WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Ice Road, now streaming on Netflix.
In The Ice Road, many questionable moments and plot holes arise as Liam Neeson’s Mike trucks rescue equipment to a Canadian mine. His crew has less than two days to get wellheads over so the Katka company can cap a methane pocket and pull out trapped miners after an explosion caused a cave-in. But as Mike runs into turmoil on the cracked, frigid road, there’s disarray in the mine too. Sadly, the civil war brewing there gets solved in the most ridiculous and unbelievable manner.
The Ice Road‘s big yet predictable twist is that some of the miners were bribed by a Katka executive, Sickle, to turn the methane sensors off. Sickle didn’t want drilling to stop, paying the guys $100 per day as they couldn’t afford shutdowns. The desperate men, led by Fred, didn’t care that this created an occupational hazard. However, Cody eventually spills the beans to the team lead, Lampard, as guilt sets in.
Lampard’s livid, but he has bigger things to focus on as oxygen’s dwindling, plus he’s got injured men to care for who had no part to play in the scheme. However, Fred decides that they need more oxygen available underground, so his goons want to cull the hurt miners. He proposes murder, which even Cody balks at.
This leads to a scramble, with Lampard pulling out a lighter and threatening to blow them all up. He vows they all get out or no one does in a moment that deserves credit for his stoicism. However, the heroics are misplaced. Firstly, if he ignites at this point, a lot of innocent men — who are still healthy — will die too. He could use them to form a rebellion to fight off Fred’s minority group instead.
In addition, if the mine blows up, the explosion will carry through to the surface. It’ll harm and potentially kill the rescue workers and the Katka base, where there are many innocent, unsuspecting workers. Therefore, Lampard’s making a weird bluff that, thankfully, doesn’t get called.
However, given Fred’s sinister nature and knowing how the earnest Lampard deeply values human life, it would be more understandable if Fred got his supporters to still attack as it’d just be outlandish for Lampard to endanger so many lives. It’s all done to create drama and tension. While it’s an effective method, if Fred hadn’t been afraid to call Lampard’s bluff, things could have gone bad.
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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