Sent to evaluate the environmental impact of oil drilling in the Arctic, James Hoffman clashes with the drilling crew's chief, who wants to get the job done.Sent to evaluate the environmental impact of oil drilling in the Arctic, James Hoffman clashes with the drilling crew's chief, who wants to get the job done.Sent to evaluate the environmental impact of oil drilling in the Arctic, James Hoffman clashes with the drilling crew's chief, who wants to get the job done.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- James Hoffman
- (as James LeGros)
- Doctor Pedersen
- (as Hálfdan Lárus Pedersen)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaArtist Brahm Revel illustrated a comic book adaptation of this film.
- GoofsWhen they try and leave the scene where they discover the grader 'n tanker truck, they discover that their snowmobile won't start because it has 'lost all its oil'. That particular sled had a two stroke engine which uses mixed fuel (no crank case oil as in all four stroke engines) so this would've been impossible.
- Quotes
James Hoffman: [from his journal] Empathy with the land. This we learn in childhood. The land has changed. The biosphere turned; has become unfamiliar and erratic. I would say eventual, but nature is indifferent to us. We fight for our survival, not nature's. There's a fierceness in the world that we never felt before. Something is being unleashed in the softening permafrost. Why do we despise the world that gave us life? Why wouldn't the world survive us, like any organism survives a virus. The world that we grew up in is changed forever. There is no way home. Is there something beyond science that is happening out here? What if the very thing we were here to pull out of the ground were to rise willingly - confront us. What would that look like? What if this is the last winter, before the collapse? And hope dies.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'the Last Winter' (2007)
- SoundtracksMy Baby Just Cares For Me
Written by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn
Performed by Nina Simone
Published by Donaldson Publishing Co. / Gilbert Keyes Music Co. /
WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Bethlehem Music Company, Inc. & Steven Ames Brown
But "The Last Winter" has more reasons for existing than just its Alaskan (and apparently also Icelandic) filming locations. It's actually a rather ambitious, creative, well-acted and contemporary relevant combo of supernatural horror and climate fiction. It's not great, but compelling enough to keep you entertained throughout its running time. A hardened crew of the North Corporation, led by the robust Pollack, is making the final preparations to start drilling for oil, in spite of doubts and warnings from the independent environmental counsellor James Hoffman. Whilst Pollack and Hoffman are constantly bickering, and not just over the environment, other crew members are behaving increasingly strange and unpredictable. Are they being haunted by the Wendigo, are toxic gassing emerging from the soil, or are the geographical isolation and working conditions just becoming too unbearable?
Mind you, I'm not upholding the mystery with that final sentence. I genuinely had no clue what was going on! Near the end, Larry Fassenden loses his grip on the plot and the overall film, but compensates the lack of logic & coherence with a couple of spectacular scenes and visual effects. The global warming and ecological morals are omnipresent in Fassenden's script, but never shoved down our throats - which is good! The cast is fantastic, the final sequence is lousy, and the film as a whole is somewhat in between.
- Coventry
- Sep 20, 2021
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $5,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $33,190
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,090
- Sep 23, 2007
- Gross worldwide
- $97,522
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1