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Avalanche

  • 1999
  • PG-13
  • 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
4.3/10
731
YOUR RATING
Avalanche (1999)
ActionThriller

A helicopter pilot work with a husband and his wife in the frozen North tagging foxes for the Environmental Protection Agency. When an avalanche hits the group, the husband is killed and onl... Read allA helicopter pilot work with a husband and his wife in the frozen North tagging foxes for the Environmental Protection Agency. When an avalanche hits the group, the husband is killed and only by the pilot's perseverance is the wife saved. Two years later, the wife takes on a corp... Read allA helicopter pilot work with a husband and his wife in the frozen North tagging foxes for the Environmental Protection Agency. When an avalanche hits the group, the husband is killed and only by the pilot's perseverance is the wife saved. Two years later, the wife takes on a corporation which wants to extend an oil pipeline across the tundra above Juneau. She is convi... Read all

  • Director
    • Steve Kroschel
  • Writers
    • Thomas Ian Griffith
    • Lars Guignard
    • Steve Kroschel
  • Stars
    • Thomas Ian Griffith
    • Caroleen Feeney
    • R. Lee Ermey
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.3/10
    731
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Steve Kroschel
    • Writers
      • Thomas Ian Griffith
      • Lars Guignard
      • Steve Kroschel
    • Stars
      • Thomas Ian Griffith
      • Caroleen Feeney
      • R. Lee Ermey
    • 17User reviews
    • 4Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos62

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    Top cast21

    Edit
    Thomas Ian Griffith
    Thomas Ian Griffith
    • Neal Meekin
    Caroleen Feeney
    Caroleen Feeney
    • Dr. Lia Freeman
    R. Lee Ermey
    R. Lee Ermey
    • Gary
    C. Thomas Howell
    C. Thomas Howell
    • Jack
    John Ashton
    John Ashton
    • Kemp
    Geoffrey Lower
    Geoffrey Lower
    • Jay Weston
    Hilary Shepard
    Hilary Shepard
    • Annie
    • (as Hilary Shepard-Turner)
    Gary Kasper
    Gary Kasper
    • Tiny
    Bill Bacon
    • Larry
    John Jabaley
    • Donahue
    Brett Baker
    Brett Baker
    • Peter
    Jeff Babcock
    • Pump Station Engineer
    Eva Barrington
    • Secretary
    Douglas Fesler
    • Rescue Captain
    Jerry Harper
    • Tom
    Thomas G. Jacobs
    • Harry
    • (as Thomas Jacobs)
    Josh Johnson
    • Helicopter Pilot
    Richard Reichman
    • Minister
    • Director
      • Steve Kroschel
    • Writers
      • Thomas Ian Griffith
      • Lars Guignard
      • Steve Kroschel
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews17

    4.3731
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    Featured reviews

    7apfraats

    Watchable, not as bad as presumed by many

    The movie isn't as bad as many of the voters up till now are saying. The movie is nice to watch, although it isn't a high budget Hollywood movie as STAR WARS 3. So, you may expect that the special effects and avalanches shown are not as real as you could get them , but still they are acceptable. The story makes up for it. Don't watch this movie for it's special effects, but just to see a nice watchable movie which is in general of medium+ quality, taking all things together.

    The is certain a tension building up while watching the movie, which is also a little predictable, but, again, still acceptable.

    Generally speaking, the votes on IMDb are low, for many many movies. Why ? I don't know. It's isn't me, I think, having watched 1000+ DVD's. Indeed there are bad made movies, but this one isn't all that bad at all.

    If you wanted to see a movie , just for fun, with no complicated but reasonable enjoyable plot, this is surely one for rent.

    I'll give it 7 point, just making a statement it's not a super movie but worth watching.
    4Coventry

    The 1970s called. They offer to give free disaster-movie classes

    The official, and indeed most accurate title of this film is "Avalanche", but approximately two dozen of other movies have the same title. It's also available as "Escape from Alaska", but that's a rather incorrect title because people are not trying to escape out of the state, just out of a little Alaskan town named Juneau. My point? Everything starts with a good, strong and accurate title.

    I honestly don't want to sound too harsh. I really love disaster movies, the bigger the better, and "Escape from Alaska" is a fairly amiable - albeit lacking - attempt. Throughout of the 90s, there were several large-budgeted productions revolving around natural disasters, including pandemics ("Outbreak"), volcanic eruptions ("Dante's Peak", "Volcano"), meteorites ("Deep Impact", "Armageddon") and heavy storms ("Twister"), but yours truly always preferred the true magic of the 70s. I detected a bit of that seventies' spirit in "Escape from Alaska", but unfortunately not enough.

    For starters, nobody was ever able to raise humongous budgets like producer Irwin Allen could. I wasn't expecting blockbuster standards, but the special effects in "Escape from Alaska" were truly poor. The miniature sets, the washing power (or whatever it was they used as snow) and the unfitting stock footage of avalanches makes the film look really pathetic. The cast isn't exactly impressive, neither. Fallen-stardom actor Thomas Howell and R. Lee Ermey are the only noteworthy names.

    What the film does quite well, however, is splitting the characters into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. The environmental activist and her guilt-ridden helicopter pilot boyfriend form one camp, against reckless oil-industry tycoons (you can practically see the $-signs in their eyes) and middle-class Alaskan workers for whom no refinery means no income. This results in the heroic duo having to embark on clandestine pipeline inspections, rude press-conference and board-meeting interruptions and (pitiable) barfights.

    Last but worst, the disasters in "Escape from Alaska" aren't disastrous enough, and there are far, far too many sentimental moments. Another unwritten rule of disaster movies is that the misery and the bad breaks keep on coming non-stop, and that when situations appears to be at their worst, it can and will still get even worse! In this film, this is only partially true. There are plane crashes, malfunctioning helicopters, and supposedly even polar bear attacks, but none of it is thrilling enough.
    6kairingler

    decent action flick

    first off this is not a horrible movie as most of you in these discussion boards have pointed out,, do I care that polar bears don't go as far south as Juneau,, no I really don't care.. most people won't ever even know the difference till some people decide to nit-pick a movie to death. Thomas Ian Griffith did a great job with the movie,, to bad the female lead was awful,, liked R. Lee Ermey's character. John Ashton was good to. I loved all of the wonderful Alaskan scenery as depicted in the movie. and yes the polar bears south of Juneau too, the storyline was great.. about the Pipeline, being built by a company knowing that it sits right on an area where avalanches are prone to happen, great action in this one. plot pretty good,, I just wish people wouldn't be so harsh on a movie like this.
    3drystyx

    Disappointing

    I read the reviews just after watching the first 15 minutes, and didn't think they were good reviews at the time, because the film had a very good start.

    Then the rest of the movie sunk in.

    While I don't agree with this being the worst, or even one of the worst, ever, it was very disappointing after a start that looked like it had potential.

    We begin with three chief characters, a young couple who are protecting wildlife in Alaska, and their handsome pilot friend. They aren't Grizzly people. They're tagging and watching the cute little animals.

    It all begins rather well. They are likable, and their friends seem fairly real. After an avalanche changes the status quo, two years pass, and the pilot has lost a lot of his confidence, which made this look like it was going into a fresh direction.

    Well, then it looks like they brought in a new writer named Joe Cliché. It got very trite after that. You would have to watch it to know how trite it became. Unbelievable, after what looked like a decent beginning.

    This made the movie more disappointing than everything. I still liked the two leads, because they were worth liking, and that salvaged the movie for at least "treadmill or elliptical" viewing, but it was very corny.

    And while I liked to see them survive their brushes with death, I would prefer those escapes to be at least partially credible. We cross over all lines of credibility. And that's disappointing.

    I'm too flabbergasted by the clichés to even begin to mention them. If you scratch the first 15 minutes, it might even look like a comic farce.

    It's one of those movies in which the people involved probably think they either made something much better, or much worse, than they actually did. When you're involved in a project like this, you don't see the glass as half empty. It's either full or empty. Truth be told, it's less than half full, but still passes for mild entertainment.
    5UniqueParticle

    Mostly average

    Messy script, fairly entertaining and horrible cgi! Factory explodes that's connected to a mountain of snow in which causes an avalanche that all happens in the first 20 minutes which is nuts. The cinematography is pretty nice in some parts other parts it feels like a soap opera. The 4.1 is understandable and I'm just a nice critic to give it a 5. Not much to say about this movie there's a few good aspects.

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    Related interests

    Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988)
    Action
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Included as one of the bonus movies on the 2017 "7 Bonus Movies" DVD release of Slipstream (1989).
    • Goofs
      Near the end of the movie when the airplane with Neal and Lia is crashing, the first shot of it sliding down the mountain clearly shows the tail broken off, and we also see someone outside/above the cockpit waving their arms, but in the following shots the plane is shown with the fuselage still intact (minus wings only) sliding down the mountain and the cockpit is also still intact with both people inside and in their seats. This is also the way the plane ends up in the crevice.
    • Connections
      Edited into Ice Queen (2005)
    • Soundtracks
      NOW NOW
      Written by Michèle Vice-Maslin, Michael Garvin and Kim Tribble

      Produced and Arranged by Michèle Vice-Maslin, Michael Garvin and Kim Tribble

      Published by Even Sweetersongs (SESAC)/Michael Garvin Music (BMI)/Brian's Dream (ASCAP)

      Courtesy of Sweetersongs

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 2, 1999 (Taiwan)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Escape from Alaska
    • Filming locations
      • Anchorage, Alaska, USA
    • Production companies
      • Ian Page Productions
      • Krsochel Films
      • PM Entertainment Group
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 36m(96 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo

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