January 19, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
Some language in Niitsíʼpowahsin with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Montana, the action film “Icefall” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Native Americans and a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A poacher and a game preserve warden become unlikely allies after the poacher finds $20 million in stolen cash, and they are both hunted by the criminals who are looking for the cash.
Culture Audience: “Icefall” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and subpar action movies that have gritty violence and hokey dialogue.
In the low-quality action flick “Icefall,” a cave-dwelling poacher is hunted by criminals because he found $20 million of their stolen cash. You can easily predict who will live and who will die, long before the movie ends, based on who has unbelievable luck and who makes the stupidest decisions. There are moments of suspense in some of the chase scenes, but most of the other scenes look too fake to be credible.
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, “Icefall” was written by Steve Isles and George Mahaffey. The movie takes place in Montana. “Icefall” was actually filmed in Bulgaria. One of the main characters in “Icefall” is a game preserve warden, who happens to be Native American from the Blackfoot tribe. The movie awkwardly tries to incorporate Blackfoot culture into the movie in a way that looks more forced than organic to the story.
“Icefall” begins by showing the robbery that resulted in the $20 million in cash being stolen. Six thieves invade a pawn shop, where they tie up almost all the employees, and then shoot off the left ear of one of the employees, to force her to tell them the combination to the safe with the cash. After stealing the cash, the thieves lock all the employees in the safe room and blow it up.
Who are these ruthless criminals? You won’t learn much about them during the entire story, except that they work for a mysterious wealthy mogul named Rhodes (played by Danny Huston), who has other people do the dirty work for him unless he feels it’s absolutely necessary to get involved himself. The thieves gather in a hangar-sized warehouse for the next step of the plan: transporting the cash by plane to an unnamed location.
The criminals who are part of this major heist are Drake (played by DeVaughn Nixon), Ellis (played by Will Fletcher), Pen (played by Martin Sensmeier), Carl (played by Bashar Ramal), Sirena (played by Frida Gustavsson) and Dax (played by Oliver Trevena). Dax and Sirena are a couple. Drake is the chief henchman in charge of this team that does the dirty work.
Carl has been tasked with flying the small private plane to transport the cash. He will be flying by himself. It’s the first sign that these thieves aren’t as smart as they think they are because Carl could easily steal all the cash for himself, and there would be nobody on the plane to stop him. At any rate, this possibility won’t become an issue because the plane’s engine malfunctions, causing the plane to crash in a rural area of Red Rock, Montana. Carl dies in the crash.
Five months later, during a bitterly cold and icy winter, longtime poacher Harlan Fanshaw (played by Joel Kinnaman) sets out from the cave where he lives to look for food. Harlan is an Afghanistan War veteran who lives by himself in an isolated area of Red Rock. It’s later revealed in the story why Harlan chose to have this secluded life.
While walking on an ice-covered lake, Harlan finds the body of Carl trapped underneath the ice. When he breaks the ice to retrieve the body, Harlan also sees the suitcase filled with the $20 million cash. It must’ve been a waterproof suitcase because the cash is perfectly preserved. Harlan instinctively knows that this cash is probably stolen. He decides to take the cash back to his cave and waits to see what happens.
But there would be no “Icefall” movie if the inevitable didn’t happen: The thieves come looking for that cash. It’s never explained why it took them five months to figure out to look for the cash in Red Rock, Montana. Black box information on planes can be retrieved a lot sooner than that, but the movie never shows if the plane that crashed had a traceable device. Viewers are supposed to believe that somehow, the criminals found out the general area where the plane crashed and went looking for the cash in the Red Rock area.
Meanwhile, a game preserve warden named Ani Bayawala (played by Cara Jade Myers), who works for Montana’s Rock County, is very familiar with Harlan because they’ve had several run-ins in the past because of his poaching. Ani is a very “by the book” warden who works closely with a county sheriff named Raleigh (played by Trevor Van Uden), who is condescending to Ani. Raleigh is more willing to bend the rules and doesn’t want to alienate tourists that the area depends on for the area’s economy.
Ani is a single mother to an underage son named Tim, who is ill with a fever and has to stay home to recover. A woman named Carol (played by Joyce Grey-Carter), who is from the same Blackfoot tribe, used to take care of Ani when Ani was a child. Carol is looking after Tim while Ani is working. Ani doesn’t have a work partner and usually does patrols by herself.
Ani encounters Harlan on the ice, in an area that is supposed to be off-limits. Harlan says he’s looking for his wife. Ani sees that Harlan has the suitcase full of cash. He tells her that he found the cash, but she doesn’t believe him. She tells Harlan that she has to detain him and take him to the sheriff’s office for an investigation. Ani places Harlan in handcuffs and puts him in the back of her vehicle.
On the way back to the sheriff’s office, Ani stops to help a stranded driver on the ice. But then, all of a sudden, here come the criminals. Drake, Pen, Ellis and Sirena drive up in a Chevy SUV. The stranded driver starts a shootout, which leaves the driver dead and Drake shot in a shoulder.
Ani and Harlan escape in Ani’s patrol car. The suitcase of cash falls in the ice. Ani calls Sheriff Raleigh to report what happened and asks him to send help. The SUV has a flat tire from the shootout, but the criminals replace it with a spare tire. But then, the SUV sinks in the lake when the ice cracks.
Ellis almost dies in the water, but his three cohorts are able to pull him out of the SUV. They call to get help from their colleague Dax, who shows up later with his own car. The rest of the movie is about the criminals trying to find Ani and Harlan. And what about the suitcase full of cash? The criminals try to find that too.
It’s all a cluttered and jumbled mess. Observant viewers will be wondering during the ridiculous chase scenes, “Didn’t Ani call for help from the sheriff’s office a while ago? What’s taking the sheriff so long to send help?” That question is somewhat answered in the movie, but it’s not very plausible.
In between the shootouts and chase scenes, “Icefall” eventually reveals Harlan’s backstory. Someone who knows Harlan well but doesn’t like him is a respected Blackfoot tribe elder named Oz (played by Graham Greene), who has a personal grudge against Harlan, for reasons that are explained in the movie. (Greene died in September 2025. “Icefall” is one of the last movies that he did.)
The acting performances are adequate, but “Icefall” has such a ridiculous plot, these performances can’t help the atrocious screenplay and sloppy directing. Kinnaman and Huston, who are the most well-known members of the cast, are doing more of the same types of characters they’ve done before in so many other movies: Kinnaman is the troubled protagonist with a shady past, while Huston is a scowling villain. The ending of “Icefall” is so corny, it diminishes all the vicious and bloody violence that came before it, making the movie an uneven and unremarkable dud that is easily forgotten.
Aura Entertainment released “Icefall” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on November 4, 2025.
