20 Coldest Movies Ever Made

Those cold winter days are right around the corner and to celebrate the release of Disney's Frozen we've bundled together 20 of the coldest movies ever made. Are there any other movies you would add to this list?

Fargo

It's kind of stunning that this Oscar-winning Coen Bros. feature set in Minnesota and North Dakota was made almost 20 years ago. Frances McDormand won an Oscar for her performance as local police chief Marge Gunderson, who also happens to be seven months pregnant. When William H. Macy's Minneapolis car salesman falls into debt, he seeks assistance from a couple of criminals - a decision which puts into motion a series of murders and Steve Buscemi getting stuffed into a wood chipper.

Frozen

Before Disney spun their tale of a princess who sets off to convince her magical sister that it's not okay to plunge the local village into eternal winter, there was this stranded-on-a-snow-lift suspense film from 2010. If you've ever been to a ski resort, the thought of being stuck on your lift has surely crossed your mind. In Frozen, three friends end up having to make a life-or-death decision as temperatures begin to plummet and wolves begin to haunt them from the nearby trees.

The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's classic starring Jack Nicholson may not immediately register as one of the coldest movies on record, but with a conclusion that finds Jack Torrance as a human popsicle forever trapped with his delusions, The Shining is certainly one of the most chilling movies ever made. After settling in to look after a remote hotel, Jack Torrance (Nicholson) gradually comes under the influence of a supernatural presence and descends into madness.

The Thing

Before there was the T-1000, there was the shape-shifting alien from John Carpenter's 1981 classic, The Thing. Led by Kurt Russell, a group of scientists in the Antarctic must figure out a way to terminate the threat. The only thing colder than Carpenter's alien horror flick was movie audience's reception of the 2011 remake.

Alive

The side of the snow swept Andes Mountains is not exactly the ideal place to be stranded after a plane crash. Yet Ethan Hawke and the rest of his Uruguayan rugby team are forced to resort to desperate measures in order to survive in this 1993 Emmy-winning movie.

A Simple Plan

Three blue collar folks come across millions of dollars in lost cash and scheme to keep the money away from the authorities. Billy bob Thornton, Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda star in Sam Raimi's snow-covered crime thriller which earned Thornton an Oscar nomination.

Ice Age

Fox and Blue Sky Studios have released four Ice Age movies in the course of a decade and while we could highlight each of them in this gallery (they all have Ice in the title after all), we're picking the film that launched the franchise. Set during the Ice Age, the first film centered on a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a wooly mammoth. The trio find a lost human infant and set off on a journey to return him to his tribe. The box office for the first film was anything but cold, raking in $383 million. The franchise has made a toasty $2.8 billion worldwide so far.

30 Days of Night

A gang of bloodthirsty vampires attack an Alaskan town that has plunged into darkness due to an annual polar night phenomenon in which the sun sets for a month. It's up to Josh Hartnett to protect his siblings and seven other survivors while they fend off the vamps.

Let The Right One In

Based on a Swedish novel, the original film adaptation centers on a 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a vampire child. The adaptation received the Hollywood treatment starring Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee in 2010.

Cliffhanger

A year after his friend died mountain climbing, Sylvester Stallone's Gabe is asked to return to the same mountain range in the Rockies to rescue a group of stranded people. The catch is these people are actually looking for three boxes filled with millions of dollars and need a mountain ranger to lead them. Cue Stallone butt-kicking.

Eight Below

Paul Walker took time off being Vin Diesel's running partner in this Disney film about two explorers who are forced to abandon their sled dogs in the brutal cold. The film was a remake of the 1983 Japanese movie South Pole Story which was based on the true story of an ill-fated Japanese expedition in 1958. Eight Below adapts the events of the 1958 expedition but moves the year up to 1993.

The Grey

If you've got to put your money on an actor to survive in the Alaskan wilderness, Liam Neeson is a good choice. Neeson continues his tough guy roles as a man who kills wolves who threaten an oil drilling team. Suicidal, he doesn't follow through on plans to kill himself and the next day boards a plane with a team of oilmen, only to crash in a heavy blizzard. With signs of help becoming increasingly unlikely, Neeson leads a group of survivors as they fight off wolves and the bitter cold.

The Day After Tomorrow

Years after he destroyed parts of the world with Independence Day, Godzilla and Eight-Legged Freaks, director Roland Emmerich unleashed the superstorm of all movie superstorms on the world. At the center of Emmerich's disaster-piece is Dennis Quaid, a NORAD scientist who makes a cross-country trek to reach his son (Jake Gyllenhall) as a superstorm barrels down on them ready to plunge the planet into a new Ice Age.

Snow Dogs

Eight sled dogs in a Disney movie? Is this a remake of Eight Below? Not exactly. For one, our lead actor has been swapped from Paul Walker to Cuba Gooding Jr. and this isn't exactly a life-or-death type movie. Instead, Snow Dogs centers on a Miami dentist (Gooding) who inherits a team of sled dogs. In order to keep them, he's got to learn the trade or he'll lose his pack to a grumpy mountain man (James Coburn).

Whiteout

Kate Beckinsale is tracking down a killer in the Antarctic and it's a race against time as the sun is about to set for six months. With a face that's basically immune to freezer burn, Beckinsale's U.S. Marshal character delves into a secret diamond smuggling operation. If you get tired of all the cold in this movie, there's a shower scene with Beckinsale that should help heat things up a bit.

Transsiberian

While casual TV and movie viewers are just starting to discover Kate Mara thanks to her roles on House of Cards and film work in Shooter and 127 Hours, she really shines in the Brad Anderson thriller co-starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Eduardo Noriega and Ben Kingsley. Deception and murder ensue as an American couple encounter a mysterious pair of fellow travelers on a Trans-Siberian train journey from China to Moscow.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

The second installment and fifth chapter in this now seemingly endless movie franchise visited the snow-covered, Wampa-infested planet of Hoth. Serving as a temporary base of the Rebellion, following the destruction of the Death Star, the scenes were actually shot in a remote region of Norway and near an iceberg. Good thing Princess Leia had her form-fitting snowsuit.

Vertical Limit

When his sister and her crew get trapped in a crevice on the world's second tallest mountain, K2, Chris O'Donnell and his team set off on an action-packed rescue mission. They enlist the help of experienced climber and K2 expert Montgomery Wick (Scott Glenn). While the rescue is eventually accomplished, only one of the two men in this picture survives.

Wind Chill

If you're driving home from Penn U. to Wilmington, Delaware, stay off of Route 606. Unfortunately for Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes, their short cut turns into a nightmare when their car breaks down on a deserted stretch of road. To make matters worse, they're being haunted by ghosts of people who have died on the route. Now that's chilling!