Snowy cinema: Top winter flicks

TORONTO – Stuck inside while the snow piles up outside? Settle into the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and stay warm with any of these movies that take place either in the snow or during a snowstorm.

Not surprisingly, a lot the movies on the list were filmed in Canada.

• Whiteout (2009) stars Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. Marshal tracking a killer at a research station in Antarctica just as a big snowstorm hits. It was shot in and around Winnipeg and Montreal.

• Alive (1993) is based on the true story of members of the Uruguayan rugby team who survived a plane crash in the snowy Andes Mountains for two months by eating their dead teammates. The mountains of B.C. stood in for the Andes.

• The Shining (1980) stars Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall as a couple taking care of a remote hotel for the winter. Based on a Stephen King novel, it stands as one of the all-time great creepy movies.

• Snow Day (2000) has Chevy Chase and Chris Elliott caught in the comedic chaos that ensues when a school is snowed-in.

• The early scenes in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) take place in the snow and ice of the Planet Hoth – aka Norway – where creatures include the all-weather Wampas.

• The Thing (1982) stars Kurt Russell as the leader of a group of researchers in Antarctica battling an alien force during a blizzard. The classic John Carpenter-helmed flick was mostly made in British Columbia. A remake of The Thing (2011) starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead was filmed in B.C., at Toronto’s Pinewood Studios, and at CFB Trenton in Ontario.

• Snow Dogs (2002) boasts Cuba Gooding Jr., Sisqo and lots of Huskies in the snow. It’s a comedy about a Florida dentist who travels to Alaska to claim his mother’s inheritance – a pack of sled dogs. Both B.C. and Alberta stand-in for Alaska in the movie.

• The snow-covered Fargo (1996) features William H. Macy and Frances McDormand in a tale about a fake kidnapping that goes horribly wrong.

• Director Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan (1998) is a thriller about three friends who find $4 million and decide to hide it for the winter. But the harsh weather combined with their greed causes all sorts of problems. The flick stars Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton.

• 30 Days of Night (2007) is set in Alaska when the sun goes down for a month and follows a sheriff (Josh Hartnett) fighting off vampires. Whiteout conditions give the humans a chance to escape the carnage.

• Dead Snow (2009) is a gruesome movie about a group of medical students staying at an isolated cabin in Norway who are haunted – and killed off – by the ghosts of Nazis who once occupied the area.

• Virtually all of Die Hard 2 (1990), takes place during a snowstorm at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. as Bruce Willis, as Det. John McClane, tries to defeat terrorists who have taken over air traffic control.

• The Day After Tomorrow (2004), filmed mostly in Montreal, is about a paleoclimatologist (Dennis Quaid) who treks across the country to get to his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) during a storm that plunges the world into a new Ice Age.

• The made-in-Ontario flop Dead of Winter (1987) stars Mary Steenburgen as a wannabe actress who goes to a remote cabin in the winter hoping to land a big part, only to be held captive by a pair of crazy men.

• Dreamcatcher (2003), filmed in B.C., is about a four childhood friends stuck during a blizzard at a cabin in the woods of Maine who must deal with infections, the military, aliens and Morgan Freeman.

• Another movie that takes place at an airport during a snowstorm is Airport (1970). George Kennedy plays an airport manager trying to keep things running smoothly during a blizzard.

• The Edge (1997) is a survival story starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin that was shot in B.C. and Alberta. When their small plane crashes in the mountains, the mind games begin.

• Cold Mountain (2003) stars Jude Law as a wounded confederate soldier on a perilous voyage through lots of snow to reunite with the love of his life, Ada (Nicole Kidman).

• Vertical Limit (2000) has lots of snow because it’s about a climber (Chris O’Donnell” who risks his life and battles the elements to rescue a team of climbers atop the world’s second highest mountain peak.

• In Groundhog Day (1993), Bill Murray plays a weatherman who has to live the same day over and over again… in February.

• Emile Hirsch stars in Into the Wild (2007), the true story of a top student who gave everything away and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

• Shot in Brandon, Manitoba, Wrong Turn 4 (2011) follows a group of young people stranded in an abandoned sanatorium during a snow storm.

• Paul Walker stars in Eight Below (2006), the story of a sled dog trainer forced to leave his dogs behind when a huge snowstorm hits. The dogs are forced to fend for themselves while he tries to organize a rescue mission.