10 Best Movies Set In Alaska, Ranked
By Rob Hunter
Every state has its own histories, landscapes, and stories worth telling, but some lend themselves to more visually stimulating tales than others. There are bland-looking states that shall remain unnamed, and then there are ones that feel intriguing and inviting no matter which way the camera’s pointed. Hawaii is an obvious pick on that count, but Alaska gives it a real run for the top spot. It is an endlessly stunning place to be with natural beauty staring you down from every direction. That beauty can come at a cost, though, as nature can be both unrelenting and unforgiving.
That reality, when coupled with the vast size of the state and a sparse population, leaves it ripe for drama, danger, and stories about isolation both intentional and otherwise. It’s a place where a detective can be driven mad by the lack of night (“Insomnia”), a humorously inappropriate romance can take hold (“The Proposal”), and an amateur hockey team can win big (“Mystery, Alaska”). None of those films landed in our top 10 movies set in Alaska, though, so keep reading to see what titles made the cut.
#9 THE LAST WINTER
A small group of oil company employees work to establish a base in the Arctic National Refuge with plans on drilling for black gold. The earth and nature itself seem to have other ideas.
Comparisons to John Carpenter’s masterpiece, “The Thing,” are inevitable given the location and setup, but these are wholly different beasts. The alien threat in Fessenden’s film comes from within, and it rises in a slower, far from tangible form. The only monster here is humankind’ voracious appetite for environmental destruction, and as the Earth strikes back with madness and paranoia, it serves to highlight our absolute culpability in the climate change that might ultimately be our downfall. Fittingly then, it’s a downer of a film serving as a cautionary tale even as it suggests we’re too late to fix the problem.
Larry Fessenden’s “The Last Winter” wears its eco-horror label loud and proud in the guise of a slow-burn thriller that scratches a very specific genre itch. Cinematographer G. Magni Agustsson takes fantastic advantage of filming locations in Alaska and Iceland to capture the stark beauty of an unforgiving landscape. The cast does great work giving the group a lived-in feel with familiar faces like Ron Perlman, Connie Britton, and James Le Gros as the one who first suspects that Mother Nature is done taking crap from humans. As with “The Thing,” the ending is a bit ambiguous, but we know one thing: A change is needed.
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