WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Black Crab, now streaming on Netflix.
In Netflix’s Black Crab, Noomi Rapace’s Caroline Edh was tasked with working with a group of Swedish soldiers to skate over a treacherous frozen lake. Her mission was to transport some mysterious canisters over to a military base that would help swing the tide in a brutal European war. Caroline was skeptical at first, but the military had a gift for her.
They promised if she got the job done, she’d meet her daughter, Vanja, at Odo after the girl was kidnapped years ago. Apparently, the military found her in a refugee camp, providing photographic evidence that convinced Caroline. However, as Caroline marshaled the troops forward, Black Crab‘s most horrific scene mirrored a heartbreaking Canadian tragedy that occurred recently.
Caroline’s team was rushed out of their base after a firefight broke out. However, it wasn’t easy skating across the frozen water because many parts were cracking. They lost Forsberg after she fell through, plus snipers and choppers were hunting them, hoping they wouldn’t get to Odo and the border.
However, Black Crab got terrifying in a subtle, quiet way when they began tripping over what seemed to be rocks in the dead silence of the night. They were reluctant to shine lights because they didn’t want to alert anyone, but seeing as the protruding objects were so plentiful, they had to see. In a gut-wrenching scene, they realized they weren’t tripping over rocks — they were frozen heads. In fact, as they flashed light, slowly skating on, they saw thousands of dead bodies — men, women and children — who fell overboard in the sub-zero conditions and perished.
It was an excruciating picture of suffering, reaffirming to the soldiers how cruel and merciless the war was. What made it more heartbreaking was Nylund admitting they couldn’t tell what happened. They didn’t know if this was Swedish people leaving or other refugees coming in, if it was accidental or if it was the enemy.
It harkened to earlier this year when an Indian family of four was found frozen to death in a Manitoba field near the Canada-US border. Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, his wife Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, and their children, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel and three-year-old Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, died of exposure to extreme weather conditions in the Emerson region. Officials believed this was a case of human smuggling. The tragedy left authorities in the US and Canada trying to piece together how the Patels got to Emerson, as well as who may have brought them there.
Bulletins had to be put out begging refugees not to attempt the trek, especially in this area, which both countries deemed a high-incident spot for human smuggling. While the reasoning for the Patels’ journey was never confirmed, many previous trips were attempted by immigrants seeking better economic situations. Unfortunately, Black Crab reminded viewers of their plight, and while the movie focused on war causing people to flee, the parallel of refugees and immigrants gambling with frigid conditions just can’t be ignored.
See how Caroline’s terrifying lake journey resembles the Patels’ tragic fate in Black Crab, now streaming on Netflix.
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