Black Ice

In the summer of 2014 a documentary team ventures into the Alaskan wilderness to investigate the mysterious death of a surveyor investigating a reputed oil leak.

 

Six weeks later, the cameraman, Ben Richards, is discovered in a remote Alaskan hospital with retrograde amnesia, the blood of his missing ex-girlfriend, Ashley staining his clothes.

 

The only clue to his past, a flash card hidden amongst his clothing.

 

Recovering in hospital Ben is interrogated by state trooper Babette Nusbaum but is unable to remember any of the events preceding his discovery.

 

Learning about the missing footage, Ben escapes from hospital and sets out to recover his identity and prove his innocence.

 

Finding a cache of memory cards he retraces his original route to a remote bush town governed by ruthless landowners, the Hanes, the past and the present playing out in parallel as Ben begins to piece together his and Ashley’s final days together.

 

Meanwhile Nusbaum is side-lined from the investigation by bureau detective Ellis, and it becomes apparent that each of them has a different motive for finding Ben first.

 

Haunted by visitations from Ashley, hunted by the Hanes and pursued by the police, Ben is cornered at an abandoned copper mine.

 

And then he finds the missing memory card and with it evidence of a conspiracy that connects the Hanes family to the oil corporations and the Alaskan government.

 

The two time periods entwining as Ben loads the camera for the last time and sets out to find Ashley and track down the perpetrators of the crime, bringing his journey to an explosive conclusion.

 

A classic thriller with a contemporary twist in the mold of The Constant Gardener and Memento.