Overview: U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is the only law-enforcement officer assigned to Antarctica. On the verge of shipping out before the really bad weather hits, Carrie is confronted with a mysterious murder that sounds like a riddle: how'd a lone corpse find its way to the middle of an ice field, as though dropped from a great height? And what's this have to do with the prologue about a Soviet fighter jet crashing some decades earlier?

DVD Verdict: "Whiteout" is an implausible but enjoyable thriller set at the South Pole. In its opening sequence, set in 1957, a Soviet cargo plane carrying a mysterious cargo goes down somewhere in Antarctica. In the present, the Amundsen-Scott Scientific Station at the South Pole is preparing to rotate out its summer crew and batten down for the winter darkness, just ahead of an approaching storm. US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is preparing to depart, along with her doctor friend (a grizzled but amiable Tom Skerrit).

The discovery of a body on the ice triggers an investigation that leads in short order to an old Soviet scientific station, another dead body, a killer, and the Soviet cargo plane, minus its mysterious cargo. Stetko is assisted in her investigation by the doctor, an aircraft pilot (Columbus Short) and a UN Security Officer (Gabriel Macht). The group, almost inevitably, becomes trapped in an evacuated station with the killer or killers.

Stetko, traumatized by betrayal in a previous assignment told in flashback, finds she can't trust anyone in her present. The action sequences inside and outside the station work well, moving the audience quickly past some plot holes and cold weather implausibilities to a twisty ending. "Whiteout" isn't going to win any awards, but manages to be moderately entertaining. Canada does indeed stand in for the Antarctic with some stunning exteriors. [DST] This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) and comes with the Special Features of:

Two (2) Deleted Scenes