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If you enjoyed the reality series “Ice Road Truckers” but thought it could use some frantic gunfire, mechanical sabotages, and intentional avalanches to heighten the degree of difficulty, you’re in luck. Now there’s “The Ice Road,” but it’s a thoroughly middling Liam Neeson actioner that’s not nearly as exciting as the above description makes it sound.

You may be wondering, as I did: “Two Liam Neeson movies in under six months? In this economy?” Yes, the grizzled star is indeed back after January’s “ The Marksman .” Both require him to brandish his particular set of skills to rescue folks in danger and vanquish bad guys, but the skills aren’t nearly so sophisticated or complex anymore, and neither film comes close to the visceral thrills of a “ Taken ” or “ The Grey .”

It’s been a long time since peak Liam Neesoning, and at this point, his gruff, imposing presence can only do so much to make a movie watchable. Despite its many perils, both natural and human, “The Ice Road” is surprisingly dull. It’s definitely not as crazy as it should have been, given the setting and the stakes. And while writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh establishes a foreboding tone with impressive, widescreen vistas of unforgiving, snowy expanses, his action sequences remain unexceptional.

Hensleigh begins with an explosion at a remote diamond mine in far northern Manitoba, Canada, which traps about two dozen men inside. While they bicker about methane levels and tap out messages on pipes to the outside world, equipment to free them slowly makes its way in their direction. Neeson’s Mike McCann is part of a three-truck convoy that must trek across treacherous ice roads—plowed pathways carved across massive frozen lakes—to reach their eventual destination. In the passenger seat is Mike’s younger brother, Gurty ( Marcus Thomas ), a mechanic and Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD and aphasia. Also along for the journey are Laurence Fishburne ’s Jim Goldenrod, the longtime trucker who organized this mission, and Amber Midthunder ’s Tantoo, a troublemaking Native woman who’s also a daring driver. (Coincidentally, her brother is among the men trapped in the mine, so This Time, It’s Personal.) Tagging along is a city slicker corporate actuary who may have nefarious intent ( Benjamin Walker , the only one who recognizes this B-movie material for what it is).

Tantoo helpfully lays out the tricky balancing act the truckers must strike in trying to traverse this hazardous stretch—in April, of all months. They can’t go too slow or too fast as they carry their heavy gear. They must look out for pressure waves ahead of them and cracks behind them, obstacles which provide a couple of legitimately tense moments here. But while that exposition is crucial, too often characters stand around explaining things to each other in “The Ice Road.” And yet, they remain barely developed and unengaging. Mike yelling “Kiss my Irish ass!” to a doctor trying to prescribe opioids to his brother is a given, not a revelation. Hensleigh bounces back and forth between the drivers and the miners, but the people we’re supposed to care about as they gasp for breath are essentially interchangeable, and it’s hard to tell who’s who since it’s so dark in there.

Whatever comes their way on this arduous adventure, Neeson remains the scowling straight man. He’s afforded few opportunities to flash any kind of charisma or menace, although he does get to throw some punches by the end. And while we understand work is scarce for his character because he’s consumed with the challenges of caring for his brother, it’s hard to imagine how he ended up in this potentially deadly, pain-in-the-ass job in the first place.

And somewhere, amid the cracking of bullets and the generically insistent score, there’s a message about corporate greed and the exploitation of Native land. But you’ll probably want to keep on truckin’. 

Now available on Netflix.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Ice Road (2021)

Rated PG-13 for strong language and sequences of action and violence.

108 minutes

Liam Neeson as Mike

Laurence Fishburne as Goldenrod

Holt McCallany as René Lampard

Matt McCoy as George Sickle

Martin Sensmeier as Cody

Benjamin Walker as Varnay

• Jonathan Hensleigh

Cinematographer

• Douglas Crise

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The Ice Road

The movie overall was great, the acting is lovable, the explosions however looks like from 90's but that doesn't matter because there were only 2 of them, 109 minutes seemes short for me, the ending made me cry twice, but overall 7.5/10 I recommend watching it in cinema because you will see people crying, and a lot of excitement.

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Review: The Ice Road

Simon Morris

Generally, I try and avoid reading any reports of a movie before going in, but the general reaction to The Ice Road was pretty hard to miss. “Not very impressive” pretty much sums it up.

But at first, I couldn’t see what the problem was. The opening was certainly arresting enough.

Photo: Netflix

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The Ice Road, we’re told, is one of the most dangerous journeys on Earth. Way up in the frozen north of Canada, the only way to get equipment where it’s needed is over frozen-solid lakes. At least, you hope they’re frozen-solid.

So all a movie called The Ice Road has to do, you’d think, is dramatize “where it’s needed”. In this case it’s a cave-in at a diamond mine in Manitoba.  

The good news is there’s a huge gizmo you can use to rescue the trapped miners.  The bad news is it needs to be hauled – you’ve guessed it – along the Ice Road.

Unfortunately, all the reliable drivers are busy elsewhere.  So, the only ones available to trucking boss Laurence Fishburne are colourful renegades like Mike – Liam Neeson – and his autistic brother Gurty.  

The third truck is allocated to a woman - First Nation trucker Tantoo, who actually has to be sprung from jail before she can take the wheel. 

Tantoo is played by an actress with my favourite name this week - Amber Midthunder.

As the three trucks head north over the Ice Road, the prospect of the movie delivering looks good. It is, after all, an Arctic twist on that French suspense classic Wages of fear.

In that film, you may remember, the trucks are carrying dangerously volatile explosives over rocky terrain.  Here, it’s the road itself providing the danger.

The ice in the Ice Road has worn perilously thin, thanks to global warming, and the trucks’ heavy loads will be lucky to survive at all, let along get there in time.

So, dangerous enough, surely? But the producers disagree.

What, they wonder, if in addition the trucks have also been booby-trapped by bad guys?

This seems to be adding more plot than you need. We’ve already got a ticking clock down in the mine where Tantoo’s brother is among the trapped miners.

And it’s patently clear that of the three gigantic trucks rumbling to their rescue, not all of them are going to make it over the fast-cracking ice.

I mean, in some of the most inhospitable territory on the planet, do we also need villainous saboteurs, hitmen on snow-mobiles and endless polar punch-ups?

OK, the stunt-work on The Ice Road is pretty spectacular. And if you’re unfamiliar with how to operate big rigs in a blizzard, there are a few surprises.  

Did you know how to right a truck that’s capsized on the ice, for instance? Me neither.

But long before the end, you start to suspect the enthusiastic stunt crew has taken over the shoot, and the rest of the production are too cold to argue. Do you want to see another thing a truck can do in the snow?   Sure, go ahead, whatever…

In the end the Ice Road starts to turn into a road to nowhere, I’m afraid.

• The Ice Road

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‘The Ice Road’ Review: Liam Neeson Steers Netflix’s Frozen ‘Wages of Fear’ Homage

David ehrlich.

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Liam Neeson ’s unexpected yet remarkably durable second act as a grizzled action star isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, and each one of his modest hits makes it that much easier to imagine the 69-year-old actor will be able to keep this up for many years to come. His secret? Efficiency. If Neeson broke into the world of mid-budget, low-rent beat-em-ups as a gangly brawler who was ready to go anywhere and fight anyone in order to rescue his daughter, his subsequent contributions to the genre were a lot more sedentary.

Movies like “Non-Stop” and “Run All Night” tried to hide that fact behind their titles — even “The Commuter” promised a greater degree of movement than it ultimately delivered — but Neeson’s more recent efforts have stopped trying to disguise that skewed ratio between intensity and exertion. In “Cold Pursuit,” he sparked a war that allowed him to watch much of the carnage from afar. In “The Marksman,” he spent most of the movie’s action sequences lying on his stomach.

That streak would seem to continue in Netflix ’s “The Ice Road,” a frosty “Wages of Fear” riff in which Neeson plays a truck driver whose entire job is to just sit in one place for almost two straight days as he races a big rig down a brittle path that might crack open at any moment. But if this mildly refreshing mid-June spectacle is as thin and straightforward as the terrain that it covers — forgettable in a way that makes you feel like it’s melting while you watch it, and never as slick an action vehicle as its premise might suggest — it still manages to offer a few mild twists before the journey is over.

There’s a major character reveal, a half-hearted takedown of corporate greed, and even a light mea culpa about racial stereotypes (a recurring motif in Neeson’s recent work, which can be read as part of the Clint Eastwood archetype he’s inherited and/or a more personal form of apology). But the most satisfying of the surprises this broadly predictable movie has in store is also the simplest: Neeson eventually gets out of his truck (!) and kicks some ass.

Written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh (a studio writer who’s previously stepped behind the camera for the likes of “Kill the Irishman” and “The Punisher”), “The Ice Road” doesn’t tire itself out by concealing its obvious debt to other, better movies; it’s all too easy to imagine Hensleigh walking into a boardroom at Netflix HQ, lighting a cigar, and rhetorically asking: “What if ‘ Sorcerer ,’ but cold?” while some executive slammed their fist on the money button. Be that as it may, the film is at its best when sticking to familiar routes, and tends to lose momentum whenever it sacrifices in-the-moment suspense for a generalized sense of urgency.

The story begins deep inside a remote northern Canadian diamond mine, which is pretty much the last place on Earth you want to be in the first scene of an action-thriller. Holt McCallany is wearing a silly wig and a pair of glasses — that’s good. One of the miners observes that the methane sensor is malfunctioning — that’s bad. The extremely fake-looking explosion that rocks the mine when someone hits a methane pocket two seconds later is even worse. Eight miners are dead and 24 are trapped underground with only 30 hours of breathable oxygen between them.

Enter: the ice truckers! Neeson plays Mike McCann, the kind of character who says “I don’t have a lot of tire left on my treads” with such weary conviction that it doesn’t really matter how flat the rest of the script is. Mike hasn’t done a lot of jobs over the last decade or so because he’s spent most of that time looking after his mechanic brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas), an Iraq War vet plagued by PTSD-related aphasia. Mike is ready to dump Gurty in a facility, but not quite ready enough to leave him there. Either way, he could use some money, and with most of his fellow truckers scattered to the four winds during the off-season, local contractor Jim Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne) doesn’t have any choice but to hire the McCann brothers to drive one of the three color-coded 65,000 lb. big rigs that will haul rescue equipment up to Manitoba.

The second truck in the caravan will be steered by a twentysomething indigenous girl with a chip on her shoulder (the majorly charismatic Amber Midthunder as Tantoo), while the third will be handled by Jim himself. If anyone dies along the way, their cut of the six-figure payout will be split among the survivors, and the mining company insists that an insurance guy named Varnay come along to keep score (he’s played by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter himself, Benjamin Walker). It’s April, the sun is shining, and these guys need to get at least one 30-ton wellhead up to the Great White North.

The first and most frustrating problem that Hensleigh encounters is that no one in the caravan is carrying nitroglycerine or anything else that might explode at the slightest bump. The ice roads make for truly spectacular scenery — the location shooting is a big plus whenever the vistas aren’t tainted by globs of bad CG — but watching people drive in a straight line just isn’t all that compelling. You know that at least one of the trucks is going to fall through the ice at some point, and it really couldn’t be easier to predict who will live to see the closing credits (even if there’s some intrigue as to how and why certain people meet their maker), so Hensleigh does his best to get ahead of the game.

None of what follows is as captivating as the premise itself, or the ominous sight of pressure waves rippling under the surface of the ice before things go haywire, but Hensleigh is still able to squeeze a few drops of fun out of the situation as it falls apart. One harried scene forces Mike and his pals to outrace a crack in the ice sheet while two of their trucks are tethered together; another… well, at least that scene where the trucks are tethered together is pretty cool.

The dramatic tension isn’t quite as sturdy. Even if Mike were shown to be an aggressive racist (he isn’t), the speed at which he accuses Tantoo of sabotage would be hard to swallow during such an all-hands-on-deck situation; meanwhile, her distaste for white people and what they’ve done to her native land is mostly played for laughs despite the fact that she has more at stake in this mission than anyone. The “Of Mice and Men” dynamic Hensleigh is angling for between Mike and Gurty might have been an effective choice in a movie that spared more time for it, but “The Ice Road” is so afraid of collapsing under its own thin surface that it spreads out its weight as wide as it can. That means frequent cut-aways to the trapped miners as they grow increasingly desperate, and also to a subplot involving the cartoonishly evil mining executives who refuse to let a few dead employees affect their bottom line.

Hensleigh can’t afford to heat up any real suspense without the whole movie falling apart under his feet, which is mighty unfortunate considering how much potential the ice roads have as the setting for a heart-in-your-throat adventure. Tantoo explains that the trucks can’t go too fast or too slow because anything other than a happy medium might disrupt the pressure, but “The Ice Road” doesn’t share a trucker’s discipline, and it speeds up and up and up until it bleeds into a different, more conventional action sub-genre altogether.

Still, it begrudgingly must be admitted that the simple pleasures of the movie’s second half are satisfying enough to remind you why Neeson’s star has never shined brighter than it does in his twilight years, and why he’s probably got enough spare tires in his trunk to keep on trucking in forgettable, relatively old-school programmers like this one for another decade to come. After more than 100 minutes of janky special effects, watching this borderline septuagenarian beat the living shit out of some bad guys like it’s 2008 all over again seems like the most natural thing in the world.

“The Ice Road” is now streaming on Netflix.

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The Ice Road Review

The Ice Road - Review

The driven snow..

The Ice Road premieres Friday, June 25 on Netflix.

Liam Neeson's latest, a modestly exciting disaster flick about a treacherous trek through Canadian tundra, is a Netflix-only deal that fires on partial cylinders. At times marred by subpar CGI, The Ice Road is a by-the-numbers thriller that exists nicely as empty calories, briefly formidable but ultimately forgettable.

Assembled algorithmically, and dispensed derivatively, there's nothing truly shiny about The Ice Road. In another life, this film would have taken a straight-to-Redbox route, providing a cool-headed compromise for those unable to decide on what to watch on a given Friday night. The grotty effects are ia curious layer here; there are parts of The Ice Road that work well because of -- you guessed it -- the ice road. Whenever the film can convince you that it's actually employing practical efforts to showcase the dangers, it's instantly better. When you believe the characters are in the midst of the elements, and trickily traversing the harsh climate and rickety off-season ice, there's a sheen of suspense. But then horrid-looking explosions, ice cracks, and avalanches zip you out of the tension pretty quickly and undermine a lot of the action.

After a diamond mine in remote Manitoba experiences a tunnel collapse, three truck drivers are tasked with hauling wellheads (three identical ones to ensure that at least one makes it) over thinning April ice to rescue the trapped miners. The clock is ticking and they're going to hit every obstacle available. Because little do these emergency truckers know but the mining company has employed devious assassins (lol) to stop them. Killers who can only take out our heroes in ways that'll look like accidents , mind you. Hitmen employed by those in charge because they need to cover up the fact that the company took shortcuts and inadvertently caused the cave-in. So The Ice Road has smushed together a disaster movie with a crime story in a manner akin to 1993's Cliffhanger, but somehow here the parts just don't quite fit and the movie feels a little dumber because of it.

Jonathan Hensleigh (writer of Die Hard with a Vengeance and Armageddon) directs the adventure earnestly, from his own script that offers up few surprises. Any pertinent information about methane, mining, trucking, ice roads, and more get exposition'd to heck, and then all that information comes back in some fashion, usually weaponized against the villains. The baddies themselves are unintentionally comical, and the mid-point twist of the movie is too easy to spot ahead of time. Occasionally though, The Ice Road is able to pile up, and pile on, enough challenges and problems for our heroes that it can suck you into its frosty drama.

Neeson's character, Mike, is a gritty elder who cares for his veteran brother (Marcus Thomas) whose combat injuries have caused him to have aphasia. Bouncing from job to job, like a modern era George and Lennie, the siblings have been ostracized from legit trucking gigs. Neeson basically does his thing here, which is to say he's a gruff hard-ass with "someone to care about," while the film itself sort of cheats at the end and offers up a disturbing solution for their challenges.

Legion's Amber Midthunder plays the most interesting character of the batch, nicely sprucing up the supporting players as Tantoo, a no-nonsense indigenous driver who has a police record due to protesting. Tantoo allows this antiquated actioner to feel a bit more youthful while also getting in, and spreading out the information dump, which is divided up between her, Neeson, and Laurence Fishburne's dispatcher.

There's nothing dreadful about The Ice Road (aside from some CGI shots), just formulaic elements that make you realize there are better thrillers out there involving snow. Or trucks. Or Liam Neeson. Honestly, and it's more darkly comedic, you'd do better with 2019's Cold Pursuit .

The Verdict

The Ice Road, at best, is a callback to past thrillers that have already used many of the beats and twists here and, if nothing else, it nestles in nicely with the rest of Liam Neeson's late-stage action flicks. When the obstacles pile up, the ticking clock element of the story certainly adds tension but overall things play out rather predictably and tediously.

The Ice Road

The ice road review.

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The ice road, common sense media reviewers.

Thrilling action movie has some violence, swearing.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Family is important. Teamwork.

Gurty struggles with aphasia and PTSD after sustai

Action movie violence throughout. One of the char

Language throughout, including "f--k." Also: "bull

Executives drink alcohol in the office in one scen

Parents need to know that The Ice Road is an action movie in which Liam Neeson plays a truck driver who must embark on a perilous journey to rescue miners trapped in northern Canada. Expect peril and violence throughout, including vehicle chases, fighting with guns, punches, and kicks, and some blood. A…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Gurty struggles with aphasia and PTSD after sustaining a brain injury during the Iraq War but is capable of fast repairs of semi-trucks and puts his life on the line to save his brother and Tantoo. Mike defends Gurty from those who call him a "retard" -- even if it means losing his job. Tantoo is a strong female Native American lead character, defying many media stereotypes of both Native Americans and women.

Violence & Scariness

Action movie violence throughout. One of the characters gets towline wrapped around their leg, breaking it before they sink into ice, drown, and die. A methane explosion in a mine kills and injures several miners -- the survivors are shown struggling to stay alive as some advocate for "triage" by killing those who are injured. The explosion knocks a construction truck off of a cliff. After an accident, one of the characters is stabbed in the chest by a tree branch -- some blood. Fighting with guns, punches, kicks. Characters choked to death. Vehicle chases, reckless driving.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language throughout, including "f--k." Also: "bulls--t," "s--t," "s--tcanned," "pr--k," "a--hole," "goddammit," "son of a bitch." Truckers call a character "retard" twice.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Executives drink alcohol in the office in one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Ice Road is an action movie in which Liam Neeson plays a truck driver who must embark on a perilous journey to rescue miners trapped in northern Canada. Expect peril and violence throughout, including vehicle chases, fighting with guns, punches, and kicks, and some blood. A towline gets wrapped around one character's leg, breaking the leg before the person is pulled into icy water, where they drown and die. After a vehicle loses control, another character is impaled by a tree branch, with some blood. Truck drivers bully the lead character's brother, who suffers from aphasia and PTSD, calling him a "retard"; the lead character takes out the ringleader with one punch. The brother proves his ability in other ways time and time again as an excellent semi-truck mechanic who's able to make life-or-death fixes on the fly. The female lead is a strong Native American character who defies media stereotypes of both Native Americans and women. Some drinking; swearing includes "f--k," "s--t," and more. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 3 parent reviews

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Intense, good for 11+, what's the story.

In THE ICE ROAD, Mike ( Liam Neeson ) is a truck driver who is once again between jobs after defending his mechanic brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas), an Iraq veteran who struggles with PTSD and aphasia, from bullies. Meanwhile, due north and roughly 400 miles below the Arctic Circle, one of the Katka Diamond Mine tunnels has exploded, leaving several miners trapped and struggling to stay alive. It's also April, and most of the men who are "Ice Truckers" are either spending their hard-earned winter money in sunnier climes, or else don't want to risk driving across ice that's likely to crack and open up, which is why many truckers consider these drives to be "suicide missions." Unwilling to leave Gurty in a VA Hospital when he sees that the doctors only want to keep him drugged and numb, Mike sees the alert asking for ice truckers willing to deliver the supplies needed to rescue the miners. He meets with Jim ( Laurence Fishburne ), another ice trucker working for the mining company who wants to rescue his friends, and soon Mike and Gurty are hired to join the mission. They're joined by Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), a skilled truck driver when she isn't in jail protesting White encroachment on Native American lands, whose brother Cody is one of the miners. They're also joined by Varnay (Benjamin Walker), a seemingly straitlaced actuary for the company. In three semitrucks each carrying the same cargo needed to rescue the miners, these five begin the journey north. Soon, they learn that not only are the roads dangerous, but there's also a conspiracy at work -- one involving the executives of the mine. Somehow, Mike and the others must find a way to get to the mine before the miners die from lack of oxygen, and they must also reveal the conspiracy behind the explosion that trapped them in the first place.

Is It Any Good?

This edge-of your-seat action tale is taut and suspenseful from beginning to end. In The Ice Road , Liam Neeson, in what may be his last action movie, plays Mike McCann, a North Dakota trucker who bounces from job to job primarily because he's trying to keep his brother Gurty from getting into trouble. Desperate for work and wanting to keep Gurty out of a VA Hospital where he'll be numb and drugged by uncaring doctors, Mike decides to apply for a job other truckers consider to be a "suicide mission" -- a delivery of needed supplies to trapped miners that requires driving along melting "ice roads" in April. From the moment the trucks leave to make the journey north to the diamond mine, the action is unrelenting, with some enjoyable (if not altogether unsurprising) plot twists along the way.

While The Ice Road has its fair share of action movie conventions, there's as much of a reliance on the story as on the action sequences to sustain audience interest. We know what's at stake for these characters, and the dialogue is nowhere near as groan-worthy as, for instance, the entire Fast and Furious franchise. While Neeson delivers a fantastic performance, the other leads are also solid throughout, and we also learn that, despite its much-lauded national identity, Canadians are quite capable of being bad guys. If this is Neeson's last action movie, it's a terrific way to bow out, as The Ice Road is as thrilling as it is fun.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about action movies like The Ice Road . How does this compare to other action movies you've seen? What's the appeal of this type of movie?

How do the characters of Gurty and Tantoo challenge stereotypes? Why is representation of diverse people so important?

Did the violence seem necessary to the story, or did it seem gratuitous? Why?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : June 25, 2021
• Cast : Liam Neeson , Laurence Fishburne , Amber Midthunder
• Director : Jonathan Hensleigh
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors, Asian actors, Indigenous actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Cars and Trucks , Brothers and Sisters
• Run time : 103 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : Strong language and sequences of action and violence.
• Last updated : February 19, 2023

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The Ice Road Reviews

The action itself is, technically speaking, good. But the stakes of the action are contrived, with cartoonish insurance agency antagonists who may as well have stepped out of a children’s movie like Sonic the Hedgehog or Detective Pikachu.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2024

The Ice Road all the right variables for an interesting film, layered with tension and suspense which is only aided by the casting...Ultimately though, the film’s dialogue is very poor, the performances aren’t great...It’s safe to skip this one.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 16, 2023

Liam Neeson is, as ever, a stoic and credible leading man. Like his character in this and every other recent film, he is dependable and the kind of bloke you're happy to spend some time with.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2022

“The Ice Road” taps into much of what makes Neeson such a fun and engaging action star while also following that overused formula that makes many of his movies feel like more of the same.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 17, 2022

It maintains a decent cruising speed allowing it to rise above some of the more forgettable options that find their way onto streaming platforms.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 11, 2022

One of those [films] one has the feeling of having seen more than twenty years ago. And more than once. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 3, 2021

The film works and makes time pass pleasantly moment. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 17, 2021

An hour and a half that you'll forget very quickly, but that will manage that keep you in suspense by trade.

Full Review | Nov 5, 2021

A joyous B-movie with a 90s scent. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2021

Even Liam Neeson's very particular set of skills can't save this preposterous action-thriller from sinking into a shallow puddle of cliches and contrivances.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 22, 2021

Even Neeson can't make the long list of cliches that fill The Ice Road's script entertaining, not that he seems to be trying all that hard.

Full Review | Sep 12, 2021

[The film's] existentialism leaves room for a kind of humanism that feeds the tension. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2021

The Ice Road starts promisingly but lacks the stamina to go the full distance.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 22, 2021

Will find an audience who'll be readily satisfied by its predictable nature and by-the-numbers temperament, but the heyday of Neeson expressing his "particular set of skills" has truly passed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 13, 2021

What is beyond any sensible discussion is that the latest Liam Neeson action movie falls squarely and soundly into the third type of Liam Neeson action movie. That is, it is a slightly above average Liam Neeson action movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 13, 2021

There is absolutely a market and a place for this sort of simple, populist action, and The Ice Road does an efficient job of hitting that sweet spot.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 7, 2021

...emotional self-sacrifices to moustache-twirling baddies and seemingly invincible hitmen, we've seen these tropes a thousand times... if you can plug into that part of your brain, then a fun time is on the cards.

Full Review | Original Score: 13/20 | Aug 4, 2021

It's cracking B-movie fare ultimately, and Neeson, as ever, does his best to sell it.

Full Review | Aug 3, 2021

The ratio of exposition-heavy dialogue to things-a-real-person-would-say lines is roughly 20 to 1. Any bit of visual wit that manages to slip through feels accidental.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 2, 2021

The kind of dopey, turn-off-your-brain movie that probably a lot of people might sit on the couch and watch with their Dad.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 18, 2021

The Ice Road Ending, Explained

There is an innate excitement about watching action films starring Liam Neeson . Even if the plotline is often predictable, the audience knows that Neeson’s films are almost always high on the entertainment value. But then there are films like ‘The Ice Road,’ which goes well beyond the norm to become an intelligent action thriller . The movie stars Neeson as a veteran big-rig ice driver Mike McCann, who comes from North Dakota, US, to Manitoba, Canada, to answer an emergency message meant for truckers. Here is everything you need to know about ‘The Ice Road’ ending. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Ice Road Plot Synopsis

In the Katka Diamond Mines in Northern Manitoba, two explosions occur due to a methene built-up, killing 8 and trapping 26 miners inside Mine 6. Among them are Rene Lampard (Holt McCallany) and Cody (Martin Sensmeier). The General Manager at Katka, Sickle (Matt McCoy), and VP of Operations, Tager (Bradley Sawatzky), are told by Deputy Minister O’Toole (Paul Essiembre) not to let anyone go inside the tunnel until the gas is “drilled and capped.”

O’Toole first reaches out to the air force and is told that such an operation is not feasible under those conditions. His only option turns out to be sending the 18-feet-long, 25-ton gas wellheads through the ice road. He designates the job of finding correct truckers to Mine Safety Supervisor Tully (Marshall Williams), who reaches out to Goldenrod ( Laurence Fishburne ), the owner of a local trucking company.

Meanwhile, in Pembina, North Dakota, Mike loses his job after punching a fellow trucker for mocking his younger brother, Gurty (Marcus Thomas). A military veteran who has fought in Iraq, Gurty has aphasia. Mike has been taking care of him until now, but it has proven to be increasingly difficult. And Mike realizes that his tenure on the road will soon come to an end as well.

After receiving the emergency message for truckers, Mike decides to leave his brother at a facility in North Dakota. But when he discovers that the doctor there has prescribed opioids for Gurty, Mike breaks his brother out, and they leave for Canada together. At Goldenrod’s office, Gurty demonstrates what an exceptional mechanic he is, and both he and his brother become a part of Goldenrod’s crew. The fourth and final member of the crew is Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), Cody’s sister. Before they leave, the crew discovers that Varnay (Benjamin Walker), who seemingly works at Katka’s insurance branch, will be joining them.

As they make their way through the perilous ice road of April, Goldenrod’s truck suddenly stops. Mike decides to haul the truck behind the one he is driving. But the ice under them starts to crack. Goldenrod’s foot gets caught in the cable and drowns along with his truck. Varnay later speaks to Mike and tells him that he saw Tantoo put gasoline in the diesel engine of Goldenrod’s truck. Before they left for the job, they were told they would get $200,000 in total, split in four ways. If one of them perishes during the journey, the money will be split among the remaining three.

Likely recalling how callous Tantoo was when she heard this, Mike believes Varnay and confronts her. When she tells him about Cody, Mike decides to check with Tully before making a decision. In the mines, as the oxygen starts to decrease rapidly, some of the miners decide to vote on who gets to continue living, much to the horror of Lampard and Cody.

In the meantime, Varnay decides to act. He traps Mike and Gurty inside the back of their truck and subdues Tantoo. He then ignites the fuses on some dynamites, places the explosives under Mike’s truck, and drives away. Fortunately for Mike and his brother, they get out of the truck right on time for Mike to grab the dynamites and throw them away from the truck before they explode. Realizing that some people at Katka want them to fail, Mike becomes inspired to race against time and fight his way through if need be to get to the mines to deliver the wellheads.

The Ice Road Ending: How Does Mike Save the Miners?

Although the crew set out with three wellheads, only one was needed. But they wanted to achieve tactical redundancy to ensure that the miners’ lives will be saved. The idea was that even if they lose two wellheads during the journey, there will be a third wellhead that they can take to the mines. This is later proven to be the correct course of action as the drivers lose two wellheads during the journey. The first drowns with Goldenrod and his truck, while Mike’s impatience and temporary unwillingness to listen to his brother causes the loss of the second.

Later, Tantoo gets seriously injured, and Gurty dies while trying to prevent the remaining truck from falling down a cliff. After Varnay died in an altercation between him and Mike, the latter drives Tantoo’s truck to the mines, where the wellhead is used to extract the methane gas, and the miners are subsequently rescued. The final scenes of the movie reveal that Mike has bought a Kenworth truck with his share of the money, just like his brother wanted, and named it “TRK TRK TRK,” which was also picked by Gurty. As for Tantoo, she runs her own trucking business now.

How Does the Accident Occur? What Secrets Are the Katka Management Trying to Hide?

Several of the miners were paid an extra $100 per month to hide the fact that the management had told them to cut the methane sensors. Sickle and Tager apparently told the miners that new quotas were having severe effects on the company, and the complete shutdown of the mines was just unaffordable. After the explosions, Sickle and Tager decide that they have to make sure that not one of the miners that know about the sensors comes out alive. This is why they send Varnay to sabotage the wellhead transportation. After they are rescued, Lampard speaks to the CEO of Katka, who seemingly has no idea about any of this. Sickle and Tager are arrested, but not before Mike gets a chance to punch Sickle.

Read More: Where Was The Ice Road Filmed?

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The Ice Road's Predictable Twist, Explained

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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for  The Ice Road , now streaming on Netflix .

In The Ice Road , Mike ( Liam Neeson ) is given the herculean task of joining a crew transporting wellheads to a Canadian mine after a methane explosion traps 26 people down below, leaving them just over a day before oxygen runs out. Three trucks take the pipelines because with this technical redundancy, aka a "bull run," if any one fails, there'll be two other wellheads to use. However, as the journey reaches a perilous impasse on the ice road, the film cracks apart with a generic, predictable twist.

Mike's truck has his brother, Gurty (Marcus Thomas), an Iraqi war vet now suffering mental illness, while the second is driven by Laurence Fishburne 's Goldenrod. The final one has a Native American woman, Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), whose brother, Cody, is trapped in the hole in Manitoba, and Varnay (Benjamin Walker), an insurance rep from Katka, the company overseeing the mining project. They have to be careful as they use the ice roads -- actual paths that have been created on frozen northern lakes and are only used in the winter months when the ice is thick enough.

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The drivers must maintain just the right speed: go to slow and the ice will crack below them, too fast and pressure waves will destroy the road ahead. But as they slowly make the trek, the film paints Katka in an obvious light. The man managing the project, Sickle (Matt McCoy), is quite shady, and we learn he was cutting corners, paying workers like Cody an extra $100 a day to secretly turn off their methane sensors as he couldn't afford for mining to stop. Sickle needed operations to continue under dangerous conditions to make money, which led to the miners hitting a methane pocket.

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The fact Varnay was so adamant to join the truck convoy clearly hinted at his sinister role, which comes full-circle when he puts blame on Tantoo for an accident. When Goldenrod's truck stalls, it's revealed to be filled with gasoline, not diesel. It ends up sinking in the ice with Goldenrod getting caught in the towing cable. Goldenrod orders Tantoo to cut his tether and let him go down with the truck to ensure the other trucks survive. Varnay blames the death on Tantoo, claiming she wanted to increase her share of the mission's payment.

Varnay convinces  the gullible Mike and Gurty that Tantoo tampered with Goldenrod's fuel, and they restrain her after she pulls a gun on them. But like clockwork, when the brothers get into one of the cabins, Varnay locks them in. He doesn't want them finding out that Tantoo is innocent, but, more so, he can't let the trucks reach the mine.

Varnay is there to sabotage the mission to prevent the miners from divulging the company's unethical business practices. He takes Tantoo's truck to drop off a cliff while leaving dynamite to blow up the brothers' truck and frame it as a technical error in a poorly executed twist anyone could see from a mile away.

Starring Liam Neeson, Marcus Thomas, Amber Midthunder, Benjamin Walker, Holt McCallany and Laurence Fishburne, The Ice Road is now streaming on Netflix.

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The race to save a group of trapped miners from a cave-in in The Ice Road was made complicated by the scheming of corrupt businessmen, particularly in the ending. A movie that started out like a disaster film quickly evolved into a fast-paced action thriller, complete with car chases and shoot-outs with ruthless gunmen.

The Ice Road is the latest Liam Neeson vehicle set in the action genre. For the past several years, the actor has been headlining movies where he plays a highly-skilled hero who has to save the day by getting into gun fights with gangsters, spies, and terrorists. Despite being in his 60s, Neeson has emerged as a popular action hero, thanks in large part to his roles in the three Taken movies . Among the movies he’s made in recent years that have built off his success in the genre are The Commuter , Cold Pursuit, Honest Thief , The Marskman, and now, The Ice Road , where he plays Mike Barnes. In The Ice Road , Neeson’s character is Mike Barnes, a truck driver who takes care of his brother, Gurty (Marcus Thomas), a war veteran with a mental disability.

Related: Liam Neeson's New Action Movie Repeats His Post-Taken Problem

Shortly after getting fired over an incident involving Gurty, Mike is hired by Jim Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne) to help rescue miners put in danger by a methane explosion. Together with Goldenrod, Gurty, Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), and Varnay (Benjamin Walker), the small group has to drive three trucks through treacherous, icy terrain in order to save the miners with the wellheads they’re carrying. But as the events of the movie unfolded, Mike found out that the ice road wasn’t their only obstacle. There was also Varnay, who caused Goldenrod’s death and sabotaged their mission. Here’s what went down at the end of the movie, and what the villains of The Ice Road were really trying to accomplish.

The Ice Road’s Villain Plan Explained

Before the mission even started, it was said that Varnay had no stake in the $200,000 reward they were going to receive when they completed the job. Since Varnay couldn’t get the money, it made sense to assume that he’d have no reason to betray the group. However, it was eventually discovered that Varnay was indeed a traitor. A phone conversation that took place later in the movie confirmed that Varnay was taking his orders from Katka executive George Sickle (Matt McCoy). Apparently, Varnay and his team of armed killers were determined to kill Mike, Tantoo, and Gurty because of the implications that saving the miners would have for Sickle and his associates at Katka.

What was said in the scenes at the mine and at the Katka office over the course of the film made it clear that Sickle and some of his colleagues were to blame for the methane explosion. They could have taken safety measures to avoid such a catastrophe, but pressed on with their activities at the mine due to financial concerns. What this means is that Sickle and the others could have faced major consequences if these details were ever made public. Those at the mine figured out what was happening, so the truth was sure to emerge once they were rescued. That’s why Sickle thought it would be better for himself (and the company) if the miners ran out of oxygen and died. This outcome would have allowed their secrets to remain buried.

How Mike Defeats Varnay In The Ice Road

As the evil villain who keeps coming back, Varnay proved to be a recurring threat for Mike, Gurty, and Tantoo throughout the trek across the ice road. When Liam Neeson's character rammed his vehicle off a hillside, they seemed to believe that he was finally out of their hair for good, but it was not so. Varnay managed to survive the crash. Using explosives, Varnay triggered explosives and succeeded in providing yet another hindrance in their journey. This slowed them down, but didn’t stop them, thus forcing Varnay to try a more direct approach. After ramming Mike’s truck, a fight ensued, which ended with Mike driving his truck straight into the ice. He jumped out at the last second, but Varnay didn’t have time to escape. The truck submerged into the ice, taking Varnay with it. Since he was the last of the villains in pursuit of the wellheads, there was nothing else Sickle and his co-conspirators could do to stop the heroes from reaching their destination.

Related: The Ice Road Cast & Character Guide

Gurty’s Death Made Rescuing The Miners Possible

Unfortunately, Varney’s death didn’t mean their troubles were over. While Mike was busy dealing with him, Gurty and an injured Tantoo were driving ahead of him when they came across a bridge that wasn’t built to carry the truck’s weight. After reaching the other side, the suspension cables on the bridge broke, which led to its collapse. At just the wrong time, the truck began to slide back, and a fall through the gap appeared imminent. Seeing what was about to happen, Gurtie tried to shut the gate, in the hopes that it would stop the truck from sliding any further backwards. The problem is that Gurtie, in struggling with the gate, stood there longer than he could afford. He ended up being squished between the gate and the truck. His organs must have been damaged by the accident, considering that he died shortly after. Regardless, Gurty’s sacrifice made finishing the mission possible. If it wasn’t for what Gurty did, they never would have been able to deliver the sole-surviving wellhead to the mine.

After rescuers used the wellhead to get the miners (and Tantoo’s brother) to safety, Sickle’s role in everything that had happened was at last exposed, resulting in the character being arrested for his crimes, but not before Mike got in one punch against the person responsible for Gurty’s death. While what happened to Gurty kept The Ice Road from giving Mike a truly happy ending, it did reveal that some good things came for his character in the aftermath of the methane explosion and Sickle’s arrest. The movie’s final scene showed that three months later, both Mike and Tantoo -- who have remained in contact -- have new jobs. In their parting conversation,  Tantoo told Mike he could call her if she needs him, which leaves the door open for them to work together in a potential Ice Road 2 . As for what comes next for Mike, he's now taking care of his brother’s pet rat, and has found some degree of success as a truck driver transporting sporting goods. The closing seconds revealed the words “Trk Trk Trk” on his license plate, which was a nod to “Truck Truck Truck”, a suggested name for their group that was mentioned in the movie’s first half. The use of the phrase amounted to a fitting tribute to the two heroes who lost their lives in the rescue mission.

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