If there’s one thing that every audience member has a reasonable right to demand from a movie with “Ice Road” in the title, it’s ice roads. That’s probably why “The Ice Road” succeeded enough to merit a sequel in the first place. Jonathan Hensleigh’s 2021 film starred Liam Neeson in one of his off-the-rack late-career action performances as a grizzled trucker who agrees to drive across a frozen lake to rescue a group of miners from a collapsing mine. But Hensleigh’s new sequel, “Ice Road: Vengeance,” doesn’t live up to the branding quite as well.
Save for one brief mountainside drive, “Ice Road: Vengeance” doesn’t contain nearly enough ice roads to satisfy anyone who has been itching for more slippery chase scenes since 2021. The film does offer more than its fair share of vengeance, so there’s really no grounds to claim false advertising. But the sequel’s divergence from the very thing that made its predecessor notable is severe enough to raise the question of why they needed to be connected at all. “Vengeance” basically amounts to an overly long standalone Neeson action flick that just barely clears the bar of adequacy. There’s probably an audience for it, but anyone hoping for a bigger and better version of the first film would be better off drowning their sorrows by bingeing old seasons of “Ice Road Truckers.”
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Like “The Ice Road” before it, the emotional core of this film lies in the relationship between Neeson’s Mike McCann and his army veteran brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas). While much of the first film revolved around Mike trying to protect the PTSD-addled Gurty from a world that was determined to be cruel to him, the sequel picks up with Mike trying to make sense of life after his brother’s death. Gurty didn’t live long enough to achieve his lifelong dream of climbing Mount Everest, but he made Mike promise to scatter his ashes at its summit to ensure he could get there in death. A dutiful brother until the very end, Mike buys a one-way ticket to Nepal and reluctantly agrees to pack his ashes in a TSA-approved container.
Upon arriving in Katmandu, Mike links up with Dhani Yangchen (Fan Bingbing), a local guide with whom he strikes an instant connection. But as they take a tour bus to the base of Everest on the infamous “Road to the Sky,” the bus is attacked by mercenaries. Because Liam Neeson apparently made a deal with Satan to ensure that none of his cinematic alter egos ever know a moment of peace, Mike finds himself at the heart of a battle between a Nepali village and the corrupt politicians and developers who are determined to destroy its ecosystem by building a new hydroelectric dam. Mike is initially forced to drive the bus and fight off bad guys to preserve his own safety, but his connection to the locals grows until he has something bigger than himself to fight for.
On its own terms, “Ice Road: Vengeance” is not a terrible movie. Neeson’s mediations on finding ways to grieve without putting your entire life on hold offer more emotional depth than you’re likely to find in any direct-to-VOD action movie with “Vengeance” in its title. Bingbing’s character serves a similar function to Amber Midthunder’s Tantoo from the first movie, and the Chinese star enhances the film with a sold mix of compassion and badass combat skills. The film is far too long without offering enough spectacle to justify watching Neeson half-ass his way through yet another crusty action role, but he’s certainly been in worse.
The most befuddling thing about “Ice Road: Vengeance” is the fact that it’s branded as a sequel to “The Ice Road” in the first place. The only real connective tissue between the films is the continuation of Mike’s grief journey, but it’s hard to argue there was more to explore in the “Liam Neeson plays a grizzled old man with a heart of gold underneath the rough exterior” archetype that we didn’t see in every other film the actor has released in the past four years.
The film’s existence seems to rely on a bet that someone out there was dying to see a few more minutes of Gurty flashbacks. If that’s you, you’re in for a great weekend at the movies.
Grade: C
A Vertical release, “Ice Road: Vengeance” opens in theaters on Friday, July 27 and on VOD on July 1st.
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