Stuck on foreign films - download, then watch on business flights when I can't stream and don't realize that's what I signed up for...it continues.
Black Crab (2022) <Netflix>
"In a post-apocalyptic world, six soldiers on a covert mission must transport a mysterious package across a frozen archipelago.
Swedish made, Swedish audio with English subs. We open with a woman and her 10yo daughter in a car in a tunnel as traffic stops, gunfire erupts, soldiers are going car to car killing everyone. Jump ahead, and mom, Caroline 'Edh' is being pulled from a train with new orders for a mission at this stop - there is a major war going on (opening sequence implied the beginning of said war, but we have no sign of the daughter here and now with the train). Turns out the Colonel or whomever is running this base has special requested her, she hops in a HUMVEE with a Captain Nylund who detours on the way to HQ leaving her in the vehicle, in the slums. He tells her to stay put but won't say where they are or why...she grew up here and knows this isn't the way to the HQ as refugee/vagrants start closing in on her and try to take her ****. She fights them off and drives herself to HQ. Colonel pulls her and 4 others in for mission 'Black Crab' overview. Apparently this base will fall soon, and if it does the others will as well quite quickly. Our one hope is a small team to make it to a Medical Facility in Odo by going behind enemy lines and ice skating across the frozen archipeligo. Travel is at night, hide during the day = black. Get behind the lines and go sideways to get to Odo = crab. These seemingly random team members were actually chosen because of their skating background. 100 nautical miles on skates over salt water ice, in the dark, behind enemy lines. A suicide mission.
While the 'only hope we have' is trite, this telling is not. Decent budget on explosions and some helicopter work, but we mostly focus on this small team, their internal dynamics and the mission to survive. We get a whiff of mistrust out of the gate, aside from the Captain leaving her in the slums, he gets added to the team as there was a fifth who didn't show (she accuses cap of disposing of the other member in order to be ON this team). As we travel the ice personalities come out, and distrust grows between the players, and we see them in tension between needing the team in order for survival, but not trusting each other. Add to that sequences along the path that have enemy encounters and how that affects who is still alive, so we're losing numbers as we get closer to the finish line. I'll not spoil anymore, but will say that if you accept the apocalyptical pretense, the rest is realistic to including the final team members and their interactions as positions change and a resolution is reached. We do have some flashbacks of mom and daughter, seemingly during the war (scavenging) which didn't quite line up for me, but it fits with our central characer 'Edh' as she evolves - these could be memories, or possibly delusions.
Not a bad spend of time, but not a blockbuster by any means. I was impressed with the production value from Sweden, but it isn't going to win any film awards outside of Sweden. 8/10