Plot

In 1909, two explorers fight to survive after they're left behind while on a Denmark expedition in ice-covered Greenland.

In 1909, Denmark's Alabama Expedition led by Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen was attempting to disprove the United States' claim to North Eastern Greenland, a claim that was rooted in the idea that Greenland was broken up into two different pieces of land. Leaving their crew behind with the ship, Mikkelsen sleds across the ice with his inexperienced crew member, Iver Iversen. The two men succeed in finding the proof that Greenland is one island, but returning to the ship takes longer and is much harder than expected. Battling extreme hunger, fatigue and a polar bear attack, they finally arrive to find their ship crushed in the ice and the camp abandoned.

In 1909, Danish explorer and Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) organizes an expedition in Shannon Island, East Greenland, to recover the records of the missing members of the ill-fated Denmark expedition. After his first try is unsuccessful (the team was stranded in their ship in the middle of the frozen arctic. Ejnar and One crew member Jorgensen had ventured out to locate the Denmark expedition, but Jorgensen got frostbite and his toes had to be amputated to save his leg), the only volunteer to accompany him on his second attempt is engineer Iver Iversen (Joe Cole) while the rest of the crew stays behind.

Ejnar is confident this time as he has found the diary of a crew from the Denmark expedition, which had a map on the route that their team was supposed to take during their exploration of the arctic. The map also shows the location of a stack of stones that the expedition left, to stake their claim on the arctic. If the stack of stones is not found, the arctic would be claimed by the Americans. The crew is demoralized with the expedition and do not wish to risk their life. Iver is the motor engineer on the ship and since the ship is stranded, he has nothing else to do. Iver is not good at handling sled dogs and the entire crew advises him not to venture out in the arctic in -40 degrees and infested with polar bears.

On 1st March 1910, the 2nd attempt launches. Ejnar instructs Jorgensen to wait for them till Aug (that's when the ice would start freeze over again). If they don't return by then, the crew is instructed to leave. They encounter several obstacles along the way and have to heave their stuff over frozen cliffs. Ejnar is cold to Iver and doesn't allow him to get close. Its day 26.

Ejnar tells Iver how he found the Danish expedition, frozen to death. In the hands of the crew, he found the diary, which gave him clues on where to find the stack of stones, which signified the European claim on the arctic. Mikkelsen and Iversen lose two of their sled dogs in their first few days. Iversen lead dog smells land and doesn't stop and falls in a ravine with the sled. Iversen is saved as he fell off the sled with some of the supplies. Iversen's lead dog Bjoern, falls into the ravine. He is devastated, as he was quite close to Bjoern. They lose 2 weeks of dog food, half the tea and one can of paraffin. By day 48, they are off the ice cap. Ejnar reveals that the Americans claim that the top part of Greenland is separated from the mainland by a channel, and hence lay a claim to it.

Iver comes face to face with the harsh realities of the arctic. They have to kill their dogs, one by one, as their cargo lightens, and there is less and less food to go around. They are down to half rations. Day 84. They abandon one sledge. They find the stack of stones from the Denmark expedition. In the stack, they find a letter (dated 1907) from the explorers, who drew a map proving that the Peary channel did not exit, and the northern part of Greenland was connected to the mainland. This leaves the United States with no claim in the Arctic.

Day 132 and the guys are on their way back. More dogs freeze to death. Later, they fight and kill a polar bear. Iver was hunting a seal when the bear attacked. It killed 2 dogs and by the team Iver returned, it was on top of Ejnar. Iver shoots it, but the bear falls on Ejnar and breaks through the ice and into the freezing waters below. Iver manages to pull him out. But they lose the bear meat. Ejnar recovers and burns the sled and kills the remaining dog as he wants to travel light. They are 200 miles away from their ship, the Alabama. When faced with a difficult crossing across a semi-frozen lake, Ejnar builds a stack of stones of his own, to protect his journals and the proof of no existence of the Peary Channel, in case they don't survive.

After a few months, Mikkelsen and Iversen return to Shannon Island and learn the rest of the crew have returned home, leaving them stranded on the island. The two men stay in a cottage (which the crew had built with parts of the ship) for two winters (the crew had left enough food to last a year). The crew reaches home and argue with the ministry to fund a rescue expedition, which the Minister Neergaard (Charles Dance) refuses. He admonishes the crew for letting Iver accompany Ejnar, as Iver was a greenhorn. He says that the crew knew that the chances of success were minimal. The crew was rescued by a whaler, and they implore the minister to put up a reward.

No ship arrives in later summer of the following yr. Ejnar decides to go back to fetch his journal and the proofs as he had a nightmare that a polar bear destroyed the stack of stones and along with it, the proofs. Day 439, they reach the stack and find the journals and the proofs have barely survived. Day 471, the duo returns to their hut and find a note dated July 23, 1911, that a rescuer came looking and found no one there. Iver is livid and almost loses his mind. Iver blames Ejnar for not leaving a note behind. Ejnar destroys the last remaining sled.

Jorgensen argues with the minister that the hut found by the sailors was boarded up, hence someone had been there. The minister refuses to launch a rescue mission but agrees to advertise a generous reward for anyone who rescues them and brings them back.

day 793. summer arrives. Ejnar hallucinates that Naja has come to rescue him in a hot air balloon. Ejnar starts having regular hallucinations that Naja is with him, and he speaks to her like with a normal person. Ejnar gets a big boil on his neck and has Iver lance it for him with a knife. Iver jokingly says that he had sex with Naja in his dream. Ejnar takes it literally and in his dazed state, he tries to shoot Iver down, and misses. Day 865. They are finally rescued in 1912 by Jorgensen, who came with a ship.

An epilogue reveals Mikkelsen married Naja Holm (Heida Reed) a year later while Iversen never set foot in the Arctic again.