapidly losing his sanity. Outside, though, it’s bitterly cold. Stephen King may hate Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his novel, but he’s in the minority.

In 1823, frontiersman and trapper Hugh Glass was mauled by a bear in the Dakotas one winter. His traveling party leaves him for dead, but Glass survives. He then made his way hundreds of miles to a fort. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu heard that story and thought, “Ah, that’s perfect for my brand of miserablist filmmaking!” However, as much of a chore as Inarritu makes of Glass’ story in The Revenant, it won Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar, and it does belong on a list of the coldest movies.

David Lean directed the Best Picture-winning epic Lawrence of Arabia, which makes you feel the heat and expanse of the desert. A few years later, Lean brought us the epic Doctor Zhivago, which is set in Russia during the revolution and World War I. Lean makes you feel the scope of the story, but also the harshness of winter in Russia. The film is also considered a classic, and it was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning five of them, though not Best Picture.

It’s called Frozen. One of the main characters is a snowman. Frozen was a phenomenon, and “Let It Go” is in the mix for the most iconic Disney song. It’s based on a story called The Snow Queen, so, you know, the wintery bona fides are there, and that’s also true in the (less good) sequel.

Granted, only one section of the first Star Wars sequel lives up to the idea of cold settings for films, but it’s maybe the most famous cold setting in movies. We speak, of course, of the ice planet Hoth. Has any location ever seemed colder? Tauntauns are sliced open to be slept in for warmth! Yeah, George Lucas and company helped solidify the idea that “other planets have a single climate,” but that’s okay. We got Hoth out of the equation.

It feels fitting to end with Ice Age. It’s set during, you know, an ice age. The planet is plastered with ice and snow. Wooly mammoths are hanging out. Eventually, the world of Ice Age would start dealing with the world warming up, but that wasn’t the case in the first one. During the last ice age, the whole planet was basically like Antarctica. Take that, John Carpenter!