Cold Pursuit
U.S. theatrical release poster
Directed byHans Petter Moland
Written byFrank Baldwin
Based onIn Order of Disappearance
by Kim Fupz Aakeson
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPhilip Øgaard
Edited byNicolaj Monberg
Music byGeorge Fenton
Production
companies
Distributed bySummit Entertainment
Lionsgate[2] (United States)
Elevation Pictures[3]
Entract Films[3] (Canada)
SF Studios[2] (Scandinavia)
StudioCanal (International)[2]
Release date
  • February 8, 2019 (2019-02-08) (United States)
Running time
118 minutes[4]
CountriesUnited States[1][5]
United Kingdom[5]
Canada[5]
France[5][1]
China[5]
Germany[5]
Norway[5][1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million[6]
Box office$76.3 million[2]

Cold Pursuit is a 2019 action thriller film[7][8][9] directed by Hans Petter Moland from a screenplay by Frank Baldwin. An international co-production, the film stars Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, John Doman, and Laura Dern. It is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten), also directed by Moland, and follows a brooding and vengeful snowplow driver (Neeson) who starts killing the members of a drug cartel following the murder of his son.

The film was released in the United States on February 8, 2019, by Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment. It grossed $76 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Neeson and Jackson's performances, action sequences and dark humor.[10]

Plot

After being awarded Citizen of the Year by the fictional ski resort of Kehoe, Colorado, snowplow driver Nels Coxman's quiet life is disrupted when his son dies from a forced heroin overdose. He learns that his son was murdered by a Denver drug cartel. He decides to seek vigilante justice, makes a sawed-off rifle, and kills three members of the cartel, dumping their bodies in a nearby river. Nels's wife Grace (angry at her husband's seemingly cold lack of grief) leaves him.

The cartel's psychopathic drug lord, Trevor "Viking" Calcote, first suspects that these deaths are the work of his rival White Bull, a Ute with whom he has so far avoided conflict. Viking has one of Bull's gangsters murdered, not knowing it is White Bull's only son. This drives White Bull to seek vengeance, and he orders his men to kidnap Viking's young son Ryan in retaliation, which starts a gang war. Nels seeks advice from his brother Brock, once a mob enforcer known as Wingman, and learns about Viking. Brock tells Nels that killing Viking requires a hired assassin, and he recommends a transplanted hitman known as "The Eskimo". The Eskimo agrees to kill Viking for Nels' US$90,000, but decides he can get another US$90,000 from Viking by informing him that Coxman has hired him for the hit.

Viking does not appreciate the Eskimo's "lack of professional ethics" and subsequently kills him. He thinks the Eskimo meant Brock Coxman, and he takes Brock in his car. Since Brock is dying of colorectal cancer, he claims responsibility for the hits to protect his brother. Viking tries in vain to stop the gang war by using one of his own men (Dexter) as a scapegoat and sending White Bull the man's head. This is insufficient to placate White Bull, who shoots the messenger. Meanwhile, Nels kidnaps Ryan from his prep school before White Bull's men can do so, in order to draw Viking into an ambush. Nels treats the boy well and protects him from the violence to come. Nels' identity is revealed to Viking by the prep school's janitor. Though promised US$10,000 for the tip, he too is killed after his disclosure.

Nels calls Viking and tells him to come to his house alone, and when Viking says it will take him 3 hours, Nels takes Ryan with him to work. While Viking was lying, as he already knew Nels' address and was minutes away, he finds the house empty; his men toss the place to find clues about the kidnapper. While Nels teaches Ryan how to drive the snow equipment, Viking's men find out where Nels works and heads out. Mustang, silently grieving over Dexter's senseless death, tips off the Ute.

Both parties arrive at the company site, and most of them are killed in the ensuing shootout. Viking, attempting to drive away, is trapped when Nels uses heavy machinery to impale Viking's car with a shorn tree trunk, allowing White Bull to shoot Viking in the chest. He dies when found by Kehoe police detectives Kimberly Dash and Gip. Detective Dash spots Ryan driving an industrial snow blower in the direction of Kehoe, but Dash elects not to follow. As Nels leaves the property in his snowplow to continue his work, White Bull jumps into the cab; after initially holding Nels at gunpoint, the two men drive away together with both being satisfied for having avenged their respective children's death. The scene ends after Avalanche accidentally flies into the snowplow, being minced to death and shredded to bits.

Cast

  • Liam Neeson as Nels Coxman
  • Tom Bateman as Trevor "Viking" Calcote
  • Tom Jackson as White Bull Legrew
  • Emmy Rossum as Kim Dash, a Kehoe police officer
  • Domenick Lombardozzi as Mustang, a senior enforcer for Viking
  • Julia Jones as Aya, Viking's Ute former wife and mother of his son
  • John Doman as John "Gip" Gipsky, Kim's partner
  • Laura Dern as Grace, Nels' wife
  • Aleks Paunovic as Detective Osgard
  • William Forsythe as Brock "Wingman" Coxman, Nels' brother and a former hitman for Viking's father
  • Raoul Trujillo as Giles "Thorpe" Wills, a member of the Ute people and enforcer for White Bull
  • Benjamin Hollingsworth as Tycho "Dexter" Hammel, an enforcer for Viking and Mustang's secret lover
  • Michael Eklund as Steve "Speedo" Milliner
  • Bradley Stryker as Jacob "Limbo" Rutman
  • David O'Hara as Gallum "Sly" Ferrante, an enforcer for Viking
  • Christopher Logan as Ameet "Shiv" Anand
  • Nathaniel Arcand as Fredrick "Smoke" Alycott
  • Ben Cotton as Timothy "Windex" Denois
  • Micheál Richardson as Kyle Coxman, Nels' son
  • Mitchell Saddleback as Clement "Avalanche" Skenadore
  • Manna Nichols as Minya, a secretary at White Bull's headquarters
  • Arnold Pinnock as Leighton "The Eskimo" Deeds
  • Wesley MacInnes as Dante Ferstel
  • Elysia Rotaru as Diner Waitress
  • Nicholas Holmes as Ryan Calcote, Viking's son
  • Michael Adamthwaite as Jeff "Santa" Christensen
  • Elizabeth Thai as Ahn, Brock's wife
  • Gus Halper as Anton "Bone" Dinckel
  • Kyle Nobess as Simon "Baby Hawk" Legrew, White Bull's son
  • Glen Gould as Duane "War Dog" Michell
  • Glenn Wrage as Kurt (voice)
  • Michael Bean as Parson
  • Nels Lennarson as Chuck Schalm, the janitor at Ryan's school

Production

The participation of actor Liam Neeson, director Hans Petter Moland and producers Michael Shamberg and StudioCanal in making the film, originally titled Hard Powder, was announced in January 2017.[11] In March 2017, Domenick Lombardozzi, Emmy Rossum, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Laura Dern, William Forsythe, Julia Jones, and John Doman joined the cast of the film.[12][13][14][15][16][17] The next month, Aleks Paunovic joined.[18]

Principal photography began in March 2017, in Alberta, Canada. Filming also took place in Vancouver and Fernie, British Columbia,[19] and around Winnipeg and Gimli, Manitoba.[20] While Moland had hoped to shoot in the Banff and Jasper national parks, the permit was denied by Parks Canada, which cited concerns about the film's environmental impact, and over the depiction of the First Nations gangsters led by Tom Jackson's character. Jackson provided a letter in support of the project.[21]

Release

In November 2017, Lionsgate acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[22] Its title was changed from Hard Powder to Cold Pursuit,[23] and it was released on February 8, 2019 in the United States,[24] and February 22 in the United Kingdom. The film's February 5, 2019, red carpet premiere was cancelled because of comments made by Neeson the previous day, regarding a past incident in his life, which some interpreted as racist.[25]

The film was released on Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital download in the United States on May 14, 2019 by Lionsgate Films. The (Region A) Blu-ray is released as a 2-disc Blu-ray and DVD package.[26] Studio Canal released it in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2019.[27]

Reception

Box office

Cold Pursuit grossed $32.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $44.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $76.2 million, against a production budget of $60 million.[2]

In the United States and Canada, Cold Pursuit was released alongside What Men Want, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and The Prodigy, and was projected to gross $7–10 million from 2,630 theaters in its opening weekend.[28] It made $3.6 million on its first day, including $540,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $11 million, finishing third, behind The Lego Movie 2 and What Men Want.[29][30] In its second weekend the film fell 45% to $6 million, finishing sixth,[31] and then $3.3 million in its third weekend, finishing eighth.[32]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 68% based on 186 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cold Pursuit delivers the action audiences expect from a Liam Neeson thriller -- along with humor and a sophisticated streak that make this an uncommonly effective remake."[33] It was also included in the site's list of the best action films of 2019.[34] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[35] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 3 out of 5 stars and a 42% "definite recommend".[30][36]

Chris Nashawaty, writing for Entertainment Weekly, delivered a positive review, grading it a "B+":

If [Cold Pursuit] sounds like murder-by-numbers Liam Neeson Mad Libs, well, it kind of is. But what sets Cold Pursuit apart from its predecessors is its tone. It has the jokey, self-amused vibe of an Elmore Leonard novel or one of those arch, wannabe Tarantino knock-offs that sprouted up like toadstools in the wake of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and were quickly forgotten. It knows exactly what kind of movie it is, but that doesn't stand in the way of it goosing its bloodbath set pieces with irreverent, off-kilter gallows humor.[37]

Richard Roeper, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, praised the film, awarding it 3.5 out of 4 stars:

As characters with nicknames such as Sly and Mustang and Smoke and War Dog and Shiv and Drayno enter and often quickly exit the picture, Cold Pursuit moves forward with the assured and deliberate force of Nels' massive snowplow. And with Neeson/Nels at the wheel, Cold Pursuit is one fantastically hot mess of a movie.[38]

Accolades

Cold Pursuit was nominated for Best Action or Adventure Film at the 45th Saturn Awards, losing to Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Controversy

Liam Neeson was accused of racism after an interview with The Independent at a press junket for the film, published in February 2019.[39][40] Neeson explained his character's "primal" anger to the interviewer by recounting an experience he had many years ago. A woman close to him said she had been raped by a stranger, and Neeson asked what color skin the attacker had; after learning the attacker was black, Neeson said that for about a week, he "went up and down areas with a cosh ... hoping some 'black bastard' would come out of a pub and have a go" so that Neeson "could kill him". In the interview, Neeson also said he was "ashamed" to recount the experience and that it was "horrible" that he did what he did. "It's awful ... but I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, 'What the fuck are you doing?'"[41][42]

In an appearance on Good Morning America, Neeson elaborated on his experience while denying being a racist, saying the incident occurred nearly 40 years ago, that he asked for physical attributes of the rapist other than race, that he would have done the same if the rapist was "a Scot or a Brit or a Lithuanian", that he had purposely gone into "black areas of the city", and that he "did seek help" from a priest after coming to his senses. Neeson said that the lesson of his experience was "to open up, to talk about these things", as there was still underlying "racism and bigotry" in both the United States and Northern Ireland. The controversy of Neeson's comments led to the cancellation of the red carpet event for the premiere of the film.[43][44][45]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cold Pursuit (2019)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cold Pursuit (2019)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Cold Pursuit". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Cold Pursuit". AMC Theatres. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Cold Pursuit (2019) – Hans Petter Moland". AllMovie. Archived from the original on May 24, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  6. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (February 10, 2019). "Weekend Box Office: 'Lego Movie 2' Wins With $35M in Hollow Victory". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 28, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Overlooked 4-Year-Old Action Thriller Starring Liam Neeson Becomes Netflix Hit". Screenrant. Retrieved October 31, 2023. Cold Pursuit, an action thriller from 2019 starring Liam Neeson, has found new life by becoming a hit on Netflix.
  8. ↑ "Cold Pursuit". Lionsgate. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2020. Cold Pursuit, an action thriller infused with irreverent humor, stars Liam Neeson as Nels Coxman, a family man whose quiet life with his wife (Laura Dern) is upended following the mysterious death of their son.
  9. ↑ "'Cold Pursuit' Ending Explained: Does Nels Get His Revenge?". Collider. Retrieved November 5, 2023. Neeson's performance in the 2019 action thriller Cold Pursuit ended up being an outlier in his action resume, thanks to its morbid sense of humor and more extreme ultra violence.
  10. ↑ Nick Evans (January 31, 2019). "How Liam Neeson's Cold Pursuit Is Faring With Critics". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  11. ↑ Lee, Ashley (January 31, 2017). "Liam Neeson to Star in Revenge Thriller 'Hard Powder'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  12. ↑ Pederson, Erik (March 14, 2017). "Domenick Lombardozzi Joins 'Hard Powder'; Amy Forsyth Cast In 'Beautiful Boy'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ Busch, Anita (March 15, 2017). "Emmy Rossum Joining Liam Neeson In 'Hard Powder'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  14. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (March 16, 2017). "Benjamin Hollingsworth Cast In Thriller 'Hard Powder'; Malina Moye Signs Up For 'The Samuel Project'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  15. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (March 24, 2017). "Laura Dern Set To Co-Star In Hans Petter Moland's Thriller 'Hard Powder'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  16. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (March 28, 2017). "Scott Adkins To Star In Indie Thriller 'Incoming'; Julia Jones Boards 'Hard Powder'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  17. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (March 29, 2017). "John Doman Joins 'Hard Powder'; Alessandra Ambrosio Returns For 'Daddy's Home' Sequel". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  18. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (April 5, 2017). "Aleks Paunovic Books Two Roles; Catherine Siggins Lands 'The Samuel Project'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Hard Powder with Liam Neeson Starts Filming in British Columbia". Whats Filming. April 10, 2017. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  20. ↑ Rosen, Kayla (December 13, 2019). "New movie starring Liam Neeson to be filmed in Manitoba beginning in February". Winnipeg. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Parks Canada rejects movie shoot in Rockies after learning of First Nations character". CBC News. March 8, 2017. Archived from the original on May 7, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  22. ↑ Hopewell, John; Keslassy, Elsa (November 2, 2017). "AFM: Lionsgate Takes U.S. on Studiocanal's 'Hard Powder,' 'Shaun the Sheep 2,' 'The Mercy' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  23. ↑ Sharf, Zack (October 25, 2018). "'Cold Pursuit' Trailer: Liam Neeson Goes to Battle Against a Rocky Mountain Drug Cartel". IndieWire. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  24. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 16, 2018). "Liam Neeson Snowplow Action Pic 'Hard Powder' To Make Trails This Winter; Charlize Theron-Seth Rogen Comedy 'Flarsky' Heads To Summer". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 23, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  25. ↑ "Liam Neeson's 'Cold Pursuit' red carpet canceled after he reveals racist revenge story". USA Today. February 5, 2019. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  26. ↑ Cold Pursuit Blu-ray Archived April 27, 2019, at the Wayback Machine | United States | Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy Lionsgate Films | 2019 | 119 min | Rated R | May 14, 2019
  27. ↑ Cold Pursuit Blu-Ray | United Kingdom | Studio Canal | 2019 | 119 min | Rated BBFC: 15 | June 24, 2019
  28. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 5, 2018). "'The Lego Movie 2' Will Put The Box Office Back Together Again With $50M+ Opening". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  29. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for February 8-10, 2019 – Box Office Mojo". www.boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  30. 1 2 D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 10, 2018). "'Lego Movie 2' Comes Apart With $34M+ Opening; 'What Men Want' Solid With $18M+ In Another Blasé B.O. Weekend". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 18, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  31. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 16, 2019). "'Alita's Agita At The Domestic B.O.: James Cameron Production Headed To $37M+ 5-Day". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 17, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  32. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 24, 2018). "'How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' Ablaze With $55M+ Franchise Record Opening & Second Best February Animated Pic Debut". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 22, 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  33. ↑ "Cold Pursuit (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. February 8, 2019. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  34. ↑ "THE BEST ACTION MOVIES OF 2019". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  35. ↑ "Cold Pursuit reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  36. ↑ "Find CinemaScore" (Type "Cold Pursuit" in the search box). CinemaScore. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
  37. ↑ Nashawaty, Chris (January 28, 2019). "Cold Pursuit (2019)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  38. ↑ Roeper, Richard (January 31, 2019). "'Cold Pursuit': In the crisp winter air, Liam Neeson makes revenge a riot". Chicago Sun Times. Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  39. ↑ "Liam Neeson sparks race row over rape comments". BBC News. February 4, 2019. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  40. ↑ Rodrigo, Chris (February 4, 2019). "Liam Neeson faces accusations of racism after rape comments". The Hill. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  41. ↑ Michallon, Clémence (February 4, 2019). "Liam Neeson: 'I walked the streets with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by a "black bastard" so that I could kill him'". The Independent. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  42. ↑ Michallon, Clémence (February 4, 2019). "Liam Neeson interview: Rape, race and how I learnt revenge doesn't work". The Independent. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  43. ↑ Blistein, Jon (February 5, 2019). "Liam Neeson Talks Racist Revenge Fantasy on 'Good Morning America'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  44. ↑ Sherpard, Jack. "Liam Neeson interview: Actor denies being racist after admitting wanting to kill a black man". The Independent. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  45. ↑ "Red carpet nixed after Liam Neeson reveals racist thoughts". Associated Press. February 5, 2019. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
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