MOVIE REVIEW – A desperate mother (Noomi Rapace) leads a group of soldiers across a frozen sea in Operation Black Crab, a war sci-fi thriller that paints a grimly dark future – eerily reminiscent of the horrific war that is taking place just across the border from us.

In this tense and visceral action thriller, Noomi Rapace goes from desperate mother to super-soldier. Black Cancer is set in a Sweden ravaged by a barbaric enemy. In the prequel, the country’s collapsing army sends a team across frozen sea ice in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide. The film starkly depicts the cruelty of war as innocents are brutally and mercilessly slaughtered in the frozen conflict.

If you have to kill

Former speed skating champion Caroline Edh (Rapace) flees in a car with her teenage daughter Vanja (Stella Marcimain Klintberg). They encounter enemy troops killing civilians. A sneering lieutenant, Nylund (Jakob Oftebro), scolds the small girl. Caroline quickly proves that she can kill if she has to. Sometime later, in a war-torn apocalypse, a very different Caroline is pulled from a refugee train. She finds her way to the “base”.

Colonel Raad (David Dencik) has assembled a team of six soldiers with the right skills for a top-secret mission, Operation Black Crab. They are about to be defeated by the enemy. Their only hope lies in taking two secret artefacts to a research base over a hundred miles away. The sea is frozen solid enough to skate across the ice, so they must travel through night and enemy territory. Granvik (Erik Enge), a young sniper, calls it suicide. Caroline initially refuses his order. Raad then shows her a picture of an elderly Vanja in a refugee camp near their destination. Nothing will stop Caroline from finding her beloved child.

Nothing is known about the murderous enemy

The Black Crab never reveals the enemy or their intentions. They are masked killers who indiscriminately bomb and shoot anyone who gets in their way. Cities lie in ruins as civilian survivors flee south to escape the carnage. Hunger and desperation are forcing drastic survival measures. Caroline, as she sleeps, recalls a life with her daughter and the events that led to Vanja’s disappearance, so we see the protagonist as a caring mother. The violence forced her to become a professional fighter.

Director/co-screenwriter Adam Berg scores an A in his feature debut. Black Crab has terrific cinematography and well-shot action sequences, which, thanks to Netflix’s pin-sharp 4K resolution and 5.1 sound (which I was able to appreciate with a pair of Pulse 3D headphones), are perfect. The gunplay in every scene is fast and incredibly relentless. Caroline’s team skates on black ice while dodging several hostile encounters. In one standout scene, they crawl while an enemy sniper lights up the darkness with flares. They dodge the fire, trying to establish the sniper’s position. The battlefield clashes are incredibly authentic, which gives this Swedish film a special credit – it can be compared to many other Hollywood films of its style today. Adam Berg is clearly a promising big-budget director.

Noomi Rapace at the top

Noomi Rapace continues to impress as an actor. She is ferocity and determination personified. We have seen her in action films before (such as the action thrillers Close and Armed and TV series), but in nothing as hardcore as this. Rapace evokes the vibe of Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: he slashes bad guys, throws grenades and shoots them in the head like a seasoned pro. It’s clear that Rapace owns this movie: she’s believable as the toughest character.

However, the final act of Operation Black Crab takes a slightly unexpected turn. It makes sense, but it feels a bit disappointing; although I have no major problem with the conclusion of the story, it just feels a bit abrupt after such an arduous journey.

It’s all too real…

The most compelling part of the film is that it’s in line – unfortunately – with the terrible headlines of today. Russia’s bloody and brutal invasion of Ukraine has forced civilians to defend their country. How many mothers took up arms as their children fought off artillery, rockets and bombs? The story of the Black Crab is entirely fictional, but it is also the story of a catastrophic war in Europe – just as in Ukraine, which the whole world is watching in horror.

-BadSector-