Rupert Royce (Sam Waterston), a U.S. meteorologist aboard the flight, volunteers to parachute to the ice with first aid supplies to treat the survivor.

Bringing supplies with him, Royce lands near the wreckage and finds Averyanov (Aleksandr Potapov), a Soviet navigator, the sole survivor who is injured and unable to be moved.

As supplies run low and a leaking heater nearly kills them, releasing deadly carbon monoxide into their small enclosure, Royce begins to make plans for both of them to find a way to reach civilization, the nearest settlement, 200 miles away.

But the movie, which was completed before the crumbling of the Soviet Union, insists on lending the relationship between the American and the Russian a turgid metaphoric significance.

Whether as a joint production with Maxim Gorky Film Studios or as an expression of rival ideologies (in a brief argument between the characters that seem outdated and silly) 'A Captive in the Land' is oddly unexciting.