Bullet Points: Nature Unleashed: Avalanche
It has been a while since I checked out a movie from the vast Nu Image library. It has been even longer since I checked out a movie from Nu Image’s Nature Unleashed series of films. So I felt it was the perfect time to check out 2004’s Nature Unleashed: Avalanche (especially since I couldn’t find Nature Unleashed: Tornado)…
- To the Extreme: Brothers, Thom and Jock run Extreme Tours in a ski town in Eastern Europe. As the movie begins they are out on some snowmobiles with some douchebag clients, who are looking for a thrill and don’t heed the warning to not go too far up the mountain and end up in the soft snow. And 10 minutes in and Nature Unleashed: Avalanche lives up to its name and the ski town gets hit with an avalanche! There are plenty of injuries as a result, but the good news is there were no fatalities. However there was bad news still to come…
- Super Avalanche: Katya, the local scientist, believes the avalanche the town is digging out of was only the start and that the conditions are right for a super avalanche! Of course, not everyone is on board with her theory… like the mayor of the town, who does not intend on shutting down the ski resort or Mr. Alkin, who is on a timetable to get his brand new hotel completed and open so he can pay back his investors. It is strongly hinted by Alkin’s partner, the seedy Rogov, that the money may have come from some less than reputable sources… Katya wants to take a closer look and turns to Extreme Tours to take her up the mountain. Katya gets a closer look alright, too close for comfort as it nearly costs her her life!
- Butt Heads: One important note is the relationship between Thom and Jock. Like most siblings, they fight from time to time… whether it is their business finances or Thom lecturing the younger Jock on Jock’s failed relationship with Callie (Mr. Alkin’s daughter), it is not uncommon for them to butt heads. But when Jock tells Thom he’s going to leave town, there is a big blowup between the two… Jock storms off, while Thom checks in on Katya and their relationship jumps quite a bit. The next morning Jock walks by Katya’s place and sees Thom and Katya in bed together through her window in what is easily the creepiest moment in the movie. The site of his brother in the afterglow of getting some must have been enough motivation for Jock to go track down Callie at the ski lodge.
- Return of the Douchebags: The same douchebags who caused the first avalanche were back and this time waving money around, getting a former Extreme Tours employee to take them up past the first ridge of the mountain. As a result it is almost SUPER AVALANCHE time! The ski lodge is evacuated with everyone heading to Mr. Alkin’s new super reinforced hotel. But not everybody makes it out of the ski lodge… Jock, Callie and a couple of ski lodge employees don’t make it out before the SUPER AVALANCHE hits!!
- The Rescue Mission: When Thom finds out that Jock didn’t make it out of the lodge, he is determined to rescue him with or without the help of the rescue team. Mr. Alkin isn’t going to let Thom go it alone… his daughter is up there, plus he lost his wife to an avalanche a few years back. The official rescue team jumps in too… but can they get to Jock and Callie in time!?!?!?
My biggest gripe with Nature Unleashed: Avalanche is it didn’t utilize any of Nu Image’s stable of direct to video action stars. Instead the cast was filled with a veritable who’s that? Not that the cast didn’t do a good job with what they had to work with, but I feel like Nature Unleashed: Avalanche would have benefitted from at least one Nu Image name. The avalanche effects were what I expected from a direct to video disaster flick, not Hollywood blockbuster level, but not embarrassingly bad either. I am not sure if the story needed the relationship drama between Jock and Callie or the threat of the mob coming to collect on Mr. Alkin… but I guess they had to hit that 88 minute runtime somehow.
I am sure this review needs some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Directed By: Nature Unleashed: Avalanche was directed by Mark Roper. Roper directed a number of films for Nu Image, including Live Wire 2: Human Timebomb and Operation Delta Force 3: Clear Target.
- Familiar Face: I recognized Nikolai Sotirov, who played Boris the dude at the Greenland Weather Monitoring Station, from a couple of other Nu Image films, Air Marshal and Death Train.
- Around the World: Nature Unleashed: Avalanche is known as Danger Avalanche! in France and Ice Hazard in Japan.
