Plot

In a post-apocalyptic world, six soldiers on a covert mission must transport a mysterious package across a frozen archipelago. Noomi Rapace stars.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, this Swedish action thriller follows six soldiers sent on a covert mission to transport a mysterious package across a frozen archipelago without knowing what dangers lie ahead or who - if anyone - they can trust.

This story surrounds a team of soldiers enlisted for a possible suicide mission to end a war. The movie opens with a scene in which Caroline Edh (Noomi Rapace) is in a car with her daughter Vanja (Stella Marcimain Klintberg), waiting in a traffic jam, when people are attacked. Vanja is abducted.

A few years later, Edh is a soldier traveling on a train. Upon disembarking, she's taken by a lieutenant Nylund to a base. On the way, Nylund drives Edh through a hostile neighborhood and strands her there. Edh manages to fight her way out.

After arriving at the base, she's taken for a briefing with Colonel Raad (David Dencik). She meets other soldiers (Granvik (Erik Enge), Karimi (Ardalan Esmaili), Nylund (Jakob Oftebro), Mailk (Dar Salim) & captain Forsberg (Aliette Opheim)) recruited for a special mission. The enemy forces have already taken out 3 military bases and are closing in on the HQ (where they are currently). Within a few days, the enemy will attack the HQ and the entire coastal territory will be lost. It's explained there's an ice-covered archipelago where the team must cross and deliver two packages to a research facility at the other end of the archipelago, which could lead to victory. This operation black crab. If they win, they can leave the army and do what they want. If they fail, all is lost. The team will skate across the ice as it is too thin for vehicles. Edh points out that this appears to be a suicide mission since it is behind enemy lines.

After the briefing, Edh is given a reason to try to make it, the chance to be reunited with her daughter, who has been found in a refugee camp, near the research facility. The team leaves the following day as the enemy starts bombing the HQ ahead of schedule. The team leaves on ice skates. Within moments, Forsberg plummets through the ice with the capsules, so Edh jumps in (she is the only one who does anything) after her to get them out, but Forsberg is frozen, and Edh leaves her beneath the ice. In danger of hypothermia, the group find a house on the next island and light a fire so Edh can recover. Edh confronts Nylund over command of the team after Forsberg died. The next morning, she spots Karimi using radio to try and contact another base. Soon after, enemy helicopters whir overhead and Edh suspects Karimi is a traitor, but he claims he was only trying to contact his girlfriend, a communications officer on the base they claim had been bombed. Still suspicious, the group remove his gun but don't kill him.

They manage to evade enemies and on the next island find another house being occupied by an older couple who feed them and seem generally affable, but when she bends down to pick up a fork she dropped, Edh spots a gun in a holster under the table. A shootout ensues in which Karimi is shot and killed, while Malik is also shot but claims it's just a scratch. Just then, the radio crackles to life and Karimi's girlfriend calls out for him; they lie to her and say he is still alive. While on their way to the next island, it is revealed that Malik's wound is far worse than he let on.

They take refuge in an abandoned ship, where the young Granvik opens a capsule to reveal a virus. Malik takes his own life rather than be dead weight, or die on the ice, *or* be complicit in bringing a deadly virus to a refugee camp. Spurred on by the desire to be reunited with her daughter, Edh continues on but gets stuck on a patch of thin ice. Granvik and Nylund are behind her though and after she throws the capsules to Nylund, they tow her in. They all soon come under enemy fire, but Granvik kills from a distance the man operating the machine gun and when they come upon the camp, they realize he was the last person left alive - the others are frozen corpses.

Granvik tells a creepy story and, eventually, they fall asleep. When Edh wakes, she realizes Nylund has escaped with the capsules. Before she can do anything, she and Granvik are attacked by at least ten men. They manage to kill most of them but before Edh can throw her last grenade, she's shot, dropping the grenade which Granvik throws himself on and dies. Distraught, she goes after Nylund, who says he is going to destroy the viruses by throwing them into the open ocean, which would prevent Edh from finding her daughter. Edh shoots Nylund (but doesn't kill him) and steals the virus.

She's soon happened upon by people on horseback who say the word black, to which she responds "crab" before passing out and waking later in a hospital on an oxygen machine. The doctor says that the shot to her stomach was severe but that she will recover, and they had to amputate some of her toes. They usher her to meet a commanding officer Admiral Nordh (Susan Taslimi) who promotes her and gives her two medals, but when Edh expresses only a desire to see her daughter, the commander reveals her daughter was never there and they lied to Edh to motivate her. Edh loses it and attacks the commander, but being the war hero she is, they only restrain her.

She spots Nylund, and later goes to him and says that he was right, and they need to destroy the virus. The government plans to release the virus to the refugees which would then spread through the world, effectively hitting a mass reset button while they - the higher-ups - hide out in the safety of their bunkers. Nylund says it's too late, but Edh is convinced they can use their status as war heroes to get into the lab and steal the virus. They manage to do so, but not without casualties and setting off the alarms. They're told by the scientists that to destroy the virus, they need to get it away from people, otherwise it'll infect the entire base.

They change into the hazmat suits of the scientists to escape on helicopters to dispose of the virus far away. On the way out to the helicopters, however, Edh's stitches open and it's clear she's badly injured. While Nylund is trying to secure them both seats on the helicopter, the commander arrives, guns drawn on Edh who reveals that she has a grenade, and the virus vials are attached to it.

The commander confirms Edh's suspicions about their plan to wipe out the majority of humanity (or at least Sweden's population) and begs Edh to consider her daughter. Edh says that's all she ever does and then jumps to her death, releasing the grenade in mid-air to safely destroy the virus as Nylund watches from the helicopter. The final shot is of Edh reuniting with her daughter under the water even though, in reality, Edh is in several bits after being blown up by the grenade.