Based on a true story, the film stars Alyssa Milano and Cameron Bancroft as a young couple who attempt to survive in the rough Alaskan wilderness.
Set in 1979, the film focuses on a Seattleite couple, police officer and former park ranger Roger Lewis (Bancroft), and 22-year-old waitress Denise Harris (Milano).
They are invited by businessman Wylie Bennett (Fraser) to Alaska to head out to the fictional wilderness of Surprise Bay and find a goldmine.
When they realize that they are all alone, they know that they have to travel inland, despite the dangers, and they are forced to turn their weaknesses into strengths in order to survive.
Roger wants to accept that they are dying and proposes to end their lives with their remaining bullets, but Denise refuses to give up.
Milano commented in a 1997 interview: "We had our costumes padded with heat packs, but it got so cold that I would lay on the dog (Newman) to keep warm."
[2] The reviewer of Variety wrote that "other than the consistently vapid behavior of lead characters, Mendelsohn’s script does its job with occasional flashes of wit, and Bruce Pittman’s direction is on the money.
"[1] The reviewer of The New York Times was less enthusiastic, and wrote that Milano and Bancroft gave worse performances than the film's dog.