10 Best Frosty Action-Thrillers Like The Ice Road | ScreenRant
After 10 long weeks, Liam Neeson's newest action-thriller The Ice Road is still going strong on Netflix. While the film begins with a simple search and rescue mission, the story ultimately veers into a run-of-the-mill revenge tale in which an ice road trucker named Mike (Neeson) brings down a greedy mining corporation.
In addition to the typical Neeson action extravaganza, the film bears a distinction for its frigid and frosty setting, much of which takes place on the icy roads of Manitoba, Canada. While the general premise may differ slightly, the film joins a long tradition of action-thrillers set in similar chilly surroundings.
10 Deadfall (2012) - Stream On Hoopla
Deadfall is an intense action-thriller starring Eric Bana as Addison, a small-time crook dashing through a blizzard on Thanksgiving after a brazen casino heist with his sister Liza (Olivia Wilde) goes awry. With a zippy tempo, freezing atmosphere, and a slew of unpredictable twists and turns, fans of The Ice Road should take the plunge.
In addition to solid performances, the crazy snowmobile chases, harrowing hostage situations, shotgun shootouts, and plenty of murder make Deadfall a sneaky good snowbound experience.
9 The Grey (2011) - Stream On Amazon Prime Video
Perfect to play along with The Ice Road as a Liam Neeson action movie double feature, The Grey is a chilling survival tale full of intense action and hair-raising thrills. Liam plays Ottway, one of several oil riggers who survives an airplane crash in the snow, only to be hunted by ravenous wolves.
While the plot has little to do with The Ice Road, both films star Neeson in a frozen setting that helps and hinders his character in unexpected ways. When Ottway's associates begin dying one by one (as in The Ice Road), he must summon the strength and resolve to take on the wolfpack alone and defeat them in a violent and visceral fashion.
8 In Order Of Disappearance (2014) - Stream On Fubo TV
Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard plays Nils Dickman, a modest snow-plow driver who goes on a ballistic revenge mission after his son is killed by drug lords, in the 2014 action-thriller In Order of Disappearance. The film was remade with Liam Neeson as Cold Pursuit in 2019.
The similar winter setting and revenge subplot aside, what's fascinating about Nils is how he begins as a model human being up for Citizen of the Year, only to snap and go on a kill-crazy rampage to avenge his son's senseless death.
7 Cliffhanger (1993) - Stream ON HBO Max
While rock climbing and ice-road trucking are vastly different, the snow setting and central premise of Cliffhanger and The Ice Road share a lot more in common than first meets the eye. Both frigid action-thrillers involve botched attempts to steal a large sum of money, and both schemes are also foiled by a one-man wrecking crew.
In Cliffhanger, Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) is a daring rock climber who becomes inadvertently involved in an airplane heist of $225 million stolen from the U.S. Treasury. Gabe returns to teach novice climbers the ropes, only to learn they are secret operatives attempting to locate the hidden cash.
6 Hanna (2011) - Stream On Peacock/Amazon Prime Video
If Run All Night blended with The Ice Road and Cold Pursuit, the resulting film might resemble Hanna. The Joe Wright action-thriller stars Saoirse Ronan in the title role as an adolescent assassin groomed to be the best of her profession.
When Hanna is given an assignment of a lifetime that sends her on a journey through frosty Europe, she becomes targeted by a merciless CIA operative named Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). Like The Ice Road, the snowbound action-thriller focuses on a dogged one-person mission against the most unlikely of odds.
5 The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - Stream On Amazon Prime Video
Roland Emmerich's epic spectacle (which is typical of his directing style) The Day After Tomorrow is a disaster film, a survival thriller, and a jam-packed action film all rolled into one. The film imagines a cataclysmic environmental disaster that thrusts the planet into 21st-century Ice Age. Like The Ice Road, the core of the story entails a daring rescue mission.
The crux of the drama concerns Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a climate scientist who must race along the eastern seaboard to save his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his friends in New York before a deadly storm hits. The eye-popping marvels of the explosive action scenes are second to none.
4 Snowpiercer (2013) - Stream On Netflix
Bong Joon Ho's enthralling sci-fi action-thriller Snowpiercer imagines a future planet ravaged by climate change to the point it becomes a frozen rock. The surviving population is sectioned off by social stature on a massive train that circles the globe for nearly two decades.
Aside from the relentless locomotion through inclement weather aspect, Snowpiercer is sure to appeal to The Ice Road fans for the gallant, physically taxing rescue mission Curtis (Chris Evans) makes to save young Timmy (Marcanthonee Reis) in the end, much like Mike does with his brother.
3 Runaway Train (1985) - Stream On Hulu
Runaway Train is an exhilarating action-thriller about two unfriendly convicts who escape prison and hop a train traveling through the snowy Alaska mountains. When Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts) learn the conductor has died of a heart attack, they realize the train is picking up speed with nobody at the wheel.
With first-rate thrills and vivid fight sequences, the drama escalates when the two men find a worker named Sara (Rebecca De Mornay) trapped on the train while being pursued by the prison warden.
2 Wind River (2017) - Stream On Amazon Prime Video
Although Wind River is billed as a murder mystery, the incendiary carnage depicted in the climactic shootout sequence alone is worthy of hardcore action-film status.
The story follows Corey Lambert (Jeremy Renner in one of his most acclaimed roles), a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent investigating the murder of a young Native American on a snowy reservation in Wyoming. In addition to the compelling action and top-tier performances, the film raises the important subject of the underreported murders of Native American women in the U.S.
1 Misery (1990) - Stream On Hulu
Both Misery and The Ice Road begin as innocent rescue films that devolve into hyper-violent thrillers. In the former, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) rescues author Paul Sheldon (James Caan in one of his best movies) from a snowy car accident. In the latter, Mike is on a mission to rescue 26 trapped miners.
Based on the beloved Stephen King novel, Misery increases the thrills and chills when Annie reveals her obsession with Paul's writing and the cabin-feverish violence she resorts to in making him write his next book.
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