The film follows three Svalbard-based shabby seamen, played by Helge Jordal, Sverre Anker Ousdal and Hans Ola Sørlie, who discover a Soviet bearing station.

They are subsequently targets of Soviet liquidation and American interrogation in an attempt to quiet them and retain the political status quo.

The film was produced by Dag Alveberg and Petter Borgli, and the script was written by Briton Richard Harris.

The film starts with two of them, Tom Jansen (Helge Jordal) and Sverre (Hans Ola Sørlie), taking tourists on a polar bear safari.

During this trip and at a later scene at a pub in Longyearbyen, where Tom's girlfriend, Eva Jelseth (Kjersti Holmen) is introduced, the viewers are briefed on the politics of Svalbard and the large Soviet presence.

The third seaman, Lars (Sverre Anker Ousdal), presents plans to freight a bulldozer to the mainland from Sarstangen.

They have been instructed to dump the bulldozer underway as part of an insurance fraud scheme but have instead made arrangements to sell the vehicle on Greenland.

While at port, Tom is called to visit Governor Bache (Jon Eikemo), who warns that he will be keeping an eye on them.

They report to Isfjord Radio to say they were caught in a storm but deviate on their route back to avoid returning too early.

They get caught in actual bad weather and decide to pull up in a nearby island, Kjerulføya, north of Nordaustlandet.

However, they are intercepted by a seemingly civilian Russian Aeroflot helicopter, which turns out to be heavily armed and fires at the ship.

Sandy Hook steers into a narrow bay, and the protagonists fire back, eventually destroying the helicopter with a firebomb.

After a long march through the wilderness, he reaches a closed mine and rides an aerial tramway for coal to Longyearbyen.

Tom's story of the ship's sinking is not believed, and he is sent to Oslo for interrogations by a United States colonel (Jon Ausland) and other American military personnel.

In a scene at Holmenkollen Park Hotel, the Soviet ambassador and Norwegian minister discuss the consequences of public knowledge of the incident.

At first Harris did not believe that there was a significant Norwegian left-wing grouping, nor did he realize that the Russian presence and the conflict in Svalbard was real.

[7] Solum was selected as director based on the producers' experience with him from Carl Gustav, gjengen og parkeringsbandittene.

The producers took more artistic decisions than was common at the time; for instance, they felt that Solum's choice of composer was wrong.

The actors' accents were good enough that it did not need to be dubbed, while sufficiently noticeable to make the film exotic and authentic.

[13] Only a single Russian is shown with his face in the film, with the rest of the antagonists being faceless Soviets, particularly the helicopter.

[10] In the early 1980s, Minister of Culture Lars Roar Langslet increased subsidies for Norwegian film.

Alveberg and Borgli established the production company Filmeffekt and hired Scanbroker to secure financing through KS Orion Film.

[6] The business magazine Økonomisk Rapport warned against investing in the film, characterizing it as an unrealistic "castle in the sky".

[15] In December 1983, the Embassy of the Soviet Union lodged an official complaint against the filming of Orion's Belt, accusing it of being a cover for military activity.

The tax rules also caused problems for Alveberg and Borgli in financing their next film, Etter Rubicon.

[17] In contrast, Verdens Gang praised the film, characterizing the three main actors as meeting international standards and maintaining the spirit of Michelet.

It praised the film for its exciting story, for illustrating how Norway was part of the Cold War and how unimportant a single human is in superpower politics.

[20] Dagbladet commented that the film downplayed the left-wing political aspect of the book and instead focused on the storyline and action.

It commented that with increased funding for special effects, Solum was able to achieve his true potential as an action director.

Actors planned for the remake include Aksel Hennie, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ola Rapace and Tuva Novotny.