The Last Winter

The K.I.K. Corporation is building an ice road to explore the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in pursuit of energy independence. Independent environmentalists work with a drilling base led by Ed Pollack, under a government-approved framework to monitor procedures and report findings. The setup establishes the tension between oil development and environmental concerns.

A friendly football game outside the housing area is interrupted when Elliot accidentally collides with Maxwell, leaving Elliot with a bloody nose. The incident foreshadows tensions and sets an uneasy mood within the camp. It also underscores the fragile line between camaraderie and danger in the harsh environment.

That night Maxwell is unnerved by the sighting of a spectral herd of caribou charging past the camp. The eerie vision hints at paranormal forces connected to the environment.

The next day Maxwell is dispatched to check a drilling site and goes missing for most of the day. He staggers back to the camp at night claiming his radio had not been working and that he walked about 300 miles. He admits he didn’t want the job and says he saw something in the snow, pressing Hoffman to reveal the truth to the public.

That night Maxwell, partly delirious, films the paranormal phenomena with his video camera and captures the spectral caribou on tape. He is then struck from behind and dies, with his body found the next morning.

Hoffman postulates that sour gas released by climate-driven methane release could cause hallucinations and insanity among the group. Elliot dies shortly thereafter, possibly of a brain aneurysm, while his attempt to email the outside world fails.

Pollack and Foster arrange for Hoffman to be replaced, but a bush plane arrives to pick them up and crashes into the camp building. Gary, the pilot, and the replacement environmental scientist Marshowitz are killed, while Foster is severely burned and survives only to die later.

Native Alaskan worker Lee vanishes the next morning, and the sound of hooves—the same sound tied to the ghost caribou—is heard again. Dawn, another worker, descends into madness and murders Motor, the station mechanic, during the chaos.

Abby Sellers stumbles upon the aftermath of Dawn's rampage and encounters Dawn; in the ensuing struggle, Abby pushes Dawn over a shelf, causing her to fall and break her neck. The event underscores the collapse of order and the environmental strain on the people.

Documentation found in an abandoned shack reveals that the Earth is releasing 'The Last Winter' and resurrecting the ghosts of fossil fuels siphoned from the ground. The notes connect these phenomena to Wendigo and Chenoo mythologies, suggesting the environment itself is reacting to human greed.

In the penultimate scene Hoffman must decide whether to fire a flare at a ghost or signal for help; he chooses to signal, and the ghostly moose focuses on him and drags him away. A montage then shows Pollack being attacked by spectral creatures as the wider catastrophe closes in.

Abby Sellers wakes up in a deserted hospital with no recollection of arriving there. A news anchor reports nationwide natural disasters as she leaves the waiting room, and the camera lingers on water pools, car alarms, wind, and distant ghostly noises.