A Crack in the Ice

"Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice

Appears under your feet.

You slip out of your depth and out of your mind

With your fear flowing out behind you

As you claw the thin ice."

- Pink Floyd, "The Thin Ice"

Any movie that takes place in an icebound wasteland like the polar regions should include a scene where someone unexpectedly falls down a crevasse obscured by snow. Another version is for the crevasse to be visible, but crossed by a snow bridge which could collapse under their weight at any time.

Comic Books

 * In Tintin in Tibet, Tintin falls into a crevasse during a blinding snowstorm. He climbs his way out two hours later, after having found in the ice cave below a stone on which Chang had carved his name.

Film -- Animated

 * Ice Age. The herd is walking on an ice field when a lava flow opens up beneath them, leaving only a thin bridge getting thinner by the minute.

Film -- Live Action

 * The Thing (2011) opens with the Norwegians in a snowcat homing in on a Distress Signal. They discover where it's coming from when the ground opens beneath them and they become wedged in a crevasse with their headlights shining down on a Flying Saucer.
 * The Day After Tomorrow:
 * In the first minutes, a science station has been set up on the Antarctic ice shelf. A crack in the snow appears. Moments later, a crevasse divides the camp in two. Naturally it's Played for Drama.
 * Later, a sled is sucked into a hole that appears in the snow. Moments later it's revealed that it's actually
 * The hero of Photographing Fairies is plagued by guilt over not having saved his wife from falling to her death down a crevasse.
 * The climax of the 1956 film The Mountain involves a crevasse high in the Alps, with only two ice bridges crossing it. One of them is safe to cross, and the other only looks safe.
 * The documentary film Touching the Void is a real life story of how someone survived this.

Literature
"When ski-ing in the Engadine
 * Maximum Ride: Happens in the fourth book of the series.
 * British comic poet Harry Graham's "Patience":

My hat blew off down a ravine

My son, who went to fetch it back,

Slipped through an icy glacier's crack

And then got permanently stuck.

It really was infernal luck;

My hat was practically new --

I loved my little Henry too --

And I may have to wait for years

'Til either of them reappears."


 * In the last book of The Tawny Man,  fall down one while crossing a glacier.
 * In the Warrior Cats novel Night Whispers,  falls into one and dies near the ending.

Live Action TV

 * Due South: Happens in the final episode. Ray Kawalski is trapped in a crevasse in the Canadian tundra.

Music
"I defy you to stand
 * In addition to the Pink Floyd song mentioned above, British Neo Progressive band Arena also used a crack in the ice as a metaphor for... something or other... in their 1998 Concept Album The Visitor.

On the crack in the ice

With the power in your hands

On the crack in the ice"

Web Comics

 * Happens in this Wally and Osborne strip.
 * In Digger,  fall into a crevasse in a snowfield.

Real Life

 * Falling into and miraculously escaping from a crevasse was one of the many trials that climber Joe Simpson had to go through during his descent from Siula Grande in the Andes. It should be mentioned that he had a broken leg at the time and was suffering from hypothermia. The whole story is recounted in the book and film Touching The Void.