Icelandic lawyer Kristin gets drawn into the vortex of an international conspiracy when she receives footage of an airplane wreck, recently revealed by the melting of one of Iceland’s largest glaciers. The old German World War II plane not only brings ruthless criminals onto the scene but also CIA director William Carr, who has been secretly trying to remove the wreck for a long time.
The first book and movie to come to mind while watching “Operation Napoleon,” was Robert Ludlum’s “The Bourne Identity.” While our lead protagonist, Kristín (Vivian Ólafsdóttir), doesn’t come into the film with a severe case of amnesia and then discover she is a spy who was highly trained and skilled in hand-to-hand combat, she does have to maneuver around an intricate chain of events that will take her all around her homeland of Iceland, trying to unravel a mysterious Nazi conspiracy that has been buried in the ice for almost 80 years.
After a long day at work, Kristín, a lawyer, comes home to video footage and photos sent to her from her brother Elías (Atli Óskar Fjalarsson), documenting an airplane wreck that he discovered while exploring vatnajökull glacier with two friends. When a mysterious woman shoots and kills his friends, he tries to flee but doesn’t get far. After dropping his phone while trying to escape, she sees that he sent Kristín video and photo files of the plane and takes him hostage. At the same time, an assassin, Simon (Wotan Wilke Möhring), is dispatched to silence Kristín before she tells anybody else.
She escapes Simon’s clutches in her apartment and quickly disappears into the cold Icelandic night. She teams up with an old ex, Steve (Jack Fox), an English journalist with connections everywhere, and together, they solve a decades-old rumor about a German World War II plane that left Germany in 1945 for an unknown destination, supposedly carrying something top-secret. This object could have changed the course of the war, something called Operation Napoleon. But it never reached its intended destination.
“Operation Napoleon” is not the greatest espionage film to hit the silver screen, but it utilizes the most significant thing going for it; its Icelandic setting. Despite the story taking place on Vatnajökull, “Operation Napoleon” was actually shot on Langjökull, Iceland’s second-largest glacier. The movie never resorts to cheesy greenscreen backgrounds, it was shot entirely on location, and as a result, it elevates the film exponentially. Cinematographer Árni Filippusson captures Iceland’s vast and beautiful expanses in great detail, and you can literally feel the crunch of snow under characters’ feet and the bitter chill emanating from the screen, something you’d never experience with a greenscreen background.
Vivian Ólafsdóttir as the movie’s heroine, Kristín, brings the right amount of confidence and courageousness to her role. She never turns into a superhero or Wonder Woman; she keeps her eyes squarely on the prize, the release of her brother Elías, and will do anything to rescue him. Jack Fox, as her ex, Steve, has the smarts required for them to navigate the international subterfuge they find themselves in, while “Game of Thrones” alumni Iain Glen, the story’s central antagonist, sneers and smirks with an overcooked American accent that thankfully never veers into parody, although it sometimes comes close.
“Operation Napoleon” has a gripping story that keeps you guessing to the end what the film’s McGuffin is. Instead of some far-fetched alien conspiracy that could’ve worked if it were a different type of movie, it is finally revealed in the last act, and although it is purely fictional, it does make you wonder. The film’s finale is left open to a possible continuation, but I never felt like this was a setup for a franchise, just a good old-fashioned espionage thriller that keeps you invested from beginning to end.
In Theaters and on VOD Friday, August 11th
