Troll takes old Norwegian mythology about trolls, mixes it in with modern day science, and creates a thriller that is a mix of science and fantasy. Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) is a scientist who studies fossils. She gets called in to help with something inexplicable.
When Troll begins, we see a young Nora and her father, Tobias Tidemann (Gard B. Eidsvold), rock climbing their way to a perfect view of troll mountain. They talk about the old tales and remember the folklore about trolls.
Jump to the current time. Engineers are blasting a tunnel through a mountain. Their destruction of the mountain awakens something gigantic and apparently made of stone. The whatever-it-is comes out of the mountain in a very bad mood.
A team in Oslo that includes military, government, the Prime Minister (Anneke von der Lippe), and anyone else who might be helpful convenes. They send the PM’s assistant Andreas Isaksen (Kim Falck) to get Nora. Nora is currently digging up fossils on a muddy beach and doesn’t know why she’s whisked away to Oslo.
They sit around dreaming up crazy explanations for what they can clearly see is a giant stone man leaving 5 foot deep footprints. Nora cuts through all the BS and tells it like it is. She wants to go see it, whatever it is.
Finally they agree to a military operation, led by Captain Kristoffer Holm (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen). Captain Kris, Nora and Andreas are together for the remainder of the action. Andreas has a friend in the military, Sigrid (Karoline Viktoria Sletteng Garvang), who works at a computer in the operations room where all the powerful leaders are meeting. She secretly helps Nora and her crew.
The military uses tanks, rockets, and every other weapon they have against the whatever-it-is. Nothing slows it down.
Desperate, Nora seeks out her father. He’s been a mental hospital for talking about how trolls were real. He lives in a tiny, remote cabin with the walls plastered with information and articles about trolls. He finally says the word “troll” to all the power folks in Oslo. It’s headed their way.
The closer it gets to Oslo, the more scared the folks in power become. They start talking about nukes. It’s up to Nora and Andreas, the Captain, and Tobias to figure out how to stop Mr. Great Big Ugly Troll before Norway gets nuked.
The solution was full of fun and excitement. The whole film was fast paced with a fascinating mix of science and fantasy. The juxtaposition between father and daughter as to what they thought the truth was created an interesting dynamic. The fear of the unknown ran high among most people, but curious people like Nora and her father were the ones who found answers.
If you enjoy science fiction at all, I think you will enjoy this movie. Take a look at the trailer.
An Aside
A few days back I wrote A Small Rant About Close Captions and Subtitles. This film, on Netflix, does it right. The Norwegian was subtitled and the English was captioned as well. This is the way it should be for a user who watches everything with close captions set to always be on. Thank you, Netflix!
I agree about captions on. I got one for you to review if you can find it. “Fortitude”. It’s about four years old and has some great ppl in it while using that town in the arctic circle for the scene of the story. Lots of super natural overtones mixed with science issues in it and it lasts for three years though i can only recommend the first two.
I tried to watch “Troll” but rejected it about ten minutes in..
I’m an American who is fascinated by good Norwegian- Finnish and Swedish efforts, for example “Okkupart”.
I found your site when I googled “what happened to the first Rebecka Martinson? IMO that was clearly a selfish exit on what’s her names part, successful series employing many people but I think about everyone agreed with me
Thanks for your comment. I’ll check on Fortitude.
You won’t be sorry
I agree with your comments on closed captions. My husband was hearing impaired and we always used them. Now with so many international films available, I find them essential.