Liam Neeson plays a snowplow driver whose quiet life ends when his son is killed by a Denver drug cartel. He responds by sawing the barrel off a rifle and murdering three members of the group, wrapping their bodies in chicken-wire fencing so fish can eat the flesh while the bones settle at the bottom of the water. That’s the engine of Cold Pursuit, and it runs fast and loud.
The film is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian picture Kraftidioten, also directed by Hans Petter Moland. It follows Nels Coxman as he hunts Viking, the drug lord he blames for the killing, taking out Viking’s associates one by one until the hunt draws nearer to the man himself. The tagline promises viewers a meeting with Nels Coxman, Citizen of the Year. What the film delivers is a relentless, often brutal chain of killings.
Trailer, via Lionsgate Movies.
Nels Coxman’s Rage Runs the Length of the Story
Neeson carries the film, and his performance anchors the story’s grim momentum. His Nels is a man who reads crime novels and applies what he finds there to disposing of bodies, which gives the revenge plot a strange, literate edge. Laura Dern plays Grace Coxman, his wife, who grows angry at his cold demeanor after the killing of their son. She leaves him, and the film tracks the fallout across both families as the drug lord’s gang war expands.
Tom Bateman plays Viking, the cartel boss, and Tom Jackson plays White Bull, a Ute leader who seeks vengeance after Viking murders his only son. Their feud drives the middle stretch of the story, as each side kidnaps the other’s child to start a war. The film moves through these set pieces with a steady, almost mechanical pace, built around the same formula of violence and retaliation that defines the genre.
The Eskimo Arrives to Complicate Things
Brock, Nels’s brother and a former mob enforcer known as Wingman, advises Nels to hire an assassin. He recommends a hitman named “The Eskimo,” who agrees to kill Viking for $90,000. The Eskimo then informs Viking that Coxman has hired him, hoping for more money from the drug lord. Viking dislikes the hitman’s lack of ethics and has him killed.
This twist sends the story in a new direction. Viking assumes the Eskimo meant Brock Coxman rather than Nels, and he brings Brock in. Since Brock is dying of cancer, he takes the blame to protect his brother. The scene is one of the film’s best, because it forces the audience to sit with the weight of a lie told to save someone else.
Grace Leaves Him, and the War Escalates
The film’s structure rests on a series of linked events, each one a response to the last. Here’s how the story builds:
- Nels sees the barrel off a rifle and kills three members of the cartel.
- Grace leaves him after he shows no grief over their son’s death.
- Viking murders White Bull’s only son.
- White Bull kidnaps Viking’s young son Ryan in retaliation.
- Brock takes the blame for the hitman’s death to protect Nels.
- Viking tries to stop the conflict with White Bull by using one of his own men as a scapegoat and sending his head to White Bull.
Each step feeds the next, and the film keeps the pressure on by refusing to let Nels rest. He kills again and again, and each killing raises the stakes further. The plot moves quickly, and the film rarely lets the audience catch its breath.
Comparing the Two Versions
| Element | Cold Pursuit (2019) | Kraftidioten (2014) |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Hans Petter Moland | Hans Petter Moland |
| Lead | Liam Neeson | Kim Jung-han |
| Setting | Kehoe, Colorado | Norway |
| Language | English | Norwegian |
| Tone | Broader, more violent | Tighter, more restrained |
| Runtime | 119 minutes | 118 minutes |
The comparison shows the scale difference between the two films. The Norwegian original stayed close to the ground, while the remake opens the scope of the story and leans harder into the violence. Both versions share the same shape: a man who loses his son, a hunt for the man he believes killed him, and a chain of killings that never ends.
What Works, What Falls Short
The film’s strengths are its pacing and its willingness to commit fully to the revenge plot. The scenes of Nels’s killings are staged with a kind of grim efficiency that keeps the story moving forward. The weakness is that the middle section drags slightly, with some killings feeling similar to the ones that came before them.
The film’s tone is also uneven. It shifts from dark comedy to pure horror without warning, and the sudden changes can break the spell of the story. The humor, in particular, doesn’t always land, and it sometimes jars against the violence surrounding it.
Cold Pursuit isn’t trying to be subtle, and it doesn’t need to be. The film knows exactly what it is: a revenge thriller with a snowplow driver at its center, and it executes that idea with discipline. The violence is rendered with care, and the plot holds together despite the film’s tendency toward excess.
The film’s final act brings everything to a head, and it lands with a force that matches the earlier killings. The resolution is earned, even if it’s not particularly surprising.
Cold Pursuit is a solid, if not exceptional, entry in the revenge genre. It’s better than most of its peers because it commits to the logic of its premise and trusts the audience to follow along. The film’s flaws are real — the middle section drags, the tone shifts awkwardly, and some killings feel redundant — but the strength of the premise and Neeson’s performance carry it through.
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