Is the movie "Eight Degrees Below" a true story?

"Eight Degrees Below Zero" is the film "Antarctic Adventure" adapted from the true event of Japan dispatching an overwintering observation team in 1958.

Plot summary

In order to search for a mysterious meteorite that fell on the Antarctic Island, an expedition team composed of three scientists began their Antarctic expedition. The expedition team includes Jerry Charlotte (played by Paul Walker), his best friend Cooper (played by Jason Biggs) and an eccentric American geologist (played by Bruce Greenwood).

Of course, an expedition to Antarctica cannot be separated from the special tool for walking on the snow - the sled, as well as people's loyal partners, the sled dogs. Moreover, these eight "smart and capable" sled dogs, like their human companions, each have their own titles and titles: the leading "Maya", the loyal "Dwarf", the honest "Old Jack", the powerful " Truman" and the extremely fast "Shadow" and so on.

When they first landed on the snow-covered land of Antarctica, the expedition team members were attracted by the beautiful scenery in front of them. However, they did not expect at all that as they deepened into the polar region, the more severe The weather and extremely dangerous natural environment will bring them more and more troubles and even great challenges to their survival.

After riding a dog sled for several days, they encountered an unprecedented snowstorm, and the temperature naturally dropped sharply. Naturally, the team members were somewhat unprepared for the situation at hand. One of the team members accidentally stepped on the thin ice and fell into the biting ice water. Fortunately, a brave sled dog came to help and promptly delivered the rope to the fallen team member, allowing his teammates to pull him out of danger.

However, the sudden and violent snowstorm in front of us was really unavoidable. Not only blocking their way forward, the lives of several people were also seriously threatened. In desperation, seeing the wind and snow becoming more and more fierce, the team members were forced to give up their partners who helped them along the way - the sled dogs, and let them escape for their own lives.

The abandoned sled dogs desperately took off their ropes to escape from the avalanche. In order to survive, they struggled to rely on each other to withstand the cold snow and at the same time, they also had to fill their stomachs and feed themselves. A giant seal fights. At this time, the eight sled dogs are like good brothers on the line of life and death, supporting each other.

The three-member expedition team finally returned to the base safely, but the sight of the sled dogs desperately moving forward in the ice and snow kept haunting them. Finally unable to withstand the condemnation of conscience, the three people decided at the same time to save their loyal partners from the freezing cold, no matter what dangers they risked.

Extended information

Award-winning records

Filming locations

In terms of location selection, the director invited Robin Monsey— —A world-class expert in mountain safety and a technical advisor on glaciers, snow, water and backcountry areas. Monce searched for the ideal filming kingdom around the world and finally selected three locations.

Smythe, Canada: a high-altitude ski town located 750 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia. The town of Smythe is located on a very unique tabletop-shaped small plateau, surrounded by wilderness with no trees on all sides. It can be said to be an ideal place to recreate the style of the Antarctic wilderness. The main scenes of the film were filmed in camps at scientific research bases in the United States and Italy, frozen volcanoes and the scene in the film where the puppy Duy falls off an ice cliff.

Denmark’s Greenland: a magical northern country full of glaciers and coastal ice sheets. The most spectacular natural scenes in the film were shot there.

Stuart, British Columbia: Not far from the border with Hyder, Alaska, was the location for some of the film's breathtaking vistas.

The filming process

Filming in Smythe Town will not be as difficult as shooting in Antarctica, but it is also not easy. Because the weather there can change drastically within 10 minutes, the crew had to be ready to shoot three different scenes every day so that any one of them could be shot randomly depending on the weather conditions.

The crew had to shoot in cold and wet snowy weather. Not only could they not let snowflakes fall on the lens, but they also had to worry about visibility and playback issues under milky sky conditions, as well as cabling issues.

Most of the scenes in the film were shot on location, but there were a few shots that were too dangerous to shoot outside. In order to shoot the key shots of people and dogs facing danger in the freezing water, the crew built a scene in a large studio, which is called the "ice scene".

Building an "ice scene" not only reproduces the frozen fjords in Greenland, but also must be a place where animated model seals can be manipulated and sled dogs can perform. Designer Willett has visited Greenland four times. To realistically represent the ice layers, just making different ice layers requires 13 processes, including transparent ice, river ice, snow ice and ice on icebergs.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Antarctic Adventure