Tis the season… for winter movies! What is a winter movie? Well, first it must be said that a winter movie is not a Christmas movie. You might be familiar with our coverage, during the holiday season, of crime movies that surprisingly take place at Christmas, but this list is not like that. This list is about movies that take place in the winter, in the freezing cold, in the snowy wilderness or the icy ocean. There is no cheer, there isn’t really much hope.
These movies should be watched in January/February/March, when the world is cold and bleak and the freezing wind pierces your skin like needles, slices through your whole body like blades. In “the Boxer,” Paul Simon sings about the “the New York City winter” “bleeding” him, and that’s the kind of climate-based sensation that you should both be escaping and reliving while watching one of these. Go inside your cabin, shake the snow off your beard, curl under a heavy blanket, light a candle if you have to, and contemplate the gelid conditions raging right outside as you reach for your remote control.
Am I clear?
Here are some of my favorites, along with some other movies that I remembered existing. It’s not a complete list. Also, when you read it, you might wonder “what about Insomnia?” Well, Insomnia is set during Scandinavia’s midnight sun, which is a summertime phenomenon. Summer can be cold (and even snowy, if you live by the North Pole) but, you know, summer is not winter! (I realize I’m sticking to “North Hemisphere” weather definitions of which seasons get to be hot and cold, forgive me. But I live in New York. And it’s very cold here right now.)
But! Can a film which is only partially set in snowy, frigid conditions make the list? Yes, sure. This list is packed with Bond movies, for instance, and those often shift locations a few times per installment. However, movies where there is very very little snow, like Charade, for example, are cut, though.
It goes without saying that all of these films must be “crime” movies. The snowiest movie ever, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, is not a crime movie. It also goes without saying, but I’ll say it a second time, that all of these films should not be set at “Christmas.” The Long Kiss Goodnight is set at Christmas.
Ok, bundle up. Here we go.
Wind River (2017)
In this Tyler Sheridan chestnut which is the platonic ideal of a winter movie, Elizabeth Olsen is a rookie FBI agent who teams up with veteran hunter Jeremy Renner to find a killer after a young woman’s frozen body is found on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
I love a Bond movie with a ski scene, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service has much, much more than that. It has a whole Alpine village adventured sequence set in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, complete with ice-skating, a snowy car chase, and George Lazenby making out inside an abandoned barn with Diana Rigg. Oh, also, yeah, I guess Blofeld’s whole lair is atop a frosty mountain peak. (It’s the snowiest Bond film for sure.)
The Shining (1980)
I shouldn’t have to explain this.
Fargo (1997)
Or this.
Misery (1990)
You know what? Or this.
Dead of Winter (1987)
Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall star in this creepy horror-thriller that’s also a little bit of a country house murder mystery and also kind of Georges Franju-esque, about a young actress who travels to an isolated estate in the middle of a snowstorm to replace a performer on a film shoot. But when she gets there, she discovers something far more sinister is afoot. Obviously.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The Spy Who Loved Me features a genuinely delightful downhill ski chase. The stunts are excellent. Backwards skiing! Ski-jumping off a cliff! Kicking off skis in midair and deploying a Union Jack parachute! I do appreciate the way the Moore Bond movies completely eschew subtlety. And in this film, the smallest indicator of this is that in this chase, 007 wears a bright yellow ski suit before wrapping himself in the British flag.
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Another Bond movie, another breakneck downhill ski chase, more excellent stunts. Most of For Your Eyes Only takes place in warm-weather climes, but there is an impressive ski sequence anyway. It’s probably the best of the Moore Bond movies, made so in part by the genuinely incredible stunt team.
Frozen River (2008)
I love an intensely-immersive Melissa Leo performance. This movie is about two gritty single mothers (one white, played by Melissa Leo, and one Mohawk, played by Misty Upham) who become smugglers, driving across a sliver of the frozen St. Lawrence River that runs through a Mohawk reservation to access a secret border crossing point between New York State and Canada. There is also a state trooper on their trail. You won’t have nails left to bite.
A Simple Plan (1998)
This Sam Raimi hidden-treasure is about three guys (Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Brent Briscoe), who come across a a crashed plane containing millions of dollars, and, along with one of their wives (Bridget Fonda), come up with a plot to keep it. But you (readers of this crime website) have doubtlessly heard that old maxim about what happens to best-laid-plans…
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
I’m putting the American version of this story (directed by David Fincher) on this list instead of the Swedish one (directed by Niels Arden Oplev) because I remember it being snowier, but feel free to pick your favorite. Or watch them both. Or neither. Do what you want.
Hanna (2011)
In this very sleek, underappreciated thriller from Joe Wright, Saoirse Ronan plays Hanna, a teenage assassin from the Finnish wilderness who has been raised by her ex-CIA-operative father (Eric Bana) to be a precision killing machine. (Same.) And then her dad sends her out on a mission to kill a senior CIA officer (Cate Blanchett) for whom he harbors some kind of vendetta. Come for gunfights in the snow, stay for the extremely good performances!
The Living Daylights (1987)
I like both of Timothy Dalton’s angry, edgy, almost-postal Bond installments. They provided much-needed variation and reinvention after the Moore movies’ monolithic tenure. I especially like how The Living Daylights features a sled chase scene using a cello case as the sled! A cello case chase! Tell your friends!
Snow Angels (2007)
David Gordon Green’s family-drama-meets-crime-story (starring Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell) understands that one of the best things that can happen to snow in a crime movie is *having a body dragged through it.* All I’m gonna say.
Whiteout (2009)
Kate Beckinsale again! But this time, she plays a U.S. Marshal who tracks a killer through Antarctica just before the summer solstice, when the whole region will be blanketed in darkness.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Quentin Tarantino’s roadshowed ensemble Western mystery is about a group of dangerous individuals who all find themselves seeking shelter in a cabin during a ravenous Wyoming winter. This is possibly the coldest movie on this whole list; please plan accordingly… you will feel freezing if you don’t have at least six pairs of long johns on.
The World is Not Enough (1999)
Say what you will about the absurdity of The World is Not Enough (and I often do), but one of its silliest early moments (John Cleese’s “R” getting stuck in a giant inflatable bubble thing) has a very practical payoff. Turns out, that very gadget turns out to be one of the most practical in the whole Bond canon. Just pull the string on your jacket and in moments you’ll find yourself encased in an impregnable balloon/hamster ball. Useful in the event your casual ski outing is threatened by a sudden avalanche.
Hold the Dark (2018)
This action thriller stars America’s sweetheart Jeffrey Wright as a wolf expert who is hired to track the animals apparently responsible for a bunch of missing children. But Jeffrey Wright knows that wolves didn’t do it.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel is absolutely a crime movie (not the least reason of which is its prison break sequence), but it’s also set in the mountains of Hungary. There is a fantastic ski-sled chase, and some A+ cliff-dangling by Ralph Fiennes.
Winter’s Bone (2010)
Winter’s Bone is the movie Jennifer Lawrence should have won her Oscar for. Her performance, as a tough teenager taking care of her younger siblings in the Ozarks after the disappearance of her father, is nothing short of amazing.
I, Tonya (2017)
We didn’t have enough ice-skating-noir on this list. Intrigue at the Winter Olympics!
Transsiberian (2008)
A train ride from Beijing to Moscow turns deadly for two American missionaries who are just trying to get home when they are befriended by two interlopers with other plans. Also, Ben Kingsley plays a guy named “Grinko.”
The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter’s masterpiece about a shape-shifting alien presence that infiltrates an Antarctic research station is more of a horror movie than a thriller, but no movie on this list combines “snow” with “suspense” better! If you think “polar isolation” is scary enough on it’s own… just wait.
Blow the Man Down (2020)
I loved this frosty, bloody, bone-chilling indie film, written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. It’s about two sisters (Sophie Lowe and Morgan Saylor) from a small, coastal New England fishing town. Shortly after the death of their beloved mother, they wind up having to cover up the terrible murder of a would-be assaulter. But as they attempt to conceal the crime, hoping friendly police officers and nosy neighbors do not suspect anything too fishy, they become drawn into their town’s dark underbelly, which turns out to be surprisingly matriarchal.
Deadfall (2012)
Deadfall might not be an incredible movie, but it is a snowy movie. Siblings Olivia Wilde and Eric Bana have just successfully robbed a Michigan casino and are now trying to cross the border into Canada during a terrible blizzard.
The Fugitive (1993)
The Fugitive is the absolute best wintertime movie. It takes place in late winter, right before it melts into spring, but in Chicago, so you know it’s freezing the whole time.
