Black Crab: A Unique Post-Apocalyptic Film For The Ages

Directed by a Swedish man named Adam Berg, this movie is in fact a Swedish film. Its events take place in Sweden (I think), the actors are speaking Swedish, and they are fighting in a war as Swedish soldiers.

Not sold on the movie yet? That's understandable. Who wants to spend half the movie reading subtitles anyway?

Let it cook, and I’ll tell you.

The main character is a woman named Edh, played by actress Noomi Rapace. After a brief flashback of her and her daughter, we are introduced into the present world by a train stopping at what appears to be some kind of military encampment. But as we realize very quickly, this is not the world we are familiar with.

The buildings are gray and shabby, some of which are partially blown up.

There are broken-down cars and piles of rubbish in the street.

The people in the camp appear war-torn, dirty, and desperate.

Whatever happened to this place, it ruined everything.

Edh is then escorted, with a few hiccups, to the main headquarters of the military in this section of the country. This is where we meet our ragtag group of soldiers who don’t know each other. We’re told that in a few days, the enemy will prevail and we will lose the war unless our group is able to complete one last mission.

The mission is to physically ice skate behind enemy lines across the ice-covered Stockholm Archipelago to reach a research outpost. All in the effort to deliver two mysterious canisters claimed to be the key to winning the war, once and for all.

Oh, did I forget to mention that this world is virtually a frozen winter wasteland? It’s unclear whether or not this is a perpetual winter-type deal or a seasonal thing. But in the film, I got the distinct impression that things had been cold for a long time.

Despite this being a suicide mission and many of our team members being reluctant to go, they are forced to leave via the base being overrun by a mysterious enemy that isn’t named. As they skate across the archipelago, a member of the team falls through the ice and drowns, reminding us that the very ice being skated across is yet another enemy in this hostile and desolate world.

The team encounters many more issues with the ice, each other, and the unnamed enemy that always seems to be a whisper away. But I'm not gonna spoil anything else from here on out. Instead, I wanna talk about the four main reasons you should watch this movie.

Premise.

We have a group of soldiers in a post-apocalyptic winter wasteland ice skating behind enemy lines to deliver a mysterious package to a research lab in order to save the entire country from an enemy we don’t know. Need I really say more?

Mood.

The sad vibes of this place are off the charts. Everyone appears on edge, angry, tired, frustrated, or hurt throughout the majority of the story. This is a bold direction to take the film in, considering the real-life social standing of Sweden. Over the past ten years, Sweden has been in the top ten happiest countries in the entire world. At the time of making this movie, Sweden was in the top five. In addition to this, Sweden has not participated in any wars since 1814. Director Adam Berg did the equivalent of making a movie depicting a country like Sudan or Chad as the mecca for peace and prosperity. With that perspective, this whole movie becomes a quite fascinating look at how war, famine, and the darkest parts of human nature can corrupt an entire society and drag them down to a level of villainy that's unrecognizable to what we see in the real world.

World-building.

The background is a character in and of itself. There is a scene where someone is driving in a car, and we see a giant hole in the middle of a tall building. It’s neither explained nor elaborated on. There were multiple scenes like this that reminded me of the best post-apocalyptic movie of all time, Children of Men. Black Crab didn’t go as far or as hard as that movie did, but it was nice to see that the environment and overall background told a story of its own.

The political world of this film is really interesting too.

Of all the things that remained of Sweden after whatever collapse took place, their military somehow was one of those things. To the point that nobody in this universe is aware if there is even a government anymore. The only thing they all clearly know is that they are part of the military fighting to keep the enemy at bay. Despite this, they don’t seem to be held against their will or forced to fight by a tyrannical military faction. Instead, it feels like a great honor to serve. An honor that has worn its welcome on our main cast of characters. An honor that quickly turns to shame once they find out what the real objective of their mission is.

Intrigue.

There are many mysteries pertaining to the circumstances that led to the state of the world as we see it. We only get hints and clues as to what it might be, but it’s not confirmed in a way that we can confidently know. Normally, this may be frustrating, but the main cast of characters seem to feel the same sense of confusion as to what's really going on. They know the truth about it as well as we do.

All in all..

Its premise is like no other.

It's moody and introspective.

The world-building is well done.

It’s an intriguing film that takes what could be seen as a very silly idea and actually delivers a serious and engaging story that doesn’t hold our hand.

As the years pass and time moves on, this movie will be forgotten, as it seems to already have been. But hopefully, the few who have seen it and the few who do see it will remember it as a pretty good move.

I know I will.

But that’s just me.

Check it out for yourself.