From Iceland — Where Was It Shot? Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Where Was It Shot? Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Published July 11, 2017

Hannah Jane Cohen
Photo by
Louise Petersson

2001 was a memorable time for those who wanted to see Angelina Jolie run in slow motion. Yes, that year saw the release of ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ or, as we call it at the Grapevine, ‘Hooters: Indiana Jones Edition’.

The movie is pretty bad, but it does have nice aesthetics, potentially because director Simon West filmed a three-minute sequence at the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in southeastern Iceland. The scene is identified as taking place in Siberia—which it is obviously not—where there is a tiny town full of tipis (or “chum,” as Wikipedia says they are called) and other kitschy “indigenous” objects. There, a fur-clad wise child warns our buxom heroine not to seek “him” out—“him” being Croft’s father.

Lara obviously does not heed the girl’s warnings and jumps onto a boat/car thing that zooms through the icy water onto a glacier. There, the crew boards dogsleds and ventures into the mist—presumably Croft’s mysterious father lives in some boondocks ice palace like Elsa. The viewer desperately thinks, “Let it go!” but of course, she doesn’t.

The weirdest part about this scene is that all the indigenous Siberians sport big fur jackets, woolen gloves and toasty hats, while Croft walks around in a light jacket and sexy tight cotton tank top. Apparently, the cold doesn’t bother her anyway.

Find out where other movies were shot in Iceland here .

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